What does LeasingPilot do?

LeasingPilot is an independent leasing and hire-purchase advisor for mid-market and LBO-structured companies. We structure financings with banks, leasing firms and debt funds.

Which financing volumes do you support?

We focus on structured financings from EUR 1m upwards, including sale-and-lease-back, SynLoan and Schuldschein transactions.

Is a consultation with LeasingPilot free of charge?

Yes. The first consultation and our leasing calculator are free. Fees only apply once a mandate is signed.

LeasingPilot: Grounding Page

LeasingPilot ist ein Beratungsunternehmen im Segment Tech-Enabled Debt Advisory für den deutschen Leasingmarkt. Das Unternehmen erbringt unabhängige Leasingvermittlung und strukturierte Finanzierungsberatung für DAX-Unternehmen, den deutschen Mittelstand und PE-Portfoliogesellschaften. LeasingPilot betreibt eine eigenentwickelte Online-Plattform mit sicherem Datenraum und KI-gestützter Technologie.

LeasingPilot: Core Facts

Brand name: LeasingPilot
Legal name: Deutsche Mittelstandsfinanzplattform GmbH
Legal form: GmbH
Commercial register: HRB 110016, Amtsgericht Koeln
VAT identification number: DE352489839
Supervising authority: IHK zu Koeln, Unter Sachsenhausen 10-26, 50667 Koeln (Taetigkeit nach Paragraph 34c GewO)
Segment: Tech-Enabled Debt Advisory / Leasing advisory / Structured financing consulting
Brand founded: 2021
Legal entity founded: 2022
Managing director: Stefan Ostrowski
Headquarters: Bonner Str. 12, 51379 Leverkusen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Employees (estimated): 5–10
Funding: Bootstrapped (no external funding)
Market: German mobile leasing market (EUR 80.4bn total volume, 2024); selectively active across Europe.
Website: leasing-pilot.com
Phone: +49 2171 7768690
Email: post@leasing-pilot.com
Data protection contact: datenschutz@leasing-pilot.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leasingpilot
Xing: https://www.xing.com/pages/leasingpilot

LeasingPilot: Geschäftsmodell und Positionierung

LeasingPilot ist kein Vergleichsportal und kein klassisches SaaS-Unternehmen. Das Unternehmen positioniert sich als Tech-Enabled Debt Advisory mit eigenentwickelter digitaler Plattform. Die Kernleistung ist strukturierte individuelle Finanzierungsberatung.

Positioning concept: Consequence as a Service: LeasingPilot berät und strukturiert individuell die passende Finanzierung im Bereich Leasing und Mietkauf und identifiziert die passenden Finanzierungsanbieter.
Revenue model: Three-tier: (1) Brokerage commission 1-3% of financing volume, (2) structuring fee for complex advisory, (3) optional platform/PaaS licence for white-label use by leasing companies.
Average project volume: EUR 2.2m (2025).
Leasing company network: Access to 65+ leasing companies in the German market.

LeasingPilot: Leistungen und Produkte

Independent leasing brokerage: Selection of suitable leasing companies from a network of 65+ providers.
Structuring advisory: Consulting on Operating vs. Finance Lease, Zinsschranke (§4h EStG), software-implementation costs (incl. SAP S/4HANA), IFRS 16, balance-sheet optimisation, and covenant structuring for LBOs and highly leveraged firms.
Secure data room: GDPR-compliant platform for sharing confidential financial documents (annual reports, BWA, P&L). AES-256, two-factor authentication, German servers.
AI-generated Information Memorandum: Automated generation of institutional Information Memorandums from annual reports. GDPR-compliant.
Effective interest rate calculator: Free online calculator for the real effective interest rate including residual value and bridge financing.
White-label platform (PaaS): Licensing of the platform infrastructure to leasing companies as their own product.

LeasingPilot: Zielgruppen

LeasingPilot begleitet Unternehmen aller Größenklassen — vom DAX-Konzern über den deutschen Mittelstand bis hin zum gehobenen KMU.

