Author: Tatjana Anderer

Berlin, Germany — Taca­lyx, a biotech­no­logy company focu­sed on the disco­very and deve­lo­p­ment of novel anti-TACA (“Tumor Asso­cia­ted Carbo­hy­drate Anti­gens”) cancer thera­pies, announ­ced that it has successfully closed a EUR 7 million finan­cing round. The capi­tal increase invol­ves a consor­tium of leading Euro­pean inves­tors from the life scien­ces and tech­no­logy sectors, jointly led by Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund and Kurma Part­ners, with Idin­vest Part­ners, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF), copa­rion and Crea­thor Ventures also participating.

Taca­lyx, a spin-out of the Max Planck Insti­tute (MPI) for Colloid and Inter­face Rese­arch, will use the proceeds to build its disco­very plat­form, select appro­priate “lead” candi­da­tes and begin their precli­ni­cal development.

TACAs repre­sent novel targets for cancer thera­pies due to their speci­fic expres­sion on a variety of tumors. At the same time, TACAs are viru­lence factors for tumor growth and spread, and ther­e­fore their masking and/or down­re­gu­la­tion impairs vital func­tions of the tumor cell. Due to the low immu­no­ge­ni­city of TACAs, the gene­ra­tion of speci­fic anti­bo­dies is a major chall­enge and requi­res inno­va­tive approa­ches as well as exten­sive know­ledge of the tech­no­logy used.

Tacalyx’s disco­very plat­form enables the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and vali­da­tion of speci­fic TACAs as tumor targets, as well as the gene­ra­tion of “lead” mole­cu­les direc­ted against these complex targets, with the goal of deve­lo­ping novel immu­no­the­ra­pies for more effec­tive cancer control. The company uniquely combi­nes its ability to synthe­size suffi­ci­ent quan­ti­ties of ultra-pure and highly complex TACA struc­tures for use in appro­priate analy­ti­cal and scree­ning plat­forms with its expe­ri­ence in gene­ra­ting anti­bo­dies against non-peptide targets.

Taca­lyx secu­res through the Max Planck Inno­va­tion GmbH has access to licen­ses and know-how of the under­ly­ing tech­no­lo­gies as well as to the inven­ti­ons of its scien­ti­fic co-foun­ders Prof. Dr. Peter H. Seeber­ger (Direc­tor at the MPI of Collo­ids and Inter­faces and world leading expert in glyco­sci­ence) and Dr. Oren Mosco­vitz (Group Leader at the MPI of Collo­ids and Inter­faces and expert in glyco­bio­logy and glycoon­co­logy). Seeber­ger and Moscovitz’s disco­veries in glyco-science and its role in cancer, with finan­cial support from Max Planck Society Tech­no­logy Trans­fer funds, led to the deve­lo­p­ment of the proprie­tary Taca­lyx plat­form, which includes the gene­ra­tion of glycan-binding antibodies.

Dr. Peter Sonder­mann, CEO of Taca­lyx, said, “This funding from highly expe­ri­en­ced life science and tech­no­logy inves­tors repres­ents an important vali­da­tion of our plat­form and deve­lo­p­ment stra­tegy and will help posi­tion us at the fore­front of this ground­brea­king approach. In addi­tion to estab­li­shing the company and our lead gene­ra­tion disco­very plat­form, we will use these funds to study rele­vant TACA biology in detail and further evaluate and charac­te­rize our first lead anti­bo­dies and their func­tional role in cancer therapy. In addi­tion, in vivo phar­ma­co­logy studies to evaluate the safety and effi­cacy of our “lead” anti­bo­dies will provide further func­tional vali­da­tion to advance at least one of these anti­bo­dies into clini­cal development.”

