Wallberg Law advises AI start-up Wahtari on investment by HELUKABEL

Munich — Wahtari GmbH (herein­af­ter “Wahtari”) has foun­ded nLine GmbH (herein­af­ter “nLine”) and raised an invest­ment from HELU Kabel GmbH (herein­af­ter “HELUKABEL”) in nLine.

The subject of the nLine is the opti­cal quality control of cables, wires, steel cables, pipes and hoses. As part of the invest­ment docu­men­ta­tion, it is agreed, among other things, that Wahtari will provide its self-deve­­lo­­ped AI soft­ware and tech­ni­cal know-how to nLine for the cables, wires, steel cables, pipes and hoses segment and that HELUKABEL will open its world­wide distri­bu­tion network to nLine. In this way, the aim is to quickly achieve global reach for nLine, inclu­ding in the area of support. nLine products are alre­ady in demand world­wide, inclu­ding in the USA. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the volume of the transaction.

The Wall­berg team consis­ting of foun­ders Manuel Brühl, Dr. Arno Malcher and Dr. Simon Sabel provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to Wahtari on the project. In parti­cu­lar, the distinc­tive inter­face compe­tence of Wall­berg & Cie. in the areas of tax, IT law and tran­sac­tions came into full play when assis­ting Wahtari. In addi­tion to tax struc­tu­ring and corpo­rate law, ques­ti­ons of legally secure licen­sing of the AI soft­ware are central.

“The key chall­enge was to license Wahtari’s AI soft­ware, which can be used compre­hen­si­vely and in a wide variety of indus­tries, to nLine accu­ra­tely and stably, but at the same time flexi­bly for diffe­rent scena­rios in a very speci­fic narrowly defi­ned market,” says AI expert Dr. Malcher. “In this case, of course, clean tax struc­tu­ring is always crucial, espe­ci­ally also to avoid dry-income effects,” adds tax expert Brühl. “The fasci­na­ting thing about this tran­sac­tion is that here a very young and extre­mely inno­va­tive company is attrac­ting the invest­ment of a long-estab­­lished hidden cham­pion, thus also taking a strong step in the field of digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion,” says tran­sac­tion expert Dr. Simon Sabel (photo).

Wahtari, based in Munich, Germany, deve­lops and markets AI-based image reco­gni­tion systems for precise quality control and auto­ma­tion tasks. The company supplies the coor­di­na­ted hard­ware and soft­ware compon­ents from a single source in order to fully exploit the poten­tial of AI tech­no­logy. For their custo­mi­zed complete solu­ti­ons, Wahtari’s experts combine state-of-the-art tech­no­lo­gies and in-depth know­ledge of IT secu­rity, soft­ware deve­lo­p­ment as well as arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence with versa­tile indus­try expe­ri­ence. They rely on both conven­tio­nal image reco­gni­tion algo­rithms and Deep Learning.

The HELUKABEL Group, head­quar­te­red in Hemmin­gen, Baden-Würt­­te­m­­berg, is a leading inter­na­tio­nal manu­fac­tu­rer and supplier of cables, wires and cable access­ories. Foun­ded in 1978, the family-owned company has deve­lo­ped broad exper­tise and in-depth know-how in many indus­tries and key tech­no­lo­gies over the years. Products and solu­ti­ons from HELUKABEL can be found today in a wide variety of appli­ca­ti­ons: from mecha­ni­cal and plant engi­nee­ring and indus­trial auto­ma­tion to oil, gas and chemi­cals, buil­ding services, infra­struc­ture, mobi­lity and rene­wa­ble energy supply. With 63 loca­ti­ons and around 2,200 employees in 39 count­ries, the company is a relia­ble and respon­sive part­ner for its custo­mers worldwide.

Advi­sor Wahtari: Wall­berg Law Tax Advi­sory GmbH & Cie. KG StB
Manuel Brühl, Taxes
Dr. Arno Malcher, IT Law, Commercial
Dr. Simon Sabel, Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate Law
Deloitte Legal Rechts­an­walts­ge­sell­schaft mbH: Michael Schnei­der (Part­ner Corporate/M&A) Deloitte GmbH Wirt­schafts­prü­fungs­ge­sell­schaft: Georg Trisch­ber­ger (Part­ner Tax)

About Wall­berg & Cie.
Wall­berg Law Tax Advi­sory GmbH & Cie. KG is a specia­li­zed legal and tax consul­tancy based in Munich. The foun­ders combine their enthu­si­asm for legal and tax advice with a strong tech­no­lo­gi­cal and digi­tal DNA. The focus of Wall­berg & Cie. lie in the areas of corpo­rate law, tax law and law of the digi­tal world with a focus on digi­ta­liza­tion, tran­sac­tions and inter­na­tio­nal aspects. The exper­tise of Wall­berg & Cie. is regu­larly in demand for complex projects, espe­ci­ally in the area of digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion. https://www.wallberg.law