Verlinvest takes majority stake in INTERNATIONAL BOULDERING ALLIANCE

Verlinvest and Family Trust Investor acquired majority stakes in five European bouldering gym operators and brought them together under a new platform, The International Bouldering Alliance, in a deal announced on 6 October 2026. The group combined The Climbing Hangar in the United Kingdom, Boulders in Denmark, and Urban Apes, Der Steinbock and Café Kraft in Germany and Austria, for a total of 39 gyms. Both investors were already shareholders in parts of the new group: Verlinvest in The Climbing Hangar and Boulders, and Family Trust Investor in the three German and Austrian brands. Family Trust Investor had backed Urban Apes and its founders in 2020, when the business ran three gyms, and had since taken it to 19 locations across Germany and Austria. The teams behind the five brands stayed on, with Ole Mørk and Malcolm Armstrong as regional chief executives of the new group, while Ben Black led the deal for Verlinvest and Carsten Abdel-Hadi for Family Trust Investor. The platform was set up to grow through new gym openings and acquisitions of other operators, starting in Europe, and to invest in digital infrastructure, marketing and data, with a shared membership giving climbers access to every gym in the group.