The barrage of new business deals for Greek Startups continues. After the acquisition of Pollfish by the American martech and research company Prodege and of course the landmark acquisition of Accusonus by Meta, it is Mantis’ turn to prove that 2022 is predicted to be an exceptional year for the Greek ecosystem.Mantis, an international supplier of warehouse management systems (WMS) based in Athens, has announced the merger with the German Company Ecovium under the umbrella of the group. The merger comes into immediate effect and supports Ecovium’s goal of establishing a new company based in Germany as an international provider of sustainable supply chain solutions. According to market information, the value of the deal between the two sides is estimated at 60 million euros.
The transaction was supported by FSN CapitalPartners, a leading private equity firm in Northern Europe and an advisor to FSN Capital Funds. FSNCapital, with a fund management of 4 billion euros and offices in Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Munich, is the main investor of Ecovium.
“Logistics is constantly growing globally, connecting more and more businesses. Our customers need to meet different requirements faster and faster, precisely because logistics processes know no borders. A single IT provider is no longer able to support all processes. This is the reason why as a group we are positioned with interrelated solutions and logistics subsystems. Through our complementary portfolio and Mantis expertise, we can now offer our customers international supply chain management solutions,” said Jasmino Burkic, managing director of the Ecovium Group.
With Mantis’ strategic move to join the Ecovium Group, both companies are taking an important step in their respective development strategies. “Businesses are looking for integrated, simple-to-implement SCE software suites and turnkey-ready solutions, tested in specific vertical markets in their own geographies.Following this market trend, we actively seek to join forces with successful software and solution providers with a complementary portfolio and complementary geographic coverage. In this context, Ecovium is ideally suited to Mantis. The merger will make Ecovium a global provider, supported by leading private equity firms, with a full portfolio of supply chain management solutions. With this strategic move, Ecovium will play a key role in the international markets.”, said Yiannis Panagiotopoulos, CEO of Mantis.
As a result of the merger, the Ecovium Group will develop into a global software and solutions provider with a total of more than 400 employees in 21 locations worldwide, serving approximately 4,000 customers in a wide range of markets.
“We are very impressed by Yiannis Panagiotopoulos and his team. They have done an excellent job of establishing Mantis as a leading WMS provider with a global reach, and their deep expertise perfectly complements our strategy. We look forward to working together to provide our customers with sustainable and cost-effective solutions at all levels and set the course for new innovations in the supply chain,” concludes Jasmino Burkic.
Robin Mürer, Partner at FSN Capital Partners, sees the merger as an extremely attractive investment opportunity: “The logistics software market is growing rapidly, fueled by the explosive growth of e-commerce and the increasing complexity of supply chains. Moreover, this market is still fragmented and we see a clear opportunity to unify it. Our comprehensive evaluation showed that Mantis is indeed an internationally recognized leader in the WMS market and is viewed very positively by its customers and partners. Therefore, we believe that this merger will allow Ecovium to become a global provider of an integrated portfolio of logistics software, with a bigger development.”
Advisors to Ecovium and FSN Capital were GLNS, Alvarez & Marsal, Crosslake, Frank Partners, TelescopeAdvisory and Zepos & Yannopoulos. Mantis’ advisors were STIFEL, Grant Thornton and Kyriakides Georgopoulos.
Ecovium was created in 2021 by the 12 companies of the MHP Group. The company was founded in 1999 in Neustadt amRübenberge, Germany and has since grown into a leading provider of logistics solutions in Germany and german-speaking regions, with 300 employees in 12 locations.
With 120 employees and offices in 9 countries as well as many specialized partners, Mantis has a presence in more than 30 countries in Central-Eastern Europe, Israel, USA/Canada & Latin America, Middle East & North Africa and Asia Pacific. Mantis’ LogisticsVision Suite (LVS), which is the flagship of its systems, is an innovative WMS/logistics software suite that can be easily customized for businesses with sophisticated storage and intellectual functions. More than 600 companies, many of which are leading multinationals, representing all major industries (3PL, Retail, Wholesale / Distribution & Manufacturing) and sales channels (traditional and multichannel e-commerce) rely on Mantis’ LVS to manage, optimize and automate traditional distribution centers and e-commerce distribution centers.