Osborne Clarke advises Expedition Growth Capital on EUR 11 million growth investment in AI workforce management platform Nesto

Osborne Clarke has advised growth equity investor Expedition Growth Capital on its EUR 11 million investment in Nesto Software GmbH, a Karlsruhe-based provider of an AI-driven workforce management platform for the hospitality industry.

With the growth capital, Nesto plans to accelerate product development, deepen its AI capabilities and data platform, and drive expansion across existing and new European markets. A particular focus will be on further developing NORA, Nesto’s AI assistant and agent framework, which supports restaurant managers in handling operational and administrative workflows.

Nesto provides multi-site restaurant groups with a cloud-based workforce management solution that combines demand forecasting, constraint-aware scheduling, HR workflow automation and payroll preparation in a single platform. By integrating data from point-of-sale systems, suppliers, payroll providers and other sources, Nesto helps operators optimise labour deployment, reduce administrative overhead and improve compliance with labour regulations. The platform is already used in over 3,000 restaurant locations, managing more than 100,000 employee shifts per day, and serves leading brands such as McDonald’s, L’Osteria and Lagardère.

Expedition Growth Capital is a London- and Boston-based growth equity firm that backs bootstrapped European software businesses with proven product-market fit and more than €5 million in annual recurring revenue. The Nesto transaction aligns with Expedition’s strategy of partnering with profitable or near-profitable vertical software companies that deliver measurable operational impact for their customers.

“This investment in Nesto illustrates how growth equity investors are supporting the next generation of European B2B software champions – in this case by backing an AI-native platform that tackles a real operational pain point in the hospitality sector,” says Till‑Manuel Saur, Partner at Osborne Clarke. “The transaction also underlines the continued attractiveness of the German software market for specialist international investors who are looking for capital-efficient, customer-centric business models.”

Comprehensive advice on corporate, tech and regulatory aspects of the investment

Osborne Clarke provided Expedition Growth Capital with comprehensive advice on the structuring and implementation of the growth investment in Nesto. The advice covered, in particular, the negotiation of the investment documentation, governance and shareholder arrangements, as well as support on employment, IP, IT, AI and data protection issues relevant to Nesto’s AI-driven workforce management platform.

The Osborne Clarke team advising Expedition Growth Capital was led by Till‑Manuel Saur and further comprised of Vanessa Petre Linbenciuc, Dr Paul Rhode, Robert Marx, Dr Espen Schneider, Pauline Niggemann (all Corporate), Alexander Schlicht, Johanna Reiland, Anna Lehner (all Employment), Dr Lina Böcker, Maximilian Bodamer, Tim Schmetzer, Falk Reuter, Veda Frese, Dr Florian Eisenmenger (all IT / AI / Data Protection), Robert Briske, Duygu Üge (both IP), Ann‑Kristin Lochmann, Len Campino Wierwille (both Tax), Laura Valeske and Zübeyde Aldemir (both Legal Project Management).