Berlin – While working at SMP, members of the YPOG team advised the shareholders of online learning platform sofatutor on the sale of their shares to a consortium of investors led by Emeram Capital Partners. Stephan Bayer and his team are thus changing the ownership structure in order to allow for strategic development of the sofatutor service with the new partners and further advancement of the ambitious growth plans. Comprehensive legal and tax advice was provided to sofatutor by a team led by partner Tim Schlösser. Benjamin Ullrich, who had already accompanied sofatutor in a previous financing round, was also part of SMP's team of advisors.
"As a digital learning platform, sofatutor was able to counteract the pandemic-related loss of teaching time and close knowledge gaps. However, this transaction impressively illustrates that sofatutor has also succeeded in demonstrating the future viability of its business model and the added value of digital learning spaces aside from a pandemic" says Tim Schlösser. "We are pleased to have been able to advise sofatutor's shareholders on this transaction after the financing round with the participation of Frog Capital" Benjamin Ullrich adds.
sofatutor
Founded 13 years ago by Stephan Bayer, sofatutor.com is now the most comprehensive online learning platform in the German-speaking world with over one million users, more than 11,000 learning videos and over 43,000 exercises. With its life mission to improve education, Bayer and its team of over 200 help students from elementary school to high school graduation - and has become a pioneer and backbone of educational digitization and homeschooling, especially in the Corona Year. The learning content is age-appropriate and based on the current curricula of the German states.
Emeram Capital Partners
Emeram is one of the leading investment companies for medium-sized companies in German-speaking countries. Funds advised by Emeram currently provide 400 million euros of capital for the development of companies. The portfolio includes companies from the consumer, technology/software and services sectors. For its companies, Emeram acts as a long-term business development partner, promoting the growth (organic and inorganic) of its investments on a sustainable basis. Together, the team has successfully closed more than 60 transactions and supported the development of portfolio companies by serving on more than 50 advisory and supervisory boards. Emeram was founded in 2012 as an independent partnership in Munich.
Advisors sofatutor:
Dr. Tim Schlösser (Lead, Corporate/ M&A), Partner
Dr. Benjamin Ullrich (Corporate/ M&A), Partner
Dr. Malte Bergmann (Tax), Partner
Matthias Kresser (Corporate/ Finanzierung), Senior Associate
Ann-Kristin Lochmann (Tax), Senior Associate
Konstantin Häfner (Corporate), Associate
Christiane Schnitzler (Corporate), Associate
Jonas Huth (Corporate), Associate
About us
YPOG is a law firm specialized in tax and business law, active in the core fields of Funds, Tax, Banking + Finance, and Transactions. The team at YPOG represents a broad client base, which ranges from emerging technology companies and family-run SMEs to large corporations, as well as private equity, and venture capital funds. YPOG is one of the leading advisors for venture capital, private equity, and fund structuring in Germany. The firm and its partners have been recognized nationally and internationally by JUVE, Best Lawyers, Legal 500, Focus, Chambers and Partners as well as Leaders League. Today, YPOG has more than 120 experienced lawyers and tax specialists and a notary, in three offices, located in Berlin, Hamburg, and Cologne.
