About Us

Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, a decentralised family holding, is committed to providing first-class service to authors, researchers, academics, educators, librarians and readers across the globe. We are inspired by the privilege of enabling authors and readers in their endeavours to create great works and networks. With quality media and global reach, we strive to deliver both oversight and insight in a fast changing environment.

Bold in our ambitions and respectful in our approach, we combine powerful legacy with cutting edge technologies. The Holtzbrinck Family has had the privilege of uniting world-leading publishing houses across the globe. Within the Group, Nature (1869), Macmillan (1843), Springer (1842), and S. Fischer (1886) stand side by side with millennial start-ups like Dimensions, Achieve, Overleaf or AMBOSS as well as venture funds, which backed numerous start-ups such as Zalando or Flixbus.

Defined by a culture of expertise, collaboration and openness, we cherish and respect our heritage whilst constantly challenging ourselves to disrupt or enhance the best that our Group has to offer to deliver something even better.

It is the long-term view where we believe the benefit for all can be found.

Pioneering

Springer Nature is a major force in scientific, scholarly, professional and educational publishing. Every day, around the globe, our imprints, books, journals and resources reach millions of people - helping students to learn, researchers and scientists to discover and professionals to achieve their goals and ambitions.

We see it as our role to challenge the status quo on our customers’ behalf – finding new ways to accelerate learning and discovery and making it easier for the world to access, share, use and apply the very best research and information at the highest quality levels. Springer Nature therefore provides not only the largest Open Access platform, but is also host to many of the most highly-cited science journals in the world. It enjoys a strong market position as a leading language learning publisher in Spain and Latin America and has a number of well-recognised professional education brands, which hold leading market positions in their sectors.

Dedicated

We believe that language and reading skills are strong foundations of every individual’s success. This drives our relentless commitment to promote and encourage the joy of reading to the widest spectrum of ages and cultures possible.

Our ambitious and renowned publishing houses therefore bring to life the works of authors from across the world. They are forerunners in delivering a range of formats, and are focused on creating products and communities that help foster a passion for reading from generation to generation. It is both a privilege and a strong fundament to have a strong author base under contract (e.g. David Baldacci, Sebastian Fitzek, Ken Follett, Jonathan Franzen, Daniel Kehlmann, Nora Roberts) and a long list of Nobel Prize winners such as Albert Camus, Jon Fosse, Louise Glück, Ernest Hemingway, Daniel Kahneman, Narges Mohammadi, Alice Munro, Orhan Pamuk and Mario Vargas Llosa.

Collaborative

Our legacy of excellence in education forms a unique approach to developing world-class content with pioneering and interactive teaching tools. We strive to create and maintain deep partnerships with the world’s best researchers, educators, administrators, and developers.

A clear commitment to teaching, learning, and affordability upholds our mission to improve lives through learning. Integral to Macmillan Learning are not only prestigious imprints such as Bedford/St. Martin’s, W.H. Freeman, and Worth Publishers (with flagship titles like A Writer’s Reference by Diana Hacker, Psychology by David G. Myers, and Economics by Paul Krugman), but also a strong technological position with its digital platform Achieve, and iClicker, a student response system.

Instinctive

An open mind and relevant analysis serve as the starting points for creating our unmistakable information offerings.

Holtzbrinck Digital is our holding arm for digital direct investments in the areas of science via Digital Science, education (which includes stakes in local market leaders like AMBOSS and lecturio) and other areas of strategic interest. We support start-ups in their business development with know-how, resources and a long-term view so that they develop in the best possible shape and form.

Smart

Digital Science is Holtzbrinck’s strategic growth division which invests in early-stage ventures in the research/science industry.

Digital Science is a technology company working to make research more efficient. They invest in, nurture and support innovative businesses and technologies that make all parts of the research process more open and effective. Their portfolio includes renowned brands such as Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, ReadCube, Symplectic, IFI Claims, Overleaf, Scismic and Writefull. They believe that new opportunities and challenges facing research need a new approach, and that together they can help researchers make a difference.

Influential

As a leading publishing group in Germany, with a readership of over 2m on a weekly basis and a web presence of 13m unique users, all of our successful brands and products circle around the relentless passion for quality and innovation in our mission to represent the diversity of our society.

Our responsibility and commitment to tell and share the stories that reflect the mood and movements within our society are combined with the respect and acknowledgement for the skill and passion that great journalism demands. We are proud to be the home to many of the greatest writers, thinkers and journalists in the German–speaking countries.

Dynamic

The leading edge of technology development is happening at speed, driven by fresh ideas and minds from across the globe.

Our fund investments support bright entrepreneurial teams with inspiring visions and successful execution skills. Through our multiple fund investments we work with exciting ventures in strategically important fields and keep close to the latest technology, innovation and business model trends. Exploring new entrepreneurial frontiers is key to our strategic group development.

  • 2U (exit)
  • Ace & Tate
  • Allovue
  • Andela
  • Away (Luggage)
  • Burning Glass
  • CHAPTR
  • ClassEDU Inc.
  • Course Hero
  • Coursera
  • CupoNation
  • Degreed
  • Dreamlines
  • Feedr
  • Flixbus
  • Frontiers
  • General Assembly (exit)
  • Global Fashion Group
  • Global Savings Group GmbH
  • Goodminton
  • Groupon (exit)
  • Guild Education
  • Iris.ai
  • Jumia
  • Lightneer
  • NoRedink
  • Ottonova
  • Pluralsight
  • Rocket Internet (exit)
  • Scalable Capital
  • Seven Senders
  • SumUp
  • Thermondo
  • Toppr
  • Trilogy Education
  • Urban Sports
  • Varthana
  • Zalando (exit)
  • Zip Co Limited