FORUM Family Office has acquired 100% of the shares in ab-data GmbH & Co KG via its sector holding company FORUM Software Mittelstandsholding SE.
FORUM Family Office ("FORUM") has acquired 100% of the shares in ab-data GmbH & Co. KG, based in Velbert, Germany, through its sector holding company FORUM Software Mittelstandsholding SE.
ab-data was founded on September 28, 1976 by Horst Bremkamp and has been managed in the second generation by Dr. Markus Bremkamp since 2018. In 2024, the company generated sales of approximately €6.0 million with approximately 170 customers from the public sector, which corresponds to a market share of approximately 4%.
The company specializes in financial software for municipalities and, as an exclusive partner, is developing the new VOIS|Finanzwesen. VOIS as a platform enables municipalities and districts to replace the historically grown fragmentation of their software architecture with an integrated solution with a uniform, modern user interface and a uniform database structure. Approximately 60% of all German municipalities already have a VOIS platform.
FORUM's continuation concept envisages the completion of the development of VOIS financial management and, from 2027, active marketing with a focus on municipalities with a VOIS platform. Otherwise, the existing strategy will be continued; in particular, Dr. Bremkamp will remain Managing Director and the location with currently approximately 90 employees – including approximately 50 developers – will be retained. Comment by Dr. Bremkamp:
"The digitalization of Germany requires increasingly holistic, process-oriented thinking. As ab-data, we must therefore move away from our decades of successful thinking in specialist department categories. We are therefore very pleased to have become the exclusive development partner for financial management on Germany's leading IT platform VOIS. FORUM offers us all the prospect of even more integration, standardization and size. We look forward to implementing our goals together."
FORUM invests the assets of a Munich family in medium-sized companies as part of succession solutions. FORUM's principles in the Family Equity area are: permanent, decentralized, entrepreneurial - this gives founders a sustainable alternative to financial investors. This approach has already convinced over 40 entrepreneurs to entrust FORUM with their life's work.
