Fortino Capital Partners, Participatie Maatschappij Vlaanderen, Mainport Innovation Fund and management have sold SupplyStack to Transporeon, a portfolio company of Hg Capital


  • Scale-up with next-generation transport management software
  • Fast strategic growth secured
  • Sale in international setting
  • Many shareholders in complex deal represented by CFI

About SupplyStack

SupplyStack has developed a state-of-the-art software platform for the real-time monitoring, planning and steering of logistic flows. Realtime transport management helps shippers and logistics firms to optimise logistic flow efficiency and improve operating results. The Software-as-Service platform features cutting-edge technological standards and is flexible, modular and scalable. This makes SupplyStack a leader in the field of transport management software, with a distinctive proposition for multimodal transport and part load.

About the sale

SupplyStack is a hypergrowth Belgium-based scale-up software company with 100% year on year growth. With support from its private equity shareholders Fortino, PMV and Mainport, SupplyStack has worked hard in recent years to develop its platform. To make the software platform available to the international market, SupplyStack needed an international sales network, which it realised would require additional resources to build.

Keen to secure its fast strategic growth long term, SupplyStack’s management set out to find a party that would offer a well-established sales network and solid international distribution opportunities, and would match its corporate culture and outlook on the future. The sale to German Transporeon, supported by Hg Capital, gives SupplyStack access to an international sales and distribution network that will enable it to sell its platform to international logistic services providers and continue to grow. The sale of SupplyStack to Transporeon was finalised on 22 December 2021.

Outstanding image

The management’s ambitions, and SupplyStack’s fast growth and high software quality standards had not gone unnoticed. Its outstanding image had already attracted a number of potential buyers, allowing CFI to sit down and discuss options with these parties relatively quickly.

CFI’s role in the process

At CFI, we were invited by SupplyStack, Fortino, PMV and MIF to orchestrate the sales process and bring together management, shareholders and potential strategic buyers. As a scale-up with next-generation software, SupplyStack held a unique position in the market. We therefore focused particularly on the positioning and access to potential buyers capable of assigning strategic value to the company.

Thanks to our market knowledge and contacts with potential buyers, we were able to minimise disruptions to the company’s day-to-day operations by acting as the first point of contact, answering any questions they had without having to go through SupplyStack’s management.

Due to the Covid pandemic, this was a digital sales process. The management team in Belgium and shareholders from the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries joined potential buyers from i.e., Germany, the US, Scandinavia, France and Eastern Europe on video calls. In Transporeon we have found the perfect buyer to firmly put SupplyStack on the global map. With more than 1,200 staff worldwide and annual freight volumes of around EUR 20 billion being shipped through the Transporeon transport management platform, SupplyStack’s options are endless.

Nick Poels, founder and CEO of SupplyStack said: ‘We are very proud to become part of the Transporeon family and could not wish for a better result for the company and shareholders. Collaboration with CFI felt good from day one. They set up the process, at the right speed to secure competitiveness and deal security, and adopted the right strategy to enthuse potential buyers. Throughout, CFI continued to focus on the interests of the various shareholders and management.’,

This was the third Fortino exit this year headed by CFI and our congratulations also go to PMV, MIF, and Nick and his team on this great exit. ‘We support dozens of clients in Software & IT Service transactions every year. This successful deal once again demonstrates our in-depth domain expertise and our capability to combine return maximisation for the selling shareholders with strategic growth acceleration for the management’, says Ramon Schuitevoerder, Partner and Managing Director at CFI.

If you would like to know more about how we work, or our experience in the Software & IT Services sector, then please do not hesitate to contact us.

For more information about what we do in the Software & IT Services sector

Related

Scroll to Top