Ryte: Top stars sell their SEO startup Ryte

The founders are part of the German startup establishment and after 12 years they are now announcing their exit. The buyer is a Nasdaq-listed US company.

One is well-known as a – sorry – colorful character, the second is a somewhat reserved but present expert, the third has gained experience at well-known tech companies and has been retired from operational business for a while. The founding team of the Munich SEO start-up Ryte was very differently positioned from the start. From the former's point of view, this was also one of the reasons why the team was able to work well together – Ryte was founded twelve years ago, the company used to operate under the name Onpage.org. Not everything always went smoothly, the corporate culture had to be adapted along the way and there were tough decisions to be made during the pandemic.

Now Andreas Bruckschlögl, his co-founders Marcus Tandler and Niels Dörje, and the investors have sold the company. It was “wild weeks,” Bruckschlögl told Gründerszene. And by that he means the talks with the new owner Semrush, a listed US company that has been the sole shareholder of the Munich startup since last Thursday. When asked, Bruckschlögl did not want to give any concrete figures on the deal. Since its founding, 13.4 million euros have flowed into the company. The last financing round of 6.4 million euros took place in 2021, with the Flixbus founders, among others, joining in. According to the commercial register, the three founders last held a one-third stake in Ryte, with Bruckschlögl, as managing director, holding the largest share package at 17.4 percent.

Focus on international business

He is very happy with the result: Ryte, with its current 55 employees, will initially remain as a brand and as a company. He, Bruckschlögl, will also remain managing director, and his co-founders will also remain on board in various roles. The aim is to bring together the technologies and – at least as important – data points from both companies in order to improve the respective products. “A lot has to fit for a sale like this,” says Bruckschlögl. Ryte has so far been active primarily in German-speaking countries, but international opportunities should soon arise.

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The deal was brought about not least by Searchmetrics founder Marcus Tober. “We have been in contact with Marcus for many years. Two years ago we found out that he was building an exciting enterprise platform at Semrush. A few months later we spoke about it for the first time.” Things became more concrete in the last six or seven months when we considered how the two companies could fit together. The teams then put their heads together on an almost daily basis for the last 15 weeks or so.

“Now translate the vision into action”

In the next few weeks, the focus will be on fleshing out the integration of both platforms and teams. Semrush, which is listed on the US technology exchange Nasdaq and employs well over a thousand people, also has a small team in Germany. “Exciting weeks lie ahead of us in which we have to translate our shared vision into action,” says Bruckschlögl.

The fact that the Ryte frontman is a well-known figure in the scene is probably also due to the fact that the SEO company is not his only company. On the one hand, there is the Bits & Pretzels startup conference, which takes place annually during the Munich Oktoberfest and which he started together with serial founder angel investor Felix Haas and Aboalarm founder Bernd Storm van's Gravesande. On the other hand, there is the marketing agency Ephny. The fact that all of this can work in parallel is due to a clear management focus. “And for me, that continues to be Ryte,” says Bruckschlögl, adding that at both Bits & Pretzels and Ephny, this role is now taken on by others.

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