Aareal Bank acquires CollectAI
The Otto Group has agreed to sell Collect Artificial Intelligence GmbH to Aareal Bank Group. A corresponding contract has been signed by both parties, who have mutually agreed not to disclose the purchase price. All current CollectAI employees will be retained under the new ownership.
CollectAI will join Aareal Bank's Banking & Digital Solutions segment. "We are very pleased to have inspired and acquired CollectAI for our Group, one of the top players in the field of interactive invoicing and intelligent dunning. CollectAI complements our AEPP payment platform’s existing offering. It offers us the opportunity to tap into new market and customer groups, as well as to grow further with existing customers in the housing sector and adjacent industries", says Lars Ernst, Aareal Bank Managing Director. Aareal Bank Group will not only benefit from CollectAI’s digital receivables management software platform but also from its profound know-how in the implementation of smart digital solutions in the Payment Experience area.
Otto Group Digital Solutions (OGDS), the holding company for the Otto Group’s digital service companies, had already announced in autumn 2020 that it would examine strategic options for the portfolio companies under its responsibility, including CollectAI. As a result, and in view of the Otto Group's focused growth strategy, the divestment of Collect Artificial Intelligence GmbH to Aareal Bank Group was recommended. The Otto Group Executive Board is following this recommendation.
Sebastian Klauke, Otto Group Executive Board Member E-Commerce, Technology, Business Intelligence and Corporate Ventures: "With the financial expertise and market access of its new owner, in our view CollectAI will be able to expand its position in receivables management. CollectAI remains associated with us as exclusive partner for Payment Communication of OTTO Payment Entwicklungsgesellschaft PEG. I would like to thank Sebastian Hoop, Thomas von Hake and all employees who have made a decisive contribution to building CollectAI into a relevant payment player."
"With Aareal Bank as a partner we can develop further dedicated solutions along the entire payment value chain and thus continue to expand our competitive advantage internationally as well", explains CollectAI Managing Director Thomas von Hake.
CollectAI Co-Managing Director Sebastian Hoop adds: "Together we will massively advance the expansion of our payment platform and leverage sustainable innovation potential. Collaboration with the Aareal affiliates will also be a core factor in this effort."
More information
Media Contact
Press contact Otto Group
Martin Zander
Tel.: +49 40 6461 2820
E-Mail: martin.zander@ottogroup.com
Press contact Areal Bank Gruppe
Oliver Tross
Tel.: +49 175 4357559
E-Mail: oliver.tross@aareal-bank.com
Press contact collectAI
Christin Martens
Tel.: +49 163 54 13164
E-Mail: christin.martens@collect.ai
About Otto Group
Founded in Germany in 1949, today the Otto Group is a globally active retail and services group with around 50,000 employees in 30 major company groups and does business in over 30 countries in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Its business activities are grouped into three segments: Multichannel Retail, Financial Services, and Service. In the 2020/21 financial year (to 28 February), the Otto Group generated revenues of 15.6 billion euros. With online revenues of approximately 9.9 billion euros, the Otto Group is one of the world’s largest online retailers. The Group’s particular strength is its broad market presence and differentiated product and service offers to diverse customer target groups in almost all of the world’s relevant economic regions. Numerous strategic partnerships and joint ventures provide the Otto Group with excellent opportunities to transfer know-how and leverage areas of synergy potential. Group companies demonstrate a high degree of corporate responsibility and willingness to collaborate with one another; at the same time this guarantees flexibility, customer proximity and optimum target-group appeal in their respective national markets.
About collectAI
The Hamburg-based fintech CollectAI offers an intelligent payment software platform for interactive invoices and intelligent dunning. Based on artificial intelligence, the platform combines modular and/or holistic digital communication channels with a variety of payment methods. This smart technology demonstrably raises the recovery rate of open amounts at low cost. Furthermore, CollectAI optimizes the customer journey of banks’, energy suppliers’, insurers’, telcos’, e-commerce and mobility companies’ customers with industry-specific, innovative features. CollectAI was founded in 2016 as a subsidiary of the Otto Group, the globally active retail and services group.
For further information please visit: www.collect.ai.
About Areal Bank Groupe
Aareal Bank Group, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, is a leading international real-estate specialist. It offers smart financing, software products and digital solutions for the real-estate sector and related industries and is represented on three continents: Europe, North America and Asia/Pacific. Aareal Bank Group's business strategy is geared towards sustainable business success, with environmental, social and governance aspects as key components. The Group's parent company is Aareal Bank AG, which is SDAX-listed. Under its umbrella, the Group's companies are bundled within the business segments Structured Property Financing, Banking & Digital Solutions, and Aareon. The Structured Property Financing segment comprises Aareal Bank Group's real-estate financing and refinancing activities; here the Group accompanies its clients making large-scale investments in commercial real estate. These are mainly office buildings, hotels, shopping centres, logistics and residential properties as well as student apartments. In the Banking & Digital Solutions business segment, as a digitisation partner Aareal Bank Group offers companies from the housing, real-estate and energy sectors comprehensive advisory services and product solutions, and bundles these with traditional corporate banking and deposit business services. The subsidiary Aareon, a leading provider of ERP software and digital solutions for the European real-estate industry and its partners, forms the third business segment. It digitises the real-estate industry with user-orientated software solutions that simplify and automate processes, support sustainable and energy-efficient activity, and network the process participants.
For further information please visit: www.aareal-bank.com.