- Expansion of the EMH investment portfolio in the Digital B2B Services segment
- Partnership between EMH and Smarketer to accelerate its growth as a leading performance marketing service provider in the German-speaking DACH region
- Long-term expansion throughout Europe planned, organically but also by means of complementary and targeted acquisitions (buy-and-build)
Berlin, Munich 1st February 2022 – Equity funds advised by EMH Partners, Munich, are investing in Smarketer Group, Berlin, the leading performance marketing service provider with a special focus on Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and other fast-growing platforms, and thereby acquiring a minority stake. Smarketer was founded in 2011 and enables medium-sized companies (SMEs) in particular to increase their sales sustainably and cost-effectively through targeted, data-driven search engine advertising (SEA) supported by digital tools. Companies are facing the challenge that B2C and B2B customers are shifting their information gathering and buying behaviour to the Internet, which means that companies also need to reach their potential customers online. This is exactly where Smarketer comes into play and supports these companies. With 220 employees in Berlin, Kassel and Szczecin (Poland) and over 1,000 B2B customers, the Smarketer Group is the leading company in this field in the German-speaking DACH region. This is confirmed by the awards it often receives from Google and Microsoft, among other companies. Smarketer’s customers include medium-sized, German-speaking as well as international companies.
“EMH is the perfect partner to help us accelerate our growth. The agreement we have now concluded enables us to roll out our proven business model to additional markets and segments and secures our ability to act in the highly dynamic competitive environment of online marketing. EMH Partners has impressively demonstrated its entrepreneurial expertise in supporting and developing founder-led growth companies. We look forward to working with EMH to advance our shared vision for the future. In doing so, our long-term goal is to offer our services across Europe,” said David Gabriel, founder and CEO of Smarketer.
“Smarketer has developed an impressive market position. In addition, the company is also outstandingly positioned technologically to take advantage of opportunities in the growing market of online marketing. The continuous offline-to-online shift in virtually all industries leads to steadily growing budgets for digital marketing channels. Against this backdrop, we see great potential in Smarketer’s business model to further increase market share in the long term. The goal is to become not only the German, but also the European market leader, as well as to expand the range of offerings, those based on data and technology in particular. We are greatly looking forward to accompanying and supporting the company, David Gabriel and his team in the next phase of development,” added Mario Sabljo, EMH Partners.
Confidentiality was agreed on the financial details of the transaction and the purchase price. The closing is still subject to the usual closing reservations in these cases. David Gabriel, founder and CEO of the company, will retain a majority stake and continue to manage Smarketer.
Smarketer is the latest investment by the funds advised by EMH Partners. The EMH portfolio includes above-average and sustainably growing market leaders in their respective markets, including Brainlab, the world’s leading provider of software-driven medical technology, Native Instruments (resp. Music Creation Group), a global digital music creation software and hardware provider, and Occhio, the innovative provider of high-quality design lighting for the high-end market.
About Smarketer
The Smarketer Group is the leading founder-managed performance marketing service provider with a focus on Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and other fast-growing digital platforms. Founded in 2011, the company offers comprehensive multilingual technology and data-driven services in the areas of Google Search, Google Shopping, Google Display Network, Mobile, Remarketing, Bing, Amazon and YouTube. Smarketer, with its 220 employees and over 1,000 customers, is an innovative and clear market leader in the SME segment. The company sees itself as a growth partner for SMEs with a very performance-based remuneration concept. The company is a CSS and Adwords Premium Partner of Google and Microsoft presented Smarketer with the Global Partner Award in 2021.
More information on Smarketer can be found here: smarketer.de.