HYPE and Viima combine their strengths to form a clear global leader in the idea and innovation management software market.
Düsseldorf/Bonn/Espoo, 23th of March 2021
HYPE, supported by its majority shareholder Main Capital, has attracted Viima to join forces with the HYPE family, to provide a broader product offering to customers of all sizes and segments and to extend the support of all stakeholders within the corporate innovation ecosystem.
Viima, founded in 2013 and located in Espoo (Finland), serves more than 10,000 organizations around the globe and has grown into a successful innovation management provider. Its software helps to collect, develop, prioritize, and analyze ideas of a diverse audience in any given organization. Viima’s solution is attractive for customers looking to get started without any setup time and when simplicity of use is a key requirement. Viima gamifies the innovation process, is highly competitive on pricing, and a natural choice for ad hoc collaboration scenarios. It’s flexibility makes it particularly appealing to smaller businesses and individual teams, but Viima also serves many larger customers, such as If Insurance, Kanthal, L'Oréal, and Telia.
Regardless of industry or size, innovation management is a key driver for growth and profitability in organizations. While many larger companies and enterprises already manage innovation, small and medium-sized companies often lack the financial resources and time to implement more sophisticated and tailored innovation management tools. Viima bridges this gap in allowing these businesses with access to the powerful tool that innovation management is. Innovation management can lower the costs of an organization and help the business take off quickly. The managed processes and a comprehensive status overview of every single idea ensure that no idea is forgotten, employees are motivated, and the business flourishes.
With a team of around 160 employees in total, the combination of HYPE and Viima will further strengthen the prominent market position of HYPE in the innovation management software market, with Viima expanding HYPE’s client base internationally, and especially in the Nordics. The shared vision of HYPE and Viima is that the new HYPE Group can better support clients of all sizes and needs. Targeted solutions will be offered through HYPE’s enterprise-scale solution and Viima’s configurable but easy-to-understand product. With Viima joining the Group, HYPE onboards three creative and highly professional founders as well as Viima’s innovative workforce, boosting the development of new functionality and providing higher value to all clients.
Partnership HYPE – Viima – Main Capital
Dr. Frank Henningsen (CEO of HYPE):
“We warmly welcome Erkka and his team into the HYPE family. With Viima, our product portfolio provides targeted solutions for basically any customer segment, which means that HYPE will play an extensive role in supporting business growth all over the world. We are looking forward to exchanging best practices of the companies and become an even stronger innovation player together.”
Erkka Isomäki (CEO of Viima):
“We are excited to join the HYPE team and are looking forward to providing our clients with even more opportunities to rethink their innovation processes. We are proud of our accomplishments with the Viima team and see the combination with HYPE as an exciting next strategic step towards a successful future, both for the Group and our customers.”
Sven van Berge Henegouwen (Head of DACH at Main Capital Partners):
“The HYPE family is growing and we are happy to support HYPE in enhancing its exceptional market position in the innovation management software market. Viima expands the Group’s product offering and reaches customers that HYPE did not serve so far - this is a great strategic step for HYPE!”
About Viima
Founded in 2013 by three young entrepreneurs, Viima’s mission is to democratize innovation by helping organizations everywhere make more innovation happen. Its cloud-based innovation management software is already used by more than 10,000 organizations in 185 countries around the world, ranging from small teams all the way to the Global Fortune 500, to turn ideas into innovations.
According to Gartner, Viima is one of the most widely used innovation management software in the world, helping its customers to become better at innovation daily. The founders have bootstrapped the company to a rapid, but highly profitable growth path, which Viima will continue to pursue in the future.
About HYPE
Founded as DaimlerChrysler spin-off in 2001, HYPE has become a leading software specialist in the fast-growing enterprise innovation software market. HYPE’s offering supports customers harnessing the collective intelligence of employees, customers, and partners by supporting their innovation ecosystem from early trend scouting and road mapping all the way through to concept creation and innovation portfolio management. Welcoming HLP to the HYPE Group in December 2020 has strengthened HYPE’s product offering in the idea management section. The Group currently serves a well-diversified and global blue-chip customer base with 300+ customers across various industries.
About Main Capital
Main Capital is a strategic investor with an exclusive focus on the software sector in the Benelux, DACH and Nordics. Main has a long term horizon around successful partnerships with management teams, with the aim of building larger software groups together. Main has approximately € 1 billion in assets under management for investments in mature and growing software companies. Within the software sector, Main is the most specialized player in management buyouts and later-stage growth capital for acquisitions. An experienced team of professionals manages these strategic investment funds from offices in The Hague, Düsseldorf and Stockholm.
Main Capital’s current portfolio includes fast growing software and SaaS-software companies such as FOCONIS (DACH, specialized control systems for financial institutions), Relyon (NL, fieldservice management), Perbility (DACH, HR software), Pointsharp (SE, Security Software) MACH AG (DACH, government software), Textkernel (NL, HR software), Exxellence (NL, government software), WoodWing (NL, ECM/DAM software), Alfa (SE, healthcare/government software), Optimizers (NL, SCM software), Assessio (SE, HR software), GBTEC (DACH, BPM/GRC software), Onventis (DACH, procurement software), HYPE Innovation (DACH, innovation management software), cleversoft (DACH, RegTech), Enovation (NL, healthcare software), SDB Group (NL, healthcare HR software), Jobrouter (DACH, BPM/WFM software), GOconnectIT (NL, GIS/FSM software), Inergy (NL, BI software), KING Software (NL, ERP/accounting software), Artegic (DACH, marketing software), OBI4wan (NL, social media monitoring software), b + m Informatik (DACH financial services software), ChainPoint (NL, SCM software) and Sofon (NL, CRM/CPQ software).
Successful former companies that grew significantly under Main’s leadership include Connexys (HR software), Roxit (NL, government software), Axxerion (NL, facilities management software), Ymor (NL, APM software), Onguard (NL, credit management software), TPSC (NL, healthcare GRC software) and RVC (NL, healthcare software).
Note for the editor
This press release is originally issued by Main Capital.
For more information, please contact:
Charly Zwemstra (Managing Partner)
Main Capital Partners BV, Paleisstraat 6, 2514 JA, Den Haag
Tel: +31 (0) 70 324 3433 / +31 (0) 6 512 77 805
charly@main.nl
www.main.nl
For more information in German, please contact:
Sven van Berge Henegouwen (Partner, Head of DACH)
Main Capital Partners GmbH, Rathausufer 17, 40213, Düsseldorf
Tel: +49 (0) 211 7314 9339 / +31 (0)70 324 34 33
sven@main.nl
www.main.nl
Dr. Frank Henningsen (CEO)
HYPE Softwaretechnik GmbH, Trierer Strasse 70-72, 53115 Bonn
Tel: +49 228 2276 0
frank.henningsen@hype.de
www.hypeinnovation.com
Erkka Isomäki (CEO)
Viima Solutions Oy, Keilasatama 5, 02150, Espoo, Finland
Tel: +358408297811
erkka.isomaki@viima.com
www.viima.com
