Who is Vitec Software Group?
Vitec Software Group is a vertical market software acquirer headquartered in Umeå, Sweden, founded in 1985 and led by CEO Olle Backman. Vitec’s class B shares trade on Nasdaq Stockholm under the ticker VIT B. Vitec states it has grown through acquisitions since 1998 and describes itself as entrepreneurs with a long term perspective rather than an investment company.
Vitec buys with permanent capital from its own balance sheet, funded by operating cash flow and debt, not from a fund with an exit clock. The stated model is to acquire, keep, and develop companies indefinitely. One independent analysis counts 46 independent business units inside the group as of 2025.
Vitec’s 2024 numbers show the machine working: net sales of SEK 3,334 million, up 20 percent, EBITA of SEK 1,002 million at a 30 percent margin, and recurring revenues of SEK 2,878 million, or 86 percent of sales. Vitec employed about 1,660 people, served 26,000 plus customers in more than 20 verticals, and sold into over 50 countries from six home markets.
What does Vitec buy?
Vitec buys established, profitable software companies that lead a narrow vertical niche, from taxi dispatch to lubricant data to church administration adjacent fields. Vitec’s own acquisition page says it looks for companies that resemble Vitec and favors a thorough dialogue where both companies get to know each other. The published criteria are qualitative; the deal record supplies the numbers.
| Criterion | What the public record shows | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Product | Business critical vertical market software with a defensible niche position | Vitec acquisitions page; CEO deal commentary |
| Revenue model | High recurring revenue; group recurring share is 86 percent of 2024 sales | Vitec 2024 year end report |
| Size | No published bands; recent targets range from EUR 4.5 million revenue (Autonet) to SEK 99.5 million (NMG) | Vitec press releases 2025 to 2026 |
| Profitability | Established and profitable; deals described as immediately accretive to earnings per share | Vitec NMG press release |
| Geography | Six home markets in the Nordics and Benelux, expanding into Poland (NMG, 2025) and Belgium (Trinergy, 2024) | Vitec 2024 report; press releases |
| Stake | Usually 100 percent; sometimes staged, as with 80 percent of NMG moving to 100 percent by 2028 | Vitec press releases |
What has Vitec actually acquired?
Vitec completed seven acquisitions in 2024, a company record, and has continued into 2025 and 2026 with deals in Poland, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The verticals are deliberately unglamorous and deliberately sticky. The table below is drawn from Vitec’s own published acquisition list and press releases.
| Target | Year | Country | Vertical | Disclosed terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autonet | 2026 | Netherlands | Automotive dismantling software | Price not disclosed; cash; target revenue EUR 4.5 million, 22 employees |
| Infometric | 2026 | Sweden | Energy and water metering | Not disclosed |
| NMG | 2025 | Poland | Energy and smart grid software | Price not disclosed; 80 percent stake, 100 percent by 2028; target revenue PLN 38.4 million |
| Intergrip | 2025 | Netherlands | Education technology | Not disclosed |
| Figlo | 2024 | Netherlands | Financial planning and mortgages | Not disclosed |
| Roidu | 2024 | Finland | Healthcare experience surveys | Not disclosed |
| Olyslager | 2024 | Netherlands | Lubricant and fluid data | Not disclosed |
| Trinergy | 2024 | Belgium | Energy management for property | Not disclosed |
| BidTheatre | 2024 | Sweden | Programmatic advertising | Not disclosed |
| Codea | 2023 | Finland | Emergency vehicle field management | Not disclosed |
| ABS Laundry Business Solutions | 2022 | Netherlands | Laundry and textile rental ERP | Not disclosed |
What does Vitec typically pay?
Vitec does not disclose purchase prices, and that silence is a policy, not an accident. Vitec’s press releases name the target’s revenue and employee count, state that payment is cash, and often note the deal is immediately accretive to earnings per share, then stop. No individual deal multiples are published, and Vitec’s annual reports aggregate consideration across the year.
Two facts help a founder calibrate anyway. Vitec itself traded at roughly 5.3 times enterprise value to sales and about 19 times EV to EBITA in mid 2025, so every acquisition priced meaningfully below those levels is arbitrage in Vitec’s favor. Vitec also knows every comparable transaction in its 20 plus verticals, while the founder across the table typically knows none, and that information gap is worth real money to whichever side holds it.
How does Vitec find companies?
Vitec sources deals through a small in-house M&A function, with Aleš Zobec as the published point of contact, plus vertical managers who track their niches. Vitec describes its process as simple and transparent, built on entrepreneur to entrepreneur dialogue rather than formal procedures. CEO Olle Backman has said Vitec follows established acquisition criteria and enters new countries only in verticals where Vitec feels at home.
