Native Instruments and EMH Partners selling majority ownership to Francisco Partners

With Francisco Partners, NI is planning to improve on its product experiences

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Native Instruments Maschine laptop

Image: Native Instruments

Renowned Berlin-based music technology company, Native Instruments, has announced an agreement with EMH Partners and Francisco Partners to sell the majority of NI shares to Francisco Partners. The firm specialises in technology investment and will support NI in improving its product experiences. Both EMH Partners and the founding shareholders will continue their involvement in NI’s operations as minority shareholders.

The agreement comes four years after EMH Partners invested €50 million into Native Instruments, with another investment in 2020 to gain majority ownership in the brand. Its investment led to 1.5 million monthly active users on NI by the end of 2020 – more than double the original number – along with a 60 per cent increase on NI’s music creation tools.

Industry partners on NI’s technology platforms also increased by 60 per cent, “cementing the company’s global technology leadership”, the music tech company says in its press release.

In 2019, NI underwent a global restructuring that saw 20 per cent of its workforce laid off in the interest of “centralising global business operations”, it explained. In 2020, CEO Daniel Haver and President Mate Galic stepped down, with Constantin Koehncke now CEO of NI.

With Francisco Partners, NI says it “intends on enhancing its product experiences”, building on the company’s technological innovations and connections within the community and industry, in a bid to create more seamless experiences for music creators. This will include more accessible points of entry for all levels of producers, artists, DJs and sound designers.

Constantin Koehncke says: “There’s never been a more exciting time in music, with more creators producing more high-quality music all around the world. We’re thrilled to team up with Francisco Partners to enter the next phase of our journey, combining their global resources and expertise with our passionate team, deep relationships within music and proven track record of technical innovation. Together we can realize our mission to empower and inspire the global community of music creators and help them to unlock their creative potential.

Thanks to the support of EMH Partners over the past years we were able to further reinforce and expand our position as the leading digital music creation company, and now look forward to working with Francisco Partners, EMH Partners and the founding shareholders to continue on this amazing journey.”

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