ARQET Industrial Holdings
Shaping the Future of Germany’s Mid Caps.
Shaping Germany – by investing in its best.
Industrial AI will not scale because a software startup figured it out.
It will scale because someone builds the machinery around it – with real customers, real friction, and real leverage.
That’s what ARQET does.
We buy the companies. We build the architecture.
And we turn applied intelligence into cashflow, competitive edge – and narrative leadership.
You have shaped asset classes before.
Now you can define the next one.
Germany is the cradle of entrepreneurial excellence. Mid-sized industrial companies are the backbone of the economy and globally sought-after for their technological depth, focus, and operational precision.
Germany’s Mid Caps
Germany’s Mid Caps is not just the industrial backbone of the country – it is one of Europe’s most under-recognized strategic assets.
Roughly 25,000 companies with 250 to 1000 employees – less than 1% of all enterprises – account for 46% of national employment and over 50% of value creation. Combining technological depth, export orientation, and long-term ownership structures, these firms dominate global niches in engineering, automation, and industrial services.
Germany is home to over 1,600 Hidden Champions – the largest concentration of global niche leaders worldwide. By comparison: the U.S. hosts around 360, China just over 300, and the U.K. fewer than 100. No other economy has built such a dense fabric of world-class specialist firms beneath the radar of public markets. These companies rarely sit in metropolitan centers. They are anchored in Swabian machine-building valleys, Franconian tool clusters, East German sensor corridors, and North Rhine Westfalia automation belts. Their customers span aerospace, medical technology, packaging, precision optics, and industrial robotics – but they own their segments globally.
Nearly 70% export more than half their output, with a global reach that far exceeds their size. Their products underpin infrastructure, energy, and supply chains across continents – often as the invisible standard. The average export share is 64%, with a strong balance between intra-European and global markets.
What distinguishes these firms is not scale, but precision: They operate in long cycles, train their workforce locally, reinvest earnings at home – and continuously upgrade their products to stay globally relevant.
In contrast to publicly listed corporations, they retain capital domestically, move faster, and adapt with greater autonomy. They are less visible – but more anchored.
For forward-looking investors, these firms offer more than market exposure – they offer access to the industrial logic behind global systems. Not legacy – leverage.
ARQET continues their story…
- Digital business models must be developed and implemented.
- Production must become more sustainable, more resilient, and more data-driven.
- Today’s Hidden Champions must become tomorrow’s global market leaders – visible, strong, strategic.
ARQET creates structures that secure substance – and enable the transition into a new industrial era.
The transformation of German mid-caps is a historic opportunity. For entrepreneurs. For their families. For the economy.
MISSION STATEMENT
Long-term thinking. Structural leadership. Technological Scalability.
ARQET is the first dedicated platform to industrialize and monetize applied AI in Europe’s mid-cap sector.
We acquire 100% of real, profitable industrial champions and embed AI into their operations – to increase margins, build scalable digital revenues, and turn each company into an intelligent asset.
We identify and develop German mid-cap industrial companies that don’t make noise – but have led their markets for years. Businesses that are technologically outstanding, culturally anchored, and internationally capable – yet often constrained by succession, access to capital, or digital readiness.
We guide them into a new phase of growth – strategically, structurally, sustainably.
Our goal is not the exit, but impact: We build platforms, enable scaling, and secure industrial relevance across generations.
We act with a long-term perspective. Value is not created through quick transactions, but through sustainable transformation. Our focus is not on selling – but on leadership. With foresight, accountability, and a clear ambition to preserve substance beyond market cycles.
We enhance what works – and strengthen what lasts. We do not alter a company’s identity. We create the structural framework that allows its strengths to unfold: technological, human, cultural. Our companies retain their DNA – and gain what they lacked: capital, structure, scalability.
We think in platforms – not portfolios. A single company can be strong. But in alliance, they unlock entirely new potential. ARQET forms these alliances: through synergies in procurement, digitization, process design, and international market presence. We create systems in which mid-caps are redefined – robust, scalable, future-ready.
We don’t view technology as an add-on, but as the foundation of competitiveness. Our companies are not just digitized – they are technologically transformed. From industrial AI integration and process automation to joint development architectures, we pursue technological depth to achieve operational excellence.
We invest as partners. Entrepreneurs who join ARQET do not delegate responsibility – they share it with a strategic partner who thinks and acts on equal footing. We work with people – not with KPIs. With individuals who want to lead – and carry responsibility for structures and teams.
This is not a vision – it’s real. It’s lived in every company we own. And it forms the foundation of something far beyond individual investments.
PORTFOLIO COMPANIES
Shaping scalable German Industry Leaders.
ARQET doesn’t invest randomly. We invest deliberately – in the right businesses, at the right time. Our portfolio companies are the result of a strategic selection process, combining industrial excellence, structural relevance, and technological potential.
We focus exclusively on scalable top-tier firms in Germany – companies at a pivotal point: ownership change, internationalization, digital transformation. ARQET steps in precisely when entrepreneurial families ask how to secure their legacy – and where capital alone is not enough.
Our Investment Focus
- German mid-cap champions with €30–300 million in revenues
- Acquisition of 100% stakes in successions, carve-outs, or shareholder transitions
- Clear industry focus:
- Smart Industrials (automation, robotics, advanced manufacturing)
- Energy & Environment (renewables, resource efficiency, green solutions)
- Technological edge, strong customer loyalty, high entry barriers
- Solid EBITDA margins – typically 10% to over 40%
- Proven management teams with operational excellence and the will to scale
“Germany plays in the Champions League – but only those who score now will win.” – That’s why ARQET secures the best businesses before others even notice them.
