The founder of Fishing-King started in 2009 with a classroom course to prepare for the fishing exam.
(Photo: Fishing-King)
Frankfurt The private equity company Afinum takes a majority stake in Fishing-King GmbH, which, according to its own information, is the leading e-learning platform for the fishing community in German-speaking countries. Together with the founder Hubertus Massong and the existing management, the financial investor plans to finance the expansion of the business model.
“We want to use Afinum’s capital to further develop and professionalize the business model. This includes the acquisition of new employees as well as the optimization and expansion of the online courses, especially for our association partners, ”said the 31-year-old entrepreneur in an interview with the Handelsblatt.
Expansion into new markets in Europe and the establishment of an e-commerce business are also on the agenda. “We will also work to make the anglers’ equipment more sustainable. Today, for example, plastic packaging, soft baits with plasticizers and lead weights still dominate. We want to reduce that, ”adds Massong.
The core business remained the online training courses for fishing exams, but the courses for water officers will also be greatly expanded, according to Massong, who has also made a name for himself as a YouTube influencer. Fishing-King (www.fishing-king.de) started in 2009 as a six-day classroom course to prepare for the fishing exam.
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Since the launch of the first online preparation course in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2015, Fishing-King has accompanied more than 100,000 customers in Germany and Austria in preparing for the fishing test, including prominent names such as the new Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner (FDP). 137,000 fans have subscribed to the Fishing-King YouTube channel.
Christian Lindner, who prepared for the fishing test with Fishing-King, together with the Fishing-King founder and Gero Hocker, President of the German Fisheries Association.
(Photo: Fishing-King)
Afinum is an independent, management-owned investment company with offices in Munich and Zurich. The majority stakes in the private equity firm are usually 70 to 80 percent, with company values starting at around 20 million euros. Financial details of the transaction at Fishing-King were not disclosed, but observers believe that they are within the stated range.
Afinum has already had experience with the financing and growth of initially small companies, for example with the bakery chain Zeit für Brot. Financial investors are now an integral part of the funders for virtual platforms and medium-sized companies. At the same time, however, the demands on the industry are also growing.
“Involving more employees in the portfolio companies to participate in the success of their company would, in the opinion of investors, increase fund returns,” says Michael Schad, partner at Coller Capital. The donors for the private equity funds also demanded more transparency about the fee structure, the performance measurement and compliance with the ESG criteria, which relate to the ecological and social impact as well as good corporate governance.
According to the latest Global Private Equity Barometer, the proportion of investors who have rejected potential fund commitments mainly for ESG reasons has increased significantly among European institutional investors, from a third in the winter of 2016/17 to well over half today from Coller Capital.
And 59 percent of managers in pension funds, pension funds and insurance companies assume that social pressure will mean that the private equity industry will have to regulate itself more closely in the years to come.
More: The new generation of locusts: The flood of big money is forcing private equity firms to change.