Mountain Cleantech exits Grünspar to EWE

The trade sale, which followed a two-and-a-half-year holding period, generated a gross IRR at exit of 67% for investors in Mountain Cleantech's Fund II. The GP held a 32% stake in the company, having invested a single-digit million sum overall.  

Mountain Cleantech first invested in Grünspar during its series-A financing round in January 2013. It reinvested during the series-B in 2014, jointly with KfW Bankengruppe. The only other investor was a Berlin-based business angel.

During the investment, Grünspar extended its range of software services and online e-commerce, and bolstered its team. 

The fund usually has a holding period of four to six years, but the company's rapid growth made an early exit attractive, according to Mountain Cleantech. The GP stated it had actively approached a number of possible buyers before selling to EWE. 

Mountain Cleantech's Fund II is based in Luxembourg and focuses on investments in the German-speaking region. In April 2015, the fund invested in Ascon Resource Management Holding, an environmental services company. It also injected capital into Rebuy Recommerce, a buy-and-sell platform for used entertainment products, and Geppert, a producer of small hydro power plants.

Company
Founded in 2010 and based in Münster, Grünspar is a German software-as-a-service provider to the utility industry. The company is an online distributor of resource- and energy-efficient products.

Its customer base currently comprises 110 utility companies in Germany and Austria. Grünspar employs 40 people in its headquarters and a second site in Vienna.

People
Alexander von Hutten is a managing partner at Mountain Cleantech. Sebastian Kotzwander is the CEO of Grünspar.

Advisers
Equity- Stolzenberg Rechtsanwälte (Legal); Lutz Abel (Legal)

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• Topics
• DACH
• Exits
• Consumer
• Germany
• Trade sale
• unq2015sep