Houlihan Lokey Advises Grupa Pracuj

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Grupa Pracuj, the leading HR technology platform in Central and Eastern Europe, has acquired softgarden, one of the market leaders of recruitment support systems in Germany. The transaction is worth nearly €118 million.

Grupa Pracuj is a leading technology platform in the HR sector in Central and Eastern Europe. The brands owned by Grupa Pracuj comprise an advanced digital ecosystem for the HR sector: Pracuj.pl, the largest Polish online recruitment service platform; Robota.ua, the leading online recruitment platform on the Ukrainian market; and eRecruiter, a leading Polish system supporting recruitment processes offered as a SaaS model. The group employs over 800 people. In December 2021, the company debuted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

softgarden is one of the leading HR tech solutions for innovative recruiting. As a talent acquisition system, the brand offers applicant management systems, a search-engine-optimised career site, automatically generated employer reviews, and a tool for employee referrals. The tools offered by softgarden also include the so-called multiposting, or an automated publication of job ads on many websites with job listings. The softgarden services are used by a total of 1,500 employers, mainly from Germany, but also from the DACH region and several other European countries. The team comprises more than 140 top-class specialists who will continue to develop products and services at the existing high level, post the acquisition.

Grupa Pracuj acquires softgarden from a company controlled by InvestCorp, a private equity fund, and from the business founder, Stefan Schüffler. As part of the acquisition, Grupa Pracuj also takes over absence.io, a system offering a dedicated HR software for small and medium-sized enterprises to support absence management.

By taking over a leading company on the German market, Grupa Pracuj has cemented its position as the leading entity of the HR tech sector in Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to having a key position in its home market, softgarden has been developing its structures in other DACH markets and has the potential to grow in other European countries. With the acquisition of a leading German company, Grupa Pracuj consistently expands its digital technology ecosystem for HR. The softgarden brands are yet other HR tech solutions to be added the digital ecosystem of Grupa Pracuj. Following last year’s acquisition of shares in Worksmile and the launch of new recruitment service platforms called the:protocol and Dryg.pl, the company has invested into additional HR tech solutions based on the SaaS model, which create a consistent ecosystem and expand the possibilities of supporting European companies in multiple areas of talent management.

Upon joining Grupa Pracuj, softgarden will remain an independent company. Its business model, offering, and rules of cooperation with the customers will remain unchanged. As highlighted by the Management Board of Grupa Pracuj, the priorities for softgarden would include continued operations in Germany, reinforcing the company’s position in Germany and the entire DACH region, and taking advantage of the growth opportunities in other European countries.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive buyside financial advisor to Grupa Pracuj and assisted the company throughout the transaction, including the preparation of valuation materials, due diligence and overall process coordination, as well as transaction negotiations.