Investment

hello again: Munich Private Equity Firm EMERAM Invests a Double-Digit Million Sum

co-produced by AI29. September 2026, 07:00

The Upper Austrian scale-up hello again has closed a growth financing round in the double-digit millions. The investor is the Munich-based private equity firm EMERAM, the company has just announced. hello again is not disclosing an exact figure, but according to information obtained by Trending Topics, the amount is well above 10 million euros, in the mid double-digit millions. In return, EMERAM receives a significant minority stake of more than 25 percent.

The co-founders and initial investors remain majority owners and continue to run the company. The capital is to go toward expanding its market position in the DACH region, moving into further European countries and building new A.I. features.

That is unusual for a private equity investor: firms like EMERAM typically take majority stakes in their portfolio companies in order to sell them on at a profit after a few years. The reason it is a minority rather than a majority stake at hello again is simple, according to founder and CEO Franz Tretter: this is growth financing, not a sale. “We now want to crack the next milestone in Europe, and the timing could not be better,” Mr. Tretter told Trending Topics. hello again’s business model is built to grow with its customers: companies pay a monthly fee per contact, meaning per app user, so more or less according to success. The more people use a business’s loyalty app, the more hello again earns.

1,000 Customers and 18 Million App Users

Founded in 2017 in Leonding near Linz, hello again runs a white-label SaaS platform for digital customer loyalty. Businesses in retail, hospitality, bakeries, pharmacies or leisure use it to set up their own loyalty apps with points, vouchers and personalized messages. Its more than 1,000 customers include Deichmann, Müller and L’Osteria, according to the press release, and the apps reach about 18 million active users in 28 countries.

Just this spring, the company reported passing the mark of 1,000 customers and 10 million euros in ARR, at the time with around 100 employees and 15 million app users. Existing investors include business angel Hansi Hansmann and Runtastic co-founder Florian Gschwandtner. Mr. Tretter himself was a product manager at Runtastic.

With the fresh capital, hello again plans, among other things:

A.I. autopilot: An A.I. automatically writes the right message for each customer based on their interests and picks the time to send it. According to hello again, this lifts revenue by 8 percent on average.
Partner benefits: New business models are meant to link the more than 1,000 customers into a “mid-market alliance” with mutual perks.
Expansion: After the DACH region, further European countries are to be opened up in a targeted way.

Speaking to Trending Topics, Mr. Tretter spelled out the ownership structure: the founders together with Mr. Hansmann and the Runtastic investors “remain in the clear majority and in the driver’s seat.” The selection process was unusual, he said: “We had five term sheets on the table, which is not normal in the current climate. So we were lucky to be able to choose the perfect investor.” According to the press release, the deciding factors were “the cultural fit, the personal chemistry and the combination of support and constructive challenge.” “We can now step on the gas even harder and push ahead with the expansion in Europe, which is a lot of fun,” Mr. Tretter said. The goal is to make hello again “the number one player in Europe in digital customer loyalty.”

Who EMERAM Is

EMERAM was founded in Munich in 2012, among others by former Metro chief Eckhard Cordes and Christian Näther, previously of Apax Partners. The firm has offices in Munich and Kitzbühel and says it manages more than 800 million euros in assets. Its first fund was about 400 million euros; since 2023, EMERAM has been investing from a second fund. The profile is classic mid-market private equity: stakes in established medium-sized companies in the German-speaking region, with a focus on technology and software, value-added services and consumer goods. EMERAM rarely finances startups in the strict sense; as a profitable scale-up with 10 million euros in ARR, hello again is a typical candidate.

The current portfolio, according to EMERAM, comprises nine companies in digitalization, health and the energy transition, including:

sofatutor: Berlin-based online learning platform, acquired in 2021.
CoCoNet: Platform for digital corporate banking.
Solar Manager: Swiss provider of home energy management systems.
Garderos: Secure data communication for critical infrastructure.
Hochfrequenz: Consulting and digital solutions for energy utilities.
Provital: Dog and cat food.

Full exits include the software provider Matrix42 (sold to Corten Capital), the Swiss sensor company Xovis (sold to Capvis), the digital agency diva-e, the clinical software firm Meona, the confectionery chain Hussel and the property services company Officium. For its portfolio companies, EMERAM describes itself as a “business development partner” that organizes operational support and add-on acquisitions alongside capital.

“With hello again, we are investing in a strong team, scalable technology and a clear European growth vision,” says Matthias Obermeyr, partner at EMERAM. The firm wants to support the company in expanding in the DACH region, internationalizing, developing A.I.-based solutions and building an integrated world of benefits for partners.

Competing for the Loyalty Card

In the market for digital customer loyalty, hello again competes with a range of providers. In the DACH region, these include Payback as a classic multi-partner program as well as SaaS providers such as Piggy from the Netherlands or Yoyo Wallet. Internationally, platforms such as Punchh (part of PAR Technology) or Thanx are pushing into hospitality. hello again positions itself in between: as a white-label solution where the customer’s brand takes center stage, focused on mid-sized businesses for which developing their own app would be too expensive.