LPA Group joins forces with EffCom AG to drive digital transformation of capital markets

Frankfurt am Main, Bodman-Ludwigshafen 09.09.2019: LPA, a leading specialist and provider of technology innovations for capital markets and financial institutions (CapTech) in Europe, and technology developer EffCom have now joined forces. Founded in 1983 by Uwe Zimmer, EffCom, just like LPA, is working on the digitalisation of capital markets with its approximately 40 employees and has developed a wide range of market-leading technology solutions to achieve its targets. Using EffCom’s product portfolio and particularly its customer base, LPA is building on its leading position in the CapTech sector in Europe and is gaining more customers and market shares especially in the DACH region and in France. This means that, following the international acquisitions of Modelity in Tel Aviv and Capital Market Partners (CMP) in Copenhagen, the Frankfurt-based company is taking a further step towards becoming the global market leader in CapTech with its majority shareholder Motive Partners by its side.

CapTech companies develop technology solutions and products that help financial services companies to enhance their ability to innovate in their capital market activities. Specifically, they use their offerings and services to support their customers in scaling their business activities (through automation for example), improving their business processes through sustainable optimisation and digitalisation, and reversing falling margins and returns – always in compliance with existing and future regulatory standards.

Following the integration of EffCom, the LPA Group is gaining a company that has been one of the leading CapTech businesses in Germany since it was founded thanks to its range of products and solutions. True to the demands placed on customer service and sustainability by founder Uwe Zimmer, the company based in Baden-Württemberg develops technologies that more than meet customer expectations and exceed market demands. This means that the software solutions “EffCom Textation” for workflow-controlled document creation and especially “EffCom Passiv+” for securities settlement in credit institutions are a suitable addition to the LPA CapTech Suite. EffCom has so far been the market leader in German banks with the latter solution.

Another part of the acquisition is factor-i GmbH Zertifikatefabrik which belongs to EffCom. It provides managed services in FinTech and Regtech in the context of document generation for structured products and has so far contributed to approximately 350,000 securities issues per year. Not yet active in this segment, LPA is extending its own value chain and can from now on act as a full-service provider of digital products and solutions for capital markets.

The company’s location at Lake Constance places LPA significantly closer to the important finance and banking hub of Switzerland, which means that it can support its on-site customers even better in future. At the same time, there are new possibilities for LPA to approach new business even more proactively in the Alpine republic and gain other well-known national and international customers.

The local expertise of EffCom’s present management team, Peter Zugmantel and Stefan Groganz, is a great help. They will stay on board and will take over site management in Ludwigshafen.

Peter Schurau, CEO of the LPA Group: “Thanks to EffCom, the LPA Group is able to add even more know-how and expertise for the digitalisation of capital markets. More than 30 years of work has already gone into developing CapTech services and products at Lake Constance, with the aim of paving the way for financial businesses into digital transformation. This fits in very well with LPA’s business activities. It is therefore a logical step to jointly use all this knowledge and experience and to drive the impact and growth of the whole group even further. I am very much looking forward to working with Peter Zugmantel, Stefan Groganz and their team.”

Stefan Lucht and Roland Probst, founders and directors of LPA, commented: “The DNA of LPA and EffCom are almost identical in many areas. For both firms it has always been, and still is mainly about automating the products and processes of financial companies on the capital markets, making them more efficient, transparent and cost-effective. EffCom founder Uwe Zimmer and the whole team, which has been led by Peter Zugmantel and Stefan Groganz for some time now, have earned a great reputation and considerable success in the CapTech sector over the years. We are very happy to be able to move forward together from now on. A warm welcome at LPA to Peter and Stefan as well as the entire EffCom team.”