Verlinvest and Family Trust Investor combine five European bouldering brands into 39-gym platform

Verlinvest and Munich-based Family Trust Investor have combined five European bouldering brands into The International Bouldering Alliance, a 39-gym platform across four countries, according to familyofficehub.io, which reported the combination on Oct. 8. Verlinvest describes the alliance as the largest bouldering platform in the world by number of sites.

The alliance brings together more than 40,000 members and over 3.4 million visits a year, according to the same report.

Verlinvest contributed The Climbing Hangar in the United Kingdom and Boulders in Denmark, while Family Trust Investor contributed three German-speaking brands, according to the report. Neither investor bought the other out; the two sides pooled holdings into a single alliance, a structure the report argues only long-horizon owners can use, because neither side needs a sale to realise 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 Verlinvest's earlier post cited in the report. Combining Boulders with The Climbing Hangar took that business to 21 sites, and the new alliance roughly doubles that footprint, implying the three German-speaking chains account for roughly 18 of the 39 gyms.

Bouldering gyms are capital-intensive, local and membership-funded, with long payback periods on each site and strong retention once a community forms, according to the report. That profile suits evergreen capital and fits badly inside a fund with a defined life. The report says the same logic has drawn family offices into padel, indoor golf and climbing in Europe over the past three years.

Financial terms, ownership percentages and the governance split between the two investors were not disclosed in the report.