Pava Partners was exclusively mandated to find a new shareholder with a strong entrepreneurial culture for nextbike GmbH (“nextbike”) with the ambition of generating growth capital. The company is an international supplier and operator of fully automatic bicycle rental systems. nextbike was founded in 2004 in Leipzig and is located today in more than 90 cities in 15 countries throughout the world.

In January 2015, Co-Investor Deutschland GmbH (“Co-Investor”) took a stake in nextbike via a capital increase. Furthermore, additional growth capital had been provided through a shareholder loan. These capital measures will allow nextbike to process their numerous orders and to participate in renewing tenders. This way, nextbike and Co-Investor are jointly investing in the growth and increasing internationalization of the company.

Both parties decided not to disclose any financial  information on the transaction.

About nextbike

The company was founded in 2004. With their fully automatic bicycle rental systems managed under their own direction and with the help of licensing models, nextbike is now active in 15 countries on four continents. The nextbike-system clearly stands out from its competitors, both technologically and through its flexible business model. nextbike continuously develops system-critical technology and software in-house and is a recognized market leader in the area of tracking and cross-linking bikes. Ralf Kalupner, CEO of nextbike, describes the advantages of the system as follows: “Our experience acquired from more than ten years of international product and business development helps us to quickly respond to the needs of our customers. We offer stationary as well as mobile systems so that bikes can be parked in any location. Subletting takes place through tracking and an app. Even a combination of these, or less technology-intense solutions for lower prices are possible.” Such flexibility is highly valued by both communities and end-customers.

Co-Investor is an investment company based on a network of successful entrepreneurs and financially strong personalities who together invest private funds as equity capital for the middle market in the German-speaking area. The objective with such direct investments is to always acquire at least a substantial minority shareholding of 25,1% since the entrepreneur should still be able to lead the associate company independently.

Until today, Co-Investor has effected more than 20 direct investments with a total volume in the three-digit million Euro range. These investments have been made to companies with more than 8,200 employees and a cumulative revenue of over 1 billion Euros. After detailed examination, direct investments being supervised by Co-Investor Deutschland GmbH are exclusively offered to the investor network for co-investing in a private placement.