ElaN Languages, Belgium and Germany’s leading tech-enabled Language Service Provider, majority-owned by Andera Expansion 3, completes a second transforming operation by acquiring AVB Vertalingen in the Netherlands.
ElaN Languages, which has a turnover of around €30m following the June 2023 acquisition of Lingua-World in Germany, has built up a solid reputation for the quality of its services to a highly demanding clientele, including the Belgian and German national and regional governments, the European Commission, and many private European companies of all sizes for whom translation is a critical issue.
Translation services are the group’s main offering, covering a wide range of fields (financial, legal, medical, commercial, administrative, etc.) for a variety of documents (websites, legal documents, annual reports, technical and commercial communications, etc.), based on unique expertise combining human intervention and the integration of cutting-edge technologies (Artificial Intelligence/Natural Language Processing) on a proprietary technological platform.
Founded more than 40 years ago, AVB Vertalingen is one of the largest providers of translation and interpreting services in the Netherlands, offering its services to both public and private entities. Its turnover exceeds €16 million.
Robrecht Beliën and Geert De Blende, co-CEOs of ElaN Group, comment, “We are very excited to welcome AVB to the ElaN Group, and thus strengthen our presence in the Netherlands, a particularly attractive market for us, and one in which we will now benefit from a strong position. ElaN and AVB are highly complementary, and we are delighted that Isabella Van Rooij and Raymond de Groot have decided to continue their adventure with us to benefit from the many commercial and operational synergies to come.”
Isabella Van Rooij and Raymond de Groot, former CEO and CEO of AVB Vertalingen, say, “AVB is a major player in the Dutch translation and interpreting market, which has been growing rapidly for several years. ElaN is an extremely dynamic company with a quality and culture that are very similar to those that my family and I have built up at AVB for over more than 40 years. It’s the ideal partner for me.”
Olivier Le Gall and Mayeul Caron, Partners, and Nicolas Debonneuil, Investment Director of Andera Partners, add, “The acquisition of AVB is a strategic move for ElaN, as it will enable us to significantly strengthen our market share in the Benelux countries. At the time of our investment in ElaN, we set ourselves the target of doubling in size in five years: the acquisitions of Lingua-World last June and of AVB mean that we can achieve this objective now. We intend to pursue this strategy in the future.”
As a majority shareholder in ElaN Languages since April 2022, Andera Partners is supporting the management team led by Robrecht Beliën and Geert De Blende in accelerating the group’s development. With one acquisition in Germany (Lingua-World in June 2023) and three acquisitions in the Netherlands and Poland (PassworD in 2020, Translavic in 2021, and AVB in 2023), ElaN generates sales of over €48m, has 170 employees in 5 offices, serves around 2,500 clients, and has the growth momentum and operational efficiency to play an active role in consolidating its market in Europe.