team.blue’s €4.8bn minority investment by CPP Investments and Sofina

We advised the founder and management team of team.blue, a leading European digital enabler for entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized businesses, on a significant minority investment by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) and Sofina, alongside existing investor Hg Capital.

The transaction valued team.blue at €4.8bn, making it one of the largest privately-owned technology companies in Europe. Co-founders Jonas Dhaenens and Ali Niknam remain cornerstone investors in the business, alongside the wider management team led by CEO Claudio Corbetta.

Founded more than 20 years ago, team.blue now serves 3.3m customers across 22 European countries, supported by a team of over 2,500 colleagues – including many tech entrepreneurs who have joined through acquisitions and continue to build the business. The group has delivered sustained growth, with its valuation increasing eightfold since Hg’s initial investment in 2019.

The challenge

The deal reflects an increasing trend in private equity towards partial exits, where an existing sponsor sells down part of its stake while remaining invested. These transactions raise specific challenges, including:

• structuring the partial exit so that cash returns for existing investors are balanced with continued exposure to future growth;
• negotiating the extent to which minority shareholders and holders of management incentive shares participate in the exit; and
• ensuring key members of the management team remain incentivised and aligned with both existing and new investors.
• This transaction also involved significant cross-border coordination with jurisdictions and advisers in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Our approach

We supported team.blue’s management team throughout the process by:

• advising on the structuring of management equity and incentive arrangements, ensuring alignment between founders, management and incoming investors;
• negotiating terms to safeguard management’s position and preserve long-term alignment with Hg, CPP Investments and Sofina; and
• working closely with international counsel to address a number of cross-border elements and ensure consistency across the many different jurisdictions involved.

Our experience advising management teams on high-value private equity transactions enabled us to effectively guide the team through the complex structuring and negotiation points.

Outcome

The investment by CPP Investments and Sofina, alongside Hg, provides team.blue with additional backing to pursue its growth strategy. The business will continue to expand its product offering, with a particular focus on AI-led innovation, and accelerate its successful M&A strategy to support Europe’s entrepreneurs and SMBs with end-to-end digital tools.

For Macfarlanes, this transaction highlights our ability to advise management teams on complex, cross-border private equity deals and reflects our strength in guiding clients through evolving deal structures such as partial exits.