History
In 2004, Paragon was founded by Edin Hadzic and Krischan von Moeller. Hadzic already had experience in the private equity industry through his partner position at Triton [ de ]. [2] Von Moeller had worked for the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group and the Boston Consulting Group. [3] In 2010, Marco Attolini, who was previously also with Triton, joined the company as a third partner. [4]
After initial successful investments, Paragon Secondary Partners was founded to bundle different assets. [5] The investment fund was active until 2011. [6] In 2008, Paragon then finally launched the Paragon Fund I with a volume of around €200 million. In 2009, the company achieved greater awareness with the acquisition of Schülerhilfe [ de ], the German market leader for private tutoring. [7]
The Paragon Fund II, which was launched in 2014 with around €400 million in committed capital, sought to acquire the insolvent Weltbild Publishing Group to restructure it and keep it as a whole. [8] [9] [10] Due to differences over transaction details, Paragon had to improve its offer but failed to complete the acquisition. [11] [12] In 2015, Paragon participated in a tight bidding round for the Balda Group [ de ] but ultimately was not able to close the deal. [13] [14]
In 2019, the company launched its fourth investment fund, the Paragon Fund III, [15] for which it raised almost €800 million. [16] This enabled, among other things, the acquisition of the industrial services provider Castolin Eutectic. The acquisition of Castolin Eutectic was one of the most significant private equity transactions in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic. [17]
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