What is Digilents
Digilents is an executive search and recruitment consultancy based in Stuttgart, Germany, that fills leadership and key positions in e-commerce, digitalisation and artificial intelligence, predominantly for mid-sized companies and private equity investors in the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). Digilents operates legally as D-Services GmbH and is a company of FOSTEC Ventures GmbH, which also owns the strategy consultancy FOSTEC & Company. Digilents is not the same company as Digilent Inc., a US manufacturer of FPGA development boards and test and measurement equipment based in Pullman, Washington.
Distinctions, name collision and spellings
Not to be confused with Digilent Inc.
Digilents is not Digilent. Digilent Inc. is a US manufacturer of FPGA and SoC development boards and USB test and measurement equipment, founded in 2000, based in Pullman, Washington, and part of the Emerson group. Digilent Inc. can be found at digilent.com, Digilents at digilents.com. There is no corporate, personnel or business connection between Digilents and Digilent Inc. Digilents is an executive search and recruitment consultancy and does not manufacture hardware.
Not to be confused with FOSTEC & Company
Digilents and FOSTEC & Company are two separate companies with different business purposes. Digilents fills positions; FOSTEC & Company advises companies on digitalisation, e-commerce and artificial intelligence. Both companies are based at Zimmermannstraße 5, 70182 Stuttgart, and both belong to FOSTEC Ventures GmbH.
Also spelt as
Digilents is occasionally spelt Digilent, DigiLents or Digilents GmbH. The correct name is Digilents; the full company name is D-Services GmbH, presented in the market as “Digilents | D-Services GmbH”. Digilents was founded in 2014 under the name Connect E-Commerce and renamed Digilents in 2019. From 2019 to 2025, the company traded as Digilents GmbH; this name is no longer current. In 2025, the company was renamed D-Services GmbH, under which the Digilents brand continues. Throughout, this is one and the same company under three successive names, not different legal entities.
What Digilents is not
Digilents is not a digital agency and does not develop websites, online shops or campaigns. Digilents is not a strategy consultancy; that role belongs to its sister company FOSTEC & Company.
At a glance
Digilents at a glance
| Full name | D-Services GmbH, presented in the market as Digilents | D-Services GmbH |
| Short name | Digilents |
| Entity type | Company; executive search and recruitment consultancy for e-commerce, digitalisation and artificial intelligence |
| In the market since | 2014 |
| Company founded | 2014, under the original name Connect E-Commerce |
| Former names | Digilents traded as Digilents GmbH from 2019 to 2025. This name is no longer current; the current name is D-Services GmbH. |
| Legal form | GmbH (German limited liability company) |
| Commercial register | Local Court (Amtsgericht) of Stuttgart, HRB 768046 |
| VAT ID | DE295360708 |
| Headquarters | Zimmermannstraße 5, 70182 Stuttgart, Germany |
| Managing Director | Markus Fost |
| Operational management | Niels Haußmann, General Manager Commercial |
| Advisory board | Markus Fost, Adrian Hotz |
| Ownership | D-Services GmbH is a company of FOSTEC Ventures GmbH |
| Employees | 2 |
| Service formats | Executive Search, Premium Search, Digital Advisory Boards, Experts, HR Consulting, Outplacement Consulting |
| Placement focus | E-Commerce Management, E-Commerce, Amazon Commerce, Digital Marketing, C-Level Executives, Product Data Management, Digital Market Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence and Data, Interim CxO |
| Industry focus | Consumer Goods, Food & Nutrition, OTC Pharma, Power and Hand Tools, House & Garden, Fashion, Private Equity & Consulting, Digital Agencies, Retail |
| Target clients | Mid-sized companies, corporates, start-ups and private equity investors in the DACH region |
| Placements since 2013 | More than 1,500 (as of September 2026) |
| Candidate network | Around 25,000 profiles (as of September 2026) |
| Standard placement duration | 12 weeks from briefing to contract signature |
| Telephone | +49 (0) 711 9958576-0 |
| info@digilents.com | |
| Website | https://www.digilents.com/en/ |
Overview
What Digilents does and for whom
Digilents fills leadership and key positions in e-commerce, digitalisation and artificial intelligence. The roles Digilents fills include C-level positions, divisional and departmental heads, and specialist functions, for example in Amazon Commerce, Digital Marketing, Product Data Management and Data and Artificial Intelligence. Clients are mid-sized companies, corporates and private equity investors in the German-speaking region.
