Consortium around EMERAM and Gimv supports German digital learning platform sofatutor in the next growth phase

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The Background Education is on the verge of a radical digital transformation and the way students learn will change fundamentally. sofatutor, as the digital pioneer in Europe, offers digital learning platforms for grades 1 to 12 (K-12) with already more than one million users. In addition, sofatutor is already used by around 25 percent of all teachers across Germany and has been contracted by the federal states Saxony and Bremen. The product and service portfolio offers pupils and teachers time and place-independent access to a wide range of educational resources, such as learning videos in unique "Pixar quality".

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The Deal EMERAM Capital Partners, one of the leading private equity firms for medium-sized companies in the German-speaking region, is leading a consortium of investors, including the private equity firm Gimv, to take sofatutor into the next growth phase. The consortium will thus take on from the previous shareholders. The company plans to close the gap in online learning and improve access to first-class education with further innovative offerings. In this way, the strong growth of the past years is to be continued.

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Stefan Heilmann, CEO of IEG – Investment Banking Group, says: "With EMERAM and Gimv at its side, sofatutor has the best prerequisites to become one of the most successful EdTech companies worldwide." Mirko Heide, Managing Director of IEG – Investment Banking Group, adds: "We are proud to make a valuable contribution in the field of e-learning for the next generations."

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IEG – Investment Banking Group acted as exclusive Financial Advisor for EMERAM and Gimv.

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The Partners sofatutor was founded 13 years ago by Stephan Bayer and is now the most comprehensive online learning platform in the German-speaking world with more than 11,000 learning videos and over 43,000 exercises. With his life's mission to improve education, Stephan Bayer and his team help students from primary school to high school graduation and has become the pioneer and backbone of educational digitalisation as well as homeschooling, especially in the Corona year. The learning content is prepared in an age-appropriate manner and is based on the current curricula of the federal states.

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EMERAM is one of the leading investment companies for medium-sized firms in German-speaking countries. Funds advised by EMERAM currently provide 400 million euros of capital for the development of companies. EMERAM acts as a long-term business development partner for its companies, promoting the sustainable growth of the portfolio companies.

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Gimv is a European investment company with 40 years of experience in private equity. Listed on Euronext Brussels, the fund currently manages around EUR 2.0 billion. Gimv's claim to make a positive value contribution to society is reflected, among other things, in the recently successfully launched Sustainable Bond, part of which is allocated to the acquisition of sofatutor. Gimv identifies innovative, leading companies with high growth potential and supports them sustainably on their way to market leadership.

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The Perspective Dr Christian Näther, founding partner of EMERAM Capital Partners, says: "Good education is a significant factor for a country's society. Therefore, we would like to support sofatutor to continuously expand its learning offer." Dr. Sven Oleownik, Partner and Head of Germany at Gimv, comments: "With the investment in sofatutor, Gimv reinforces its ambition to invest in future-oriented companies and, together with EMERAM, supports an excellently managed company."

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