Munich — An interdisciplinary team of entrepreneurs has come together to form Sophora Unternehmerkapital (“Sophora”), an independent investment company focused on the DACH small cap market. The founding team consists of three former Silverfleet Capital employees and two experienced non-executive directors and has many years of experience in the investment industry as well as operational experience as founders and CEOs of companies. In addition, the team has worked together for many years in previous roles and has a highly successful joint investment track record.
Sophora focuses on medium-sized companies in the DACH region with sales between 5 and 50 million euros and a positive operating cash flow. The investment strategy is based on thematic investments focusing on the following areas (i) Energy transition & resource availability, (ii) B‑E-S-T1 technologies and (iii) buy-and-build strategies predominantly in the industrial and B2B services sectors and typically includes majority or significant minority stakes. “We invest in companies that benefit from the macroeconomic tailwinds of our investment themes and help them realize their full growth potential by providing flexible capital, our strategic and operational expertise, and access to our network of experts,” said Benjamin Hubner, Managing Partner of Sophora.
Sophora aims to be an entrepreneurial partner that enables companies to discover and develop undiscovered value. Like the tree “Sophora Japonica”, which is also called honey tree due to its characteristic as a bee nutrient plant, Sophora relies on symbiotic partnerships based on trust and reliable cooperation. “Our goal is to become the honey bee among investors and realize alpha returns in the DACH small cap market,” says Jennifer Regehr, Managing Partner (photo, copyright SOPHORA).
Sophora is active in the DACH small cap market, where the company sees an opportunity to generate alpha returns based on attractive industry dynamics and underlying target specifics. In addition, the Sophora team’s long-standing relationships and investor network give the company privileged access to information, expertise and proprietary leads. “We believe we can add significant value to our management teams and portfolio companies as well as to our investors,” commented Neil MacDougall, Chairman.
Together with two dedicated value creation and sustainability partners, Sophora brings a growth-oriented, best-in-class approach to value creation tailored to the individual profile and specifics of each portfolio company. “Sophora’s goal is to be a trusted and value-creating partner to the management teams of our portfolio companies,” said Dr. Michael Matros, Partner Value Creation & Sustainability. Joop Heijenrath, Partner Value Creation & Sustainability, adds: “We are convinced that non-financial criteria, especially ESG aspects, can influence the valuation of companies and should therefore be considered in investment decisions and effective value creation plans.
www.sophora.de