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Business Wire
21-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Sdui Group Secures Strategic Investment to Accelerate Its Mission to Become the Operating System for European Schools
KOBLENZ, Germany & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sdui Group, a leading European provider of cloud-based administrative software for K-12 schools, today announced a new growth investment led by Bain Capital's Tech Opportunities fund, with participation from existing investors HV Capital and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF). The funding will be used to strengthen Sdui Group's product suite, deepen its support for educational institutions, and further its ambition to become the unified digital platform for education in Europe. Founded in 2018 in Germany, Sdui Group provides a fully integrated suite that supports schools across administrative needs from communication, attendance, scheduling, grading, and more. Today, Sdui Group serves thousands of institutions across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Spain, and is continuing to expand into new regions. Its modern, modular software is trusted by individual schools, districts, and governments to streamline operations. Sdui Group's suite improves the experience for all stakeholders – teachers, students, administrators, and parents – and gives back valuable time to focus on teaching and learning. As European school systems face rising complexity, increased digital expectations, and expanding public support and funding for education technology, institutions are looking for modern, reliable platforms that simplify their daily workflows. With a user-first approach and scalable, compliant cloud architecture, Sdui Group is well-positioned to lead this shift. 'This is a moment of transformation for education in Europe,' said James Stevens, a Partner in Bain Capital's Tech Opportunities business. 'Sdui Group is emerging as a trusted and capable partner to help schools navigate that change. Daniel and his team have built a modern, intuitive platform that directly addresses the daily challenges of school administration. We're excited to support their continued growth and impact across the region.' Sdui Group has already built strong momentum through both organic growth and acquisitions. The company has successfully integrated several regional software players, expanded its capabilities, and continues to invest in innovation, reliability, and user experience. 'Bain Capital's approach is unique – they combine strategic vision with real operational support,' said Daniel Zacharias, Founder and CEO of Sdui Group. 'They've taken the time to truly understand our mission and the realities schools face every day. With their support – and the continued backing of HV and HTGF – we're accelerating our work to build the digital backbone of European schools.' 'We've been proud to back Daniel and Sdui Group since the early days and are thrilled to continue supporting this next phase of growth,' said Felix Klühr, Partner at HV Capital. 'Bain Capital's experience scaling software companies globally makes them a valuable addition to the partnership.' – END – About Sdui Group Founded in Germany in 2018, the Sdui Group has developed into a leading provider of cloud-based software that enables digital communication and administration for schools and educational institutions across Europe. As a reliable partner, Sdui Group supports individual institutions, governments and ministries in their digitalisation effort, and develops innovative cloud-based solutions for schools and preschools. Sdui Group's suite of tools supports messaging, attendance, scheduling, grading, and more—making everyday school workflows simpler, more secure, and more effective. The company is based in Koblenz, Germany and currently employs around 230 people based in several European countries. About Bain Capital Founded in 1984, Bain Capital is one of the world's leading private investment firms. We are committed to creating lasting impact for our investors, teams, businesses, and the communities in which we live. As a private partnership, we lead with conviction and a culture of collaboration, advantages that enable us to innovate investment approaches, unlock opportunities, and create exceptional outcomes. Our global platform invests across five focus areas: Private Equity, Growth & Venture, Capital Solutions, Credit & Capital Markets, and Real Assets. In these focus areas, we bring deep sector expertise and wide-ranging capabilities. We have 24 offices on four continents, more than 1,850 employees, and approximately $185 billion in assets under management. To learn more, visit Follow @BainCapital on LinkedIn and X (Twitter). Bain Capital's Tech Opportunities business ( aims to help growing technology companies reach their full