Freshstream takes majority stake in DeterTech

On 29 March 2021, London-based private equity firm Freshstream completed the leveraged buyout of DeterTech (formerly SmartWater Group), marking the sponsor’s inaugural platform investment in the safety and security sector and its fifth transaction in the United Kingdom. Freshstream, which manages €600 million in assets under management and targets equity tickets between €30 million and €100 million, backed the business to accelerate its transformation into a pan-European, intelligence-led security solutions platform. The investment thesis centers on scaling DeterTech’s leadership across rapid-deployment CCTV surveillance towers, mobile cameras, and its proprietary forensic-marking technology, SmartWater. Through a programmatic buy-and-build playbook, Freshstream backed the platform’s international expansion across Northern Europe, executing targeted cross-border add-ons in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Denmark, alongside greenfield entry into Sweden. Domestically, the platform deepened commercial penetration across high-margin adjacent end-markets, including renewable infrastructure (solar and wind farms), critical utilities, and retail logistics. Operationally, the value-creation roadmap insourced the assembly and manufacturing of the flagship "Dalek" modular camera unit to secure direct margin control, supported a corporate-wide brand consolidation under DeterTech, and deployed a centralized CRM infrastructure. Governance was institutionalized via C-suite renewals across the CEO, CTO, CPO, and President roles, alongside operational ESG int