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AOE secures 13 million EUR investment from LEA Partners to fuel international growth and expansion of its OM³ Airport Suite

January 11, 2017
Author Christian HolzschuhChristian HolzschuhMarketing & Communications

AOE, a leading global provider of services and Enterprise Open Source solutions for digital transformation and digital business models, today announced a 13 million EUR investment from German private equity firm LEA Partners with its LEA Mittelstandspartner Fund.

The partnership represents the first of its kind for AOE and will help to further accelerate the company’s profitable growth, currently at more than 40 percent year-on-year.

“The introduction of our OM³ Suite, which we first implemented at Frankfurt Airport, marked an important strategic and economic milestone in our company’s history. OM³ has generated an extremely high level of interest in the aviation industry,” commented Kian Gould, Founder and CEO of AOE. “In order to meet the demand of airports and airlines for the solution, we will continue to scale our development and operations teams while adding to our global locations. In addition, the capital from LEA Partners will enable us to significantly accelerate our product development.”

LEA Partners has established itself as a strong and entrepreneurial-minded partner for growing technology and software companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Also in the aviation industry, LEA Partners established a significant global network following successful investments in companies such as BEONTRA, a provider focusing on planning and optimization solutions for airports. As part of the investment, BEONTRA founder and current LEA Partner’s Managing Director Christian Roth will join the AOE Advisory Board.

Christian Roth

Christian Roth

Managing Director / LEA Partners
We will support Kian and his team in establishing the OM³ Suite as the world’s leading platform for the digitalization of travel retail by leveraging LEA’s global aviation network as well as our experience gained in one of Europe’s largest IT clusters.

Sebastian Müller, Managing Director of LEA Partners added, “We are constantly looking for strong, innovative companies that help their clients digitalize existing business models or create entire digitally-based strategies from the ground up. We have been impressed by the drive and passion of the AOE team and their vision and ability to develop and implement such an industry-changing, complex and multifaceted solution in just twelve months from the initial concept phase. The company is well on its way in establishing itself as a true industry leader and we are pleased to support the management team as they enter their next phase of continued growth.”

Aviation Industry Facts & Figures

  • Aviation industry ancillary product retail: US$ 30 billion annually
  • Product retail’s share of total revenues: Up to 40 percent
  • Impact of personalizing retail offerings: 22% increase in revenue
  • Overall increase in onboard retail revenue: +12.9% annually (on average)
  • Impact of channel user interface optimization: Conversion improved by 10-20%
  • Percentage of travelers with mobile device: 97%

Sources: Sabre Airlines Solutions, GuestLogix, Frost & Sullivan

About OM³

AOE’s award-winning Omnichannel Multi Merchant Marketplace (OM³) helps multi-retailer venues such as airports, shopping malls or integrated resorts to seamlessly fuse offline and online experience into one full-featured suite of software applications and services. OM³ provides a unique platform for omnichannel retailing and offers customers numerous useful online and offline shopping-, service- and real-time information options.

About AOE

AOE is a leading global technology service provider and consultancy, offering Open Source-based Enterprise solutions for digital transformation and Omnichannel E-Commerce as well as mobile apps and web portals. The company has headquarters in Germany and the USA and branch offices in Dubai, Zurich and Hong Kong. More than 250 employees support international corporations in the operative digitalization of business models through the implementation of open, scalable and secure solutions. AOE relies on excellence and is organized as an agile company.

Contact:

AOE GmbH
Christian Holzschuh
Mail: press@aoe.com  
www.aoe.com 

About LEA

LEA Partners is an entrepreneurial-minded multi-stage private equity firm investing in growth technology and software companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 2002, LEA has advised on the investment of over 300 million EUR in more than 40 companies. Operating out of Karlsruhe, one of Europe's largest IT clusters, its mission is to fund and support visionary founders and executives by leveraging them with practical, hands-on growth expertise to achieve market leadership.

Contact:

LEA Partners GmbH
Silvia Teschner
Tel.: +49 721 13 208 700
press@leapartners.de
www.leapartners.de