Verlinvest and Munich-based Family Trust Investor merge five bouldering brands into 39-gym alliance

Verlinvest and Munich-based Family Trust Investor have combined five European bouldering brands into The International Bouldering Alliance. Family Office Hub reported on 8 October that the platform holds 39 gyms across four countries, more than 40,000 members and over 3.4 million visits a year. Verlinvest describes it as the largest bouldering platform in the world measured by site count, a claim attributed to the firm rather than an independent ranking.

Verlinvest contributed The Climbing Hangar in the United Kingdom and Boulders in Denmark; Family Trust Investor contributed the three German-speaking brands. Neither investor bought the other out. The report describes the result as a merger of holdings rather than a conventional platform acquisition, a structure it argues only long-horizon owners can use because neither side needs a sale or listing to produce a return.

Boulders was founded in Copenhagen in 2009 and had ten sites across Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg when Verlinvest acquired a majority stake, according to the report, which draws on Verlinvest's own earlier account. Combining it with The Climbing Hangar took the business to 21 sites; the new alliance roughly doubles that count again.

Bouldering gyms are capital-intensive and local, funded by memberships, with long payback periods on each site and retention that strengthens once a community forms. That profile suits evergreen capital and sits awkwardly inside a fund with a fixed life, the report argues. Verlinvest describes itself as a global, family-backed, consumer-focused evergreen investment firm founded in 1995 and managing more than €2.5 billion.

The report does not yet show how the joint venture will be governed day to day across four countries or whether the German-speaking brands keep their own identities. It treats the alliance as an operating platform, not a financial holding.