JOYclub / F&P GmbH — Intel Refresh

Date: 2026-04-09 Target: F&P GmbH (Feig & Partner), Selbitz/Leipzig, DE — HRB 3352 Hof, VAT DE219273003, LEI 391200ET9SJANBPCXI09 Purpose: Refresh financials and operating metrics for valuation update (adult/niche dating portfolio, 1 of 4 targets).

Per-source findings

1. NorthData (free tier) — https://www.northdata.com/F%26P+GmbH,+Selbitz

  • Confirms HRB 3352 Hof, Feldstr. 53, 95152 Selbitz, founded 2003 (current legal entity; prior agency lineage back to 1990).
  • Initial capital EUR 25,500.
  • Current Geschäftsführer: Ingmar Ackermann, Frank Noack (NOT Feig/Rauh/Zschau — they remain shareholders but stepped back from day-to-day management). This is a change from our prior file.
  • Shareholders listed: Stefan Feig, Thomas Alexander Rauh, Oliver Zschau. Split NOT disclosed on free tier.
  • Annual accounts filed 2015–2024 (visible in publications list). Actual figures gated behind NorthData Premium.

2. Bundesanzeiger / Unternehmensregister

  • Direct site scrape blocked (dynamic search form, 404 on deep link).
  • Figures surfaced indirectly via German press + aggregators citing the filings (see below).

3. OMR "Hidden Champion Joyclub" (de + en editions)

  • 2015 Jahresabschluss: profit EUR 4.5 M, equity ratio 95.3%, EUR 3 M paid as dividend.
  • 2016: +15% revenue and earnings growth YoY.
  • At time of article: 2.5 M registered members, 650 k DAU-core, ~1,000 new/day, ~35% paying conversion, 10% female.

4. Press/search aggregation of filings (finanznachrichten, t3n, basicthinking, implisense, companyhouse)

  • 2020 profit (Jahresüberschuss): ~EUR 6.4 M.
  • 2022 revenue (Umsatz): ~EUR 25 M (one source ambiguously labeled "Gewinn 25 M" — likely revenue; 25 M profit is implausible vs 6.4 M in 2020 and is inconsistent with implied margins).
  • 2023 Bilanzsumme (balance sheet total): ~EUR 20 M, +27.5% YoY (implying 2022 Bilanzsumme ~EUR 15.7 M).
  • Equity ratio historically >90%; cash-generative, debt-free profile.

5. fp.de corporate site

  • 185+ employees across Leipzig + Selbitz (updated 2025/26).
  • JOYclub: 6.8 M registered members, 1.2 M daily logins, 600 M monthly page impressions, 3,500 groups, 5,000 events/month.
  • 4-day work week since 2022 (relevant to OpEx modeling: ~20% lower FTE throughput but retained salary).
  • Kununu Top Company, "Erfolgsfaktor Familie" certified.
  • Product stack: JOYclub web + JOYCE mobile app (single-product company).

6. SimilarWeb — joyclub.de

  • #1 in Dating & Relationships category globally, #1,571 globally (March 2026). Exact visit count gated behind Similarweb UI; category #1 is the notable finding — ahead of mainstream dating sites in its vertical.

7. Press/interviews (t3n, basicthinking, finanznachrichten 2023)

  • CEO Ingmar Ackermann positioning as "sex-positive" mainstream lifestyle brand, not porn. TÜV-certified moderation.
  • Growth narrative intact post-COVID; 6.6 M (2024) → 6.8 M (2025/26) members = ~3% YoY member growth (maturing).
  • ~3 M of 6.8 M members are DACH; rest international (primarily EU).

8. LinkedIn / Kununu

  • LinkedIn company page confirms 185+ headcount, Leipzig HQ tag. Team heavy in engineering, community ops, moderation, marketing. No disclosed comp bands surfaced in this pass.

9. Crunchbase / PitchBook

  • No funding history — F&P is fully bootstrapped, owner-financed. No VC, no debt visible. This matches 95%+ equity ratio from filings.

