Founded in 2018 in Koblenz, Sdui has rapidly evolved into one of Europe’s leading EdTech platforms, offering a comprehensive SaaS solution that integrates communication, administration, and learning & grade management capabilities tailored to the needs of educational institutions. Today, Sdui supports more than 22,000 institutions and is actively pursuing a roll-up strategy to become the leading player in the digital transformation of education across Europe.

The investment will support Sdui’s continued growth and expansion efforts. The round also saw participation from existing investors, including HV Capital & HTGF. This strategic funding reflects strong confidence in Sdui’s mission to build the operating system for modern education and its commitment to simplifying communication and organisation in schools and daycare centres.

“We are incredibly proud to have advised Sdui on this landmark transaction with Bain Capital. This transaction demonstrates the increasing investor appetite for high-quality vertical SaaS platforms in the EdTech space with strong product-market fit. With the backing of a world-class partner in Bain Capital, Sdui is well-positioned to lead the digitalisation of the education sector across the continent.”
Simon Miremadi, Partner and Head of DACH at GP Bullhound

“This funding round marks a defining moment for Sdui. We’re grateful to have Bain Capital on board — not just as an investor, but as a partner who brings deep experience in scaling technology companies to become market champions. Together, we will accelerate our vision to build the digital backbone of education in Europe and continue providing innovative tools that empower schools, teachers, and students.”
Daniel Zacharias, CEO and Co-Founder of Sdui

“This is a moment of transformation for education in Europe. 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.”
James Stevens, a Partner in Bain Capital’s Tech Opportunities business

“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. Bain Capital’s experience scaling software companies globally makes them a valuable addition to the partnership.”
Felix Klühr, Partner at HV Capital

About Sdui
Sdui Group is a leading European edtech company offering cloud-based software that streamlines communication and administration for schools and preschools. Founded in Germany in 2018, it supports digitalisation across education with tools for messaging, attendance, scheduling, and more.

About Bain Capital
Bain Capital is a global investment firm with $185 billion in AUM, investing across private equity, growth, credit, and real assets. Its Tech Opportunities team backs innovative technology companies driving transformative growth in large, fast-growing markets.

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs. Founded in 1999, the firm has 13 offices across Europe, the US, and Asia. Learn more at www.gpbullhound.com.

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact:
Simon Miremadi, simon.miremadi@gpbullhound.com

Natlink offers WeHunt, a consumer software application that helps hunters plan, track and manage the hunting experience, as well as Tracker GPS dog collars and Burrel trail cameras. The company delivers a seamlessly integrated ecosystem for planning, communication, tracking, analysis, reporting, and wildlife monitoring. With over 855,000 registered users, Natlink serves hunters, outdoor enthusiasts, and wildlife managers around the world.

The transaction represents a de-merger of Natlink from Open Air Group, formed by Nalka Invest in 2016. Natlink is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

Daniel Ahlstrand (Partner) at Verdane, said: “We’re excited to partner with Natlink to accelerate the company’s growth. Natlink has built an impressive suite of products and services that help to create a more sustainable hunting and outdoor community. We look forward to helping them reach even more people. We highly appreciated GP Bullhound’s support throughout the transaction, and their sector expertise, strong network, and strategic advice played a key role in securing the deal.“

Carl Wessberg (Partner) and Felix Bratell (Managing Director) at GP Bullhound, said: “It was a pleasure supporting Verdane on this exciting transaction, and we are proud to have helped bring this partnership to life. With Natlink, Verdane is backing a mission-driven platform at the heart of Europe’s hunting community. Together, they are well-positioned to drive digital innovation and sustainability across the hunting and outdoor ecosystem.”

The transaction cements GP Bullhound’s position as the go-to advisor for Europe’s leading software companies and reinforces our leadership in the Consumer Subscription Software (CSS) sector, backed by a strong track record advising global category leaders including Runna’s acquisition by Strava, Urban Sports Club on its sale to Wellhub, and Flo Health on its $225m investment from General Atlantic.

