Spaudos centras
Spaudos centras
Vienna/Budapest, 17 December 2021. Netrisk Group, a leading player in European online price comparison, today announced the acquisition of durchblicker, Austria’s independent and market-leading online price comparison website. durchblicker will thereby join a fast-growing family of online price comparison websites that already includes Netrisk.hu, Biztositas.hu, Klik.cz, Porovnej24.cz, Klik.sk, Netfinancie.sk, and Edrauda.lt.
Subject to usual approval by the authorities, Netrisk Group is purchasing 100 percent of the shares of durchblicker from the previous investors and the company’s two founders, Reinhold Baudisch and Michael Doberer.
Since it was launched in 2010, durchblicker has been an impressive start-up success story and has evolved to become one of Austria’s most popular brands. The company, brand and team of durchblicker in Austria will remain unchanged under the new ownership.
“Netrisk Group’s vision to bring together national champions into a single group is compelling. Both durchblicker and Austrian consumers will greatly benefit from our new sister companies’ expertise. Many of them are market leaders in their countries, just like we are. We look forward to this opportunity of bringing our long-standing experience to this new alliance and growing together,” said Reinhold Baudisch and Michael Doberer.
Under this new ownership, and with the support of private equity shareholders TA and MCI Capital, the independence and objectivity of Austria’s largest price comparison website will be ensured in the long term. None of the companies in the Netrisk Group, nor in TA’s or MCI’s portfolios, hold direct or indirect stakes in companies for which durchblicker offers price comparisons.
“The Netrisk Group is proud to welcome durchblicker, its employees, and its partners into our group. Thanks to its excellent market position, durchblicker is a true gem amongst price comparison websites in the region and we see great growth potential across insurance, telecommunications, energy and traditional financial products”, agreed Robert Sokolowski, Group CEO, and László Sebestyén, Chairman of Netrisk Group.
“Having a player with such uniquely diverse offering join us is an exciting next step for the Netrisk Group. A great number of people are looking for trusted advice on durchblicker every day, which is a great opportunity to add value to customers. Their know-how in a wide range of end-user markets is something that will help further broaden our group’s services and open up potential innovation”, added Dávid Kárpáti, director of corporate development at Netrisk Group.
“We are impressed by the achievements of durchblicker over the last 12 years and we admire the company’s culture created by Reinhold and Michael. With this latest acquisition, Netrisk Group continues to deliver on its strategy to build a powerful, international platform for online price comparison in Central Europe”, said Maxime Cancre, a principal at TA.
durchblicker is Austria’s independent and market-leading online price comparison website. As of today, durchblicker offers 28 price comparisons for insurance, telecommunications, utilities as well as traditional financial products such as loans, current accounts and savings interest rates. The user-friendly comparison tools allow consumers to get a quick market overview and allow for smart decision-making. Thus, users can save several thousand euros on fixed costs per year.
In addition, durchblicker provides free expert consultations and takes care of all formalities around switching of service providers. The Vienna-based Austrian market leader currently has 85 employees. durchblicker partners include Global 2000, klimaaktiv, topprodukte.at and the Austrian Federal Soccer League. For more information, please visit www.durchblicker.at.
About Netrisk Group:
The Netrisk Group operates leading online comparison websites and insurance brokers in Central and Eastern Europe. It offers customers the ability to transparently compare prices and terms for non-life insurance and life insurance products, including MTPL, CASCO, home, travel, and term life insurance. The group operates two platforms in Hungary (Netrisk and Biztositas.hu) as well as platforms in Czechia and Slovakia under the Klik brand, alongside Porovnej24 in Czechia and Netfinancie in Slovakia as well as Edrauda in Lithuania.
About TA Associates
TA is a leading global growth private equity firm. Focused on targeted sectors within five industries – technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer and business services – the firm invests in profitable, growing companies with opportunities for sustained growth, and has invested in more than 550 companies around the world. Investing as either a majority or minority investor, TA employs a long-term approach, utilizing its strategic resources to help management teams build lasting value in high quality growth companies. TA has raised $47.5 billion in capital since its founding in 1968. The firm’s more than 100 investment professionals are based in Boston, Menlo Park, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong. More information about TA can be found at www.ta.com.
About MCI Capital
MCI Capital is one of the largest technology investment funds in Central Europe with PLN 2.7 billion (EUR 589 million) assets under management. Since 1998 MCI has supported 104 companies and exited 68. The fund invests EUR 25-100 million in digital champions: pure-technology companies (disruptors), companies undergoing digital transformation, and IT infrastructure. The fund was involved in, among others, Mall.cz (e-commerce, Czech Republic), WP.pl (digital media, Poland), Invia (e-travel, CEE), Dotpay/eCard (fintech, Poland), iZettle (fintech, global) and ATM SA (data centers, Europe). More information you can find here: https://mci.pl/en.
