EQT Growth acquires GotPhoto, marking fund’s ninth deal

The company’s founders, existing angel investors, and management team will remain minority owners, according to a press release. Its former CEO Markus Posselt will transition to the advisory board, joined by Dominik Stein, partner and member of the growth fund’s investment team at EQT.

The deal comes only a few days after the fund’s latest investment into ESG compliance software company IntegrityNext last week, Unquote reported.

EQT Growth Fund had made seven deals and had more than two-thirds of its capital left to deploy at the time of its EUR 2.2bn final close in September 2022. Its investment in GotPhoto marks its ninth investment so far.

The fund, which deploys equity tickets of EUR 50m-EUR 200m, will also invest additional primary capital into GotPhoto to further accelerate its growth.

As GotPhoto operates in a large but highly fragmented market, both the sponsor and management believe there are a number of interesting M&A opportunities, according to the press release. The company seeks to leverage its tech-enabled position in a market where digital services and products are not commonly used, it said, noting that it is expected that the underlying core market will grow 24% year-on-year through to 2027. GotPhoto itself has seen consistent 50% year-over-year growth over the last five years.

EQT Growth will further invest in GotPhoto’s proprietary tech platform while it adds new product features. EQT’s in-house digital team and network will build on GotPhoto’s market position in the US, UK and DACH regions, supporting its efforts to expand its presence in areas such as sports and portrait photography, as well as in new geographies, it said.

Company
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Berlin, Germany, GotPhoto and its German brand, fotograf.de, provide a workflow and e-commerce software enabling photographers to digitalise parts of their workflow, including photo management, photo editing, marketing automation, payment and order fulfilment. The company has more than 4,000 customers, primarily SMBs and photographers running a one-person business, across the US, UK and the DACH region.

People
GotPhoto − Benedikt Greifenhofer (CEO), Markus Posselt (co-founder and former CEO).
EQT Growth − Dominik Stein (partner).

Advisers
Equity – BCG (commercial due diligence); PwC (financial, tax and structuring); Willkie (legal); Awelin (digital); Netlight (technology due diligence); Aon (warranty and indemnity insurance).
Vendor – Stout (M&A); KPMG (financial due diligence); Springer Kuss (legal).

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• DACH
• Technology
• EQT
• Germany