Dr. Detlev Menne­rich, Invest­ment Direc­tor at Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund GmbH, said:

“We are plea­sed to have built this syndi­cate of leading inves­tors, follo­wing our stra­tegy of inves­t­ing in breakth­rough, thera­peu­tics-focu­sed biotech­no­logy compa­nies that are gene­ra­ting inno­va­tion in biome­di­cal rese­arch. The gene­ra­tion of anti-TACA anti­bo­dies requi­res expert know­ledge to produce speci­fic high-affi­nity binders for TACAs. Tacalyx’s TACA synthe­sis chemis­try, under­stan­ding of TACA biology, and ability to gene­rate and charac­te­rize anti-TACA anti­bo­dies against these weakly immu­no­ge­nic targets will enable the company to leverage their signi­fi­cant poten­tial in the treat­ment of quite a few cancers.”

As part of the finan­cing, Dr. Lena Krzy­zak (High-Tech Grün­der­fonds), Ulrich Mahr (Max Planck Inno­va­tion), Dr. Detlev Menne­rich (Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund), Dr. Peter Neubeck (Kurma Partners/Idinvest Part­ners), Dr. Sebas­tian Pünze­ler (copa­rion) and Karl­heinz Schme­lig (Crea­thor) will join Prof. Dr. Peter H. Seeber­ger (MPI for Collo­ids and Inter­faces) on Taca­lyx’ Super­vi­sory Board.

About the Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund
The Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund (BIVF) was estab­lished in 2010 and invests in breakth­rough biotech­no­logy compa­nies focu­sed on thera­peu­tics to drive inno­va­tion in biome­di­cal rese­arch. The BIVF seeks signi­fi­cant impro­ve­ments in pati­ent care through ground­brea­king science and clini­cal trans­la­tion by buil­ding long-term rela­ti­onships with scien­tists and entre­pre­neurs. The focus of the BIVF is on unpre­ce­den­ted thera­peu­tic concepts that address high medi­cal needs in immuno-onco­logy, rege­ne­ra­tive medi­cine or infec­tious dise­a­ses. These may include novel plat­form tech­no­lo­gies to address previously unusable targets, new gene­ra­tion vacci­nes, and/or novel biolo­gics such as onco­ly­tic viral therapy, and digi­tal health. The BIVF takes an active role with its port­fo­lio compa­nies — deli­ve­ring signi­fi­cant value through its own exten­sive drug disco­very, scien­ti­fic and manage­ment exper­tise. The BIVF mana­ges 250 million euros and curr­ently over­sees a port­fo­lio of 25 compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.boehringer-ingelheim-venture.com.

About Kurma Partners
Foun­ded in July 2009, Kurma Part­ners is a major Euro­pean player with offices in Paris and Munich in finan­cing health­care and biotech­no­logy inno­va­tion, from crea­tion to growth capi­tal, nota­bly through Kurma Biofund I to III and Kurma Diagno­stics via stra­te­gic part­ner­ships with renow­ned Euro­pean rese­arch and medi­cal insti­tu­ti­ons. The new Kurma Biofund III fund invests in appro­xi­m­ately twelve to fifteen private compa­nies focu­sed on thera­peu­tic areas with high unmet medi­cal needs, of which appro­xi­m­ately 40% are early-stage finan­cings and start-ups such as Tacalyx.
www.kurmapartners.com

About copa­rion
copa­rion is a venture capi­tal inves­tor for young, German tech­no­logy compa­nies. With a fund volume of 275 million euros, copa­rion makes a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to the rapid and sustainable growth of young tech­no­logy compa­nies. Copa­rion support entre­pre­neu­rial vision with know-how without inter­fe­ring in the opera­tio­nal busi­ness. Thanks to its many years of expe­ri­ence in venture capi­tal and in buil­ding up compa­nies, the fund manage­ment reco­gni­zes poten­tial and opens up new perspec­ti­ves. copa­rion finan­ces exclu­si­vely toge­ther with co-inves­tors. copa­rion invests up to 10 million euros per company, usually in seve­ral finan­cing rounds of 1–5 million euros each. The focus of the fund is on German compa­nies in the start-up and young growth phase.
www.coparion.vc

