Florian Starck

Florian Starck is a German corporate-finance and valuation specialist with roughly two decades of experience advising international and mid-market companies and private equity firms on transactions, financial restructurings, and litigation/arbitration matters. He studied business administration at the University of Augsburg (Bertolt-Brecht campus), graduating as a Diplom-Kaufmann with distinction, and from 2004 to 2013 held the German professional qualification of Steuerberater (tax advisor) as a member of the Munich Chamber of Tax Advisors.

In early 2007 Starck joined Duff & Phelps, the financial-advisory and investment-banking firm, where he helped build the firm's German operating business. In the summer of 2013 he and Prof. Dr. Christian Aders spun that business out of Duff & Phelps to co-found ValueTrust, an independent consultancy focused on business valuation and corporate finance. At ValueTrust he served as a Member of the Executive Board (Vorstand) of ValueTrust Financial Advisors SE (later renamed PVT Financial Advisors SE) from February 2014, and led the German practice areas "Tax and Restructuring Valuations" and "Dispute and Litigation Services." He was also Managing Director of several ValueTrust group entities in Germany and Austria, and of ValueTrust Financial Advisors Treuhand GmbH.

Around 2019–2022 Starck's roles shifted: German commercial-registry records show he was Managing Director of ParkView Partners GmbH (Frankfurt, a restructuring/distressed-M&A boutique) from November 2019 to April 2022, and his ValueTrust/PVT executive and managing-director mandates wound down between February 2022 and January 2023. He is not listed on ValueTrust's current team page.

Today Starck operates through his own Weßling-based firms, smarttrend advisors GmbH and smarttrend ventures GmbH (both registered under his control since December 2013). smarttrend advisors offers "Smart Perspectives for High Performers" — outsourced CFO/finance-as-a-service, company valuations (IDW S1, DVFA standards), fairness opinions, interim and project management, and admin/HR support for entrepreneurs and business owners. smarttrend ventures is his investment-holding vehicle for acquiring, holding and managing stakes in companies. He is fluent in German and English, with knowledge of Italian and French.

• Positions himself and smarttrend as a partner to "high performers" — successful entrepreneurs and owner-managers — helping them offload finance, valuation, administration and management complexity so they can focus on their core business.
• Advisory and investing centers on the German/DACH SME ("Mittelstand") world: M&A, carve-outs and exits, succession planning, growth financing, integration, restructuring, and dispute/valuation situations.
• Deep valuation orientation: fairness opinions, business reviews and company valuations under German (IDW S1) and DVFA standards — a "value-first," numbers-driven lens on any opportunity.
• Historical sector emphasis (from his ValueTrust/Duff & Phelps years): communications, media & entertainment, consumer goods, healthcare, and renewable energy.
• Early-stage/seed and holding activity runs through smarttrend ventures GmbH ("acquisition, sale, holding and management of investments in companies as well as management consulting"); specific thesis language, check size and stage criteria are not publicly documented.