The Austrian software vendor, avedos GRC GmbH, announced its merger with GBTEC AG, a German software and consulting company specializing in the digital transformation of companies and backed by Main Capital Partners, a strategic investor in the industry. This marks another growth milestone for the European player avedos to make its GRC software platform risk2value a central business system for governance, risk and compliance in modern organizations.
The founder and CEO of GBTEC Software + Consulting AG, Gregor Greinke, and Samuel Brandstätter, founder and CEO of avedos GRC GmbH, will officially announce the 100- percent acquisition of avedos through GBTEC on 11 May 2020. Samuel Brandstätter underscored his long-term engagement with a million-euro investment in the newly founded GBTEC Group.
Through this merger, avedos has welcomed a strong partner on board that extends its offerings through a process-based view of GRC and vast know-how. GBTEC has offered a specialized solution, BIC Cloud GRC for process-based GRC, as a component of its BPM suite, BIC Cloud, and as a standalone solution for over two years. This merger and the software solutions resulting from it enable companies to holistically manage and interlink all GRC information on every level – from group governance to operational business processes.
With its software solution risk2value, avedos has established itself among the leading GRC software vendors in Europe. Large national companies as well as international corporations, including well-known names such as RWE, Henkel and MAN, rely on avedos and risk2value. Whereas GBTEC has focused on the operational level of GRC in BIC Cloud GRC, risk2value is a holistic GRC platform that enables companies to digitalize GRC processes and efficiently embed them in the organization. avedos will continue the development and sales of its software from its office in Vienna as a separate brand. Existing clients, therefore, can rely on the services and personal contacts that they know from avedos.
With its innovative BPM suite, BIC Cloud, GBTEC offers a complete cloud solution for companies to model, analyze, optimize and automate their business processes. In 2018, the market research institute Gartner listed GBTEC Software + Consulting AG as a Representative Vendor in its “Market Guide for Enterprise Business Process Analysis” (1) for the second consecutive year. Over 750 companies, including global corporations such as Mitsubishi and Vodafone, hidden champions such as Osram, various Federal Ministries, universities and organizations from many other industries, trust GBTEC and its BPM suite.
GBTEC Group has offices in Bochum and Munich, Germany, as well as subsidiaries in Spain and Australia. With the integration of avedos, the companies will combine their joint potential and the strengths of their respective software solutions. The goal is to open the boundaries between GRC and business process management through the technical integration and complete long-term unification of the software. Both avedos and GBTEC want to integrate revolutionary technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence and process mining in the GRC software in the future and, therefore, create new, digital models for successful GRC management. Together with Main Capital Partners, the software investor backing the group, they will drive future growth through organic initiatives and further M&A opportunities in these key technologies.
“Especially in times of crisis, many companies are evaluating the advantages of digital business models and searching for new software to work more productively and efficiently,” Greinke explained. “Today, the digital transformation is becoming more and more relevant. We have been transforming the business processes of our clients for many years through digitalization that not only adds value for the company but the employees as well.”
“With the acquisition of avedos, we will continue to build on our strategic position for process and risk management,” he continued. “Almost all compliance and risk management vendors are sharpening their focus on processes. This development is why the merger of avedos and GBTEC makes perfect sense and delivers enormous value for our clients. As one of the European market leaders for risk management and GRC, avedos has excellent references, an outstanding reputation and an amazing team. Combining the process technologies and GRC knowledge of our companies will be a game-changer that fundamentally strengthens our competitive advantage.
“Through the integration in GBTEC, we are laying the foundation for continued, long-term growth in a corporate group specializing in business software,” added Brandstätter. This enables us to develop innovative GRC use cases that dramatically increase value in companies. The single view of GRC information – from governance to operational processes by eliminating data silos and integrating new technologies such as artificial intelligence or process mining enable completely new approaches for GRC. Today more than ever, the digitalization of GRC processes and the development of GRC maturity are on the agenda of innovative companies. These will profit from the merger, which will help avedos further build on its position as a European market leader.”
The software platform, risk2value from avedos, fulfills all GRC requirements in a flexible enterprise management system. One of the central goals is to link individual GRC information in a single management system that generates value by weighing risks and opportunities. This avoids and eliminates silos which inevitably lead to higher costs, more work and less transparency. As an active management system, risk2value supports the process of ongoing development and continual optimization to achieve operational excellence and business goals sustainably in times of uncertainty.
BIC Cloud GRC offers predefined workflows for a process-driven view of GRC management – from recording risks to implementing and controlling actions. The software is closely integrated with the established process management tool BIC Cloud Design for seamless and transparent processes throughout the company. One of the software’s special functions is that business risks and controls from the process modeling in BIC Cloud Design are immediately available as GRC workflows in BIC Cloud GRC. BIC Cloud GRC simplifies GRC management through intuitive dashboards, comprehensive workflow monitoring and personal to-do lists.
Marks Baughan Securities acted as the exclusive financial advisor to avedos.
For more information on this transaction, please contact:
John Jacobs
+44 207.927.7464
jjacobs@marbau.com
Ed Murtha
+1 610.365.7283
emurtha@marbau.com
About Marks Baughan Securities
Marks Baughan provides investment banking services to growth companies. Our clients are software, technology-enabled services and data-intensive companies seeking shareholder liquidity or growth capital. We work tirelessly alongside our clients and excel at defensible positioning and disciplined processes that maximize shareholder value. Our professionals come from senior positions at bulge-bracket firms, giving our clients access to the relationships and experience that come from our years of interaction with the top executives and investors in companies in our fields. Our clients receive top-flight advice throughout any advisory relationship, because our boutique approach allows our senior advisors to stay deeply involved with each client on a continuous basis. No handoffs to junior staff. No preferential client relationships. No conflicts of interest.
For additional information on Marks Baughan, see www.marksbaughan.com.
About GBTEC Software + Consulting AG
GBTEC Software + Consulting AG is a specialist for business process management, digital transformation, business intelligence and integrated risk management. The company successfully combines consulting and software development under one roof. With the BPM solution “BIC” GBTEC offers an innovative, complete and powerful BPM suite for the optimization of processes and IT systems. Among its customers are numerous DAX corporations as well as large medium-sized companies and public administration.
For additional information on GBTEC, see www.gbtec.de.
About avedos
We are driven by our belief that the sustainable success of innovative organizations will be strongly influenced by a profound enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) strategy. As a vendor of GRC solutions, we center our efforts on enabling European companies to recognize GRC as a core value driver in enterprise management. As a partner, we support our clients to continually develop the maturity of their organizational processes.
The largest and most successful energy providers, insurance companies, banks, telecommunication companies and retailers place their trust in us and run their GRC processes on the GRC platform risk2value.
For additional information on avedos, see www.avedos.com.
About Main Capital Partners
MAIN Capital Partners is a strategic investor with an exclusive focus on the software sector in the Benelux, DACH and Nordics regions. Main has a long-term investment horizon centered around successful partnerships with management teams, with the goal to jointly build larger software groups. Main has approximately €1 billion in assets under management for investments in mature and growing software companies.
For additional information on Main Capital, see main.nl.