Alantra advises EMZ Partners on the investment in celebrate Group

Feb 2021

Buy-side advisory

Frankfurt – Alantra, the independent global mid-market investment banking, alternative asset management and credit portfolio advisory firm, advises EMZ Partners on the acquisition of a significant minority stake in celebrate Group (“celebrate” or the Company), the leading European online distributor of personalized stationery and photo products.

Founded in 2010 and based in Gilching (Germany), celebrate evolved into Europe’s leading provider of personalized cards as well as stationery and photo products. Further, the Company also offers an app for photo cloud solutions allowing users to share pictures and converting them into high-quality printing products in just a few steps. The Company stands for lovingly designed, high-quality products and exceptional online user experience and operates under the brand «kartenmacherei» in the DACH region and «faireparterie» in France. celebrate’s product portfolio comprises of over 200,000 SKUs ranging from personalized wedding invitations to holiday calendars and wall art, which are produced at their own printing facility in Germany. 

EMZ is a leading European investment firm with offices in Paris and Munich. The firm focuses on medium-sized companies and offers flexible capital solutions in strong partnership with founders, family shareholders and managers.

Klaus Maurer, partner in the Munich Office of EMZ Partners, comments: «The market for high-quality personalized photo products will continue to a have an attractive future growth profile. celebrate is in an excellent position to continuously benefit from the constant shift to online business, the rising demand for premium products and an increasingly professional design of greeting and invitation cards for private events. We would like to take the opportunity to thank the ALANTRA team for their very helpful and insightful advice throughout this transaction.»

Christoph Handrup, Managing Director at Alantra’s Frankfurt office, added: «It was a great pleasure to support EMZ Partners on this exciting transaction and we are convinced that EMZ Partners together with the founder of the Company and the celebrate management will successfully drive the Company’s internationalization and continue its growth trajectory through the roll-out of new product categories and the further expansion of the photo cloud range.»