Houlihan Lokey Advises The Relevance Group
Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that funds advised by Ufenau Capital Partners (Ufenau) have completed their refinancing of The Relevance Group (TRG), a growing European provider of data-driven sales and marketing optimization solutions. This financial milestone will accelerate TRG’s ambitious growth strategy and fuel further acquisitions, positioning the company to become Europe’s leading partner for data-driven relevance.
The Relevance Group, founded and headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, with over 290 experts in Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, offers innovative, holistic solutions to increase customer relevance and for measurable business success. TRG combines expertise in customer experience, analytics, and marketing intelligence and delivers forward-looking solutions—from data-based market research to digital and performance marketing to AI-supported new customer acquisition and customer loyalty programs. Under the leadership of Group CEO Andreas Hannemann, CFO Jan Kaeten, and CPO Peter Joachim Fiegel, TRG aims to become Europe’s leading partner for data-driven relevance. The expansion is supported by the Swiss investor group Ufenau Capital Partners.
Ufenau Capital Partners is a privately owned Swiss investor group headquartered at Lake Zurich that advises private and institutional investors with their investments in private equity. Ufenau is focused on investments in service companies in German-speaking Europe, Iberia, Poland, the Benelux region, and the U.K. and invests in business services, IT services, healthcare, education and lifestyle, and financial services sectors. Since 2011, Ufenau invested in more than 400 service companies in Europe. Through a renowned group of experienced industry partners (owners, CEOs, CFOs), Ufenau has an active value-adding investment approach at eye level with entrepreneurs and managers. Ufenau advises capital of €3.0 billion.
Since its inception as a buy-and-build platform through Ufenau’s acquisition of Datalogue in 2022, TRG has successfully integrated six additional companies into its portfolio. This strategic expansion has significantly bolstered TRG’s sales capabilities and broadened its service offerings, resulting in a comprehensive suite of data-driven solutions for customer value creation in the marketing space. TRG is now setting its sights on new horizons, planning to expand into Iberia, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and the Nordics. Ufenau’s goal with TRG is to build a European champion in a highly fragmented market in the field of data analytics, insight management, and data-driven customer value creation in the marketing space. TRG’s dynamic growth strategy involves not only expanding its geographical footprint but also enhancing its expertise across various domains. The recent addition of Customlytics, a Berlin-based full-stack consultancy specializing in app marketing, exemplifies TRG’s commitment to filling strategic gaps in its service portfolio.
Houlihan Lokey provided debt advice on all commercial aspects of the financing transaction. Given Houlihan Lokey’s previous successes in advising platform transactions, as well as an extensive knowledge of and relationship with key lenders, Houlihan Lokey managed to secure a highly attractive, tailor-made, and flexible financing structure that will support TRG’s growth and further execution of the platform strategy.
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