mobileX AG & Solvares Group

With the acquisition of mobileX AG, the Solvares Group, leading provider of software for resource optimization, expands its portfolio in the field of Field Service Management.

The shareholders of Munich-based mobileX AG, a leading provider of software solutions for Field Service Management (FSM), have sold 100% of their shares to Solvares Group, a portfolio company of Deutsche Beteiligungs AG, Frankfurt am Main. mobileX has been a premium provider in the FSM market for more than 20 years and supports medium-sized and large companies with its deployment planning and mobile solutions for technical customer service and maintenance.

mobileX AG, founded in Munich in 2000, is one of the German pioneers as a provider of field service management software solutions. More than 12,000 users worldwide use software products from mobileX. The FSM market itself is growing at a rate of approx. 15% p.a. and is estimated to exceed USD 7 billion in 2027. Atares* was mandated by the company and its shareholders to find a strategic partner for mobileX in order to exploit growth potential, both geographically and sectorally.

The Solvares Group won the structured, global process. The Solvares Group, a portfolio company of Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG) and the DBAG Expansion Capital Fund (ECF), which it advises, is the European market leader for resource optimization and was formed from the mergers of FLS, portatour, Städtler and opheo. mobileX is the fifth acquisition since DBAG and DBAG ECF joined the company.

The decisive factors were both the strategic and technical fit as well as the cultural fit between the two companies. As a result, the management board of mobileX remains completely on board to shape the joint perspective for mobileX in the Solvares Group.

Hannes Heckner, CEO of mobileX AG, says: “We would like to thank the entire atares team for their empathy with our special requirements, their negotiating skills as well as their commitment, helpfulness and availability during the entire course of the project. Especially as an entrepreneur going through such a process for the first time, it has more than proved its worth for us to be able to fall back on the knowledge and many years of experience of the atares team. This has given us a sense of security and sovereignty at every stage of the project.”

“We would like to thank the mobileX team for the pleasant cooperation over the past months” says Jan Pörschmann, Managing Partner at atares, “this was a challenging transaction with many facets. And it was worth it! We are more than confident that the symbiosis of the two companies will result in a market leader with German roots for global FSM applications.”

atares acted as exclusive M&A advisor to the shareholders of mobileX in the preparation and implementation of the transaction. In addition to the implementation of a structured sales process, the consulting services included the preparation of marketing and transaction documents, identification and approach of potential investors including management presentations as well as support in the due diligence and negotiation of the transaction. During the sales process, the Solvares Group was quickly identified by the sellers as the preferred partner, as the two software platforms complement each other perfectly. For atares, the focus was not only on providing technical transaction advice, but also on harmonizing the seller’s interests, as four of the five sellers remained operationally in the company (three of them on the board of directors) and one seller had only a shareholder role. The transaction team of atares consisted of Jan Pörschmann (Managing Partner, Munich), Florian Liepert (Director, Munich) and Maximilian Gluchowski (Senior Associate, Munich).

Founded in 2000, mobileX AG develops and distributes software for technical service and maintenance. The applications support the optimization of various business processes, for example, deployment planning and control in technical field service. Solutions from mobileX enable field staff to access order data from the ERP system and transmit feedback and reports directly to the back office. Customers of the Munich-based software provider include TK Elevators, Melitta, MVV, M-net and Olympus Surgical Technologies Europe.
Further information about mobileX AG can be found at https://www.mobilexag.de.

Solvares Group is the European champion for resource optimization along the entire value chain. The portfolio includes solutions for the entire supply and service chain – from transport logistics to sales and field service. The focus is always on intelligent resource optimization through best-of-breed solutions for the customer. The Solvares Group was formed in 2018 with the purchase of FLS GmbH. The expansion with impactit GmbH from Vienna, Städtler Logistik GmbH from Nuremberg and Opheo Solutions GmbH from Hamburg in 2021 created a market leader for resource optimization in Europe. In June 2022, mobileX AG from Munich was added as the fifth company. The Solvares Group employs 339 people at 9 locations in 4 countries. Headquarters is Heikendorf near Kiel.
For more information about the Solvares Group, please visit https://solvares.com.

Deutsche Beteiligungs AG is a listed private equity company. The focus of its investments is on medium-sized companies. Since its founding more than 50 years ago, the company has provided equity capital to over 300 companies.
For more information about Deutsche Beteiligungs AG, please visit https://www.dbag.de/.

*At the time of the transaction, atares traded under the name Proventis Partners GmbH Muenchen