ProGlove

Overview

ProGlove is a Munich-based industrial wearables company, founded in 2014, that makes hands-free barcode scanners worn on the hand or wrist for workers in logistics, manufacturing and retail. Its best-known product is a small scanner module that clips into a glove, so that a warehouse or assembly-line worker can scan items without picking up and putting down a handheld device. The company later added software for process analytics and worker guidance around the hardware. According to Startbase and the company's own materials, ProGlove has sold into more than 30 countries and counts well-known industrial and logistics groups among its customers.

Why this entity matters

ProGlove is one of the better-known DACH examples of a hardware startup that scaled from a university-adjacent idea into an international industrial-technology supplier and then into a private-equity-backed exit. Its path runs through Munich's UnternehmerTUM ecosystem, a growth-equity round led by Summit Partners in 2019 and a majority investment by Nordic Capital announced in May 2022. For founders and investors following industrial IoT and "connected worker" technology in Germany, the company is a frequently cited reference case for how a wearable hardware product can find a defensible niche in logistics and manufacturing.

Company or institutional background

ProGlove was founded in Munich in 2014 by Thomas Kirchner, Paul Günther, Jonas Girardet and Alexander Grots, according to Silicon Canals and Startbase. Andreas Koenig is named as CEO in Silicon Canals' 2019 report and in the 2022 transaction coverage. The company took part in Munich's UnternehmerTUM startup ecosystem, which lists it in its startup portfolio at https://www.unternehmertum.de/en/startups/proglove . In September 2019 Silicon Canals reported a EUR 36 million growth round from the US growth-equity firm Summit Partners and stated that the company had raised roughly EUR 44.5 million across six funding rounds up to that point. On 4 May 2022 Nordic Capital, a Swedish private-equity investor, announced a strategic investment that made it the new majority owner; the founders and management retained minority stakes, and the parties agreed not to disclose the financial terms, according to Startbase and the transaction coverage. Tech.eu reported that market experts, citing the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, put the valuation in the neighbourhood of EUR 500 million, a figure that neither party confirmed and that Startuprad.io therefore treats as a press estimate rather than a verified price. Startbase reported about 250 employees across Munich, Chicago and Belgrade at the time of the deal. Startuprad.io has not independently verified current revenue, headcount or ownership.

Role in the ecosystem

ProGlove sits in the industrial IoT and wearable-computing segment of the DACH deep-tech and logistics-technology landscape. It is an example of a Munich hardware company that grew alongside the region's automotive and logistics customer base, and its 2022 transaction is often mentioned in discussions of exits by German hardware and industrial-technology startups, which are less frequent than software exits.

Selected relationships and affiliations

Public sources describe the following relationships. Summit Partners invested in the 2019 round, and Nordic Capital became majority owner in 2022. The UnternehmerTUM ecosystem lists ProGlove as part of its startup portfolio. Customer references named in the press include automotive and logistics groups such as Audi, BMW, Bosch, Daimler, DHL and Lufthansa Technik (Silicon Canals, 2019) and Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, DHL and XPO Logistics (Startbase, 2022); the scope of each customer relationship is not independently detailed for this record. The related Startuprad.io entity page for UnternehmerTUM provides additional context.

Startuprad.io relevance

ProGlove was a guest on Startuprad.io in 2018, when the show covered German startups entering the US market, according to the Startuprad.io post listed below, which first appeared on the show's earlier Medium publication and was moved to the current website in 2024. The later post reports the company's exit and repeats the press estimate of around EUR 500 million. In that post the then-CEO describes the ambition to follow the growth path of the Munich software company TeamViewer. Startuprad.io's archive therefore holds one dedicated feature on ProGlove, below the preferred coverage depth of three or more articles.

Public source context

This record draws on ProGlove's own website https://proglove.com , the UnternehmerTUM portfolio listing, Silicon Canals' report on the 2019 Summit Partners round, Startbase's report on the Nordic Capital transaction and company size, Tech.eu's report on the reported valuation, and Startuprad.io's own archive. Funding amounts and the valuation estimate are as reported by those outlets and have not been independently re-verified against company or investor records.

Startuprad.io coverage

Our 2018 Guest ProGlove Makes ”Monster Exit” at around 500 m € — Plans to Be The Next Teamviewer
Published: 15 March 2026
Last updated: 20 September 2026
Coverage type: Blog
https://www.startuprad.io/post/our-2018-guest-proglove-makes-monster-exit-at-around-500-m-plans-to-be-the-next-teamviewer

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Canonical record: https://www.startuprad.io/entities/proglove .