goetzpartners advised the founding shareholders of SwissQ Consulting AG

Fortlane Partners advised the founding shareholders of SwissQ Consulting AG ("SwissQ"), an industry-shaping digital specialist, on the sale of their shares to Xebia Nederland BV ("Xebia"), a globally leading agile IT consultancy and portfolio company of Waterland Private Equity Investments BV ("Waterland").

Globally operating IT consultancy firm Xebia and digital specialist SwissQ join forces. The partnership extends Xebia’s geographical reach into Switzerland, gives SwissQ offshore and nearshore capabilities, and increases access to a combined 4,000 technical experts globally for a joint customer base.

Fast-growing Xebia augments SwissQ’s services portfolio with software development services, DevOps and SRE consultancy, enhanced data and AI consultancy, and partnerships with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. It also boosts SwissQ’s training offer with the robust Xebia Academy curriculum. 

«By combining SwissQ’s capabilities and valued business network in Switzerland with Xebia’s technical expertise, we can offer uncompromising, full-stack digital transformation services and solutions for our clients and new opportunities in the DACH region.»  Andrew de la Haije, CEO Xebia

SwissQ fortifies Xebia’s position of authority with its world-leading technology conferences and online formats on Agile, product development, DevOps, and software quality. It also broadens Xebia’s geographical footprint in AI, cloud, DevOps, and SRE services.

«Being part of the number one digital consulting company makes SwissQ the go-to player for digital initiatives and digital natives in Switzerland. The partnership also brings more brilliant minds together to share knowledge, innovate and create fantastic new opportunities.»
Adrian Zwingli, Verwaltungsratspräsident SwissQ

The collaboration between the two companies increases the capacity of each to support customers and build high-quality solutions for the DACH market. Both expect the partnership to benefit their colleagues as well as their joint clients, through new opportunities to work together in diversified teams on different services.

Fortlane Partners acted as sole and exclusive M&A sell-side advisor to the founding shareholders of SwissQ. This transaction further demonstrates our ability to achieve outperforming results and underlines our competence as advisor of choice in the technology space, with a special expertise in entrepreneurial succession situations as well as international cross-border transactions.

About SwissQ
Founded in 2006, SwissQ generates 90% of its revenue through consultancy and is the go-to IT training provider in Switzerland. The digital specialist continuously strives to create knowledge-sharing communities and maintain its authority in its field, organizing some of Switzerland’s leading technology conferences to this end. These include Agile Leadership Day, Business Agility Day, DevOps Fusion, and Swiss Testing Day, (this year in its 16th edition). SwissQ’s clients include Credit Suisse, Zurich Insurance, Siemens, Geberit, Migros, Raiffeisen, the Swiss Confederation, Swiss Federal Railways, Sonova, and dormakaba. With offices in Zurich and Bern, SwissQ currently employs over 120 experts and has been growing steadily since its inception.  

About Xebia
Founded in 2001, Xebia quickly grew from a small Java company into a leading, global, full-service digital consultancy. With over 4,000 specialists working worldwide, it holds offices in the US, Europe, India, Vietnam, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and the UK. Xebia continuously strives to be the leading authority in its field by partnering with other thought leaders and sharing knowledge. Its clients include Disney, Levi’s, Ahold Delhaize, Tesco, Philips, and ING Bank, among many others.

Transaction team:

Dr. Stephan Goetz
Managing Partner

Ivo Polten
Managing Director

Maximilian Bergold
Associate Director

Lukas Niedermeier
Associate

Lukas Falkenrodt
Analyst