Expondo

expondo Group GmbH (“expondo” or “the company”), a leading B2B online marketplace for professional equipment headquartered in Berlin, today announced a partnership with the German branch of Crédit Mutuel Equity to accelerate further growth. Crédit Mutuel Equity will become a minority shareholder of the company. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

The company offers high-quality professional equipment at a competitive pricing with a particular focus on small and medium-sized businesses in the gastronomy, skilled crafts, and sports and health sectors. expondo procures and distributes top-end equipment and customized devices, having served over 1 million customers in expert niche markets. More than 2,000 own-brand products are launched every year based on technical user requirements and key customer feedback with a total offering of over 5.000 products. Most recently, expondo introduced expert-level technical support for its customers and will be moving into new services in the near future.

Following the expansion of its management team over the past two years, expondo’s founders Waldemar Moss and Piotr Stach have taken the next step in developing the company further by partnering with Crédit Mutuel Equity, an investment firm specializing in long-term minority investments funded from the group’s own balance sheet. With the expertise from a portfolio of more than 350 companies across six countries, Crédit Mutuel Equity plans to support expondo by further developing the organizational structure and bolstering the company for accelerated growth. In addition, M&A expertise will be provided for potential add-on acquisitions and supporting future investments to significantly expand the number of product verticals and new markets.

expondo was founded in 2007 as a start-up with sales via eBay as its main sales channel and operating out of the founders’ garage. Shortly after, in 2008, they launched their own online shop, and in 2009 began expanding into foreign markets. The company has recorded profitable growth ever since its establishment, with a top line CAGR of over 40 percent. Today, the Berlin-based company operates across 18 countries with more than 500 employees and offices in Germany, Poland and the UK, including a strategic procurement team of more than 40 experts in three locations in China.

Waldemar Moss and Piotr Stach, founders of expondo, said: “expondo has been growing at an exceptional rate since inception. Two years ago, we broadened the executive leadership team so that we could focus on the strategic vision for expondo. We are delighted to have attracted highly skilled, global professionals with an entrepreneurial mindset who uphold our core values. Now that this step has been successfully concluded, bringing in a long term oriented financial partner with complementary expertise is the next step to the transformation of expondo. We thank the entire team at expondo for their hard work in the past and throughout this investment process.”

Nicholas Holdcraft, CEO of expondo, said: “It is a great honor to count on the full support of the entire leadership team as well as the founders of expondo at this key stage of the company’s transformation. The eCommerce market environment is extremely dynamic with a CAGR of more than 40 percent, and our internal data suggests that this trend will remain for the mid-term. For myself and the executive management team we are truly excited about continuing on our successful journey together with Crédit Mutuel Equity. We have never been setup better in expondo to execute our strategy and bring profitable and sustainable value creation to our shareholders.”

Sébastien Neiss, Managing Director of Crédit Mutuel Equity in Germany, further comments: “We take pride in being a partner to some of Europe’s most successful companies and accompanying many of them through transformations similar to expondo’s. Our strength lies in providing maximum flexibility in terms of shareholder structure, adapting to their individual pace of development, making potential reinvestments over time as needed and giving access to our networks. We expect expondo to move forward in very big steps and look forward to supporting them in growth projects of all kinds while keeping their organizational structure up to speed.”

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