Our Principle
- Few, but market-defining holdings: ARQET builds 3–4 industrial platforms. No scattergun strategy. No compromise.
- Substance over size: We invest only where scalability and structural value go hand in hand.
- Long-term commitment: We invest for development, not for quick exit.
- Early access: We see companies before others even know they exist.
Many investors seek access to companies of this caliber – few get it. We do. And we open that access only to those who can use it strategically and entrepreneurially.
INVESTORS
High-caliber personalities with strategic foresight.
Germany plays in the Champions League – technologically, industrially, culturally. But only those who act now will shape the game. That’s why ARQET secures the best companies before others act.
Our holding is selective – in its investments and its investors. Those who invest with ARQET join a circle of entrepreneurs in thought and action – people of substance, strategic vision, and deep value creation expertise.
Investing in ARQET is more than a financial decision. It’s a commitment to Germany as an industrial nation, a contribution to its economic foundation – and a rare opportunity to participate in the next generation of industrial excellence.
ARQET connects legacy family enterprises with capital-strong individuals who provide more than money – they take responsibility. This creates a new kind of industrial partnership – discrete, effective, forward-looking.
Access to ARQET is not public. It is limited – in time, in structure, in purpose. Those who gain it, shape it. Not someday. Now.
A Model for the Next Generation of Industrial Leadership
This model isn’t for everyone – but for those who combine influence with foresight. For those who don’t delegate responsibility but design it. It demands deep understanding of industrial processes, long-term ownership – and the will to shape market leaders.
An ARQET investment is not passive – it’s a strategic position in an industrial transformation that will define the years ahead.
Few investors gain access to these companies. Those who join early secure not just an exclusive stake – but a key role in shaping Germany’s industrial future.
ABOUT US
Entrepreneurial minds with a mission.
ARQET is led by two industry experts with decades of operational and strategic experience: Dr. Peter Artenberg and Peter Muhr. Together with a curated network of over 30 industrial and subject matter experts, they not only advise – they act.
ARQET Management Board
Dr. Peter Artenberg
Managing Partner – Strategy, M&A, Platform Architecture
Peter is an entrepreneur and industrial strategist with over 30 years of experience in executive leadership, M&A, and operational scaling. As CEO of ARQET KGaA, he oversees a deal pipeline of over €750 million and builds platforms in smart industri-als, automation, energy technologies, and industrial digitization. His approach: long-term value creation through operational excellence, vertical integration, and techno-logical transformation – independent of financial market cycles.
Peter Muhr
Managing Partner – Industrial Leadership, Scaling, International Expansion
Peter is an industrial executive and co-founder of ARQET KGaA. With over 35 years of leadership experience, he led the global expansion and transformation of Bühler Motor Group. At Brose, he held senior roles including general management in China. At ARQET, he leads the operational development of portfolio companies, scaling platforms with a focus on execution, internationalization, and results.
Dr. Gunter Tautorus
Chairman of the Supervisory Board – Family Enterprises, Succession, Structural Trust
Dr. Tautorus built and internationalized the eltromat GmbH over two decades before selling it through a structured share deal. As a certified supervisory board member, he combines entrepreneurial judgment with institutional governance – and guides ARQET through the lens of an experienced owner with strategic clarity and discretion.
ARQET Advisory Council
Strategic Foresight – Backed by Entrepreneurial Experience and Capital Intelligence.
The ARQET Advisory Council brings together selected leaders from industry, family business, and the investment world. It contributes actively to the strategic direction of the holding – combining economic perspective, industrial depth, and entrepreneurial judgment with a clear eye for scale, timing, and relevance.
Membership is by invitation only – and those who sit at the table help shape the future. Strategically. Confidentially. With long-term impact.
ARQET Team
ARQET is led by a seasoned core around Dr. Peter Artenberg and Peter Muhr, supported by over 30 senior advisors, industry specialists, and operational experts.
They take direct responsibility – from interim management and integration to scaling and transformation. The team includes experts from digitization, procurement, finance, engineering, and corporate development – many with international leadership, private equity, or supervisory board backgrounds.
Among them: a renowned family governance expert, a global COO, a VP of automotive digitization, and leaders in lean, post-merger integration, supply chain, and industrial AI.
These are not external consultants. They work within the structure – focused, effective, and execution-driven. Anyone who knows this team knows: ARQET doesn’t promise transformation. It delivers.
Legal notice
The information on the homepage is non-binding. It is not an offer of investment, nor is the information contained herein to be relied upon as it is incom-plete and subject to change. The opinions presented are solely our current views at the time of writing, may not be consistent with opinions expressed at a later date and are subject to change without notice.
This homepage does not constitute general investment guidance or a basis for specific investment decisions. Furthermore, there is no implicit or explicit information regarding the manner in which ARQET intends to or will pursue its corporate strategy. The research data contained in this publication is based on information from public sources that ARQET believes to be reliable, but ARQET does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
In general, alternative investments such as private equity (direct investments in unlisted companies) involve a high degree of risk, including the possible total loss of the capital invested. These investments can be highly illiquid , generally do not generate a consistent return, can lose value and do not carry any promise that an investor will sooner or later receive a sum of money from his investment depending on the performance of an asset invested for an investor collective. Such investments are not subject to the regulatory requirements as investment products requiring a licence.
Historical performance is not a guide to future performance. Future performance cannot be guaranteed and capital loss may occur. The general opinions and information contained in this document are not a substitute for personal examination or specific and relevant legal, tax, securities or investment advice. It is the responsibility of each potential investor to inform themselves and to observe all relevant laws and regulations. ARQET expressly disclaims, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, any liability for errors, inaccuracies or omissions in this homepage and for any loss or damage arising from its use.
