EMK Capital buys Project Informatica from H.I.G. to boost growth.

EMK Capital has reached a definitive agreement to acquire majority control of Italy’s Project Informatica from an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, marking another private equity-led consolidation in European IT services. The deal, which remains subject to regulatory approval, will see the company’s founders and H.I.G. reinvesting alongside EMK to fund the next growth phase.

Founded in 1990, the group operating under the WeAreProject brand has become a national leader in IT infrastructure services. Under H.I.G.’s ownership the business completed seven buy-and‑build transactions, quadrupled revenues and now reports more than €450 million in annual sales and a workforce exceeding 700 employees. Those metrics underpin EMK’s strategy to create a larger Italian consolidator in cybersecurity, managed services and cloud solutions.

H.I.G., which manages roughly $70 billion of capital globally, said the transaction delivered a strong return for its investors. Raffaele Legnani and Giovanni Guglielmi, H.I.G.’s Italy team, highlighted the role of active ownership in shaping the platform and said they will remain invested to support management’s roadmap.

Project Informatica’s founder and CEO, Alberto Ghisleni, stressed the importance of continuity: management will keep a material stake and collaborate with EMK to accelerate product development in areas such as SOC/NOC managed services, hybrid cloud networking and AI-enabled security operations. The company’s service mix positions it to capture rising demand from mid-market and enterprise customers modernising critical infrastructure.

From EMK’s perspective, the transaction fits a clear consolidation thesis. Fabio Cadeddu, Partner in EMK’s Milan office, said the firm plans to back further tuck-ins and invest in cross‑selling capabilities to expand addressable market share. The move reflects a broader European trend: specialist IT services platforms are attracting PE capital as clients shift spend from legacy outsourcing to security, cloud migration and AI-driven operations.

Italy’s IT services market is estimated to be worth several tens of billions of euros and continues to grow as organisations prioritise cybersecurity and hybrid cloud. For investors, the sector offers attractive recurring revenue profiles and margin expansion through scale and automation. EMK’s acquisition of Project Informatica follows other recent PE plays in the region and underlines appetite for platform roll‑ups that can consolidate fragmented local markets.