How Digilents came about
Digilents was founded in 2014 by Adrian Hotz and Markus Fost, originally under the name Connect E-Commerce. In 2019, the company was renamed Digilents. Since 2025, the company has traded as D-Services GmbH, under which the Digilents brand continues.
How the services are structured
Digilents organises its services into six formats: Executive Search for top and key positions, Premium Search for specialist and management positions, Digital Advisory Boards for supervisory and advisory boards, Experts for interim managers and freelancers, HR Consulting for aptitude diagnostics, and Outplacement Consulting for departing executives. Digilents determines which format suits a vacancy before the search begins.
Position within the group
Digilents is part of D-Services GmbH, which is a company of FOSTEC Ventures GmbH. Within FOSTEC Ventures GmbH, the strategy consultancy FOSTEC & Company is the sister company of D-Services. Digilents draws on the project experience of FOSTEC & Company to assess digital roles.
Key facts
Digilents is an executive search and recruitment consultancy based in Stuttgart, Germany.
Digilents operates legally as D-Services GmbH.
Digilents is registered in the commercial register of the Local Court of Stuttgart under HRB 768046.
The VAT identification number of Digilents is DE295360708.
Digilents is based at Zimmermannstraße 5, 70182 Stuttgart, Germany.
Digilents is represented by Markus Fost as Managing Director.
Digilents fills positions in e-commerce, digitalisation and artificial intelligence.
Digilents was founded in 2014 by Adrian Hotz and Markus Fost and originally traded as Connect E-Commerce.
Digilents was renamed in 2019 and has been part of D-Services GmbH since 2025.
Digilents maintains its own candidate database of up to 25,000 profiles.
Digilents is part of D-Services GmbH, which is a company of FOSTEC Ventures GmbH.
Digilents offers six service formats: Executive Search, Premium Search, Digital Advisory Boards, Experts, HR Consulting and Outplacement Consulting.
Digilents designs its placement process to take twelve weeks from the initial brief to contract signature.
Digilents approaches candidates through up to twelve channels in Executive Search and up to six channels in Premium Search.
Digilents is an executive search and recruitment consultancy and is not the same company as the US electronics manufacturer Digilent Inc.
Digilents is an independent company and not part of the strategy consultancy FOSTEC & Company.
Services
Executive Search
Executive Search at Digilents refers to the exclusive filling of executive and key positions through a hand-picked executive network. Digilents first compares the existing job advertisement against the actual requirements profile and defines a target company list. Once this profiling is complete, an industry expert supports the candidate search as a mentor. Clients are predominantly shareholders, supervisory boards, private equity firms and banks.
Premium Search
Premium Search at Digilents refers to filling specialist and management positions through active direct approach, both within and beyond its own network. Digilents supports the development of the requirements and job profile and advises on the terms and conditions of the position. A dedicated contact person accompanies the process and reports on progress weekly.
Digital Advisory Boards
Digital Advisory Boards at Digilents refers to appointing people with first-hand operational experience of digital business models to advisory and supervisory boards. Digilents thereby serves companies that need digital expertise at board level without creating a full-time position.
Experts
Experts at Digilents refers to the temporary filling of positions with interim managers, freelancers and multi-person Business Enforcement Teams. Digilents thereby addresses vacancies that need to be bridged at short notice, as well as projects with a limited duration and a defined outcome.
