News - April, 2024

Wire and Schwarz Group establish a strategic partnership

Munich/Luxembourg – April 11, 2024 – Cipio Partners is pleased to inform about the strategic partnership of its portfolio company Wire and Schwarz Group. The partnership was initially announced at Cybersecurity Conference by Schwarz in Heilbronn this week.

Wire secures the digital communications of governments and companies in the areas of critical infrastructure, energy, and telecommunications worldwide. With STACKIT and XM Cyber, Schwarz Digits offers innovative IT services with the highest requirements for security and digital sovereignty, which protect the companies of the Schwarz Group and many other customers.

The strategic partnership has three key points:
-    Use of Wire as a secure communication solution in the Schwarz Group companies
-    The companies of the Schwarz Group are planning to invest in Wire
-    Joint product and technology development

Wire and Schwarz Group promote digital sovereignty
“The Schwarz Group is an ideal customer and partner for us because they are uncompromisingly committed to the implementation of digital sovereignty in Germany and Europe. As a concrete building block for this, Wire and Schwarz will develop Wire on STACKIT as a new, attractive product that complements our existing portfolio,” says Benjamin Schilz, Group CEO at Wire.

“With Wire, in 2022 we very consciously invested in a player who, from Germany, promotes the topic of digital sovereignty in communication like no other. Secure, confidential communication is the foundation of good governance in companies, governments and law enforcement agencies worldwide. With the Schwarz Group we will strengthen our commitment in this area and are extremely pleased about this strategic partnership,” says Diana Meyel, Chairwoman of the Board at Wire and Managing Partner at CIPIO Partners.

Wire customers can already choose from different deployment options: Wire Cloud and Wire On-Premises. Both options offer always-activated end-to-end encryption and meet the highest data protection standards. With Wire on STACKIT, a new, attractive option will soon be added.

“A secure, reliable and user-friendly communication tool is essential for every company that wants to be successful in the long term,” emphasizes Christian Müller, Co-CEO at Schwarz Digits, the IT and digital division of the Schwarz Group. “We are therefore very happy to have found a partner in Wire who can demonstrate unique security standards without sacrificing functionality.”

Wire enables end-to-end encryption of all data directly on the users' device and is based on the world's first open protocol for end-to-end encrypted real-time communication (“Messaging Layer Security”) which Wire co-developed.

“Wire is GDPR compliant and helps companies meet NIS2 requirements. Wire also has a clearance recommendation for the communication of 'classified information - for official use only' by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI),” adds Rolf Schumann, Co-CEO at Schwarz Digits. “The heart of economic value creation in Europe is innovative strength and technical know-how. We must not give up this advantage by allowing our communication to take place via insecure channels.”

As part of the partnership, the Schwarz Group companies will also become customers of Wire's communications solution themselves.

About Wire
Wire offers its customers an end-to-end encrypted communication platform for audio and video calls as well as chat communication and secure data transmission. The solution can be used either cloud-based or on-premises. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has issued a release recommendation for Wire for communication about classified issues. Over 1,800 organizations worldwide rely on Wire's secure communications solutions, including governments, parliaments, law enforcement and investigative agencies, as well as infrastructure providers and companies in sectors such as telecommunications and energy. Further information can be found at https://wire.com/de/

About Schwarz Digits
Schwarz Digits is the IT and digital division of the Schwarz Group. It offers convincing digital products and services that meet the high German data protection standards. Schwarz Digits thus guarantees the greatest possible digital sovereignty. With this claim, Schwarz Digits provides the IT infrastructure and solutions for the extensive ecosystem of the Schwarz Group companies and further develops it for the future. Schwarz Digits creates optimal conditions for the development of groundbreaking innovations for end customers, companies and public sector organizations. Schwarz Digits includes 7,500 employees from the brands Schwarz IT, Schwarz Digital, STACKIT, XM Cyber, Lidl e-commerce, Kaufland e-commerce, Schwarz Media and mmmake. Further information at http://www.schwarz-digits.de

About Cipio Partners
Founded in 2003, Cipio Partners is a leading investment management and advisory firm for European growth capital & minority buyouts for technology companies. Cipio Partners targets European growth-stage technology businesses with €10-50 million in revenue and makes initial investments ranging from €5-15 million. Cipio Partners operates from offices in Munich and Luxembourg. Further information is available at www.cipiopartners.com

Contact
Sophie von Eberhardt: media@cipiopartners.com