Rautenberg & Company advises Smile Group and Keensight Capital on the acquisition of creativestyle GmbH.
Our team advised Smile Group and Keensight Capital on the acquisition of creativestyle GmbH. Closing of the transaction took place on June 15th, 2022.
Smile Group is the European leader in open source technologies. Each year Smile delivers hundreds of strategic digital projects for the largest French and European accounts through top-level innovative solutions and concepts, completely covering a company’s IT scope: web, mobile applications, business solutions, embedded and IoT, infrastructure and cloud. With 1,800 open source enthusiasts across 15 agencies in 7 countries, the group generated more than EUR 140m in revenue in 2021.
Keensight Capital is a leading European growth buyout investor with more than 20 years of experience in the technology and healthcare sectors. Keensight Capital invests flexibly in minority or majority positions with typical ticket sizes between EUR 10m and EUR 400m.
creativestyle is a leading open source oriented e-commerce agency that supports well-known brands in the design, implementation, operation and marketing of online shops. With a team of over 85 digital experts working across four offices in Germany and Poland, creativestyle is one of the leading agencies in Germany in terms of consulting, backend integration, operations and customer experience of e-commerce solutions, for which it has regularly won prestigious awards.
Our team around Gero Steinröder supported Smile Group and Keensight Capital in the identification of suitable add-on opportunities and advised on M&A-specific topics throughout the entire transaction.

Quick Facts
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Date
- June 2022
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Smile Group
- European leader in open source technologies
- Founded 1991
- Revenue over EUR 140m (2021)
- 15 agencies across Europe and Northern Africa
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Keensight Capital
- Growth buyout investor
- Focus sectors technology and healthcare
- Investment tickets between EUR 10m and EUR 400m
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creativestyle GmbHOpen source focused e-commerce agencyHeadquarter: MunichOver 85 employees in Germany and Poland
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Deal Size
- Undisclosed
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Services
- Deal origination
- Buy-side M&A advisory
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Team
- Gero Steinröder, Managing Partner
- Eike Gerrit Büllingen, Senior Director
- Christian Wolf, Analyst