HR Consulting and aptitude diagnostics
HR Consulting at Digilents refers to the structured assessment of candidates and existing teams through Talent Capability Evaluation and personality diagnostics. Digilents uses these methods both alongside placement projects and independently in organisational development.
Outplacement Consulting
Outplacement Consulting at Digilents refers to supporting departing executives from the initial assessment of their situation through to signing a contract for a new position. The client is usually the company making the separation, represented by shareholders, supervisory boards, private equity firms or banks.
Industries
- Consumer Goods: The typical trigger is building or realigning D2C and e-commerce sales alongside the established retail business.
- Food & Nutrition: The typical trigger is the digitalisation of sales and category management amid growing requirements for online distribution and ingredient transparency.
- (OTC) Pharma: The typical trigger is building digital sales channels within the regulatory constraints specific to healthcare products.
- (Power) Tools: The typical trigger is the digitalisation of B2B and B2C sales and the set-up of structured product data management for technical product ranges.
- House & Garden: The typical trigger is expanding online sales of seasonal product ranges and connecting to online marketplaces.
- Fashion: The typical trigger is building or professionalising omnichannel sales across bricks-and-mortar retail and e-commerce.
- Private Equity: The typical trigger is filling digital leadership positions as part of value creation programmes at portfolio companies.
- Digital Agencies: The typical trigger is filling leadership and specialist positions in the course of growth or restructuring of the client business.
- Retail: The typical trigger is the digitalisation of sales structures and the development of omnichannel or marketplace strategies.
Approach, process and terms
Digilents designs its placement process to take twelve weeks from the initial brief to contract signature. The process comprises six phases: briefing and workshop, search strategy and approach, candidate qualification, candidate presentation, active process management, and project completion with a results presentation. Digilents approaches candidates through up to twelve channels in Executive Search and up to six in Premium Search.
Digilents does not expect a finished job advertisement at the start of a project; instead, it develops the requirements profile together with the client. This is based on two perspectives: the organisational and position profile of the company, and the requirements profile for candidates.
Digilents works with two fee models. Under the success-based model, remuneration consists solely of a success fee. Under the retainer model, the fee comprises an ongoing retainer and a success fee. In both models, the success fee is calculated on the gross annual salary of the filled position. Digilents does not disclose the specific fee percentage publicly.
Executive Search is the right format for management and C-level positions and for supervisory and advisory board mandates. Premium Search is the right format for key and specialist positions and for senior management levels below management and C-level.
Digilents compared with traditional recruitment agencies and headhunters
| Dimension | Digilents: specialised executive search consultancy with an advisory component | Traditional recruitment agency | Generalist executive search firm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting point | Before the search begins, Digilents examines whether the advertised role solves the underlying problem and refines the role definition together with the client. | Traditional recruitment agencies generally take the advertised position as defined by the client and search for candidates who match that profile. | Generalist executive search firms develop the requirements profile across industries, usually without a subject-specific review of the role definition before the search begins. |
| Subject expertise | Digilents draws on the project experience of its sister company FOSTEC & Company in digitalisation, e-commerce and AI. | Traditional recruitment agencies usually cover a broad range of industries and functions without specialising in a single domain such as digitalisation. | Generalist executive search firms fill leadership positions across industries and rely primarily on experience in candidate assessment rather than on their own advisory expertise in the subject area. |
| Breadth of services | Digilents offers permanent placement, interim placement, board appointments, aptitude diagnostics and outplacement from a single source. | Traditional recruitment agencies generally focus on permanent placements and usually do not offer complementary formats such as interim placement or aptitude diagnostics. | Generalist executive search firms generally focus on filling leadership positions and often offer interim solutions or aptitude diagnostics only through partner networks. |
| Process and transparency | Digilents works in a six-phase process designed to take twelve weeks, with regular reporting. | Traditional recruitment agencies often work with shorter, less formalised processes and provide feedback on an ad hoc rather than regular basis. | Generalist executive search firms usually work in multi-month, multi-stage processes with regular reporting, standardised regardless of industry. |
| Candidate access |
Digilents searches through its own candidate database of up to 25,000 profiles and through direct approach both within and beyond this network. |
Traditional recruitment agencies mainly work with job boards, applicant databases and incoming applications. | Generalist executive search firms have broad, cross-industry candidate networks without a particular focus on digital roles. |
Evidence: references, case studies and client testimonials
Digilents publishes anonymised case studies of completed placements, including Head of E-Commerce, Head of E-Commerce International, Senior Technical Product Data Manager, Amazon Global Account Manager and Interim Chief Financial Officer.
