August saw 12 PE-backed acquisitions across Europe, an decrease of 20% compared to the same month last year.
Number of announced PE-backed acquisitions over the past 12 months*
- Number of PE-backed Acquisitions
Roll-Up Market Insights
With 12 acquisitions, the number of PE-backed acquisitions decreased by 40% compared to the previous month.
With 9 acquisitions, the UK presents the country with most PE-backed acquisitions.
In August, all active acquirers conducted one investments.
FinTech (8), Software (5) and Marketing (3) are the most mentioned acquired industries.
This month’s case study: ETL Systems – Buying its way to Europe’s satellite RF champion
Founded in 1984 in Madley, UK, ETL Systems design and manufacture RF equipment for satellite operators, teleports, governments, defence organisations.
Backed by cbpe ETL Systems has been pursuing an active buy-and-build strategy, announcing 3 acquisitions since 2024.
- ETL Systems' Acquisitions
Its latest move came in August 2026, with the acquisition of Amphinicy Technologies (founded in Bereldange, Luxembourg). Amphinicy Technologies’is a global software provider for companies operating in the satellite industry.
ETL Systems is a UK-based designer and manufacturer of RF distribution equipment for the satellite ground segment, backed by CBPE Capital. Since 2020 it has pursued a buy-and-build strategy, adding complementary hardware and software capabilities to give customers a complete, end-to-end solution between the antenna and the modem.
Buy and build: Strategy to build a satellite ground segment platform
On August 3rd 2026 ETL Systems, backed by CBPE Capital, acquired Amphinicy Technologies, a software specialist for the SATCOM and Earth Observation markets. The deal is ETL’s first software acquisition and extends ETL from RF hardware into the virtualised, software-defined ground segment across Europe and beyond, with Amphinicy continuing to operate autonomously and vendor-agnostically within the group.
Case study:
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In 1984, ETL Systems was founded in the UK, designing and manufacturing RF distribution equipment for the satellite ground segment — building the foundation for an end-to-end platform between the antenna and the modem.
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Since 2020, ETL Systems has pursued an acquisition-led growth strategy, taking on a significant investment from CBPE Capital and setting out a buy-and-build programme across complementary hardware and software capabilities — reaching new products, markets and technology depth across the SATCOM, EO and defence sectors.
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Between 2019-2026, ETL Systems broadened the platform organically and through M&A — acquiring Atlantic Microwave (2019), Spacepath Communications (2024) and Canada’s IRT Technologies (2025) to complete its end-to-end RF offering, and making its first software acquisition with Amphinicy Technologies (2026) to enter the virtualised ground segment.
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These moves enable ETL Systems to scale an end-to-end satellite ground segment platform by combining proven RF hardware with Amphinicy’s software products (Blink, Monica and ViSAGE) — extending from the antenna-to-modem chain into the software-defined, virtualised ground segment across SATCOM, EO and 5G NTN while keeping Amphinicy as an autonomous, vendor-agnostic brand.
*All data from CrunchBase, as of September 2, 2026.
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