potential. We focus on companies in large, growing end markets with innovative or disruptive technology where we believe we can support transformational growth. Our dedicated, tenured team has deep experience supporting growing technology businesses—bringing together differentiated backgrounds in private and public equity investing as well as technology operating roles. We invest behind fundamental long-term tailwinds as technology penetrates across industries, creating a large and growing number of investment opportunities. About HV Capital HV Capital is one of the leading early-stage and growth investors in Europe. With nine fund generations in 25 years and €2.8 bn in managed assets, HV Capital is one of the continent's most active investors. The investment team has many years of experience in identifying European startups with great potential for success. In addition to international success stories like Flix, Zalando, Delivery Hero, Sumup, and Depop, innovation leaders such as Quantum Systems, Marvel Fusion, Sennder, Neura Robotics, Enpal, and Isar Aerospace are also part of the portfolio. HV Capital has invested in more than 250 internet and technology companies, supporting startups with ticket sizes ranging from €0.5m to €60m. It is one of Europe's few venture capital firms that can finance startups through all growth phases. HV Capital has a team of more than 60+ investment and operations professionals who provide a variety of perspectives and expertise across the venture capital landscape ( About High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in the pre-seed and seed phase and can participate significantly in further financing rounds, since 2024 with the HTGF Opportunity growth fund. HTGF has a fund volume of over 2 billion euros. Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed more than 780 startups and successfully sold shares in almost 200 companies. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital and numerous companies are invested in the HTGF seed funds. Investors in the HTGF Opportunity growth fund include the ERP Special Fund and KfW with the resources of the Zukunftsfonds ('Future Fund'). Further information can be found at or on LinkedIn and on the Zukunftsfonds page.
Forbes
16-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Coding For AI And Why YC Backed Wasp Is Poised To Be The Backbone Of The Next Software Revolution
Wasp co-founder, Martin Sosic and Matija Sosic Growth isn't just a goal in the developer tools space—it's the lifeblood. Few know that better than twin brothers Matija and Martin Sosic, Y Combinator backed co-founders of Wasp, the open-source web framework that's quietly reshaping how modern applications are built. With over 26,000 GitHub stars and a fresh $3.7 million seed round led by HV Capital and followed by Fifth Quarter Ventures, Big Bets and Metis, Wasp is more than just another dev tool—it's rapidly becoming the connective tissue of modern web development especially with its 'deploy anywhere' approach which is a major unlock for enterprise usage. In a candid conversation, the Wasp team outlined their bold roadmap and shared how they plan to grow from a beloved open-source project into a foundational player in the AI-powered development stack. Wasp's approach to growth is centered on four key levers: 1. Product Excellence: 'Simply put, we want the product to be so good that developers who try it naturally share it,' said Matija. Reaching their 1.0 release—currently in active development—is a key milestone. 2. Community Building: Already boasting a highly engaged Discord and thousands of developers, Wasp is doubling down on education and visibility. Expect more workshops, dev showcases, and ecosystem content in the coming months. 3. Strategic Partnerships: 'This is where we're intensifying our efforts,' Martin noted. 'The right integrations—whether with hosting platforms, AI coding tools, or backend services—can supercharge adoption for both sides.' Their recent push to align with major players in the AI coding space is one example. 4. Team Expansion: Wasp is growing its engineering and developer relations teams to execute on its expanding roadmap. As demand increases, scalability—both in code and in headcount—becomes essential. While AI is often viewed as a great equalizer, in sense of diminishing the moat of building the product and getting it into the hands of users, that makes the underlying developer tools and technologies even more important. Evolution at every level of the stack (frameworks, libraries) will continue happening even faster than in the pre-AI era, given an exponential volume of new web apps and SaaS-es that will come to the market with the help of AI-driven and assisted development. Every improvement in the tools used for it will further lower the barrier for builders and make both AI and developers more efficient. While AI can democratize building SaaS-es, the underlying toolchain is something that must be widely accepted, verified from, and built by the community. That is the only way to progress towards safe and sustainable development with AI. And that is exactly what the team behind Wasp is building - a new 'protocol', in non-technical terms for building web applications. While many developer tools are still figuring out their place in the AI era, Wasp is already staking a claim. 