With Schnellecke’s support, Brighten intends to drive its international growth, focusing on acquiring new global customers and strategically entering international markets where Schnellecke is already established. The collaboration will also include the development and implementation of effective go to market strategies for new digital services.
Karsten Keil, Vice President Group IT and Digitization at Schnellecke Logistics, joins Brighten’s Executive Board alongside André Coutinho and Jorge Carvalho and contributes his expertise to drive the company’s digital initiatives. Brighten, an experienced consulting company with more than 26 years of experience in its home market, welcomes a significant strategic investment by the Schnellecke Group from Wolfsburg. At the same time, Brighten strengthens its position by acquiring a leading company for digital product development and technology services from Schnellecke. This acquisition will be seamlessly integrated into Brighten’s new German subsidiary, Brighten GmbH.
“In almost 10 years of close collaboration with Brighten, we have come to know the company as highly innovative and reliable. Combined with the digital solutions we have developed within the Schnellecke Group, we are confident that we can provide Brighten with an international platform to significantly expand its business in the future,” says Nikolaus Külps, CEO of the Schnellecke Group.
To strengthen the cooperation and partnership between the two companies, the Portuguese advisor André Coutinho and Jorge Carvalho, Managing Director and founder of Brighten, are pleased to welcome Karsten Keil, Vice President Group IT & Digitization at Schnellecke Logistics, to Brighten’s Executive Board on behalf of Schnellecke Logistics. With his IT expertise, Keil, who was recognized as one of Germany’s ten best CIOs in 2021 and 2023 in the “CIO of the Year” competition, will play a central role in steering Brighten’s internationalization strategy.
“We are pleased to work with Brighten because they share our values and our focus on developing innovative, high quality services that respond effectively to the challenges and needs of companies in a world of rapid technological change,” says Karsten Keil.
André Coutinho, founder and managing director of Brighten, says: “This is a milestone we are very proud of. This partnership will enable Brighten to extend its mission of simplifying our customers’ business to additional countries and to improve our ability to implement and further develop the right solutions for the real challenges of the various industries we work with. We remain committed to innovation and to delivering added value so that our customers can succeed in today’s dynamic technology landscape.”
Win win for both sides
The partnership with the Schnellecke Group marks a pivotal moment in Brighten’s internationalization efforts. Brighten has long exported a large part of its services to Europe and is seeking sustainable expansion into other regions. “Having a presence in this market through our subsidiary Brighten GmbH enables us to offer services provided locally by our German employees combined with the nearshore team made up of consultants from our Portuguese office, delivering competitive advantages and added value for our customers. This is the model we intend to apply for our planned expansion into Europe and, in the future, other regions as well,” confirms Jorge Carvalho, Managing Director of Brighten.
Brighten strengthens its physical presence in Germany by creating a 25 person team, based on the region’s current contribution of 20 percent to total revenue. The investment aims to extend successful partnerships from Portugal to the German market, especially in the area of ERP solutions. The strategic partnership enables both partners to combine their strengths and includes industry independent IT consulting services with SAP and SAGE, custom software development, and digital services for logistics in a global market.
As part of this strategic step, “Abreu Advogados” provided legal advice on the M&A transaction and facilitated its seamless formalization in both countries. This approach ensured transparency, speed, and fairness in defining the corporate structure and secured the success of the transaction.
About Brighten:
Brighten is a consulting company committed to simplifying its customers’ business. Aware of the rapid pace of technological change and the challenges companies face to remain competitive and achieve sustainable success, Brighten supports them in tackling industry specific challenges through innovative technology solutions tailored to each company’s individual needs. Brighten’s offering is based on the following services: Strategy and Operations, Enterprise Applications, Digital, Business Intelligence, and Talent Solutions. The company has been active in the Portuguese market for more than 26 years and has offices in Portugal, Angola, and Germany. It currently employs around 140 people and in fiscal year 2023 recorded revenue of 8.0 million euros and growth of 23 percent.
www.brightenconsulting.com More information at www.brightenconsulting.com.