Dear Friends,
2025 was set to be a year of improved growth, increasing tech budgets, and revived exit activity across the venture ecosystem. Instead, more challenges seem to be ahead with potentially longer periods of uncertainty and high chances for an economic slowdown. Most venture backed companies aren’t large enough to feel a direct impact, but the verticals and enterprise clients they sell into will see downstream effects. The breakthrough, must-have value propositions to sustain growth and market adoption must be clearer then ever. CEOs are once again thinking trough downside scenario planning. Like other storms in the past years, the focused, nimble, execution oriented leaders manage their companies through, and some find ways to even accelerate. We hope the rest of 2025 turns out to be more normalized but we are preparing for a rough ride.
All the best,
The 3TS Team
3TS Key Learnings
3 Key Learnings from Investing in Wealthon
Wealthon is one of the latest exciting investments by 3TS and a very promising fintech scale-up. The Company provides a unique end-to-end platform that seamlessly combines point of sale, scheduling, payments, loyalty, lending and other solutions in a single easy to use suite, which significantly streamlines and simplifies merchant operations. We saw a series of key takeaways during the investment process, and a few are highlighted here.
Combination of Three Distinct Product Lines Creates Differentiation
While the lending module was not the primary focus, we were impressed by the combination of Wealthon’s three fully integrated financial products: point-of-sale software, revenue based lending, and payment processing. Customer diligence confirmed there are no direct competitors with a multi-product offering focused on SMEs, which sets up Wealthon to become a segment leader. Management delivered on its very ambitious plan to release a new version of its integrated multiproduct platform within three months of the new round.
Market is More Fragmented and Underserved Than Expected
The market for financial solutions is highly disjointed, without any large incumbent providers or consistent offerings. This presents opportunities for introducing a multi-product platform and scale through M&A in adjacent segments, which can create more value for SME clients. A large majority of mid-size merchants are underserved by the traditional banking system, creating substantial market opportunities going forward to develop new models that better address client needs.
Management Proved its Resilience & Ability to Close Highly Complex Transaction
The management team showed great determination and agility in managing a complex dual-track process of two concurrent transactions, all within just three months. On one side, a multifaceted debt financing with a large global player for €120m credit facility and in parallel, a €7m equity round involving separate negotiations with new and current shareholders each with their advisors. We were impressed.
3TS Portfolio & Network News
Piano Raises $120m in New Round of Equity and Debt
Great to see Piano secure this financing which will support continued growth as a leading platform in customer experience and analytics. Originally from Bratislava, Piano has expanded revenues 9x in past 6 years to become a global leader. Exciting times ahead and congrats to the team.
Tosibox Opens U.S. Headquarters
On the heels of a new capital raise at the end of 2024, Tosibox opened up a new office in Texas, which is a key hub for its main target verticals, in order to accelerate its successful expansion into the US market. Along with the CEO’s relocation, the Company also brought onboard new sales and marketing leadership in the US.
Boksi Acquires the For You Agency in GermanyBoksi, a leading influencer marketing and content creation platform, has acquired For You Agency, a top talent management firm specializing in TikTok and Instagram creators. This strategic move enhances Boksi’s presence in Germany more quickly and strengthens its expansion strategy.
Good Reads & Great Ideas
Top 5 Go-to-Market Alignment Metrics for Marketing, Sales and CS,by by BenchMarkit
One of the age-old, difficult challenges in rapidly growing companies of any size is the alignment between marketing, sales and client success. Misalignment can block scaling and hamper growing the company. Benchmarkit outlines 5 straightforward, easy to implement key metrics to drive alignment, across the company’s journey.
Maturity Frameworks: A Hidden Gem in Your GTM Strategy,by Carilu Dietrich
One of the most strategic tools that companies don’t use often enough is a Maturity Model. To become a market leader, clients expect your company to also be a thought leader. Maturity models help define for prospect and clients that “yellow-brick road” to ROI success, which includes buying every single part of your product line or service. Build your own maturity model today!
2025 M&A Deal Terms Study,by SRSAcquiom
Leveraging data from over 2,200 M&A transactions of venture or private equity backed companies, SRS’ analysis is a great tool to identify exit value trends, key financial metrics, exit timing, buyer types, transaction structures, and how to best prepare for a successful exit.
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