Partner of

mid-sized enterprises

Our Profile

who we are

AUCTUS Capital Partners AG is an independent investment company founded by entrepreneurs. The fund capital under management of over € 800 million comes from successful entrepreneurs and some hand-picked long-term institutional investors. The AUCTUS team is comprised of over 20 experienced investment managers and is currently looking after more than 45 platform investments in various economic sectors.

What we do

The AUCTUS team is looking for attractive, profitable companies with growth potential. We do not interfere in day-to-day operations but act as a sparring partner for the companies’ managers and a source of ideas and network for the strategic development. Also, we very actively support our platform companies with add-on acquisitions.

What we have achieved so far

With around 400 company investments since 2001, AUCTUS is the most successful Germany-based private equity company and the uncontested number 1 in buy-and-build strategies where we created dozens of market leaders. Over five fund generations, AUCTUS has achieved the highest returns of all European private equity firms. A very large part of the capital comes from the AUCTUS team itself. Our senior partners have been together for more than 15 years providing enormous consistency.

In 2022, we’ve opened an office in Milan, Italy.

„We always align our actions with our fundamental principles.“

Our success story

  • 2001-2003

    When AUCTUS was founded in 2001, the investment industry in Germany was almost exclusively geared towards internet start-ups and large buy-outs from foreign funds. After a decade of economic stagnation in the 1990s (TIME Magazine: “Germany – the sick man of Europe”), over-leveraged company balance sheets middle class and the erosion of the competitive edge in many areas, there was little investor interest in the German ‘Mittelstand’ companies. However, we saw this as an opportunity to invest in good medium-sized companies and support the entrepreneurs and managers in becoming market leaders.
    Raising equity for the fund was virtually impossible after 2001 recession. It took a year and a half of fundraising and over 200 investor visits to finally get our first (evergreen) fund …. with € 8 million equity commitments.

  • 2004-2007

    But then we got really started. In 2004, TimePartner was the first buy-and-build strategy where in just 24 months we formed a market-leading group out of 10 mid-sized staffing companies and sold it for € 180 million.
    By 2007, our capital under management had increased to over € 100 million due to successful exits and more investors. At that time, the AUCTUS team consisted of 8 investment managers.
    In 2007, 10 investments were made for the first time in a single year. Highlights of the AUCTUS portfolio at the time were e.g. Career Partner (private universities) or PharmaZell (active pharmaceutical ingredients).
    Also, AUCTUS did further successful exits and was awarded the “Small / Mid Cap Exit of the Year Award 2007” for the TimePartner transaction.

  • 2008-2010

    After the AUCTUS team had built up a diversified portfolio of 11 platform companies, the full focus during the financial crisis was on maintaining the value of the companies – with success.
    Between 2008-2011 we initiated successful buy-and-build strategies in the fields of healthcare (Celenus and Procon) or marketing-and-sales services (DialogFeld, Benchmark Partner). Other platform companies we invested in were Noventiz in the field of waste disposal services, CTJ – a logistics company – and Flemming Dental, Germany’s leading group of dental laboratories.

  • 2011-2014

    The third fund was launched in 2011 with a capital of EUR 155 million and very well-known international investors. Other buy-and-build strategies were established e.g. in the sectors logistics, rehabilitation services, IT services, food laboratories and pharmaceutical certification. AUCTUS started the European expansion of many of our platform companies. To date, almost 100 add-on acquisitions and approx. 50 new sites have been done by the platform companies of AUCTUS III – the majority of them abroad.

  • 2015-2018

    The launch of the fourth fund with EUR 230 million capital marks the step towards globalization of the AUCTUS portfolio. Over the past 5 years, our platforms have acquired dozens of companies in North America and Asia and opened additional locations there.

  • 2019

    The fifth AUCTUS fund was launched in 2019. More than ¾ of the capital comes from the AUCTUS team and from entrepreneurs – many of them successful managers of AUCTUS platforms. We are expanding our market leadership in Germany – especially in buy-and-build strategies – and are investing globally from our German-speaking platforms.