Deutsche Private Equity acquires stake in TKD Group – a "Device as a Service" platform for business customers

• TKD offers large companies a rental model for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets
  
• Rental as part of a circular economy is CO2-neutral and supports the customers’ purchasing, IT and finance departments
  
• Majority of the purchase price is reinvested into further growth of the company

Funds advised by Munich-based independent private equity firm Deutsche Private Equity ("DPE") have acquired a majority stake in TKD Group ("TKD") from the founders and managing directors. A large part of the investment, which is in the three-digit million range, will be directly reinvested in the operating structure in order to accelerate growth.

TKD offers large companies with international locations a rental model for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets from various renowned manufacturers. The rented mobile devices are sustainably integrated into a circular economy, which ensures that departments such as purchasing, IT and finance are quickly and easily relieved and the customer’s ESG requirements are met. ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance.

By using their own "Software as a Service" platform TKD.360, customers’ employees can order end devices including mobile phone profiles themselves after activation, manage them and flexibly replace them with the latest models after a fixed term. The mobile devices are automatically configured according to the company’s security requirements and sent directly to the employee’s workplace, ready to use immediately. Companies not only benefit from CO2-neutral use and thus improve their sustainability strategy, but also relieve the burden on their IT department and receive a transparent cost overview of the mobile users through the monthly billing of the devices used in the rental model, which is transmitted digitally to the finance department.

"Over the past few years, we have worked closely with our management team to develop a range of services that is fully tailored to our customers’ needs. With Deutsche Private Equity, we now have a strong partner at our side who not only recognises the potential of our cooperation with key players in the "Device as a Service"-market, but also values it. In addition, DPE will make a significant contribution to our technological development and thus drive the expansion of our platform," say Ulrich Winkler and Oliver Torlée, the founders of TKD.

Andreas W. Schmid, Partner at DPE, explains: "We are very impressed by TKD’s solution-orientated applications, which provide customers with the best possible support for administrative and IT challenges. We see significant growth potential not only nationally, but also internationally, as well as an attractive value lever in the financing of the devices and look forward to working with TKD."

TKD was advised by Houlihan Lokey (M&A Sell Side), FGS (Tax) and Freshfields (Legal).

DPE was advised by Roland Berger (Commercial), Deloitte (Financial), PwC (Tax & ESG), Gütt Olk Feldhaus (Legal), MCF (Debt Advisory) and Hogan Lovells (Financial Counsel).