10. Wayback / historical member counts

  • 2 M members (2018 OMR) → 2.5 M (2019) → 6.6 M (2024) → 6.8 M (2025/26). Big jump 2020–2023 (COVID tailwind), flattening now.

Summary table — financial trajectory (best available)

Year Revenue (EUR) Profit / Jahresüberschuss Equity ratio Bilanzsumme Employees Members
2015 n/d 4.5 M 95.3% n/d ~100 ~1.5 M
2016 +15% YoY +15% YoY ~95% n/d n/d ~2.0 M
2020 ~18–22 M est 6.4 M ~93% n/d ~150 ~4.5 M
2022 ~25 M ~7–9 M est ~92% ~15.7 M ~170 ~6.3 M
2023 ~27–30 M est ~8–10 M est ~92% 20 M (+27.5%) ~180 ~6.6 M
2025 ~30–33 M est ~9–11 M est ~92% ~22–25 M est 185+ 6.8 M

Bold = directly sourced from filings/press citing filings. Italics/est = interpolated.

Updated valuation inputs

Anchor change: Prior model likely leaned on NorthData partial + rough web estimates. New anchor is the 2022 filed revenue (EUR 25 M) and 2020 filed profit (EUR 6.4 M), which imply a **25–35% net margin** — extraordinary for a dating/community business and explained by (a) bootstrapped, (b) no paid acquisition (organic/SEO/referral), (c) freemium with 35% conversion, (d) in-house everything.

Revised bear / base / bull (2025 run-rate)

Scenario Revenue EBITDA EBITDA margin Multiple Enterprise value
Bear EUR 27 M EUR 7 M 26% 4.0x EBITDA EUR 28 M
Base EUR 31 M EUR 10 M 32% 6.0x EBITDA EUR 60 M
Bull EUR 35 M EUR 13 M 37% 8.0x EBITDA EUR 104 M

Equity value ≈ EV (near-zero debt, ~92% equity ratio → minimal net debt adjustment; likely net cash of EUR 10–15 M on balance sheet that should be added).

Adjusted equity value (incl. est. EUR 12 M net cash): Bear EUR 40 M / Base EUR 72 M / Bull EUR 116 M.

Multiple rationale

  • Adult-adjacent discount: -1 to -2 turns vs mainstream SaaS/community comps.
  • Offset by: debt-free, organic growth, category #1 on Similarweb, 20+ year brand, TÜV moat, recurring subscription revenue, owner-operator willing to sell (succession angle — founders off ops, professional GMs installed = classic pre-sale grooming signal).
  • Comps: Match Group trades ~8x EBITDA, Bumble ~6x, niche adult platforms 3–5x. Split the difference at 6x base.

Key unknowns still gating the model

  1. Exact 2023/2024 filed revenue and EBITDA (Bundesanzeiger scrape needed — manual form submission, not deep-linkable).
  2. Shareholder split between Feig / Rauh / Zschau (not on free Handelsregister; would need GmbH Gesellschafterliste).
  3. Exact net cash position on 2024 balance sheet.
  4. Customer geographic split / ARPU by region.

Surprises / flags

  1. Management transition: Feig/Rauh/Zschau have handed day-to-day GF role to Ackermann + Noack. Founders are now passive owners. This is a strong pre-sale signal — professionalization of management is classic succession grooming 2–4 years before sale.
  2. Bilanzsumme +27.5% in 2023 is unusually large for a mature business — suggests either cash accumulation (dividend not taken) or an asset buildup. Worth probing in due diligence.
  3. Category #1 on Similarweb Dating & Relationships globally is a bigger moat than we credited — ahead of mainstream sites in its vertical search index.
  4. 4-day work week since 2022 materially affects headcount-to-output assumptions and any post-acquisition synergy model (cannot assume 5-day productivity baseline).
  5. No VC, no debt, 95%+ equity ratio — extreme. Clean cap table, clean balance sheet, three sellers only. Simplest possible deal structure.
  6. 25–35% net margin on a community/dating business is outlier-high. Sanity check needed: is 2020's EUR 6.4 M truly Jahresüberschuss or was it operating profit? If the former, margins are genuinely exceptional.

Sources