'We're betting big on AI-assisted development,' Matija explained. 'We believe Wasp is uniquely positioned to become a default framework for AI coding tools and humans alike.' This isn't just lip service: Wasp is already testing (and built their own early version of Bolt/Lovable back in the day) where AI models use Wasp's syntax and structure to generate fully functional apps. The goal? To make it drastically easier for AI to build robust applications by abstracting away full-stack complexity—something Wasp does particularly well. 'AI can now generate a lot of the code for you, even working applications," said Martin. 'But stitching together the frontend, backend, database, auth, and deployment, in a secure, maintainable, and scalable way? That's still hard. Wasp makes that orchestration dead simple—so we're effectively giving AI superpowers.' As TechCrunch puts it, Wasp is becoming the 'glue' between frontend frameworks like React and the backend services that power modern apps. While Wasp's early traction came from indie hackers and startup founders, the framework is now being used in production by enterprise teams. 'Getting from hobby projects to real enterprise-grade apps is a rite of passage,' said Matija. 'We've already crossed that first chasm—now we're focused on scaling it.' This shift includes working with dev teams building internal tools, customer portals, and full-fledged SaaS platforms—all powered by Wasp's opinionated but flexible architecture which currently supports React, and Prisma. How Wasp works Wasp hasn't reached 'community darling' status just yet. 'We're not at 1.0 and still missing some core features,' Martin admitted. 'But once we cross that threshold, we believe adoption will accelerate rapidly.' What Wasp offers is not just convenience, but a rethinking of how full-stack web apps should be built in an AI-driven world. Developers no longer want to spend days gluing tools together or wrangling infrastructure. Wasp abstracts that pain away—while giving AI systems a higher-level interface to build on. Wasp team photo The future of software development is converging around simplicity, automation, and AI. Wasp hits all three. Its bet: that the next wave of developer productivity will come not from piecing together disparate tools, but from using purpose-built platforms that unify the entire stack—from frontend logic to database orchestration to CI/CD. If Wasp's trajectory continues, it may not just be the next big dev tool—it could be the new foundation on which the next generation of software is built.
Finextra
12-06-2025
- Business
- Finextra
Payrails raises $32 million
Berlin-based payment software company Payrails has raised $32 million in Series A funding 0 The round was led by HV Capital's Growth Fund, with strong participation from all existing investors EQT Ventures, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz, bringing total funding raised to over $52.8 million. Founded by former executives from Stripe, Miro and Delivery Hero, Payrails offers a payment operating system purpose-built for enterprises with a modular architecture that includes payment orchestration, payouts, tokenization, unified analytics, automated reconciliation, and recently launched in-person payments. The tech stack gives enterprises full visibility and control of their payment operations and checkout experiences across geographies, channels, and verticals. In 2024, Payrails processed more than 1 million in daily operations, expanded into 30 new markets across Europe and Mena, and attracted enterprise customers across industries such as mobility, marketplaces and platforms, travel, e-commerce, financial services and subscription services. Brands supported include Puma, Vinted, Flix, InDrive, Just Eat Takeaway, and Careem. Orkhan Abdullayev, co-founder and CEO of Payrails says: 'With this funding, we're doubling down on product development to expand our multi-product platform across the entire payment lifecycle. Our payment operating system is setting a new industry standard for how enterprises manage and optimize payments, with more control, visibility and flexibility than ever before.' Following a partnership agreement struck with Mastercard earlier this year, Abdullayev says the fresh capital will be deployed to roll out new products and actively grow its commercial and product teams across Berlin, London, Paris, Dublin, Cairo and Dubai.
