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Carlsquare advised Family Trust Investor on their buy-and-build strategy to establish the German market leader for bouldering halls

In December 2020, Carlsquare advised the North German bouldering hall operator urban apes GmbH (“urban apes”) on a growth financing led by Family Trust Investor (“FTI”). Carlsquare has supported FTI as a buyside advisor for their buy-and-build strategy and related add-on acquisitions. By acquiring Nordbloc GmbH (“Nordbloc”), Kraftwerker GmbH & Co. KG (“KraftWerker”) and Ikarus Berlin GmbH (“Ikarus”), three add-on acquisitions have already been made within the first ten months after initiation of the buy-and-build strategy. In addition, the company is preparing to open two more locations, making the group the largest private provider of bouldering halls in Germany.

FTI is an investment company managed by entrepreneurs. In addition to significant own funds of the founders, Family Trust invests the assets of institutional investors, family offices, wealthy entrepreneurial families, and private individuals in successful medium-sized companies in German-speaking countries.

Urban Apes is a bouldering hall group run by sports enthusiasts with a common mission: to enable as many people as possible to climb and boulder. In addition, the group has made it its goal to actively develop the sport of bouldering and to continuously increase its quality, distribution and professionalization.

The founders of Urban Apes Lars Großkurth and Malte Weber comment on the transactions: “With FTI’s capital and expertise as a buy-and-build build investor, we have been able to rapidly scale-up to become Germany’s largest bouldering hall group within the first ten months after the initial transaction.”

Carsten Abdel Hadi, Managing Partner at FTI, adds: “Our partnership with Urban Apes has formed the nucleus of our buy&build strategy in the bouldering space. Through the acquisition of Nordbloc, Ikarus and Kraftwerker, we were able to quickly achieve important milestones. We are convinced that we will expand the Group’s market leadership in the coming year with further acquisitions and organic growth.”

Carlsquare acted as exclusive financial advisor to FTI.

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Family Trust Investor
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urban apes GmbH
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Ikarus Berlin GmbH
Nico Schmidt-Weidemann
Nico Schmidt-Weidemann
Managing Partner