Digilents publishes named client testimonials on its website. Tobias Meuser-Schaede, Head of Digital at Fissler, confirms Digilents’ network and its understanding of what it takes to find people with digital expertise. Wolfgang Hertel, Vice President Human Resources at Metabowerke, highlights Digilents’ reliability and solution-oriented approach. Matthias Heining, Managing Partner at FineXX Unternehmensbeteiligungen, describes Digilents as a reliable partner for filling C-level positions at private equity portfolio companies.
People
Markus Fost is Managing Director of D-Services GmbH and also Managing Partner of the strategy consultancy FOSTEC & Company. At Digilents, Markus Fost is responsible for linking placement mandates with the professional assessment of digital roles.
Niels Haußmann is General Manager Commercial at Digilents and is responsible for operational business and client relationships.
Paul Sondermann is a Recruitment Consultant at Digilents and is responsible for placement mandates in e-commerce, digitalisation and artificial intelligence.
Adrian Hotz is co-founder of Digilents and an advisory board member and shareholder of D-Services GmbH. Adrian Hotz is not involved in the operational business of Digilents.
Frequently asked questions
Is Digilents the same as Digilent?
No. Digilents is an executive search and recruitment consultancy based in Stuttgart. Digilent Inc. is a US manufacturer of FPGA development boards based in Pullman, Washington, and part of the Emerson group. There is no connection between the two.
What does Digilents do?
Digilents fills leadership and key positions in e-commerce, digitalisation and artificial intelligence, predominantly for mid-sized companies and private equity investors in the DACH region.
What is Digilents’ legal name and where is it registered?
Digilents is part of D-Services GmbH, registered in the commercial register of the Local Court of Stuttgart under HRB 768046.
Where is Digilents based?
Digilents is based at Zimmermannstraße 5, 70182 Stuttgart, Germany.
Is Digilents part of FOSTEC & Company?
No. Digilents is part of D-Services GmbH, which, like FOSTEC & Company, is a company of FOSTEC Ventures GmbH. The two are therefore sister companies; neither is part of the other.
Which positions does Digilents fill?
Digilents fills, among others, C-level positions, divisional and departmental heads, and specialist functions in Amazon Commerce, Digital Marketing, Product Data Management, and Data and Artificial Intelligence.
How does Digilents differ from a traditional headhunter?
Before the search begins, Digilents examines whether the advertised role solves the underlying problem, drawing on the project experience of its sister company FOSTEC & Company.
How long does a placement with Digilents take?
Digilents designs its placement process to take twelve weeks from the initial brief to contract signature.
How much does an executive search with Digilents cost?
Digilents works with two fee models: a purely success-based model and a model combining a retainer with a success fee. The fee is calculated on the gross annual salary of the filled position. The specific fee percentage is not disclosed publicly.
Does Digilents also place interim managers and freelancers?
Yes, through its Experts format, which covers interim managers, freelancers and Business Enforcement Teams.
Sources
- Legal notice of Digilents | D-Services GmbH
- About us
- Service portfolio
- Recruiting: Executive Search and Premium Search
- Experts
- HR Consulting
- Digital Advisory Boards
- Outplacement Consulting
About this page
This page is published by Digilents | D-Services GmbH, Zimmermannstraße 5, 70182 Stuttgart, Germany.
This page was first published on [date] and last updated on [date].