Germany-based, Equity Partners V fund managed by ECM Equity Capital Management GmbH acquired a stake in the leading provider of test software, PikeTec. Further details and financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Financial advisor to PikeTec in the deal was SORTIS’s partner in the Globalscope M&A advisors network, Carlsquare, a corporate finance and M&A consultancy firm.
PikeTec is a specialized test software provider established in 2007. The company designs and develops software programs that are used to test and help for the development of the so-called embedded systems – specifically developed software programs used to control electronic control units. PikeTec’s latest software TPT (Time Partition Testing), is a highly adaptable product compatible with a variety of development environments and systems used for all software development phases. TPT is the only one of its kind in the global software market. The software is used for testing systems for intelligent driving, safety, energy management and comfort in vehicles. Such test software is extremely important for the automotive engineering industry due to increasing automation and digitization. With the investment, PikeTec plans to continue the development of its product and expand its areas of application to adjacent industries such as aviation, medical technology, and mechanical engineering.
ECM is an independent private equity firm investing in established, mid-sized companies for over 20 years, with accumulated equity commitments of more than €1 Bn. The fund is engaged in industries relevant to PikeTec with extensive experience in implementing growth and internationalization strategies. Previously ECM has invested in the industrial automation, medical technology, and automotive sectors as well as the software industry. Commenting on the acquisition, Florian Kähler, partner and management director of ECM said “PikeTec has an impressive technology whose applications are far from exhausted and for which we see extremely interesting growth potential worldwide. As a growth partner of medium-sized companies, we are pleased to accompany PikeTec on this journey with our knowledge and our industrial network.”
