Waterland Private Equity

Mrge Expands North American Reach with Maxbounty Acquisition

German commerce advertising group Mrge, backed by Waterland Private Equity, is expanding its North American footprint with the acquisition of Maxbounty, a Canadian affiliate marketing network. This move marks Mrge’s fifth acquisition and complements its existing portfolio under the umbrella brands Digidip, Yieldkit, and Shopping24. The deal adds Maxbounty’s technology and team, along with capabilities in cost-per-lead and cost-per-action marketing, and broadens reach in finance, consumer analytics, and e-commerce. Dave Reed, who became CEO of the Mrge group last year, welcomed the addition of Maxbounty’s skilled team. Maxbounty CEO Matt McEvoy said the partnership should accelerate growth and strengthen the network in a consolidating market. Financial terms were not disclosed. The expansion underscores Mrge’s ongoing cross-border growth strategy in the AdTech industry.

BCN Welcomes Johannes Liel as New Marketing Director

BCN, The Brand Community Network, is expanding its leadership as Johannes Liel joins as Director Marketing & Communications, effective January 2024, aligning with the start of BCN as a joint venture between Burda, Funke and Klambt. Liel will focus on crossmedia and print-gattungsmarketing as BCN positions itself as a multi-channel advertiser. BCN's managing director, Tobias Conrad, welcomed Liel and highlighted his track record in building advertiser brands across media formats. Liel previously served as Vice President Marketing & Communications for Waterland Private Equity’s adtech-oriented Buy-and-Build portfolio, where he led the creation of the global brand Mrge and oversaw post-merger integrations of Digidip, Shopping24 and Yieldkit. Earlier roles included Head of Marketing at Emetriq (2019–2021) and Deputy Head of Marketing Communications at RMS. In September, Burda Community Network rebranded as The Brand Community Network and started as a joint venture of Burda, Funke and Klambt, with Jörg Vogelsang announced as a key hire.

Yieldkit macht den nächsten Wachstumsschritt mit Waterland Private Equity

Waterland Private Equity is acquiring a majority stake in Yieldkit, a Hamburg-based ad-tech company, with the aim of accelerating organic growth and expanding its software platform through a Buy-and-Build strategy toward market leadership. Price and seller details were not disclosed, and antitrust approval is still pending. Founded in 2009, Yieldkit offers a platform that links publisher content with e-commerce campaigns using semantic text analysis to optimize performance marketing; the majority of revenue historically comes from the DACH region. Notable investors described as significant include CEO Daniel Neuhaus, Yieldkit founder Oliver Krohne, and Lars Hinrichs, XING’s founder. The deal is framed as leveraging Waterland’s buy-and-build approach to deepen technology leadership and internationalize. Yieldkit reported €33 million in revenue for 2020, up about 33% from the previous year.