About Natlink
Natlink is the largest hunting technology company in the Nordics and one of the largest in Europe, providing leading brands such as WeHunt Hunting Platform, Tracker Dog GPS, and Burrel Trail Cameras. Together, these brands deliver a seamlessly integrated ecosystem for planning, communication, tracking, analysis, reporting, and wildlife monitoring.

About Verdane
Verdane is a specialist growth buyout investment firm that partners with tech-enabled and sustainable businesses that help to digitalise and decarbonise the European economy. With over €8bn in assets under management, its funds have made more than 200 investments in fast-growing businesses since 2003. The firm employs more than 150 investment professionals and operating experts, based out of offices across Berlin, Munich, Copenhagen, Helsinki, London, Oslo and Stockholm.

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs. Founded in 1999, the firm has 13 offices across Europe, the US, and Asia. Learn more at www.gpbullhound.com.

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact:
Carl Wessberg, carl.wessberg@gpbullhound.com
Felix Bratell, felix.bratell@gpbullhound.com

Key takeaways from our report include:

Manish Madhvani, Managing Partner at GP Bullhound, said: “In last year’s report, we were witnessing the emergence of a new era shaped by AI-driven innovation. Today, we can confidently say this wave is materializing at full scale. Europe has demonstrated its ability to build every component of the AI value chain, raise megarounds for its founders, and reduce its dependence on overseas technology. Funding levels have stabilized and are now trending upwards. After a prolonged quiet period, unicorn creation is on the rise once again. Companies such as Mistral, Poolside, and Multiverse are securing hundreds of millions in funding to develop proprietary technologies with global scale and impact.

However, challenges remain on the liquidity front. Venture and growth investors backing these tech businesses have struggled with distributions over the past few years, as the IPO market turned silent. And 2025 will be no better, with many founders still reluctant to pursue public listings. Instead, large secondary funding rounds have been orchestrated to allow those early investors to exit. Strategic acquirers are also becoming more active in the European scene, though trade sales remain challenging for businesses over >$5Bn in value – albeit not impossible. We anticipate a very busy year in terms of transactions. Large pools of capital are accessible, and both financial investors and strategics are actively looking for the next wave of AI breakthroughs that will shape the way we live and work.”

Expert interviews
What does it take to build a billion-dollar company? What are the critical success factors for European tech? How to remain resilient in a challenging market and benefit from economic downturns? This year’s report features expert views from leading founders and CEOs, including MUBI, Poolside, UnseenLabs, Multiverse, Vespa.ai, Mentimeter, Luminance, Fresha, and Sanity.

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact: press@gpbullhound.com 

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs and founders. Founded in 1999, with a global team of 150+ employees, the firm now has 13 offices across key hubs such as London, San Francisco, New York, and Paris. For more information, please visit www.gpbullhound.com. 

The Series B will be led by Bullhound Capital with the support of world class investors such as HP Ventures, Forgepoint Capital, Santander and Toshiba, as well as public support from Spanish institutions such as SETT and Euskadi’s Grupo SPRI. The company has brought on widespread support for this push with a range of international and strategic investors. The investment will accelerate widespread adoption to address the massive costs prohibiting the roll out of LLMs, revolutionizing the $106.03 billion AI inference market.

LLMs typically run on specialized, cloud-based infrastructure that drive up data center costs. Traditional compression techniques —quantization and pruning—aim to address these challenges, but their resulting models significantly underperform original LLMs. With the development of CompactifAI, Multiverse discovered a new approach. CompactifAI models are highly-compressed versions of leading open source LLMs that retain original accuracy, are 4x-12x faster and yield a 50%-80% reduction in inference costs. These compressed, affordable, energy-efficient models can run on the cloud, on private data centers or -in the case of ultra compressed LLMs- directly on devices such as PCs, phones, cars, drones and even Raspberry PI.

“The prevailing wisdom is that shrinking LLMs comes at a cost. Multiverse is changing that,” said Enrique Lizaso Olmos, Founder and CEO of Multiverse Computing. “What started as a breakthrough in model compression quickly proved transformative—unlocking new efficiencies in AI deployment and earning rapid adoption for its ability to radically reduce the hardware requirements for running AI models. With a unique syndicate of expert and strategic global investors on board, and Bullhound Capital as lead investor, we can now further advance our laser-focused delivery of compressed AI models that offer outstanding performance with minimal infrastructure.”

