Schöppingen, Frankfurt and London – 9 February 2022. Hampleton Partners, the international M&A and corporate finance advisory firm for technology companies, has advised shopware AG, a leading digital commerce software solutions provider in the DACH region, on its USD 100 million growth capital round from global investment firm Carlyle and PayPal, the global payments and commerce platform.
Headquartered in Schöppingen and led by brothers Sebastian and Stefan Hamann, Shopware offers a holistic omnichannel digital commerce platform that is highly flexible and has a rich set of features, supporting complex B2C, D2C, B2B and services-driven business models. Shopware’s technology is API-first and uses an open-source architecture, allowing merchants to scale while creating unique customer experiences. Its platform caters to a highly diversified customer base across a wide range of different industry verticals, focused on sophisticated mid-market merchants but also serving multinational market leaders including Philips, Jägermeister and Aston Martin. In 2021, Shopware approached a platform gross merchandise value (GMV) of USD 20 billion. Following the successful rollout of Shopware 6, the company was listed in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce. Recent product innovations have positioned the company as a leader in the expanding digital commerce software market for mid-market merchants in DACH.
Founders Sebastian and Stefan Hamann will retain a significant majority stake in the business and remain co-CEOs of the company. Carlyle and PayPal’s growth capital will help drive Shopware’s international expansion and the development of new products.
Stefan Hamann, co-CEO of Shopware, said: “This funding will help us supercharge our international growth – enabling Shopware to capture the significant opportunities ahead of us. Working with Hampleton: it was clear that the team understood the digital commerce software ecosystem and its key drivers at this critical moment in the market. Armed with that expertise, we were able to find the perfect partners in Carlyle and PayPal to execute on our shared strategic vision.”
Co-CEO Sebastian Hamman said: “The past few years have accelerated the need for an open-source approach that provides outstanding shopping experiences for customers, and we are poised to further benefit from this growth opportunity. We’re looking forward to working with Carlyle and PayPal and are grateful to be embarking on this journey after a structured process that allowed us to choose between several excellent options.”
Dr. Jan Eiben, managing director at Hampleton, commented: “Digital commerce is at an inflection point, not least due to the myriad new business models that are increasingly demanded by the market, from SMEs through to enterprise customers. With its flexible, open-source approach, Shopware is optimally positioned to serve evolving customer needs across all channels and business models to become an international leader in digital commerce technology. Stefan and Sebastian have built a pioneering, ambitious company and we look forward to the next stage of their journey that they will embark on with globally leading growth partners.”
The transaction represents another milestone in Hampleton’s leading digital commerce coverage, coming on the heels of Hampleton’s advisory of e-commerce personalization AI provider Loop54 on its sale to FACT-Finder, as well as the buyout of virtual queueing platform Queue-it by GRO Capital.
Miro Parizek, principal partner and founder at Hampleton added: “We are proud to have advised on this exciting combination between a cutting-edge European digital commerce player and two respected global investors and experts in commerce solutions. Stefan and Sebastian have built a game-changing technology, and I look forward to seeing them achieve even greater heights following this investment from Carlyle and PayPal.”
The engagement was led by Dr. Jan Eiben, Miro Parizek and Ralph Hübner, with Nicholas Milligan and Tim Stemkens supporting the transaction at Hampleton.
