AUCTUS Report
AUCTUS ANNUAL REPORT 2025
Dear friends and business partners of AUCTUS,
2025 was a year of making things happen. While many market participants remained cautious, we stayed fully engaged — investing, building platforms and driving our portfolio companies forward. Our conviction has not changed: private equity creates the greatest impact when it actively shapes businesses, enables transformation and builds long-term entrepreneurial strength — for our portfolio companies, our investors and the German and European economy.
Our transaction activity remained high
In 2025, AUCTUS completed 31 transactions. In addition to five new platform investments and two outstanding exits, our main focus was the targeted expansion of existing Buy-and-Build platforms. Many portfolio companies used the year to strengthen their market position, deepen capabilities, and further professionalise their operating model — particularly in sectors with long-term structural relevance.
5 new platforms
With mindful collection, AUCTUS entered the premium wellness segment in 2025. The platform brings together established destinations with strong brand recognition and forms the foundation for building an integrated group of high-quality wellness and fitness destinations.
We also welcomed Delo Instruments Srl to the portfolio — a leading Italian provider of integrated hardware and software testing solutions. The platform addresses key future-facing end markets such as telecommunications, data centres, power applications and defence.
In addition, three further platforms were established in attractive growth fields with global reach:
Cyber Intelligence & Security:
Mission-critical software solutions for digital intelligence and threat mitigation for public institutions and enterprises alike.
Value Added Distribution:
Design-in, sales and logistics of electronic components for international industrial customers.
Industrial TIC:
Testing, inspection and certification services for highly regulated industrial and infrastructure sectors.
26 add-ons across our Buy-and-Build platforms
Growth in 2025 was also driven by the continued expansion of existing platforms. In particular, infrastructure-focused investments — including TERRAS, Rossmanith, Orara, Green Envelope and, until exit, Builtech — continued to scale through targeted add-ons.
At the same time, platforms in industry, transformation and consumer advanced their strategies, including SPIG-GMAB, Oxalis, Highberg, Panarium and Gustoso, strengthening both expertise and market reach.
2 Exits
AUCTUS completed two highly successful exits in 2025: SD Fiber and Builtech.
SD Fiber evolved during the AUCTUS ownership period into a leading specialist for fibre network deployment in Switzerland and southern Germany, tripling revenue and earnings organically within four years. Covering the entire value chain — from planning and civil works to operations, maintenance and smart metering — the company is now well positioned for its next growth chapter alongside a strategic partner.
Builtech represents one of AUCTUS’ most impressive Buy-and-Build success stories. Since our entry in 2018, the business developed from a single trade business into Germany’s leading platform for technical building services, comprising more than 50 companies, over 2,000 employees and annual output exceeding €500 million. During the AUCTUS holding period, group earnings increased fiftyfold. The exit now forms a pan-European building technology champion with significant industrial relevance.
Launch of the sixth AUCTUS fund — the „Entrepreneurs’ Fund“
Despite a challenging fundraising environment, AUCTUS successfully closed its largest fund „AUCTUS Unternehmerfonds“ to date at €445 million, approximately 15% larger than the previous fund generation. Our investor base consists exclusively of entrepreneurs and family offices from Germany and across Europe. With a 50% commitment from the AUCTUS team, we realised a long-standing ambition: a fund built by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs.
International growth remains a priority
Internationally, AUCTUS continued to gain traction — particularly in Italy, which has become one of our most important strategic locations. Two of the five platform investments completed in 2025 originated there. Our Milan office now comprises 11 team members and moved into a new, larger office in the city centre. Since entering the market, AUCTUS has completed 34 transactions in Italy, including 11 platforms and 23 add-ons.
Our Warsaw office remains a key hub for the Central European mid-market, while our long-standing Swiss expertise has been further strengthened since 2025 together with our colleague Antonio Cherubini.
At the same time, our Munich team continued to grow, including further reinforcement of the portfolio team and the addition of four analysts.
Strengthening our leadership
2025 also marked an important step in strengthening our leadership structure. Christoph Stockbrügger, who has been with AUCTUS since 2016 and has played a key role across consumer and infrastructure investments, was promoted to Partner.
Looking ahead to 2026 – capital that shapes the economy
Our outlook for 2026 is clear. AUCTUS will continue to invest with conviction, take a long-term view and actively shape growth. The focus remains on scaling existing platforms, launching new Buy-and-Build strategies and delivering hands-on value creation in sectors critical to economic and societal transformation.
This philosophy is also reflected in the book “Das Neue Kapital – Unsere Chance für Deutschlands nächstes Wirtschaftswunder”, edited by our founder Dr. Ingo Krocke together with Ulrike Hinrichs, co-chair of the BVK. The book is a call for capital that takes responsibility — and is now also available as a Kindle edition.
We look forward to continuing this journey in 2026 — together with our entrepreneurs, management teams, investors and partners.
Your AUCTUS Team
About Auctus
With over 470 investments in the last 25 years, AUCTUS is the most active investment company for European SMEs. Our investments focus on majority shareholdings in companies with annual sales of between EUR 10 million and EUR 150 million.
AUCTUS stands for sustainable organic growth, but also inorganic growth through acquisitions. We achieve this in a trusting partnership together with the management of our companies. We specialize in building successful medium-sized groups of companies - we make market leaders. The more than 35 experienced AUCTUS investment experts currently manage 50 platform investments from various sectors of the economy. The platform holdings, with a total of over 200 individual companies, generate annual sales of € 4 billion. Sales and earnings have been growing at >10% per year for years.
Our successful work is regularly rewarded with prestigious awards and top international rankings.