CompactifAI was developed using Tensor Networks, a quantum-inspired approach to simplifying neural networks. This specialized field of study was pioneered by Román Orús, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Multiverse. “For the first time in history, we are able to profile the inner workings of a neural network to eliminate billions of spurious correlations and truly optimize all sorts of AI models,” said Orús. Compressed versions of top Llama, DeepSeek, and Mistral models are available now, with additional models to follow.

Per Roman, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Bullhound Capital, said: “Multiverse’s CompactifAI introduces material changes to AI processing that address the global need for greater efficiency, and their ingenuity is accelerating European sovereignty. Román Orús has convinced us that he and his team of engineers are developing truly world-class solutions in this highly complex and compute-intensive field. Enrique Lizaso is the perfect CEO to rapidly scale the business in the global race for AI dominance. I’m also pleased to see so many high-profile investors, such as HP and Forgepoint, join the round. We welcome their participation.”

Tuan Tran, President of Technology and Innovation, HP Inc. commented: “At HP, we are dedicated to leading the future of work by providing solutions that drive business growth and enhance professional fulfillment. Our investment in Multiverse Computing supports this ambition. By making AI applications more accessible at the edge, Multiverse’s innovative approach has the potential to bring AI benefits of enhanced performance, personalization, privacy and cost efficiency to life for companies of any size.”

Bullhound Capital invested through GP Bullhound Fund VI, which also includes late-stage ventures such as Q-CTRL, LeoLabs, EcoVadis, CoverManager, Mentimeter, Sesame HR and Sanity. The investment was supported by:

About Multiverse Computing

Multiverse Computing is the leader in quantum-inspired AI model compression. The company’s deep expertise in quantum software and AI led to the development of CompactifAI, a revolutionary compressor that reduces LLM size by up to 95% with only 2–3% precision loss. These models drastically lower computing requirements and open new use cases for AI across industries. Headquartered in Donostia, Spain, with offices across Europe, the US, and Canada, Multiverse won DigitalEurope’s 2024 Future Unicorn award and was recognized by CB Insights as one of the Top 100 Most Promising AI Companies in 2025. With over 160 patents and 100 customers globally, including Iberdrola, Bosch, and the Bank of Canada, Multiverse Computing has raised approximately $250 million to date. For more, visit multiversecomputing.com.

About Bullhound Capital

Bullhound Capital is the investment management arm of GP Bullhound, partnering with founders building category-leading technology companies. Launched in 2008 with over €1 billion deployed, it has invested in global leaders such as Spotify, Klarna, Revolut, Slack, Unity, ConnexAI, and EcoVadis. With 13 offices worldwide, its platform delivers hands-on, founder-focused support across strategy, growth, and execution. From quantum to entertainment, Bullhound Capital backs global leaders applying artificial intelligence to solve real-world problems.

For inquiries, please contact: 
Ben Prade at ben.prade@bullhound.com 
Callum Stewart at callum.stewart@bullhound.com 
Carlos de la Esperanza at Carlos.delaEsperanza@bullhound.com
Press inquiries: press@gpbullhound.com  

Founded in 2015 by Krishna Subramanian and Sunil Verma, Captiv8 is the world’s most advanced influencer marketing and commerce technology platform. With 15m+ creators globally, proprietary AI-powered tech, and leading social commerce suite, Captiv8 sets the industry benchmark for scale, intelligence, and measurable performance. The platform leverages machine learning and real-time data ingestion to power predictive creator recommendations, audience modeling, sentiment analysis, and performance forecasting across platforms and formats. 70% of Fortune 1000 companies choose Captiv8 as their influencer marketing partner.