About Crea­thor Ventures
Crea­thor Ventures invests in tech­no­logy-driven compa­nies that are advan­cing perso­na­liza­tion and digi­tiza­tion in health­care, as well as indus­try and enter­prise auto­ma­tion. The regio­nal focus is on Germany and Switz­er­land. From its offices in Bad Homburg and Zurich, the 15-strong team curr­ently supports over 30 tech­no­logy and health­care compa­nies. The manage­ment team has finan­ced over 200 compa­nies as lead or co-lead inves­tors over the past 30 years. More than 20 compa­nies were listed on inter­na­tio­nal stock exch­an­ges. Crea­thor Ventures curr­ently mana­ges a fund volume of over 230 million euros.
www.creathor.com

About Idin­vest Partners
Idin­vest Part­ners is a leading Euro­pean mid-market private equity firm. With EUR 8 billion in assets under manage­ment, the firm has tapped into various segments, inclu­ding inno­va­tive start-up venture capi­tal tran­sac­tions, mid-sized private debt, i.e. single-tran­che, senior and subor­di­na­ted debt, advice on primary and secon­dary invest­ments, and private equity. Idin­vest Part­ners was foun­ded in 1997 and was part of the Alli­anz Group until 2010. In Janu­ary 2018, Idin­vest Part­ners, previously an inde­pen­dent company, became a subsi­diary of Eura­zeo, a leading global invest­ment firm, with a diver­si­fied port­fo­lio of EUR 17 billion in assets under manage­ment, inclu­ding appro­xi­m­ately EUR 11 billion from invest­ment part­ners inves­ted in over 350 compa­nies. www.idinvest.com

About Max Planck Innovation
As the tech­no­logy trans­fer orga­niza­tion of the Max Planck Society, Max Planck Inno­va­tion is the link between indus­try and basic rese­arch. With our inter­di­sci­pli­nary team, we advise and support the scien­tists of the Max Planck Insti­tu­tes in the evalua­tion of inven­ti­ons, the filing of patents, and the estab­lish­ment of compa­nies. We offer indus­try central access to the inno­va­tions of the Max Planck Insti­tu­tes. In this way, we fulfill an important task: the trans­fer of basic rese­arch results into econo­mic­ally and soci­ally useful products.
www.max-planck-innovation.de

About Taca­lyx
Taca­lyx is a priva­tely held onco­logy company focu­sed on the disco­very and deve­lo­p­ment of anti-TACA (Tumor Asso­cia­ted Carbo­hy­drate Anti­gen) anti­bo­dies for the treat­ment of cancer. TACAs are formed during mali­gnant trans­for­ma­tion in a micro­evo­lu­tio­nary process. Expres­sion of TACAs is eleva­ted in many tumor types, making TACAs attrac­tive poten­tial targets for cancer treat­ment, against which appro­priate thera­peu­tics are being deve­lo­ped using the proprie­tary tech­no­logy platform.

Taca­lyx was foun­ded by an expe­ri­en­ced team that has successfully deve­lo­ped drugs in seve­ral compa­nies, inclu­ding Glycart, Roche, Suppre­Mol, Baxalta, Vaxxilon, GlyXera and Glyco­Uni­verse. The foun­ders of the company include BIVF (repre­sen­ted by Dr. Detlev Menne­rich, Invest­ment Mana­ger), Dr. Peter Sonder­mann, CEO of Taca­lyx, Prof. Dr. Peter H. Seeber­ger, Direc­tor at the Max Planck Insti­tute of Collo­ids and Inter­faces, Dr. Oren Mosco­vitz, Group Leader at the MPI of Collo­ids and Inter­faces, and the Max Planck Society (repre­sen­ted by Ulrich Mahr, Member of the Execu­tive Board of Max Planck Innovation).

Taca­lyx is head­quar­te­red in Berlin and is backed by leading Euro­pean life science and tech­no­logy inves­tors such as Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund (BIVF), Kurma Part­ners, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF), copa­rion, Crea­thor Ventures and Idpart­ners. www.tacalyx.com

About High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF)
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start­ups with growth poten­tial. With a total volume of EUR 895.5 million distri­bu­ted across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has alre­ady supported more than 550 start­ups since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and startup experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the soft­ware, media and Inter­net sectors, as well as hard­ware, auto­ma­tion, health­care, chemi­cals and life scien­ces. More than EUR 2 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 1,400 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. The fund has also successfully sold shares in more than 100 companies.

