Van Houten & Co. is a private investment and advisory practice based in Berlin. It follows three and a half years of hands-on building at the helm of Deutsche InfraSoft, with the intention of doing that same entrepreneurial work across several companies. The practice rests on two arms.
Investing. The focus is on succession situations in the German-speaking Mittelstand: businesses with established customer relationships, a defensible market position, and a team that has built something worth keeping. Majority stakes or significant minorities, held for the long term. No fund, no fund life, no distribution clock — decisions are made by the shareholder, not by a multi-stage committee.
Advising. Where capital is not — or not yet — the right instrument, we take on mandates. Four areas: company building and scaling, transaction advisory from preparation through integration, major projects and transformations, and special situations and leadership. The claim behind it fits in one sentence: we have run what we advise.
The two reinforce each other. Mandates are frequently combined with an equity stake — a structure that keeps incentives honest. Anyone who works with us as an advisor knows how we would act as an owner. Often we are one.
Conversations with owners considering a handover or a mandate require no process and no paperwork. Whether they lead further is a question of fit, on both sides.