Zawya
12-06-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Payrails raises $32mln Series A to help global enterprises maximize payment performance
Payrails has found strong demand for its product, with rapid recurring revenue growth and well-known industry leaders like Puma, Vinted, Flix, and InDrive already using and trusting it. New funding will accelerate product development, product innovation, and commercial expansion across EMEA amid strong customer demand. Dubai & Berlin: Payrails, a global payment software company, today announced it has raised $32 million in Series A funding to further its mission of enabling enterprises to take control of their payment operations. The fresh funding will accelerate product innovation, product roadmap expansion and support commercial growth across EMEA to meet surging enterprise demand. The round was led by HV Capital's Growth Fund, with strong participation from all existing investors EQT Ventures, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz, bringing total funding raised to over $52.8 million. Founded by former fintech leaders from Delivery Hero, Payrails' founding team brings deep experience building global, scalable financial infrastructure. With the continued backing of leading technology investors, Payrails is strengthening its position as a category-defining payment platform for large enterprises. Strong enterprise demand accelerates Payrails' growth across markets The funding, one of the largest Series A rounds for a fintech company in Europe this year, follows a period of exceptional growth. In 2024 alone, Payrails processed more than 1 million in daily operations, expanded into 30 new markets across Europe and MENA, and attracted enterprise customers across industries such as mobility, marketplaces and platforms, travel, e-commerce, financial services and subscription services. Payrails is trusted by leading global brands including Puma, Vinted, Flix, InDrive, Just Eat Takeaway, and Careem to boost performance, reduce operational complexity and costs, and enable faster innovation across their payment operations. Orkhan Abdullayev, Co-Founder and CEO of Payrails said: 'We're grateful for the trust our customers and investors have placed in us. Their continued support fuels our vision of empowering enterprises with an all-in-one platform to manage every aspect of payments, unlocking new levels of performance and innovation while driving down complexity and costs. 'With this funding, we're doubling down on product development to expand our multi-product platform across the entire payment lifecycle. Our payment operating system is setting a new industry standard for how enterprises manage and optimize payments, with more control, visibility and flexibility than ever before,'. Solving complexity in a growing market Enterprise payment operations are becoming increasingly complex and fragmented. Enterprises must manage local payment methods, coordinate multiple Payment Service Providers, sync with internal systems, and comply with evolving regulatory frameworks across multiple markets, while delivering a frictionless customer experience and maintaining cost efficiency. With the global payments market projected to exceed $1.7 trillion in transactions by 2025, payments are no longer a commodity. Scaling payment operations and efficiently managing money movements has become a critical growth lever for large enterprises. Yet rigid legacy systems or in-house built tools, that require deep domain expertise, significant investment and lengthy go-to-market timelines, limit agility and hinder innovation. Payrails addresses this with a payment operating system purpose-built for enterprises, allowing companies to orchestrate complex payment flows, optimize performance, and abstract the complexity of system integrations. Acting as a deeply integrated meta layer, Payrails spans the entire payment lifecycle with a modular architecture that includes payment orchestration, payouts, tokenization, unified analytics, automated reconciliation, and recently launched in-person payments, all powered by advanced data capabilities. With a growing catalogue of over 100 integrations, Payrails works seamlessly with payment service providers like Stripe, Adyen, fraud-prevention solutions like Forter, software solutions like SAP, Salesforce, Snowflake, and others. This gives enterprises full flexibility, visibility, and control of their payment operations and checkout experiences across geographies, channels, and verticals. Alexander Joel-Carbonell, partner at HV Capital said: 'Having worked closely with Orkhan and Emre for over eight years—starting from our shared time at Delivery Hero—I've consistently been impressed by their sharp strategic instincts and relentless execution. With Payrails, they've built a category-defining: an enterprise-grade, modular payment operating system that abstracts complexity, enhances performance, and enables rapid innovation. Their unwavering 24/7 customer focus and ability to deliver immediate impact is reflected in the caliber of their global enterprise clients and the speed at which they're scaling, all shown in their great SaaS KPIs and traction. When we benchmarked the landscape, Payrails clearly led the pack of solutions, solving real pain points with a powerful enterprise product. I am thrilled to continue to support Orkhan and Emre with HV Growth from the sidelines!' Kaushik Subramanian, partner at EQT Ventures said: 'Payrails is tackling one of the most complex challenges for global enterprises with its unified payment platform. The power lies in composability - by offering composable software