Capi­tal for further growth at Munich-based fintech: wealth­pi­lot closes finan­cing round

Munich — Munich fintech wealth­pi­lot recei­ves capi­tal for further growth The busi­ness model of the fast-growing Munich-based finan­cial tech­no­logy company wealth­pi­lot is aimed at hybrid wealth manage­ment. Seve­ral inves­tors contri­bu­ted a total of 2.6 million euros in a finan­cing round. Of this amount, EUR 1.1 million comes from a new inves­tor and EUR 1.5 million from exis­ting inves­tors such as Bayern Kapi­tal. With the funds from the new round, wealth­pi­lot intends to expand sales and marke­ting as well as drive inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion and product development.

wealthpilot’s digi­tal infra­struc­ture enables wealth advi­sors, asset mana­gers, family offices, banks or broker pools to conti­nue serving their clients perso­nally in the future. This hybrid approach combi­nes the advan­ta­ges of perso­nal consul­ting with wealthpilot’s effi­ci­ent soft­ware-as-a-service (SaaS) plat­form. The model is incre­asingly in demand: advi­sors are now analy­zing more than EUR 12 billion in assets with the wealth­pi­lot soft­ware, up from around EUR 4 billion in August 2018.

The finan­cial tech­no­logy company wealth­pi­lot was foun­ded in 2017 and now has over 30 employees at its expan­ded Munich loca­tion and in the Graz office, which will open in July 2019. In total, more than 4,500 banks, insu­rance compa­nies, broker pools, asset advi­sors and mana­gers, tax consul­tants, family offices and their private clients curr­ently work with wealthpilot’s solu­tion, compared with around 1,500 twelve months ago. With wealthpilot’s SaaS plat­form, finan­cial services firms and advi­sors can service all assets and asset clas­ses of new and exis­ting custo­mers, deli­ver a world-class custo­mer expe­ri­ence, and achieve signi­fi­cant time savings through process auto­ma­tion. “Since the begin­ning of 2019 alone, we have acqui­red ten major banks and insu­rance compa­nies as custo­mers. Our market entry into the enter­prise segment has thus been very successful. There are now over twelve billion euros in assets that advi­sors and private custo­mers analyze with our soft­ware,” says Stephan Schug (photo), one of the foun­ders and mana­ging direc­tors of wealthpilot.

“wealth­pi­lot has deve­lo­ped very well since our invest­ment last year. The company’s growth rates are impres­sive,” says Bayern Kapi­tal Mana­ging Direc­tor Dr. Georg Ried. “High-quality custo­mer care based on a sophisti­ca­ted yet user-friendly SaaS plat­form is in demand among wealth advi­sors and mana­gers. Using wealth­pi­lot saves them time that can be spent on perso­nal consul­ting. We were happy to parti­ci­pate in the follow-up finan­cing round to lay the foun­da­tion for the company’s further growth,” conti­nues Dr. Ried.

Now, the addi­tio­nal capi­tal from the finan­cing round concluded in June is to be used prima­rily to further deve­lop auto­ma­ted data aggre­ga­tion and analy­sis of asset values as well as intel­li­gent scena­rio analy­ses for wealth advi­sors and private custo­mers. In addi­tion, the funds will be used to expand mobile iOS and Android appli­ca­ti­ons. “We have become a leading provi­der of cloud-based soft­ware for hybrid wealth manage­ment. The fact that we have been able to win a large number of new custo­mers in the enter­prise and SME sectors in recent months is proof of the strong demand for inno­va­tive finan­cial tech­no­logy that impro­ves and simpli­fies advi­sory services in wealth manage­ment. In addi­tion, the strong commit­ment of a new inves­tor and the rene­wed parti­ci­pa­tion of exis­ting inves­tors shows that we can both gain and retain trust over the long term. We are excel­lently posi­tio­ned for the next growth steps of our company,” explains Schug.