The combination of Captiv8 and Publicis’ Influential creates an unrivaled influencer solution with the largest creator database, AI-powered intelligence, and a roster of the world’s largest brands

“Captiv8 was built to unify the fragmented creator economy – turning influence into a commerce engine that drives real ROI. Publicis Groupe shares that vision for a fully connected, data-powered future. Together, we’re not just scaling creator marketing, we’re transforming it into a global growth channel that delivers measurable impact from first impression to final purchase. GP Bullhound’s knowledge of the influencer and digital marketing sectors, combined with their tireless commitment and effort were critical in helping us pull this transaction together.” Krishna Subramanian, Captiv8 Co-Founder & CEO

“It was a pleasure working with the entire Captiv8 team on this transaction and we’re excited about the next step in their journey. With this acquisition, Publicis Groupe creates the global leader in Connected Influencer, bringing together Captiv8’s technology platform, Influential’s scaled service layer, and Epsilon’s identity-led data and targeting.” Eric Crowley and Alec Dafferner, GP Bullhound 

This transaction reinforces GP Bullhound’s global leadership in the Influencer Marketing sector, with a strong track record advising global category leaders including The GOAT Agency on their sale to WPP, Pixly on their sale to ACC and Channel Factory on their investment by Star Mountain Capital, among many others. 

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact:
Eric Crowley, Partner, at eric.crowley@gpbullhound.com
Alec Dafferner, Partner, at alec.dafferner@gpbullhound.com

About Captiv8
Captiv8 is an influencer marketing platform offering managed services and a robust software platform. The company’s platform discovers and matches talents on real-time audience data across social platforms using artificial intelligence, as well as provides audience insights, enabling companies to understand their audience, optimize content, benchmark against competitors, and grow their fan base worldwide. Captiv8 has a large roster of blue chip clients including Unilever, Nike, 3M, PepsiCo and Toyota as well as strong relationships with all the agency holding companies. This transaction should further expand our credentials in digital services and influencer software. Learn more at www.captiv8.com.

About Publicis
Publicis Groupe is a global leader in marketing, communication, and digital transformation services. Headquartered in Paris, it offers advertising, media planning and buying, data analytics, and technology solutions through a network of agencies. Visit www.publicisgroupe.com for more information.

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs. Founded in 1999, the firm has 13 offices across Europe, the US, and Asia. Learn more at www.gpbullhound.com.

Sanity’s new platform offers a real-time, structured approach that treats content as reusable data—making it AI-ready, multi-channel friendly, and optimized for developer and marketing velocity. Leading brands including Skims, Puma, RBI, Complex, and AT&T rely on Sanity to accelerate launches, scale operations, and reduce costs.

Magnus Hillestad, CEO and Co-founder of Sanity, said: “We’ve always believed content deserves better infrastructure. The Content Operating System is our answer to years of pain with CMSs, unscalable workflows, siloed systems, and missed opportunities. With this launch, and with Bullhound Capital as our partner, we’re inviting businesses to reimagine content as a growth engine.”

This milestone caps a year of remarkable momentum. In 2024, Sanity exceeded $40 million in annual recurring revenue, onboarded marquee customers such as Nordstrom, Expedia, and Elastic, and expanded its global footprint to support 30,000+ organizations. Sanity now underpins mission-critical content systems across ecommerce, media, SaaS, and enterprise verticals.

Joakim Dal, Partner at Bullhound Capital, commented: “Search is moving from keywords to agents, and Sanity turns every snippet of content into agent‑ready fuel. We’re thrilled to back Magnus and the Sanity team as they launch this essential platform for any user-centric business that wants to stay ahead.”

Proceeds from the Series C will fuel continued product innovation, team expansion, and deeper investment in Sanity’s developer and partner ecosystem. The company is now fully capitalized for its growth journey and does not plan to raise additional funding.

To learn more, read the founder’s blog post

Bullhound Capital invested through GP Bullhound Fund VI, which also includes late-stage ventures such as Q-CTRL, LeoLabs, EcoVadis, CoverManager, Mentimeter, and Sesame HR. The investment was supported by:

For inquiries, please contact: 
Joakim Dal at joakim.dal@bullhound.com 
Press inquiries: press@gpbullhound.com  

About Bullhound Capital
Bullhound Capital is the investment management arm of GP Bullhound, building with founders creating category-leading technology companies. With over €1 billion under management and 25 years of performance, it has invested in global leaders like Spotify, Klarna, Revolut, Slack, Unity, ConnexAI and EcoVadis. Operating from 13 offices worldwide, its platform delivers hands-on, founder-focused support across strategy, growth, and execution. From quantum to entertainment, Bullhound Capital backs global leaders applying Artificial Intelligence to solve real-world problems.

