EDA specialist Innofour in Italian hands

Through its wholly owned subsidiary Var, Italian Sesa Group has acquired a 60 percent stake in Almelo-based Innofour. The Dutch company with operations in Norway (Stavanger) and Sweden (Stockholm and Lund) is a supplier of electronic design automation (EDA) software tooling to Benelux and Scandinavian customers in aerospace, automotive, defense and shipbuilding, among other markets. It will be progressively integrated into the Var Industries business unit, strengthening skills and digital solutions for the European engineering sector.

Innofour focuses on tools for EDA as well as computer-aided engineering (CAE), computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and application lifecycle management (ALM). Since its establishment in 2008, it’s grown to a team of fifteen and about 6 million euros in revenue. After the acquisition, founders and managing partners Peter Bakker, Jaap Schuurman, Rick Stroot and Bas Hassink will continue to be operatively involved through equity commitment mechanisms, targeting sustainable business development and the integration into Var Industries.

Headquartered in Empoli (Florence), Sesa offers technological solutions, consulting and business applications to support the digital evolution of enterprises and organizations. With 5,700 employees generating 3.2 billion euros in consolidated revenues, it’s predominantly active in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and Spain. Its Var Group was established in 2017 with the acquisition of Tech Value and developed thanks to the following acquisitions of PBU CAD-Systeme in February 2019 and Cadlog Group in May 2021.

According to Var Group, the acquisition of Innofour bolsters its presence in the European manufacturing districts, supporting the digital transformation of engineering-intensive manufacturing companies. “We strengthen our European digital engineering center. With the aggregation of Innofour, we’ll develop a perimeter of over 200 human resources and about 65 million euros in revenues in the main European countries, with the aim of further growth and consolidation, enabling technological innovation and digital transformation of the manufacturing industry.”