Pride Capital Partners invests in buy and build strategy of GBC Gruppe
News
Insight
Pride Capital Partners support the buy and build strategy of GBC. Together with a very experienced management team, the two founders of GBC, Pascal Bechtel and Tobias Geisinger, are executing their strategy to build a leading group of IT services companies in the DACH region. Both founders already realized a very successful buy and build strategy in the healthcare sector in the past. After acquiring a first anchor investment, they were able to grow a group of care services to 12 offices and 650 FTE before exiting the company.
With the Baden Wurttemberg based company intellecom GmbH, GBC already realized the first acquisition back in 2020. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, intellecom offers IT services to their customers. Intellecom’s 30 fte offer Project- and Managed Services anchored to the Microsoft platform and are able to integrate a whole range of applications into existing IT systems. Intellecom will be a substantial part of the group with focus on Modern Work and Managed Services.
Ongoing consolidation in the IT services market
The IT services market is characterized by an ongoing consolidation trend with several active buy and build strategies. Most of the smaller IT services companies were founded in the 1980s and 1990s. Founders are now looking to retire or want to secure the future of their companies. Besides that, small IT services companies face the challenge to meet the growing needs of their clients. This is because the IT business has become more diverse and complex during digitization: topics such as cloud, modern workplace, IoT and analytics are becoming increasingly demanding for service providers. Teaming up with a bigger group can be the solution for smaller IT services companies. Together, the group can capitalize on knowledge and experiences of the respective other group companies.
Financing the buy and build strategy
The investment from Pride Capital Partners will enable GBC on its path to building a leading IT services group in the market with a clear focus on added customer value and the creation of a preferred place to work for talents. With a full pipeline and the experiences of the two founders from their previous buy and build strategy, Pride Capital Partners is convinced that the partnership with GBC is going to be a very fruitful one.
Pascal Bechtel, Co-founder GBC: “Pride Capital Partners convinced us with its partnership approach, but above all with its great IT industry expertise. Together we will break new ground in digitization, but also improve already existing approaches. We are looking forward to our future cooperation “.
Tobias Geisinger, Co-founder GBC: “Pride Capital Partners convinced me above all with its hands-on mentality. In addition to the expertise in Buy & Build strategies, as well as experience in the IT industry, the decision-makers bring flexibility and entrepreneurial understanding. In Pride Capital Partners we have found a partner who brings the necessary skills and experiences to create something great together “.
Lars van ‘t Hoenderdaal (managing partner Pride Capital Partners): “The GBC founders Pascal and Tobias have convinced us with their vision of building a leading group of IT service companies. Our experience from previous buy & build strategies coupled with the dedication and clear vision of the founding team will lead to a successful collaboration. We are looking forward to the next steps with GBC.”
About Pride Capital Partners
Pride Capital Partners is a specialized private debt firm that supports profitable and growing companies in the software and IT industry. Typical scenarios are growth, acquisitions and management buy-out (MBO) transactions. The geographic focus is on companies in the Benelux and the DACH region. Pride Capital Partners has offices in Amsterdam and Cologne.
Pride Capital Partners is financed by its own shareholders, institutional investors, high net worth individuals, family offices and (ex-)entrepreneurs. The portfolio includes The Valley, Fairbanks, Spotzer Digital, Fivespark, Bright River, Bluefield, Netaxis, Arcus IT and ScanmarQED as well as the DACH companies eKomi, Link11, moveXM, Kendox and Wagawin.
Press contact GBC
Pascal Bechtel
T: +49 15164604583
Tobias Geisinger
T: +49 15738114699
Press contact Pride Capital Partners
Lars van ‘t Hoenderdaal
T: +31 (0)651797111
We would love to get in contact to learn more about each other. Let’s talk about your ambitions and what we can do to turn them into reality.
Reach out to us
