• Clipperton acted as the sole financial advisor to natif.ai, the leading document automation solution powered by proprietary AI-driven optical character recognition (OCR), and its shareholders on its acquisition by DocuWare.
  • The company, known for its collaborations and white-label technology, offers versatile solutions for all industries and is a pioneer in intelligent document processing (IDP) by integrating innovative AI with machine learning for automated document processing.
  • This transaction is evidence of Clipperton’s strong track record in executing transactions on behalf of European technology champions with strategic acquirers – including the sale of Smartlook to Cisco or the recent merger of Vade with Hornet Security.
  • This marks a further significant milestone of a successful start into 2024 for Clipperton’s German team.

Our Client

  • natif.ai’s mission is “to build easy-to-use tools that help developers to automate document tasks with state-of-the-art AI technologies, thereby becoming the market standard of document processing”.
  • The company, founded in 2019 by Manel Zapp, Johannes Korves, Christophe Hocquet, and Berenger Laurent with Matthias Hoefler joining the founding team in 2023, is a spin-off of the German Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).
  • Thanks to its high-performance AI models and a Deep-OCR developed in-house, documents can be analyzed extremely quickly and accurately, and relevant data can be extracted from them.
  • The natif.ai platform can be implemented in just a few minutes. It is preferably used by software providers, banks, insurance companies, or consulting firms, enabling them to automate a wide range of document processes quickly and independently.
  • natif.ai has been backed by leading investors including redalpine, High-Tech Gründerfonds, 468 Capital, F-LOG Ventures, Premius GmbH, and Bold Ventures.

natif.ai x DocuWare: Deal Rationale

  • Founded in 1988 in Germany and acquired by Ricoh Group in 2019, DocuWare is a leading provider of document management and workflow automation solutions.
  • Together with its 800+ strong partner network, DocuWare has helped approximately 19,000 customers across 100+ countries simplify their work through digitizing, automating, and transforming key processes.
  • natif.ai will further enable DocuWare to provide its customers around the world with cutting-edge AI technology, which is vital to business growth and progress and will take DocuWare to the next level as an ECM leader.

Clipperton’s track record in advising European technology champions

This transaction is further evidence of Clipperton’s strong track record in executing transactions on behalf of European technology champions with strategic acquirers – including the sale of Smartlook to Cisco or the recent merger of Vade with Hornet Security.

Deal Team

About Clipperton

Clipperton is a leading investment bank dedicated to technology and growth companies. We provide strategic and financial advisory to entrepreneurs, corporates, and top-tier investors in Europe willing to execute transactions such as strategic M&A private equity transactions, and private placements. Founded in 2003 and with offices in Paris, Berlin, Munich, London, New York, and Beijing, Clipperton has completed over 400 M&A and private placement transactions with fast-growing technology start-ups, blue-chip corporates, and renowned financial investors.