Vitec has not published a position on auctions or sell side advisors. The dialogue first model favors long, exclusive conversations with founders who have never sold a company, which is the setting Windsor Drake’s guide to handling an inbound offer exists to correct.
What does a Vitec approach look like?
A Vitec approach usually opens with a low pressure introduction from the M&A team or a vertical manager, followed by a getting to know each other phase that can run for months or years. The pitch leans on permanence: Vitec never sells its companies, keeps brands and local teams, and offers founders a stable home rather than a second exit. Consideration is cash, sometimes structured as a majority stake first with full ownership a few years later, as in the NMG and Autonet deals.
The staged stake structure deserves attention. A founder who sells 80 percent today has committed the remaining 20 percent to a buyer who already controls the company, so the price and mechanism for the final tranche must be negotiated at full strength, before signing anything.
What is life like after selling to Vitec?
Vitec runs a decentralized model in which acquired companies keep their name, leadership, and local decision making, supported by group forums for pricing, product, and security practice. The NMG chief executive’s stated reason for choosing Vitec was an owner committed to the continued development of the company, a sentiment Vitec features in its own materials. Vitec publishes no aggregate founder retention statistics.
Independent founder accounts in English are scarce because most Vitec targets are small Nordic and Benelux companies. A founder in diligence with Vitec should request direct references from three or more sellers, including one from a staged stake deal.
Who else competes with Vitec for software companies?
A Nordic or Benelux vertical software company that fits Vitec will also fit Visma, the Constellation Software family through Volaris Group and Total Specific Solutions, Valsoft, and Northern European software investors such as Main Capital Partners and Monterro. These buyers hunt the same verticals with the same permanent hold pitch. Their overlap is the reason a contacted founder holds more cards than the first phone call suggests.
What would a competitive process change?
The Proprietary Discount is the gap between what a serial acquirer pays in an unbanked bilateral negotiation and what the same business clears in a competitive process, and Windsor Drake places that gap at 15 to 25 percent of enterprise value. Vitec’s model of long exclusive dialogues with undisclosed prices is engineered to keep that discount intact. Nothing about the model is unfair; it is simply one sided until the founder adds a second bidder.
A structured process reaching 40 to 80 qualified buyers from a 200 plus acquirer universe puts Vitec in price competition with Visma, Volaris, Valsoft, and financial buyers, which is the only mechanism that reliably moves a serial acquirer off its standard terms. Founders unsure whether their company justifies a full engagement can start with Windsor Drake’s guide on whether you need a banker. If Vitec has already reached out, Windsor Drake’s Approach Response engagement is built for founders holding a live inbound approach.
Questions founders ask
How many companies does Vitec acquire each year?
Vitec completed a record seven acquisitions in 2024 and has averaged several deals per year for two decades, with continued activity into 2025 and 2026 including NMG in Poland and Autonet in the Netherlands. Vitec has grown through acquisitions since 1998.
Does Vitec disclose purchase prices?
No. Vitec’s press releases disclose the target’s revenue and employee count and confirm cash payment, but individual purchase prices and multiples are not published. Annual reports aggregate acquisition consideration across the year.
Does Vitec ever sell the companies it buys?
Vitec’s stated model is to acquire and hold permanently, with acquired companies keeping their brand, leadership, and local operations inside a decentralized group of independent business units.
What size of company does Vitec buy?
Vitec publishes no size criteria. Recent disclosed targets range from Autonet at EUR 4.5 million in revenue with 22 employees to NMG at PLN 38.4 million in revenue with 92 employees, which brackets Vitec’s typical lower middle market range.
Does Vitec always buy 100 percent of a company?
Usually, but not always. Vitec bought 80 percent of NMG in 2025 with full ownership planned by 2028, and structured Autonet to reach 100 percent by 2029. Founders in staged deals should fix the price mechanism for the final tranche before signing.
Is a Vitec offer likely to be my best price?
Not by default. A bilateral negotiation with a serial acquirer typically concedes The Proprietary Discount, which Windsor Drake places at 15 to 25 percent of enterprise value. Visma, Volaris, Valsoft, and Northern European investors compete for the same assets when given the chance.
How financially strong is Vitec as a buyer?
Vitec reported 2024 net sales of SEK 3,334 million, EBITA of SEK 1,002 million, and cash flow from operations of SEK 1,041 million, and funds deals from its balance sheet as a listed company. Financing risk on a Vitec deal is low.
Last reviewed July 28, 2026 by Jeff Barrington, Founder and Managing Director, Windsor Drake. Content on this page may be cited with attribution and a link to https://windsordrake.com/acquirers/vitec-software/