Press release: Seed investment and strategic partnership

thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions and S.D.L. Süddeutsche Leasing AG acquire a stake in the fintech company cap-on:

▪ Joint development of digital financing and utilization concepts in the industrial goods business
▪ Establishment of "equipment-as-a-service" as a capital-efficient business model for OEMs
▪ Expansion of the service offering in plant engineering through platform-based financing and billing services

The body shop specialist, thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions, and the financial services provider, S.D.L. Süddeutsche Leasing AG, are acquiring a stake in cap-on GmbH, a startup company from Bavaria specializing in digital "pay per use" services.
Together the companies aim to establish new financing and digital usage concepts in the capital-intensive plant and industrial goods business in the future. thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions and S.D.L. Süddeutsche Leasing AG have acquired a minority stake in cap-on for this purpose and are advising the startup company on the design of its financing and service offering for industrial customers.

cap-on will use the capital raised in the financing round in particular for the expansion of the interdisciplinary team and the further technical development of the IOT platform solution. Philipp Lenz, CEO of cap-on GmbH: "Through the even closer cooperation with thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions in the future, we will benefit not only from the outstanding expertise in body and plant construction, but also from the possibility of developing our innovative financing and service models directly at the customer. At the same time, with S.D.L. Süddeutsche Leasing AG joining us as a BaFin-approved financing partner, we can draw on decades of experience in financial engineering and refinancing."

Falk Nüßle, CEO of thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions: "As a plant manufacturer and at the same time operator of production facilities for body construction, we as a company can benefit from new capital-extensive financing models. At the same time we want to expand our business model as a plant manufacturer in the long term to include new digital services such as pay-per-use or equipment-as-a-service. To this end, we bring with us the knowledge of complex machine and plant control and cap-on the know-how for new financing models and digital billing systems."

The business idea behind "pay-per-use" or "equipment-as-a-service" is based on the fact that industrial companies no longer have to finance and purchase their production equipment themselves, but instead purchase specific production and labor services from a service provider. The scope of service also includes other services such as installation, maintenance and spare parts supply. The service provider guarantees the availability of the equipment. The industrial customer benefits from less risk in long-term investment decisions, lower commitment of funds, capex to opex, and greater flexibility in production control. The prerequisite for such a business model is the digital networking of production processes and machine data with intelligent financing and billing processes as an IOT platform solution.

"Through our investment in cap-on, we are bringing together all the capabilities it takes to successfully take an equipment-as-a-service business model on the road. New financing models, the use of state-of-the-art IOT data analytics in the production environment and digital billing processes. We are convinced that this platform-based business model will revolutionize the production of industrial goods, as it is also scalable to other areas, such as capital-intensive IT applications," explains Nüßle.

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About cap-on
cap-on GmbH, a fintech founded in 2021, develops digital pay per use and asset as a service solutions for industrial customers. In cap-on's full-service offering, assets based on IoT data can be used flexibly and paid per use. Thanks to the off-balance sheet financing structure and data-based risk management, users benefit from liquidity-preserving investment opportunities even in volatile market conditions. The cap-on platform handles the entire financing process digitally, from contract and credit management to asset management. cap-on relies on intelligent data analyses for the real-time evaluation of users, assets, market situations and forecasts of future credit risks.

About thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions
thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions is an integrated body-in-white specialist. Its product and service portfolio ranges from prototyping, tooling and plant engineering to volume production of body components. The company has five development and production sites in Germany and a further six abroad. In total thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions currently employs 2,200 people worldwide. The business unit is part of the automotive supply and service segment (Automotive Technology) of the thyssenkrupp group. In the last fiscal year this segment generated sales of €4.5 billion.

About S.D.L. Süddeutsche Leasing AG
S.D.L. Süddeutsche Leasing AG is a family-run leasing company based in Ulm-Elchingen. S.D.L. Süddeutsche Leasing AG implements in particular large-scale projects in the manufacturing industry, automotive as well as mechanical and plant engineering and is a company registered with the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) in accordance with Section 64 (2) of the German Banking Act (KWG). S.D.L. Süddeutschen Leasing AG's customers include innovative start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises, and DAX-listed corporations.

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Contact:
cap-on GmbH
Philipp Lenz Co-Founder & CEO
+49 731 176626942
philipp.lenz@cap-on.de
www.cap-on.de
Address: Donaustraße 1, D-89275 Elchingen
Register Court: Memmingen HRB 18293

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