Novagraaf management has participated in the company alongside Paragon Partners

January 2017 — The management team and Paragon Partners have taken a majority stake in Novagraaf from current investor Gilde Buy-Out Partners.

Founded in 1888, Novagraaf is the world’s largest trademark filer and a major patent filer, managing more than one million intellectual property (IP) assets on behalf of customers and representing many of the world’s major patent and trademark owners. The company is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with offices throughout Europe, including Brussels, Geneva, London and Paris. In addition, in 2016 Novagraaf opened sales operations in China, Japan and the USA.

Lutgarde Liezenberg, CEO at Novagraaf, said: "This investment endorses our strategy to meet ever-changing market requirements by investing in our people and technology to provide world-class IP services. We are proud that Paragon supports our vision for growth, and we look forward to working with them to continue to deliver value-added innovative services across the entire IP life cycle to all our customers."

Paragon Partners is an independent private equity company with more than US$650 million of assets under management. Paragon Partners invests in mid-sized companies with a proven business model and sustainable value creation potential.

Gilde Buy Out Partners is a leading European private equity investor in mid-market transactions with operations in the DACH region and the Benelux. Gilde manages funds in excess of US$3 billion and has offices in Zurich, Frankfurt, Utrecht and Brussels. Since its inception in 1982, Gilde has invested in over 250 companies across a diverse range of sectors.

Our role in the transaction

Oaklins' team in the Netherlands acted as financial advisor to the management of Novagraaf.