Continest Technologies
Continest - developing and manufacturing innovative, foldable modular containers - has received a total of €10Mn in a syndicated investment rounds, used for further expanding geographically and increasing their production capacity. Absolvo advised Continest in both funding rounds.
Overview
In just a few years, Continest Technologies, a company developing and manufacturing foldable containerized technologies, has become a global disruptor and market leader in a traditionally low innovation industry. Their innovative containers are utilized in approximately 30 countries worldwide in the event, health care and defence industries. With the support of Absolvo’s advisory team, they have secured 10 million EUR funding in 2 rounds to finance their growth ambitions and are continuously growing globally.
From the beginnings to global markets
Following the acquisition of a Dutch intellectual property (IP), which became the cornerstone of their product development, Continest debuted at the internationally recognized Sziget Festival in Budapest, Hungary in 2017 with their mobile infrastructure solutions. 2 years later, in 2019, the entire service facility of the ski world championships in Sweden was built upon their containerized infrastructure. By 2025 their solutions have been used in 20+ countries globally, were present at the largest European and global festivals (e.g. Glastonbury, Live Nation events, etc.), sports events (Paris Olympics, UEFA Euro 2020 and 2024, Formula-E, just to name a few) and they have also equipped global defence and humanitarian organisations with special containerized solutions.
The technology allows operators to fold and unfold a standard sized container in just a few minutes, thus reducing logistic costs, storage space and CO2-emmissions by 80%. Originally servicing the event industry, after the COVID-pandemic Continest has widened their product portfolio, developing modular and scalable solutions for the defence and the medical industries (mobile COVID-test laboratories), too.
Fundraising and Strategic Advisory by Absolvo
To support its growth trajectory,
Continest raised €10 million through two investment rounds, both led and managed by Absolvo’s transactional advisory team. Beyond capital raising, Absolvo played a key role in shaping the company’s strategic direction and executing its go-to-market strategy.
Our contributions included:
- Full support in fundraising advisory: managing both investment rounds, securing a total of €10 million to fuel growth.
- Strategic advisory: as part of the preparations for growth capital raise, Absolvo supported the structuring and fine-tuning of Continest’s diverse go-to-market strategy – covering multiple industries and several continents (including Europe, USA, Australia, the Middle East and even some parts of Africa and Asia); our advisory role included structuring international growth plans, identifying and prioritizing key market segments, with hands-on support in the execution.
- Financial planning: our experts have built the 5-year span financial plan together with the management of the company that not only served to support the investment deals, but also helped to structure strategic plans and still serves as a basis for financial planning and controlling
“It was a long journey with full of challenges, but there was no doubt about the success with such a great team!”
– said our M&A advisory team leader of Continest’s, Lénárd Horgos.
“By nature, venture capital is not primarily focused on investing into hardware and manufacturing companies, but Continest is a particularly good case study on how to grow a manufacturing company with rock-solid commitment to a EUR 10M revenue business in a few years’ time and make it an attractive target for investors”
Navigating Challenges: Strategic Shifts and Market Expansion
Continest’s initial business model relied on contract manufacturing; however, operational hurdles and market shifts necessitated a pivot towards in-house production. This transition enabled the company to enhance production flexibility, improve cost efficiency, and meet growing market demands. In 2021, the company inaugurated its first container factory in Székesfehérvár, Hungary, which is currently capable of producing 3,000 foldable containers per year and provides jobs for almost 100 employees. In the past few years the Continest has introduced Industry 4.0 solutions, and invested into a state-of-the-art sheet metal plant and a welding, supported by robot technology for efficient production.
Despite the challenges posed by the global pandemic, Continest seized opportunities to expand into new markets and diversify its product applications. The company’s scalable and sustainable container solutions became increasingly valuable for disaster relief, military deployments, and high-demand event infrastructure. Their present product portfolio includes (among the flagship foldable 10- and 20-feet units)
Their present product portfolio includes (among the flagship foldable 10- and 20-feet units):
- a retail unit to serve merchandise shops or other event purposes
- an on-site accommodation unit with a sanitary solution
- a BedStay unit including a foldable bed installed into a 10-feet unit
- a mobile kitchen solution
- a mobile, containerized electric vehicle charging station
- a cargo container
- special containerized solutions for the defence industry – all having a registered NATO stock number, among them a mobile shooting range
Following the investment rounds, Continest’s next challenge was to seize the opportunity and with the fresh capital, invade new markets and execute their growth strategy.
“The global market developments and sustainability trends of recent years have led to global demand for temporary infrastructure solutions. That is why we see the next few years as being the decisive years for foldable modular container technology. Together with our new and existing investors, we have the opportunity to scale up and enter new markets with a solid financial situation, further contributing to the company’s international growth."
– said Dániel Tegzes, strategic director of Continest Technologies.
The company has shown impressive growth: from 2020’s 800k EUR their revenue has grown to 10 million EUR by 2023, with growing EBITDA margins. In order to be able to reach the growth plans outlined by the founders and the management, the next milestone was to build a robust and structured sales organisation and operation. Having been part of the strategic planning, Absolvo was able to step in to support our client in this next challenge: led by Iván Gyurácz Németh, partner and growth strategy expert of Absolvo, we supported Continest management in a hands-on manner to lay the foundations for further growth. Our support included interim sales team management, development of sales processes, templates and CRM framework, introduction of sales KPIs.
The Continest success story reflects the exceptional combination of manifested, intensively growing global market potential, a truly innovative and well-customizable technology and a committed, ambitious and visionary management team which is already proven to move its company forward.
The Continest success story is a combination of a strong global market potential, an innovative technology, and a highly flexible and agile management team. We were proudly supporting the team in both transaction rounds and in sales management, too. While those were significant milestones, we are confident that the Continest's growth journey continues and a new CEE success story is unfolding.
added Lénárd Horgos.
Congratulations to the excellent Continest team, and thank you for this long-term partnership, Absolvo team is grateful for being part of this success story! We wish them good luck to achieve their ambitious goals!