Quantum Systems builds next-generation unmanned aerial systems (UAS) that fuse artificial intelligence, edge computing, autonomy and electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) technology. Their systems provide real-time intelligence for defense, public safety, and commercial operations.

Founded ten years ago by Florian Seibel  and his founders team, Quantum Systems is advancing Europe’s ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) capabilities and strategic autonomy. The company has seen 100% year-on-year revenue growth, complemented by strategic acquisitions such as AirRobot and Nordic Unmanned UK. It is actively scaling operations across Europe, the UK, and APAC.

This new funding will accelerate global expansion, production scale-up, software and AI development, and strategic M&A, as Quantum Systems continues to integrate its value chain. The round is one of Europe’s largest dual-use technology fundraises to date.

This marks Bullhound Capital’s third investment in dual-use technologies from its flagship Fund VI.

Per Roman, Managing Partner at Bullhound Capital, commented: “Quantum Systems is at the forefront of autonomous aerial intelligence, driving critical innovation in defence and AI technologies. We are proud to invest in Florian, Sven and their outstanding team as they scale globally and strengthen Europe’s leadership in this strategically important sector.”

Florian Seibel, CEO and co-founder of Quantum Systems, added: “The need for sovereign, aerial intelligence has never been more pressing. Our systems, a powerful blend of hardware and software, are built for the realities of modern defence and security challenges – they are autonomous, interoperable, and proven under harsh conditions. With support from our new and existing investors, we are ready to become the European leader in robotised and AI-powered aerial intelligence solutions, providing both public and commercial customers with the high-quality, accurate data they need for daily decision-making.”

Bullhound Capital invested through GP Bullhound Fund VI, which also includes late-stage ventures such as Q-CTRL, LeoLabs, EcoVadis, CoverManager, Mentimeter, and Sesame HR. The investment was supported by:

For inquiries, please contact: 
Per Roman at per@bullhound.com 
Alon Kuperman at alon.kuperman@bullhound.com
Press inquiries: press@gpbullhound.com  

About Quantum Systems
Quantum Systems is at the forefront of AI-powered aerial robotics, developing a family of smart systems that go far beyond traditional drones. Our advanced electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS), combined with our Drone Port solution, are designed to deliver automated actionable aerial intelligence. Built on a foundation of in-house software and AI, our systems transform aerial data into critical insights, empowering decision-making across security, defense and public safety, as well as for the commercial, industrial and GIS sectors. Featuring cutting-edge technology like edge computing and real-time AI-driven data processing, Quantum Systems enables operators to make informed decisions with unmatched speed and precision. Our solutions bring aerial intelligence to your fingertips, automating the entire process – from deployment to data analysis. Founded in 2015 and headquartered at Special Airport Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, Quantum Systems operates globally with locations in Australia, Ukraine and Romania. Our German-engineered technology is trusted worldwide, paving the way for a new era of data-driven solutions.

About Bullhound Capital
Bullhound Capital is the investment management arm of GP Bullhound, building with founders creating category-leading technology companies. With over €1 billion under management and 25 years of performance, it has invested in global leaders like Spotify, Klarna, Revolut, Slack, Unity, ConnexAI and EcoVadis. Operating from 13 offices worldwide, its platform delivers hands-on, founder-focused support across strategy, growth, and execution. From quantum to entertainment, Bullhound Capital backs global leaders applying Artificial Intelligence to solve real-world problems.

A standout moment of the evening was a fireside chat with guest speaker Graeme Ankers, who shared the remarkable story of scaling Firesprite from a startup into the largest independent development studio in Merseyside and one of the UK’s fastest-growing tech companies, before its acquisition by Sony PlayStation in 2021.

