Munich — The shareholders of Munich-based mobileX AG, a leading provider of software solutions for Field Service Management (FSM), have sold 100% of their shares to Solvares Group, a portfolio company of Deutsche Beteiligungs AG, Frankfurt am Main. mobileX has been a premium provider in the FSM market for over 20 years and supports medium-sized and large companies with its deployment planning and mobile solutions for technical customer service and maintenance.
The transaction
mobileX AG, founded in Munich in 2000, is one of the German pioneers as a provider of field service management software solutions. Over 12,000 users worldwide use software products from mobileX. The FSM market itself is growing about 15% p.a. and is estimated to exceed $7 billion by 2027. Proventis Partners has been engaged by the Company and its shareholders to provide a strategic partner for mobileX to address growth opportunities as they arise, both geographically and sectorally.
The Solvares Group won the structured, global process. The Solvares Group, a portfolio company of Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG) and the DBAG Expansion Capital Fund (ECF), which it advises, is the European market leader for resource optimization and was formed from the mergers of FLS, portatour, Städtler and opheo. mobileX is the fifth acquisition since DBAG and DBAG ECF joined the company.
The decisive factors were both the strategic and technical fit and the cultural fit between the two companies. The result is that the management board of mobileX remains completely on board to shape the joint perspective for mobileX in the Solvares Group.
Hannes Heckner, CEO of mobileX AG, says: “We would like to thank the entire Proventis team for their empathy with our special requirements, their negotiating skills as well as their commitment, helpfulness and availability during the entire course of the project. Especially as an entrepreneur going through such a process for the first time, it has more than proved its worth for us to be able to fall back on the knowledge and many years of experience of the Proventis team. This has given us a sense of security and sovereignty in every phase of the project.”
“We would like to thank the mobileX team for the pleasant cooperation over the last months” says Jan Pörschmann, Managing Partner at Proventis Partners, “this was a challenging transaction with many facets. And it was worth it! We are more than confident that the symbiosis of the two companies will result in a market leader with German roots for global FSM applications.”
The role of Proventis Partners
Proventis Partners acted as exclusive M&A advisor to the shareholders of mobileX in the preparation and implementation of the transaction. In addition to the implementation of a structured sales process, the consulting services included the preparation of marketing and transaction documents, identification and approach of potential investors including management presentations as well as support in the due diligence and negotiation of the transaction. In the sales process, the Solvares Group was quickly identified by the sellers as the partner of choice, as the two software platforms complement each other perfectly. For Proventis, the focus was not only on providing technical transaction advice, but also on harmonizing the seller’s interests, since four of the five sellers remain operationally in the company (three of them on the management board) and one seller had only a shareholder role. The transaction team of Proventis Partners consisted of Jan Pörschmann (Managing Partner, Munich), Florian Liepert (Director, Munich) and Maximilian Gluchowski (Senior Associate, Munich).
About mobileX AG
Founded in 2000, mobileX AG develops and distributes software for technical service and maintenance. The applications support the optimization of various business processes, such as deployment planning and control in technical field service. Solutions from mobileX give field workers access to order data from the ERP system and transmit feedback and reports directly to the back office. Customers of the Munich-based software provider include TK Elevators, Melitta, MVV, M‑net and Olympus Surgical Technologies Europe. www.mobilexag.de
About Solvares Group
Solvares Group is the European champion for resource optimization along the entire value chain. The portfolio includes solutions for the entire supply and service chain — from transport logistics to sales and field service. The focus is always on intelligent resource optimization through best-of-breed solutions for the customer. Solvares Group was formed in 2018 with the acquisition of FLS GmbH. The expansion with impactit GmbH from Vienna, Städtler Logistik GmbH from Nuremberg and Opheo Solutions GmbH from Hamburg in 2021 created a market leader for resource optimization in Europe. In June 2022, mobileX AG from Munich was added as the fifth company. Solvares Group employs 339 people at 9 locations in 4 countries. Headquarters is Heikendorf near Kiel. https://solvares.com
About Deutsche Beteiligungs AG
Deutsche Beteiligungs AG is a listed private equity company. The focus of the investments is on medium-sized companies. Since its foundation more than 50 years ago, equity capital has been provided to over 300 companies. https://www.dbag.de/
About Proventis Partners
Proventis Partners is a partner-led M&A advisory firm whose clients include a majority of mid-sized family businesses, corporate subsidiaries and private equity funds. With more than 35 M&A advisors, Proventis Partners is one of the largest independent M&A consultancies in the German-speaking region and looks back on more than 20 years of M&A experience as well as far close to 400 completed transactions. The M&A advisors with offices in Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Munich and Zurich are active in the sectors Industrials, Chemicals & Advanced Materials, Business Services, Consumer & Retail, TMT, HealthCare and Energy & Sustainability. Exclusive membership in Mergers Alliance — an international partnership of leading M&A specialists — enables Proventis Partners to assist clients in 30 countries in key markets worldwide. Mergers Alliance members, with over 200 M&A professionals, provide Proventis Partners’ clients with direct access to local markets in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia.