Copenhagen Optimization agrees sale of majority stake to InfraVia

Copenhagen, Denmark, 3rd December 2024 – Copenhagen Optimization, the world’s leading optimisation platform for airport operators, has entered into a purchase agreement with InfraVia, a leading independent private equity firm, in which InfraVia will acquire a majority stake in Copenhagen Optimization.

Copenhagen Optimization has made the transaction with InfraVia with the view to accelerating commercial development, and enabling the business to augment and broaden the scope of its software at a faster pace. Under the continued leadership of Co-CEOs Anders Dohn and Kasper Hounsgaard, Copenhagen Optimization will remain committed to its vision and core values, ensuring stability as the company embarks on a new journey of growth with InfraVia. The transaction remains subject to customary regulatory approval in Denmark and is expected to close early 2025.

Copenhagen Optimization develops a software-as-a-service platform which optimises airport passenger and baggage operations from check-in to boarding. The company’s flagship product, Better Airport, is composed of nine modules and allows its clients to accurately forecast passenger and baggage flows within their premises and consequently optimise their operations across several different functional areas such as check-in, baggage sorting, security scanning, or boarding gates. Through more efficient staffing and equipment allocation, airport operations teams can optimise revenues (as passengers are spending more time in retail areas, or by slotting in more flights in a given terminal) and decrease cost base (through more efficient staffing), leading to a direct and traceable return on investment. The product’s value has been demonstrated time and again in the past; the company has never lost a client and notably kept growing during 2020 and 2021 while the Covid crisis put air travel to a halt.

The company was founded by Kasper Hounsgaard and Anders Dohn as a specialized airport consultancy. It then rapidly transitioned to an innovative and disruptive airport operations management software provider, recognised by major airports worldwide for its superior solutions, best-in-class support, and strong value perception.

Copenhagen Optimization has grown quickly (c. 50% 2019-23 CAGR) and very efficiently since then, and now works with more than 40 airports globally, including renowned customers such as London Heathrow (UK), Singapore Changi (Singapore) and JFK Terminal 4 (USA).

Anders Dohn, Co-CEO of Copenhagen Optimization said; “It has been of paramount importance for us to find a long-term partner who aligns with us from a cultural perspective. We felt the cultural fit with InfraVia from our first meetings and this was strengthened throughout the due diligence process. With InfraVia, we get a partner who can help us avoid the pitfalls of scaling while we still maintain autonomy to grow Copenhagen Optimization successfully.”

Kasper Hounsgaard, Co-CEO of Copenhagen Optimization, added; “This milestone reflects the hard work and dedication of our talented team who have been instrumental in building a world-class product. We have always been committed to providing our clients with unmatched value through our Better Airport platform – a key reason for getting to where we are today. InfraVia’s investment and partnership are a testament to the strength of our product and team. With their support, we are excited to further accelerate our impact and reach in the global airport industry.”

Nicolas Slim, partner at InfraVia said “Our investment in Copenhagen Optimization perfectly embodies our growth strategy while leveraging on our longstanding success in infrastructure. We are extremely happy to partner with Kasper, Anders, and their team for the next phase of growth and will leverage our full capabilities to help them grow their footprint to a multiple of the current one.”

Romain Favrelle, director at InfraVia added; “We were very impressed with the team’s fine-grained knowledge of airport operations, and how they have built such a broad and ROI-driven product over a comparatively short timeframe. We fully subscribe to the team’s vision of integrated airport operations and are very much looking forward to supporting the incoming acceleration.”

Copenhagen Optimization was supported by PwC as corporate finance advisor and Bird & Bird as legal counsel throughout the transaction.