With Schnellecke's support, Brighten aims to drive its international growth, focusing on acquiring new global customers and strategically entering international markets where Schnellecke is already established. The collaboration will also include the development and implementation of effective go-to-market strategies for new digital services.
Karsten Keil, Vice President Group IT & Digitization at Schnellecke Logistics, joins André Coutinho and Jorge Carvalho on Brighten's Board of Directors and brings his expertise to drive the company's digital initiatives forward.
Brighten, an experienced consultancy with over 26 years of experience in the national market, is pleased to announce a significant strategic investment by the Schnellecke Group from Wolfsburg. At the same time, Brighten is strengthening its position by acquiring a leading digital product development and technology services company from Schnellecke. This acquisition will be seamlessly integrated into Brighten's new German subsidiary, Brighten GmbH.
"Over the past almost 10 years of close cooperation with Brighten, we have come to know the company as highly innovative and reliable. In combination with digitalized solutions that we have developed within the Schnellecke Group, we are confident to offer Brighten an international platform to strongly expand their business in the future," says Nikolaus Külps, CEO of the Schnellecke Group.
To strengthen the cooperation and partnership between the two companies, Schnellecke Logistics' Portuguese consultant André Coutinho and Jorge Carvalho, Managing Director and founder of Brighten, are pleased to welcome Karsten Keil, Vice President Group IT & Digitization, to the Brighten Board of Directors. With his IT expertise, Keil, who was named one of the ten best CIOs in Germany in 2021 and 2023 in the "CIO of the Year" competition, will play a central role in steering Brighten's internationalization strategy.
"We are delighted to be working with Brighten as they share our values and focus on developing innovative, high quality services that respond effectively to the challenges and needs of businesses in a world of rapid technological change," said Karsten Keil.
André Coutinho, Founder and Managing Director of Brighten, says: "This is a milestone that we are very proud of. This partnership will allow Brighten to expand its mission of simplifying our clients' businesses to more countries and enhance our ability to implement and develop the right solutions for the real challenges of different industries we work with. We are committed to continuing to innovate and deliver value to help our customers succeed in today's dynamic technology landscape."
Win-win for both sides
The partnership with the Schnellecke Group marks a pivotal moment in the internationalization efforts of Brighten, which has long exported a large part of its services to Europe and is looking for sustainable expansion into other regions. "The presence in this market through our subsidiary Brighten GmbH allows us to offer the services provided by our local German staff in combination with the nearshore team, made up of consultants from the Portuguese office, with competitive advantages and added value for our clients. This is the model we want to apply in our planned international expansion into Europe and other regions in the future," affirms Jorge Carvalho, Managing Director of Brighten.
Brighten is strengthening its physical presence in Germany by creating a 25-strong team, based on the region's current contribution of 20% to total sales. The investment aims to extend successful partnerships from Portugal to the German market, particularly in the area of ERP solutions. The strategic partnership allows the strengths of both partners to be combined and includes industry-independent IT consulting services with SAP and SAGE, individual software development and digital services for logistics in a global market.
In this strategic move, "Abreu Advogados" provided legal advice on the M&A operation and facilitated its seamless formalization in both countries. This approach ensured transparency, speed and fairness in the definition of the corporate structure and consolidated the success of the transaction.
About Brighten:
Brighten is a consulting firm committed to simplifying its clients' businesses. Recognizing the rapid pace of technological change and the challenges companies face to remain competitive and achieve sustainable success, Brighten helps them overcome the challenges of their industries through innovative technology solutions tailored to each company's unique needs. Brighten's offering is based on the following services: Strategy & Operations, Enterprise Applications, Digital, Business Intelligence and Talent Solutions. The company has been present in the Portuguese market for more than 26 years and has offices in Portugal, Angola and Germany. It currently employs around 140 people and recorded a turnover of EUR 8.0 million and growth of 23% in the 2023 financial year.
Further information can be found at www.brightenconsulting.com.
