VERSO secures growth financing to further accelerate sustainable transformation in the SME sector

ESG software pioneer VERSO from Munich chooses NORD Holding as growth partner

Munich/Hanover. As a pioneer in the field of CSR and ESG software, VERSO committed itself to a clear mission back in 2010: To accelerate and simplify the transformation of business towards sustainability. Having grown in recent years through its consulting and training branch to become a holistic partner in sustainability for medium-sized companies, VERSO has chosen NORD Holding as the right growth partner to realize its future plans.

VERSO has been offering its SME customers software and services in the field of sustainability for over ten years. However, demand for them has only exploded in the last two years. The climate crisis and other planetary boundaries have made sustainable transformation the most important issue facing humanity. As a result, it has become a top regulatory issue, but also a social expectation, and has moved onto the agendas of almost all companies.

This creates a variety of previously unknown challenges for SMEs at high speed. Bringing transparency to the impact of one’s own business activities is at the top of the list – regardless of whether it is a comprehensive sustainability report or the climate impact (CO2 footprint).

Companies and their sustainability officers can use VERSO as a cockpit for all their CSR/ESG tasks and receive help from VERSO’s experts at the necessary points – either as advice or in the VERSO Academy as further training.

“We aim to be able to offer companies an answer to every question relating to sustainability. Regardless of whether you want to achieve your report faster, more easily or more cost-effectively with the help of our software, need support on the path to climate neutrality or want to develop and map your sustainability strategy.
In order to be able to continue to map the rapidly increasing complexity and multi-layered nature of this for our customers, we set out in search of a growth partner who shares our vision and our values,” says Andreas Maslo, Co-Founder and CEO of VERSO.

After many discussions and close market observations, VERSO opted for NORD Holding. With over 50 years of history and assets under management of € 2.5 billion, it is one of the leading private equity and asset management companies in Germany.

“Our mission is to accelerate the sustainable transformation of the economy. This can be achieved much more effectively by joining forces and only with a long-term perspective. That’s why a ‘higher-faster-further-VC investor’ was out of the question for us. We are a team of impact-driven personalities who really want to make a difference and also attach great importance to sustainability in our own business model,” adds Andreas Maslo.

Christian Kukwa, Principal of NORD Holding, confirms the long-term, value-driven approach: “We take our responsibility very seriously: towards our investors and holdings, but also towards society and the planet.
We are currently developing ESG strategies with all of our investments in order to make our portfolio more sustainable and therefore more competitive. VERSO already offers a strong and established ESG solution for companies, coupled with hard-to-find expertise and experience. Together with VERSO, we can therefore also make a significant contribution to NORD Holding’s own portfolio on the operations side.”

About VERSO

With its software (SaaS) solution and services for sustainability management, VERSO provides SMEs with holistic support for their sustainable transformation. Consulting and training in CSR reporting, management and climate accounting make VERSO a comprehensive partner for corporate sustainability and ESG.

Sustainability managers professionalize and digitalize their CSR management with VERSO or bring even more efficiency to their existing processes, especially CSR reporting. VERSO also supports them on their way to becoming a climate-neutral company.

VERSO was founded in 2010 by Andreas Maslo and Florian Holl in southern Germany. VERSO GmbH, based in Munich, is managed by the two founders together with the third managing director, Nuvia Maslo.

About NORD Holding

With over 50 years of history and assets under management of € 2.5 billion, NORD Holding is one of the leading private equity and asset management companies in Germany. The focus is on the business areas of direct investments and fund investments. The direct business focuses on the structuring and financing of corporate succession models, the acquisition of parts of groups/subsidiaries and the expansion financing of medium-sized companies. In contrast to most other financial investors, who only manage temporary funds, NORD Holding acts as a so-called “evergreen fund” with no time limit and invests from its own balance sheet. The company is currently involved with over 16 companies in Germany and other German-speaking countries. The Fund Investments division targets the micro and small cap segment of mid-cap-oriented private equity funds in Europe. The focus here is on primary, secondary and co-investments. NORD Holding focuses strongly on buyout managers newly established on the market, operational investment strategies and also regularly acts as an anchor investor.

Press contact

Nuvia Maslo (CCO)
nuvia.malo [at] verso.de