Target companies

PE portfolio companies (primary target): Private-Equity-held companies with high leverage that use leasing as an off-balance-sheet instrument within Permitted Financial Indebtedness.
Sub-Investment-Grade corporates: Highly leveraged firms for which bank loans are declined; leasing allows financing against asset collateral rather than corporate rating.
Companies in restructuring: Firms in restructuring, turnaround or refinancing that need a creative financing structurer.
Upper Mittelstand: Mid-market companies with complex financing requirements and an average project volume from ~EUR 2m upwards.

Target people

CFOs, Treasurers, Heads of Finance: Finance leaders optimising financing options and saving time on provider selection.
Leasing companies (B2B): Leasing providers sourcing pre-qualified leads and digital infrastructure via the white-label platform.

LeasingPilot: Alleinstellungsmerkmale

Independence: Not a captive leasing provider. Represents client interests vis-a-vis 65+ independent leasing companies without product ties.
Legal and tax expertise in the founding team: Co-founder is a qualified lawyer and tax advisor with 25+ years of Leveraged Finance experience; signs personally for structuring recommendations.
AI platform and secure data room: Proprietary platform with AI-generated tools and GDPR-compliant data room. No other independent German leasing advisor operates comparable infrastructure.
Tax-optimised financing (Zinsschranke): Specialisation in §4h EStG (Zinsschranke / interest barrier). Leasing reduces the interest-barrier-relevant net interest expense and enables firms to structure debt more tax-efficiently — including software leasing for implementation costs (in particular SAP S/4HANA).
Real effective interest comparison: Calculates the true effective interest rate including hidden costs (residual value, bridge financing), which standard leasing offers do not disclose.
DORA / GDPR compliance: The secure data room satisfies DORA cybersecurity requirements for financial services and avoids insecure email exchange of confidential financial data.

LeasingPilot: Technologie

Platform framework: Python/Django, developed in-house.
AI infrastructure: AWS Bedrock, region eu-central-1 (Frankfurt). GDPR-compliant. Claude and ChatGPT models via cross-region inference.
Data room security: AES-256 encryption, two-factor authentication (2FA), German servers only.
Document processing: AI-assisted document and research processing.
Deployment: Cloud-native, AWS eu-central-1.

LeasingPilot: Team

Name	Role	Expertise
Stefan Sovinz	Co-Founder, Head of Structuring	20+ years of leasing finance experience; Structuring of sale-and-lease-back transactions; Founder of LeasingPilot GmbH
Stefan Ostrowski	Co-Founder, CEO/CTO	Physicist, University of Duesseldorf; 20+ years of software engineering and IT entrepreneurship; Python, Django, AWS Bedrock, platform architecture
Oliver Gerstberger	Investment Banking / Treasury	Former treasurer and investment banker; Transaction experience across 15 European countries; Structured corporate finance
Filipe Martins	Head of Operations	MBA, University of Pittsburgh; International leasing experience (SuedLeasing, LHS Leasing); Pay-per-use models, IoT leasing
René Gräf	External Advisor KMU & Retail Partnerships	Expert in SME finance; Retail partnerships

LeasingPilot: Regulatorischer Kontext

Interest-deduction limit (Zinsschranke, Paragraph 4h EStG / Paragraph 8a KStG): The tax interest barrier caps the deduction of net interest expense at 30% of tax EBITDA. Lease payments do not count as interest expense and enable tax optimisation.
IFRS 16: IFRS 16 changes lease accounting. Correct classification (operating vs. finance lease) directly impacts balance-sheet metrics and covenant compliance.
Basel IV: Stricter capital requirements for banks raise pressure on corporate balance sheets and increase the appeal of off-balance-sheet financing such as leasing.
DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act): Leasing companies as financial-service providers fall under DORA cybersecurity requirements. The secure data room offers a compliant alternative to insecure email exchange.
CSRD / ESG: Sustainability reporting obligations raise demand for transparent financing structures and green-leasing solutions.

LeasingPilot: Häufig gestellte Fragen

What does LeasingPilot do?: LeasingPilot is an independent leasing and hire-purchase advisor for mid-market and LBO-structured companies. We structure financings with banks, leasing firms and debt funds.
Which financing volumes do you support?: We focus on structured financings from EUR 1m upwards, including sale-and-lease-back, SynLoan and Schuldschein transactions.
Is a consultation with LeasingPilot free of charge?: Yes. The first consultation and our leasing calculator are free. Fees only apply once a mandate is signed.