Translink Corporate Finance acted as financial advisor to Custobar on its sale to Ilkka Oyj

Translink Corporate Finance Finland acted as exclusive financial advisor to the shareholders of Custobar Oyj on the sale of the entire share capital to Ilkka Oyj.

Ilkka Oyj, one of Northern Europe’s leading marketing and technology companies

Ilkka Oyj is a marketing and technology group listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. It offers professional, data and technology services in digital marketing and communications.

Custobar, experts in marketing automation in omnichannel retailers

Custobar is the leading customer data platform (CDP) and marketing automation solution for omnichannel retail in Finland, with revenue of €5.3 million in 2025, of which approximately 30% was generated internationally.

Founded in 2014, Custobar built its own platform to address marketing automation in omnichannel retail. It combines customer data from online and in-store channels and automates emails, text messages, social media campaigns and on-site banners and pop-ups on EU-based infrastructure, with more than 70 integrations to adjacent retail systems.

Custobar turns first-party retail data into automated customer campaigns

Around half of Finland’s listed retail companies are Custobar customers, and the company also serves omnichannel retailers in the other Nordic countries, the Baltics, the Benelux and the DACH region, with approximately 200 corporate customers in total, served by around 20 employees. More than 90% of revenue is recurring, and international sales are currently growing faster than the domestic business. Revenue totalled €5.3 million in 2025 with EBITDA of €0.6 million, and the company has continued its profitable growth in 2026.

The entire shareholder base sold, and Custobar continues under its own brand

The selling shareholders comprised the founders, institutional investors, minority shareholders, and option holders. Custobar continues under its own brand as part of Ilkka’s Data and Technology business area. With the acquisition, Ilkka strengthens its position as one of the leading marketing and technology companies in Northern Europe.

Comments from Custobar

Tatu Kuivalahti, co-founder of Custobar, commented: “We wanted an owner who understands technology and software and with whom our customers and our people are in safe hands. Translink Corporate Finance mapped the alternatives broadly, in Finland and abroad, and kept the process controlled enough that we could run the business alongside it. They understood how a SaaS business works and what its value is built on, and they knew which terms were worth holding on to in the negotiations.”

Jakob Storå, founding partner of Superhero Capital, an early investor in Custobar, commented: “Custobar has grown profitably with very little outside funding, and our objective was to find an owner willing to take the international expansion further. In Ilkka the company found exactly that. Translink Corporate Finance did a great job. Early in our advisor selection process, they stood out for their SaaS expertise and excitement to work on the project, which they continued to demonstrate throughout the process. We felt we were in good hands, as Translink Corporate Finance prepared the company, structured the process and took it through to closing.”