Bregal Unternehmerkapital (“BU”) is one of the leading software investors in the DACH and Northern Italy region, as demonstrated by the previous creation of GSG GENII, a buy-and-build investment focused on mission-critical vertical enterprise software. BU recently announced, following the success of GSG GENII, the creation of a similar software group with a focus on e-commerce software. In addition to the recent acquisition of Billbee, a leading provider of multichannel e-commerce software for small retailers, the group is now announcing the acquisition of a second nucleus just a few days later: funds advised by BU are acquiring a majority stake in Channel Pilot Solutions GmbH (“Channel Pilot Solutions”), a software company that serves large e-commerce retailers and D2C brands, offering them the leading tool for feed management, marketing automation, product data optimization and marketplace connections.
Founded in 2012, Hamburg-based Channel Pilot Solutions’ software ‘Channel Pilot Pro’ provides customers with a cloud-based platform for dynamic pricing, optimization of their product presence, and availability on various online sales channels.
The fast-growing, cloud-based feed and channel management solution is used by around 3,500 online shops tailored to blue-chip customers in the DACH region, France, and Spain, including the majority of the top 25 e-commerce retailers in Germany. The Channel Pilot Solutions suite allows users to connect large product ranges to hundreds of different sales channels (e.g., marketplaces, product search engines, social media platforms, price comparison websites, affiliate programmes, etc.) to continuously improve the product data feed, and effectively manage performance strategies. With the help of BU's investment, the product portfolio will be further developed and expanded into additional markets.
BU laid the foundation for the new e-commerce software group with the majority acquisition of Billbee GmbH (“Billbee”). With its SaaS channel management solution, Billbee focuses primarily on small and micro retailers and has mainly been active in the DACH and UK regions. Based on the two businesses, Billbee and Channel Pilot Solutions, which are strongly positioned in their respective fields and customer groups, the new e-commerce software group will continue to grow by adding further acquisitions and realizing synergies and value creation potential in go-to-market.
