Verivox is Germany’s largest independent consumer portal for energy
Verivox GmbH was founded in Heidelberg in 1998 and is Germany’s leading consumer energy and household services price comparison website, receiving commission and advertising revenues when consumers elect to switch providers.
We acquired a majority stake in Verivox in December 2009 from Independent News & Media. In partnership with the founders, Oakley supported the management in achieving rapid growth in profitability and helped transition the business from its entrepreneurial roots towards a more corporate style.
Under Oakley’s ownership, Verivox introduced offline advertising to strengthen its brand awareness, and launched new product verticals to diversify its revenue beyond its core energy focus.
Following a competitive sales process in early 2015, Verivox was sold to ProSiebenSat.1 in August 2015 for €208m, generating a 14.9x return and a 72% IRR for Fund I. As part of the transaction, Oakley was offered the opportunity to acquire a minority stake on the same terms as ProSiebenSat.1, which was held by Fund II. In 2018, we sold our remaining stake to ProSiebenSat.1’s Digital Commerce division (NuCom Group) achieving returns of 2.5x and 44% IRR.
