Jaroslaw Pilarczyk, Founder & CEO of Skyrise.tech

Etteplan, a NASDAQ listed company (Helsinki) acquires our portfolio company Skyrise.Tech - a cloud and application software provider.

14 June 2021

Etteplan has acquired Skyrise.tech, a Polish software development company. Through the acquisition, Etteplan will significantly strengthen their capability to deliver applications and cloud software solutions. The acquisition is a continuation of investments in digitalization and software development Etteplan has made during the recent years.

Skyrise.tech, founded in 2008, is a fast growing modern software development company working mostly with customers in Logistics, Mobility, Healthcare and Enterprise industries. In 2020 over 90% of the company’s revenue came from international clients. Over the years, Skyrise.Tech has grown to over 80 software specialists working in Katowice and Gdansk. We teamed up with Skyrise in 2014 when we invested in the company, becoming its first and only VC investor to date. Since then, we have been focused on supporting Founder & CEO Jarek Pilarczyk and his team with organizational growth, international expansion and most recently the exit transaction. Our exit from Skyrise.Tech marks a meaningful return on our investment at 18.6x CoC (cash-on-cash).

First and foremost, I would like to thank the amazing team at Skyrise.Tech for the journey we had a chance to be a part of over the last years. We are very pleased with the outcome of this transaction as it further highlights our investment thesis based on investing in leading technology companies in Northern and Central Europe. As an investor, we are happy to see Skyrise.tech being passed on to good hands, as it allows for further development of the competencies and talents that make up this organization. However, as a VC fund we are primarily judged by the return on capital on our investments. We are happy to report a return of 18.6x CoC and are glad to see the belief of our Limited Partners being rewarded this way. We are also happy to report that just one transaction returned our entire fund. This again shows how power law works in venture capital. We remain committed to becoming a leading early-stage investor in Northern and Central Europe by pairing up with remarkable entrepreneurs like Jarek Pilarczyk.

Marcin P. Kowalik, Managing Partner at Black Pearls VC.

Etteplan first entered Poland in 2016 through the acquisition of embedded solutions specialist Espotel Oy, which in addition to Finland had operations in Poland. Etteplan has since then widened its solutions offering in Poland to cover engineering and technical documentation solutions as well.

We are excited for this next chapter and becoming a part of a well-established, international company, such as Etteplan. Etteplan with its 3,400 employees and operations in eight countries offers Skyrise.tech employees interesting opportunities to participate in bigger projects and customers in many industries. Also, we would like to thank Marcin Kowalik and the team at Black Pearls VC for continued support over the last years and playing a vital role in the exit transaction.

Jaroslaw Pilarczyk, CEO of Skyrise.tech.

After the acquisition Etteplan has globally over 700 experts working in different fields of software development and embedded systems, 250 of which are specialized in cloud and applications software solutions.

The acquisition is an interesting step in our internationalization. It opens many interesting growth paths for both Etteplan and Skyrise.tech. After the acquisition Etteplan has four offices in Poland and altogether over 200 employees. Skyrise.tech is selling and delivering projects to customers outside Poland in the Nordics and other countries. This business model fits well with Etteplan’s strategy.

Juha Näkki, President and CEO of Etteplan.