Syz Capital with operating partners Saturnus Capital take majority stake in digital marketing pioneer Capture Media

Zurich, 02 November 2023

Syz Capital, the boutique private markets investment specialist, announced today that it has made a strategic controlling investment in Capture Media, a Swiss leader in digital media and analytics solutions. Backed by the Syz family, and in close partnership with Saturnus Capital, Syz Capital will deploy a strategy to expand Capture Media’s pioneering and highly differentiated offering in the DACH region.

The transaction involves Syz Capital acquiring a majority controlling stake with operating partners Saturnus, while the founders of the business, Sandro Albin, Michel Lazecki and Franz d’Huc, are reinvesting and retaining a significant minority share. The investment reflects Syz Capital’s confidence in Capture Media’s exceptional growth potential and unique offering.

Capture Media has shown exponential growth in the dynamic digital advertising industry. The firm has been expanding at over three times the industry’s average growth rate in the last five years. The strategic rationale behind the investment is rooted in the robust growth of the digital advertising industry, which continues to flourish at over 9% annually in the DACH region. Moreover, European markets still lag behind the United States in online marketing penetration, offering immense growth opportunities.

The firm is the market leader and pioneer in engagement advertising in Switzerland. Its tracking tool fusedeck® is 100% GDPR compliant and outperforms its competitors in terms of capturing website and landing page traffic. The deal will empower Capture Media to expand and increase its market share. The group has a highly diversified customer base of well-known blue-chip clients in a wide range of industries.

Strategic alignment

Syz Capital and Saturnus Capital are ideally positioned to support the organic and inorganic growth plans of Capture Media given its proximity to key markets and growing reputation in the region. With a strong team in place, Capture Media plans to expand substantially, especially in western Switzerland, and via strategic acquisitions in Germany and Austria. The company also intends to enhance product capabilities leveraging industry experts, including a former Google executive, who is joining as advisor.

The founders of Capture Media, Sandro Albin and Michel Lazecki, will continue to operate as company directors. They will be joined by a new CFO and COO. Syz Capital's deeply experienced operating partners, Joscha Boehm and Philipp Schweizer, will join the board of directors, alongside Marc Syz, and lead the M&A acquisition expansion strategy.

Marc Syz, Syz Capital's managing partner, commented on the transaction: "Capture Media is the fastest-growing Engagement Advertising Provider in Switzerland offering innovative solutions for digital marketing. This is an entrepreneurial company with healthy cashflow that is well-positioned to benefit from the expanding online marketing landscape. It is also a unique player in digital marketing, positioned between performance and engagement marketing. Currently, the DACH region is fragmented, offering several M&A add-on opportunities. We believe Capture Media Group is ideally suited to execute a buy- and-build strategy in Europe.”

Joscha Boehm and Philipp Schweizer, the Founding Partners of Saturnus Capital, added: “We are thrilled to have found another exciting investment opportunity in our core market and to team up with Syz Capital once again. Capture Media is a market and technology leader, offering strong growth potential, both nationally and internationally, and we look forward to a close collaboration with the founders and management in the years to come.”

Michel Lazecki, Sandro Albin and Franz d’Huc, the Founding Parters of Capture Media commented: “We are excited to have found ideal partners in Syz Capital and Saturnus Capital to help us achieve our growth targets in the years to come. In the last couple of years, we have established engagement advertising in Switzerland and we believe in the big potential to make this product offering also available to other markets. We are looking forward to launch new data-driven online advertising products, further strengthen our tracking and analytics product, fusedeck®, and generate value for our clients, in our home market and abroad.”