Altor Fund VI (“Altor”) has signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in IMBOX Protection A/S (“IMBOX”) and enter into a partnership with the founder, René Marker, and the Grundtvig family. Altor will support the founder and the company on its continued international growth journey. The founder and the Grundtvig family will remain significant shareholders and continue supporting the development of IMBOX. René Marker will continue in his role as CEO.
Founded by René Marker in 2009 in Denmark, IMBOX is a niche engineering company and a first mover in providing automated footwear protection machines through an equipment-as-a- service model to a wide range of retail customers across both physical stores and e-commerce channels. The company is headquartered in Skødstrup, Denmark where it designs and develops the globally patented technology. IMBOX is currently present in 37 countries and has an installed base of ~9,700 machines in ~8,900 stores. Across its installed base, IMBOX sells one treatment per second, and generates around DKK 1 billion of revenue for retailers.
“We are really excited to hit the ground running with Altor as a partner. We will benefit from their long expertise of helping companies scale internationally and add relevant experience for the next phase of our joint growth journey. Together, we will ensure that more end-users and stores will have access to our offering” says René Marker, Founder and CEO of IMBOX.
Henrik Grundtvig from the Grundtvig family continued, “Early on, we had the opportunity to help bring a Danish innovation to life. Since then, we have built a competitive o`ering with globally patented technologies. We are excited to continue the partnership with René and Altor while still only seeing the beginning of the IMBOX journey”.
“IMBOX is an excellent example of a strong and proven technology built to meet the needs of its industry and customers. We are really impressed by what René and the Grundtvig family have built over the years and look forward to being part of continued growth journey.” says Jens Browaldh, Partner at Altor. “As IMBOX embarks on its next chapter, the company will continue to benefit from René’s leadership and his team’s deep technical and industry expertise, now complemented by Altor’s experience to support accelerated growth. Our ambition is to at least triple the installed base over the next 3 to 5 years,” says Karl Svenningson, Principal at Altor.
Parties have agreed not to disclose the financial details.
About Altor
Since inception, the family of Altor funds has raised more than EUR 12 billion in total commitments. The funds have invested in more than 100 companies. The investments have been made in medium-sized companies predominantly in Nordic and DACH with the aim to create value through growth initiatives and operational improvements. Among current and past investments are Eleda, FLSmidth, Toteme, Silo AI, Marshall and Helly Hansen.
About Imbox
IMBOX develops easy-to-use premium machines for automated footwear protection at the point-of-sale. The product portfolio currently includes two machines; the IMBOX Original and IMBOX Flagship, which has won a Red Dot Design Award. The solution is provided through a hardware-as-a-service revenue-sharing model to omnichannel footwear and sports retailers, department stores and e-commerce shops. IMBOX is headquartered in Skødstrup, Denmark.
