+++ Press release +++
The Payments Group Holding returning to its roots
and changing its name to German Tech Holding
- Opportunistic venture capital investments in Germany
- Focus on Artificial Intelligence and BioTech
- Expansion of stakes in Softmax AI and Cognicare AI
- Substantial investment portfolio and further assets
- Continuation of talks with the SGT Group
Frankfurt/Main, 27 May 2026 – The Payments Group Holding (PGH), a holding company based in Frankfurt am Main that was founded in 2012 and renamed in August 2024, is returning to its roots as a leading German venture capital provider under the name German Startups Group. It will therefore propose to its annual general meeting on 19 August 2026, the company be renamed German Tech Holding GmbH & Co. KGaA and change its ticker symbol to GTH. During its active period as a venture capitalist, it invested with great success in German startups such as Chrono24, Delivery Hero, Fiagon, MisterSpex, Remerge and Scalable Capital, among others. To this day, it holds stakes in startups such as AuctionTech, SoundCloud and Thinksurance. Going forward, PGH intends to focus on such early-stage startups that require only a manageable amount of capital while at the same time offering a high degree of planning reliability. Both the recent ongoing and the prospective opportunities meet this premise.
PGH currently has particularly promising opportunities in the fields of artificial intelligence and BioTech. Cognicare AI, a spin-off from PGH’s stakeholding in the company builder Softmax AI, addresses the structurally growing market for elderly care facilities with highly demanded artificial intelligence applications. It has successfully commenced operations in the first care facilities over the past few weeks. In the course of this, PGH increased its indirect stake in May 2026 from 18% to 23%. Due to successful customer acquisition, Cognicare AI expects dynamic growth in 2026, which should enable the company to break even in the near future. From 2027 onwards, the company expects revenues in the millions and high EBITDA margins. PGH has also recently increased its stake in Softmax AI, from 25% to 32%. Softmax AI plans several additional spin-offs over the next twelve months for various product families that are already in an advanced stage of development, targeting dedicated customer groups. These include an AI computer vision tool for civil engineering to enable efficient assessment and documentation of structures, in particular transport infrastructure, as well as a range of AI education applications (EdTech) for professional training, further education and recruitment training currently under development. Additionally, an AI voice box for children is planned, that engages in natural dialogue with them, patiently and knowledgeably answering their countless questions and thus imparting a wide range of knowledge and foreign languages in a playful way. Softmax AI has in the meantime succeeded in advancing these significantly towards market readiness. PGH assumes that it will be able to gradually increase its indirect stake in such spin-offs.
In the BioTech sector, PGH expects to get access to a unique early-stage investment opportunity that was presented in its press release of 16 January 2026, in the coming months.
In addition, PGH continues to focus on the realisation of its assets. The key focus areas are the 35% stake in the strongly growing AuctionTech as well as receivables against the SGT Capital Group in the amount of 6.2 million euro. With regard to the ongoing discussions with the SGT Group mentioned on 27 March 2026, it has been agreed to maintain confidentiality until solutions are reached.
AuctionTech is the European market leader with its SaaS-based white-label solution PropNow for digital bidding and offer processes in the real estate market. Significant progress has been made in recent weeks with its recent promising international growth initiative in the global high-end luxury real estate segment and is now on the verge of implementation. It should open up additional scaling and value creation potential and also generate exit opportunities, without PGH actively seeking or pursuing such.
PGH continues to hold 34,901,800 treasury shares. In PGH’s view, the net asset value (NAV) per share, including off-balance sheet assets and based on the currently outstanding 11,400,000 shares, is likely to be in excess of 1.50 euro and thus significantly higher than the current share price.
The Company will publish its financial results for the fiscal year 2025 on 30 June 2026. For the full year 2025, management expects a loss in line with the forecast published in the 2025 interim report.
About The Payments Group Holding
The Payments Group Holding (PGH) is a holding company founded in 2012, rebranded in August 2024 and headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. The Company focuses on existing assets as well as on the new opportunities and fields of activity announced in its press releases on 13 December 2025 and 16 January 2026 including the operation of an AI-focused company builder called Softmax AI GmbH together with AI experts, in which it holds a 32% stake, and the spin-offs resulting from this. In addition, PGH holds from its history as a leading German venture capital provider under the German Startups Group brand a heritage VC-portfolio of minority stakes in partly promising German startups via its wholly owned subsidiary German Startups Group VC GmbH.
Investor Relations Contact
Rosenberg Strategic Communications
Alexander Schmidt
[email protected]
More information at https://tpgholding.com and https://www.payments-group.com/