Fire Protection & Structural Engineering
Germany
Can you tell us about your background?
I spent six years at GetYourGuide, and in that time I went through practically every phase a growing company can experience: first hypergrowth, with major funding rounds and seemingly limitless momentum, then in 2020 the free fall of Covid, when as a travel company we essentially dropped from a hundred to zero overnight, and after that an equally steep recovery. Living through those three phases in such quick succession shapes you. Before that I was at BCG, which in hindsight I’d call my crash course in the fundamentals of business.
When did it become clear you wanted to found your own company?
Entrepreneurship always fascinated me. But I only recognized the right moment for it after watching, at GetYourGuide, how an initially abstract vision, combined with a motivated team, endurance, and a willingness to weather setbacks, gradually turns into a successful company, step by step. I got to help shape that journey through very different phases, both successful and difficult. At some point it stopped being a question of whether for me, and became only a question of when. I left without yet knowing that the IX Group would eventually come out of it, but with a clear conviction that I wanted to build something of my own.
How did you end up in Buy & Build?
Actually, through my co-founder Moritz. We've known each other for almost twenty years, since university, and he comes from the finance world: first M&A, then several years as an investor. Who I founded with mattered to me almost as much as what I founded. When we thought through different options, a clear division of roles emerged quickly: Moritz takes the buy side, I take the build side. That's how we complement each other perfectly as a team.
Who I founded with mattered to me almost as much as what I founded.
You're building a group in the fire protection and structural engineering space. How did you land on exactly this industry?
We searched deliberately for this market. It's highly fragmented, most of the value creation comes from small and mid-sized firms, everything from sole practitioners to offices with 40 to 50 employees. In many of these companies, succession is currently unresolved and the founding generation is approaching retirement.
At the same time, these firms are facing major challenges: digitalization, AI, the shortage of skilled workers, and rising project complexity. A ten-person office can barely handle that alone. Our thesis is: combine the advantages of small, regionally led units with those of a strong network. A platform where individual offices remain successful and independent over the long term, rather than disappearing into corporate-style structures.
What drives us above all is the vision of actively shaping the transformation that's already underway in this industry today, and that will only accelerate in the coming years.
In the end it's less of a numbers-driven process than people assume, and much more a human, emotional one.
How did you test that thesis?
Early on, and directly, by talking to the market. We spoke with architects, engineers, and project developers, and at the end of every conversation we asked whether they thought the group concept was viable, or whether we should drop it. We expected around eighty percent to say no. It turned out to be exactly the opposite: eighty to ninety percent said it could work, that we'd understood the problems correctly. That was an early and substantial validation. In parallel, we sought out an intensive early dialogue with Aven to sharpen the thesis.
What really determines a company acquisition in the Mittelstand?
In the end it's less of a numbers-driven process than people assume, and much more a human, emotional one. You have to find the right partners, people you can build a real relationship with and share a common understanding of the vision. And you have to be clear about your own role: I don't walk in and tell the engineer how to run their office better. They should stay a good engineer, we bring the entrepreneurial component to the table.
What role does the first partner in the platform play?
The first company plays a very special role. It becomes the figurehead for everything that follows. For us that was Mr. Schröder of HTGS (Hoch- und Tiefbau-Generalplanung Schröder). Since then he's been an integral part of the group's ongoing development. Whenever I talk to a new company today, I make a point of speaking with him early on, to get his assessment of the company and how well it fits within the group professionally. That gives me a well-founded evaluation, entrepreneur to entrepreneur. No investor can replace that kind of peer validation.
Buying a company is the starting line for the shared work, not the finish line.
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned so far?
Buying a company is the starting line for the shared work, not the finish line. A lot of people underestimate that, they think that once the acquisition is done, the job is basically finished. The real work only begins afterward: building, together with the entrepreneurs, a group that stays succeeds over the coming decades. That's our own standard, and what drives me for the long term.
Profile
Founder
Philipp Krautenbacher
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Platform
IX Gruppe
Industry
Fire Protection & Structural Engineering
Region
DACH
Whether you are building a platform, leading an established business, want to be involved as an investor, or considering the future of your company, we would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.
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