This year’s Top 100 league table is a testament to the Northern tech ecosystem’s innovation, resilience, and rapid growth. We congratulate all the winners and thank every participant who made the Awards a true celebration of the region’s thriving community – from the fastest-growing companies in the Top 100 to the rising stars recognised for their future potential.

The 2025 Northern Tech Awards winners:

View the Top 100 Ranking here

Our sincere thanks to the esteemed panel of judges, for their time, insight, and dedication in reviewing the shortlists and selecting this year’s winners. We are also deeply grateful to our sponsors – HSBC Innovation Banking, Apprentify, Cazenove Capital, Inflexion, Oakley Capital, Squire Patton Boggs, Bruntwood SciTech, London Stock Exchange, and YFM Equity Partners – for their continued support, which has been instrumental in making the Northern Tech Awards a success.

The Northern Tech Awards are proud to support Ada, the National College of Digital Skills in their mission to educate and empower the next generation of diverse digital talent.

Enquiries
For enquiries and 2026 partnership opportunities, contact northerntechwards@gpbullhound.com or visit northerntechwards.com

About GP Bullhound
GP Bullhound is a leading technology advisory and investment firm, providing transaction advice and capital to the world’s best entrepreneurs and founders. Founded in 1999 in London and Menlo Park, the firm today has 13 offices spanning Europe, the US, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.gpbullhound.com.

At Molten (formerly DFJ / Draper Esprit), Jonathan led investments in over 80 VC funds and secondary deals, backing category leaders such as UiPath, Revolut, and TransferWise, and driving successful exits including Ravenpack and Ledger.

Jonathan Sibilia commented: “I’ve followed Bullhound Capital’s journey for years and am excited to join at a time when AI is reshaping the innovation landscape. With deep ties across Europe’s tech ecosystem, a high-conviction entrepreneurial team, and a platform built to scale both capital and strategic solutions, Bullhound is uniquely positioned to lead this next wave. I look forward to working with visionary founders to build meaningful companies and contribute to Bullhound’s continued success.”

Managing Partner Per Roman added: “I’ve spent years working with Jonathan on the board of RavenPack, as we first imagined, then built, and finally launched Bigdata.com. He brings a unique combination of intelligence, creativity, and humility—traits that are rare among venture capitalists. I’ve also had the pleasure of learning from him across technologies and investment styles, and we’ve shared more than a few great evenings talking about fast cars, boats, and everything in between. His deep network and experience across both direct and fund strategies align perfectly with our vision. We’re thrilled to welcome him.”

Jonathan holds degrees from EM-Lyon, the University of St. Gallen, and Paris IX Dauphine.

For inquiries, please contact: 
Jonathan Sibilia at jonathan.sibilia@bullhound.com
Press inquiries: press@gpbullhound.com  

About Bullhound Capital
Bullhound Capital is the investment management arm of GP Bullhound, building with founders creating category-leading technology companies. With over €1 billion under management and 25 years of performance, it has invested in global leaders like Spotify, Klarna, Revolut, Slack, Unity, Connex.ai and EcoVadis. Operating from 13 offices worldwide, its platform delivers hands-on, founder-focused support across strategy, growth, and execution. From quantum to entertainment, Bullhound Capital backs global leaders applying Artificial Intelligence to solve real-world problems.

Bullhound Capital has already invested over €1 billion in category-leading technology companies and will continue to back the best of the best. The small team has built a successful track record with investments in already successful global leaders such as Spotify, Klarna, Revolut, Slack, and Unity. Currently working with growing new leaders such as EcoVadis, Whoop, ConnexAI, Q-CTRL and LeoLabs. The team is engaging with founding teams applying Artificial Intelligence to solve real-world problems.

GP Bullhound and Bullhound Capital remain closely aligned and commonly owned, united by a shared heritage and deep respect for the founders’ journey.

Always at the forefront of innovation.

Per Roman, Hugh Campbell, Manish Madhvani
The Founders

Read more about Bullhound Capital here

Enquiries
For enquiries, please contact: press@gpbullhound.com