Automotive – Carve-out & Exit Hightech Start-up

The starting point was a technology and customer-related analysis to better understand the start-up’s competitive edge against competition, particularly from the US and China. Once this had been verified based on various customer interviews and benchmarks, the creation of a buyer universe was started. In addition to purely financially orientated buyers, particular attention was paid to strategic buyers. Both customers, suppliers and partners were considered. As the start-up required a fairly deep value chain, suppliers were excluded at an early stage.

Based on a set of criteria, a shortlist was drawn up which left 4 partners / customers as best owners. An individual approach including equity story was developed for each of these companies, which included in particular the integration of the start-up’s technology into the technology and customer focus of the potential buyer. One of the start-up’s partners was quickly convinced. It was a software company from the North American region. Both the hardware sensor and the underlying patents significantly enhanced the buyer’s offering.

After negotiating and signing the contracts, a carve-out process was started in order to transfer the assets, patents and in particular the employees, who were spread across two locations in Germany, to a new legal entity. Specific incentive packages had to be defined and negotiated for the employees. At the same time, measures had to be taken in the months between signing and closing to ensure that the further development of the start-up proceeded exactly as planned in terms of revenue, costs and, in particular, development roadmap.