blocks, from pay-ins to tokenization to reconciliation, Payrails gives companies the commercial flexibility and control that in-house or legacy systems can't. The team is world-class, with deep fintech and software experience, and their rapid traction with global brands speaks volumes. That is why we are doubling down on the team. We are excited about what is ahead.' David Haber, General Partner at a16z said:"As more companies go global from day one, the need for unified, scalable payments infrastructure has never been more urgent. Payrails is building the operating system for this world. We believe their modular approach, execution speed, and strong customer traction set them apart in a category overdue for transformation. We're excited to continue to support Payrails as they become foundational infrastructure for the next generation of global enterprises." Zeynep Yavuz, partner at General Catalyst said: 'As global commerce grows and payment flows become more complex, enterprises need a reliable platform built to operate across multiple processors. Our early conviction in Payrails was driven by an exceptional founding team with deep industry experience and a clear vision for simplifying payments while reducing costs. Today, some of the world's fastest-growing global enterprises trust Payrails to power their mission-critical payments—and are consistently delighted by the product's performance, flexibility, and reliability. We're proud to support them as they reshape the future of payments operations.' New funding will fuel product innovation and commercial expansion Earlier this year, Payrails entered a strategic partnership with Mastercard to accelerate digital transformation and unlock next-generation payment capabilities for large-scale enterprises. With the fresh capital, Payrails will expand its all-in-one platform with new products across the payment lifecycle, from acceptance to payouts. To support its continued growth, Payrails is actively growing its commercial and product teams across Berlin, London, Paris, Dublin, Cairo and Dubai, and has expanded its leadership team with senior hires: Edward Moore, Chief Revenue Officer (formerly Global Head of Sales at Stripe) Willian Carminato, Chief Technology Officer (formerly VP Engineering at Miro) Patrick Bellinghausen, VP Finance (formerly Senior Director at Delivery Hero) Press contact: Payrails@ About Payrails Payrails is a global payment software company helping leading enterprises to take control of their payment operations and maximize performance. Payrails' all-in-one platform spans the entire payment lifecycle with a modular architecture that includes payment orchestration, payouts, tokenization, unified analytics, automated reconciliation, and recently launched in-person payments, all powered by advanced data capabilities. Founded in Berlin in 2021, Payrails has raised over $52 million from the world's top investors including Andreessen Horowitz, HV Capital, EQT Ventures and General Catalyst.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Germany's ARX Robotics garners €31m in Series Around
German defence startup ARX Robotics has raised €31m ($35.2m) in its Series A funding round to advance autonomous defence systems. The funding was led by German venture capital fund HV Capital, with contributions from Omnes Capital, the NATO Innovation Fund, Project A, and investment company Heliad. HV Capital partner Fabian Gruner said: 'ARX is proof that Europe can build internationally relevant defence technology: modern, AI-native, and strategically sovereign. 'Their rapid deployment across Europe is a testament to both the urgency and strength of their product.' Founded in 2022, ARX Robotics is developing unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) for defence applications. Its Gereon-RCS series and the AI-driven Mithra OS are designed to meet a variety of military needs while ensuring a fully European supply chain. ARX Robotics' scalable, software-defined systems have been adopted by six European armed forces. With the fresh capital, ARX Robotics plans to quintuple its production capacity by 2025 to address growing demand. The company also plans to use the proceeds to enhance its AI capabilities for smarter UGVs, expand into additional European markets, and modernise more than 50,000 NATO vehicles with its technology. ARX Robotics co-founder and CEO Marc Wietfeld said: 'The demand for modular, software-driven defence systems is growing rapidly—and we're building the company that will define this category in Europe. 'At the core of ARX Robotics is a clear mission: to build the next generation of defence infrastructure through scalable robotics and software. 'This fresh funding is an important milestone and catalyst that allows us to move from successful deployments to industrial scale.' ARX Robotics' recent expansion efforts include opening an office in London, UK and establishing a new production facility in southern England. A strategic partnership with Daimler Truck has also been formed to co-develop next-generation military mobility solutions. NATO Innovation Fund Partner Chris O'Connor said: 'We are proud of the tremendous progress the ARX Robotics team has made over the previous year, including growing their suite of products to address the legacy ground fleet, expanding geographic reach and building a world class team. 'ARX Robotics has fielded the largest Western UGV fleet to Ukraine and we look forward to continuing to support the company as it expands its reach across NATO nations.' "Germany's ARX Robotics garners €31m in Series Around" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
