HgCapital has today announced an investment in STP Group (“STP”), a leading provider of insolvency and law practice software, based in Germany, in partnership with the current CEO and co-founder Gunther Thies. Mr Thies retains a significant interest in the business and will continue as CEO. The investment was made from HgCapital’s Mercury Fund which focuses on backing growth buyouts in software and technology sectors in Europe. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany, STP employs c.160 people serving over 1,200 legal customers with critical software. STP software supports professionals in both insolvency and commercial law sectors in Germany and central Europe and the company has a strong track record in product development, customer service and innovation. It has grown revenues every year since founding from its mainly subscription business model.

The investment in STP reflects a continued focus at HgCapital in supporting application software and data businesses built and led by European entrepreneurs. Accessing HgCapital’s sector knowledge as well as the opportunity to join a powerful community of relevant technology companies allows for a valuable partnership between HgCapital and the entrepreneurial leaders that it supports.

This represents the ninth investment from the Mercury Fund and the second fund investment in Germany in the last year following other recent investments in France and Denmark. Close collaboration between sector teams operating from Munich and London allows HgCapital to locate and then support such investments across Europe.

Arno Poschik, Director of HgCapital in Munich, said:

“We are delighted to be partnering with Gunther Thies and his management team. STP is a high-quality business that offers attractive growth prospects and is strongly valued by its customers. HgCapital has a strong track record of investing in business critical software and we look forward to supporting the continued development of STP into a European legal software champion.”

Matthew Brockman, Head of the Mercury Fund, said:

“HgCapital first identified STP as a high quality business over eight years ago when we first met Mr Thies and have followed his success since then. STP is a strong software company and this investment is a perfect example of how we seek to back strong entrepreneurs like Gunther Thies as an active partner helping them to scale high-quality European technology companies.”

Gunther Thies, Co-founder of STP, said:

“We are very pleased to be partnering with HgCapital who have demonstrated a deep understanding of our business. We look forward to developing this partnership as we take our next strategic steps.”