Doubledigit and Carl merge

The M&A companies are combining their digital platforms and expertise. Together, the companies now want to increase their own turnover through "mass & class".

The two M&A companies Doubledigit and Carl (formerly: Carl Finance) are merging, as detailed in a report by Finance Forward emerges. The start-up Carl was founded in 2016 with the aim of establishing an online marketplace for company succession. Doubledigit was launched in 2018. Although the company is younger, it apparently brings a larger transaction volume to the deal. According to the report, Doubledigit accounts for around €600 million of the combined €900 million volume managed.

M&A consulting is normally remunerated in the form of success fees in the low single-digit percentage range. Both start-ups have a similar target group; they are looking for buyers for companies in the German SME sector.

Doubledigit and Carl now want to grow together in this market. Doubledigit supports customers "earlier, more intensively and with higher quality", says founder Daniel Schenk in an interview with Finance Forward. Carl, on the other hand, delivers "the mass" via the visible brand, proven online marketing and, according to its own information, more than 4,000 sales inquiries per year.

Both brands are to remain. Formally, however, Carl will become a subsidiary of Doubledigit. Shareholders of the start-up, such as Project A from Berlin, will receive shares in the parent company. The sums and valuations of the deal are not known. Carl founder Kurosch Daniel Habibi emphasizes that both companies are already profitable and that the deal was made for tactical reasons. Habibi and co-founder Pascal Stichler will move to the advisory board after a transition phase, while Daniel Schenk will take over the operational business.