Hamburg — A private equity fund initia­ted by Hamburg-based family office Lennertz & Co. is taking a mino­rity stake in the inno­va­tion leader for elec­tri­fi­ca­tion tech­no­logy in the commer­cial vehicle sector. pepper motion GmbH is the world’s first digi­tal OEM in the auto­mo­tive indus­try for series-ready conver­sion and retro­fit­ting (retro­fit­ting) of trucks and buses.

The engi­nee­ring company from Denken­dorf, Germany, successfully closed a Series A finan­cing round in the amount of almost EUR 30 million at the end of March 2022. Lennertz & Co. was the lead inves­tor with around 40% of the capi­tal increase. Other inves­tors include the Würth Group.

“At pepper, as an entre­pre­neu­rial and owner-mana­ged family office, we were convin­ced by both the unique tech­no­logy in the produc­tion-ready retro­fit­ting of trucks and buses and the share­hol­ders’ engi­nee­ring exper­tise in the auto­mo­tive sector, built up over 20 years,” says Phil­ipp Lennertz (photo), mana­ging part­ner of Lennertz & Co. “In this context, tech­no­logy and service make a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to achie­ving global climate targets. Accor­din­gly, we see high growth poten­tial for pepper, not only in the dome­stic and Euro­pean markets, but also globally in a market that will grow by leaps and bounds in a very short time.”

Capi­tal for series produc­tion and further markets

In addi­tion to the further deve­lo­p­ment of the company’s proprie­tary tech­no­lo­gies, the capi­tal raised is inten­ded in parti­cu­lar to support the ramp-up of series produc­tion with stra­te­gic part­ners and the phase of market entry in other Euro­pean count­ries that has alre­ady begun. For pepper motion, Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Poland in parti­cu­lar are among the key markets in Europe.

Poten­tial custo­mers include large exis­ting fleet owners, such as trans­por­ta­tion or truck­ing compa­nies, for whom it is diffi­cult to meet the emis­si­ons targets requi­red for their fleets by 2030. A major advan­tage for pepper motion is that the company’s multi-award-winning retro­fit­ting concept is curr­ently conside­red unbeata­ble on the market in terms of sustaina­bi­lity and total cost of ownership.

“The proof of concept has long been provi­ded with our vehic­les and etro­fit elec­tri­fi­ca­tion kits. We lead the inter­na­tio­nal retro­fit­ting indus­try as a trend­set­ter and set the stan­dards for German engi­nee­ring, inno­va­tion and quality that fleet opera­tors in the public trans­port and transport/logistics sectors can rely on,” says Andreas Hager, Mana­ging Direc­tor at pepper motion.

About Lennertz & Co.

As an entre­pre­neu­rial and owner-mana­ged family office, Lennertz & Co. is exclu­si­vely focu­sed on the success of its clients’ invest­ments. The invest­ment recom­men­da­ti­ons are in line with the perso­nal prefe­rence of the clients. They bene­fit from the inde­pen­dence of Lennertz & Co. and the exclu­si­vity of the invest­ment opportunities.

Lennertz & Co. also has a large number of autho­riza­tion certi­fi­ca­tes from the German Fede­ral Finan­cial Super­vi­sory Autho­rity (BaFin) and is thus subject to nume­rous quali­ta­tive and quan­ti­ta­tive requi­re­ments of both BaFin and the Deut­sche Bundesbank.

Lennertz & Co. shares its clients’ demand for fast, profound and secure decis­i­ons. In order to thoroughly examine the emer­ging oppor­tu­ni­ties in the venture and growth capi­tal, private equity and block­chain segments for its clients, Lennertz & Co. has a compe­tent team at its dispo­sal that can look back on deca­des of expe­ri­ence. In addi­tion, the advi­sory board consists of renow­ned indus­try, venture capi­tal and private equity experts such as Prof. Dr. Hein­rich von Pierer, Prof. Dr. Klaus Wuche­rer, Stefan Theis, Daniel Thung, Daniel Milleg and Florian Heinemann.

About pepper motion

The German, priva­tely finan­ced company with head­quar­ters in Denken­dorf and offices in Garching near Munich, Pader­born and Vienna (Austria) employs more than 100 people. As the first digi­tal OEM in the world (without its own warehousing and manu­fac­tu­ring), pepper offers inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons for the elec­tri­fi­ca­tion (retro­fit­ting) of used and new commer­cial vehic­les such as trucks in distri­bu­tion trans­port, buses in local public trans­port (LPT) and muni­ci­pal vehicles.

With its holi­stic approach exten­ding to tele­ma­tics, char­ging infra­struc­ture, fleet manage­ment and auto­no­mous driving, the company designs quickly imple­men­ta­ble and cost-effec­tive solu­tion packa­ges for the sustainable mobi­lity trans­for­ma­tion and a “second life” for exis­ting commer­cial vehicles.