Sereni

Sereni is the market leader in funeral services in Belgium, Germany and Poland. Since August 2022, Netley Capital has committed €50m of growth equity to Sereni. Sereni is a fast-growing consolidator in the funeral services sector. Funeral services are a critical service to society, as well as for the family of the deceased person, to help process the grief. Sereni prides itself on being a responsible, high-quality operator in the sector, with market leading NPS scores and the preferred partner for any local operator in the sector.
 
Sereni was founded in April 2016 with a dual vision to improve and modernise the client experience and to change and improve the dynamics for the funeral professional. Therefore, Sereni established a network of local entrepreneurs with a mission to unburden people confronted with a loss.
 
Since its inception, Sereni succeeded in changing the dynamics in the Belgian, German and Polish funeral markets and continues today to dominate the narrative: Sereni is the market leader in Belgium and expects to be the market leader in Germany over the course of 2025. Sereni is also the market leader in the Polish crematorium sector.
 
The funeral services sector in Sereni’s chosen markets remains very fragmented and has a growing succession problem. Many funeral directors seek a solution to work within a network to solve work pressure issues and provide a higher quality of services that families are demanding nowadays. For local entrepreneurs, the challenge is too big to develop services on digital platforms or invest in new real estate facilities. Working together, like in other sectors, is the logical next step. In short, the next generation is keen to work in the sector but might be less keen to be alone to take the call at 3am on a Saturday when a local resident has passed away.

Sereni solves this problem by providing high quality central services, focused on finance, ERP and administration systems, procurement, website and marketing services, centralised telephony, and operating the Sereni Academy, which trains the next generation of funeral entrepreneurs able to take over from the retiring entrepreneurs. New acquisitions are rapidly integrated into Sereni’s finance and ERP systems, enabling good central visibility and rapid workload reduction at the local level. The local teams are then better able to focus on providing the best service possible for the family of the deceased, within normal working hours.


As a result, Sereni has rapidly become the partner of choice for local entrepreneurs looking to join the Sereni Network of funeral entrepreneurs in Belgium, in Germany and in Poland. Sereni has now signed well in excess of 100 acquisitions since inception and has a current run-rate of c. 35 acquisitions per annum.
 
Since Netley has become involved with Sereni, in August 2022, and with Netley Capital’s support, Sereni has quadrupled in size. This is driven by stable and predictable organic growth, in combination with very attractive buy-and-build successes.