December 10 2019 - A fund managed by German technology investor LEA Partners has acquired a majority share in the travel technology group MIDOCO from the investment company Afinum. BID Equity and the three MIDOCO founders and managing partners, Steffen Faradi, Marcus Haarmann and Jörg Hauschild, will continue to hold significant stakes in MIDOCO.
Since its founding in 2005, MIDOCO GmbH has become Germany's leading provider of mid-office software solutions for the travel industry. In 2018, MIDOCO processed travel sales worth over 11 billion euros. Users of the software include international travel agency chains in business and leisure travel, online travel agencies, and dynamic tour operators. MIDOCO’s strengths are in connecting to and engaging with the industry’s established and new distribution channels, such as the IATA standard New Distribution Capability (NDC).
The product portfolio was perfectly complemented in 2018 by the acquisition of the Swiss Umbrella AG that provides the profile automation software Umbrella Faces. The solution enables the automatic synchronisation of traveller profile data across various sales channels. The ideal combination of Umbrella Faces and MIDOCO simplifies the booking process for traditional and new sales tools, especially for business travel agencies. Customers in Germany, the UK and other international markets are already successfully using the entire MIDOCO Suite.
"We look forward to supporting and expanding the MIDOCO Group as it continues to grow. We see great potential, especially internationally, both organically and as part of a selective buy and build strategy," says Christian Roth of LEA Partners.
"With LEA Partners, we have found the ideal partner for our further growth and an optimal constellation for the opportunities ahead," says Steffen Faradi, managing director of MIDOCO Holding GmbH. Faradi is pleased to have BID Equity on board as well, adding, "We can continue to rely on the well-established collaboration with the BID Equity team and gain the experience and expertise of LEA Partners."
MIDOCO Holding GmbH, based in Hamburg, provides software for the international travel industry. The subsidiaries, MIDOCO GmbH, founded 2005 in Hilden and Umbrella Organisation AG, founded in 1995 in Wetzikon, Switzerland, create and market MIDOCO Mid-office, Umbrella.net Mid-office, and Umbrella Faces Profile Automation. The mission of the MIDOCO companies is to optimise the efficiency of workflows in business travel agencies, online and offline travel agencies, and tour operators through automation and connection to booking systems. All systems are PCI/DSS certified. As the leading software for travel organisations in Germany, MIDOCO Mid-office processes annual travel sales worth more than 11 billion euros, including 7 million airline tickets. More than 25,000 parallel users use MIDOCO products daily. Umbrella.net Mid-office is an ERP system for the Swiss travel industry and processes travel revenues of over 2 billion CHF. Umbrella Faces is used by 280 agencies in 68 countries and stores customer profiles of business travellers from over 80,000 companies worldwide. The two companies employ 67 people in Hilden, Wetzikon and Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Clients include TUI, DER and DER Business Travel, Lufthansa City Center, Fello, Dr. Tigges, CTM, Radius, GlobalStar, Uniglobe, Clarity, ATG, Kuoni, ABB. MIDOCO is active in working groups of the German Travel Association (DRV), Verband Internet Reisevertrieb (VIR), Travel Industry Club (TIC), and the NDC Implementation Forums of the IATA.
LEA Partners is an entrepreneurial-minded multi-stage private equity firm investing in growth technology companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 2002, LEA Partners has advised on the investment in several companies. Operating out of Karlsruhe, one of Europe's largest technology clusters, its mission is to fund and support ambitious founders and executives by leveraging them with practical, hands-on growth expertise to achieve market leadership.