With its approach, wealth­pi­lot also wants to “demo­cra­tize” wealth manage­ment to a certain extent, as Schug explains: “Custo­mers should be able to use tools for wealth advice and finan­cial plan­ning regard­less of their asset situa­tion, which are other­wise only available to the very wealthy with assets in excess of milli­ons,” he says.

About wealth­pi­lot
wealth­pi­lot GmbH, based in Munich and Graz, is a fast-growing tech­no­logy company provi­ding a digi­tal infra­struc­ture for the perso­nal wealth manage­ment of the future. Soft­ware-as-a-Service (SaaS) is one of the leading solu­ti­ons in wealth manage­ment and enables wealth mana­gers and advi­sors to achieve a symbio­sis of digi­tal and perso­nal wealth advice. wealth­pi­lot is alre­ady in use by over 4,500 users, who analyze and plan assets of over 12 billion euros with wealth­pi­lot every day. www.wealthpilot.de

Augmen­ted Reality in the Phar­maceu­ti­cal Industry:

Lands­hut / Munich-Grün­wald — Bayern Kapi­tal invests in Goodly Inno­va­tions as part of a Series A finan­cing round. Toge­ther with BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft and two busi­ness angels, Bayern Kapi­tal invests a seven-digit amount. Foun­ded at the end of 2016, the start-up from Munich-Grün­wald has deve­lo­ped an augmen­ted reality (AR) system that signi­fi­cantly impro­ves effi­ci­ency in produc­tion in the phar­maceu­ti­cal and biotech indus­tries, as well as enab­ling considera­ble cost savings. Goodly Inno­va­tions plans to use the Series A round funding to further deve­lop its product and expand commercialization.

Goodly Inno­va­tions’ augmen­ted reality system, called Opti­worX, is used in the phar­maceu­ti­cal and biotech indus­tries for produc­tion proces­ses that are down­stream of active ingre­di­ent manu­fac­tu­ring. Here, compa­nies face the chall­enge that opera­ting equip­ment — for exam­ple, in the pack­a­ging of active ingre­di­ents — often has to be taken out of service due to main­ten­ance or retro­fit­ting. As a result, produc­tion is stop­ped. Depen­ding on the comple­xity of a machine, these down­ti­mes amount to up to 50 percent and cause considera­ble costs. The Goodly solu­tion is based on mature tech­no­lo­gies and is alre­ady successfully used by seve­ral inter­na­tio­nal phar­maceu­ti­cal compa­nies. Here, it ensu­res grea­ter effi­ci­ency and faster problem solving by visually guiding machine users through the chan­geo­ver or main­ten­ance process using augmen­ted reality glas­ses. Any number of people can colla­bo­rate on any number of end devices. To date, Opti­worX is the only system to offer this multi-user, multi-device colla­bo­ra­tion for large indus­trial manu­fac­tu­ring and pack­a­ging faci­li­ties. The plat­form is desi­gned as a modu­lar, vendor-inde­pen­dent system. It enables fast, custo­mi­zed setup and inte­gra­tion into virtually any produc­tion environment.

Dr. Georg Ried, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapi­tal, says: “Goodly Inno­va­tions has deve­lo­ped a product that uses augmen­ted reality to solve a funda­men­tal problem in the phar­maceu­ti­cal and biotech indus­tries. The tech­no­logy works relia­bly — an important point in a regu­la­ted envi­ron­ment. Combi­ned with the expe­ri­ence of the foun­ding team, these are good prere­qui­si­tes for estab­li­shing the system as a stan­dard in a large market.”

Robert Hoff­meis­ter, Co-Foun­der and CEO of Goodly Inno­va­tions, states: “Thanks to the finan­cing round, we can acce­le­rate the further expan­sion of Opti­worX for the biopharma sector, both with addi­tio­nal product features and with grea­ter inter­na­tio­nal presence. We last saw produc­ti­vity leaps and quality impro­ve­ments on this scale in the auto­mo­tive indus­try 30 years ago. With Opti­worX, we are helping employees to unlock up to 50 percent produc­ti­vity reser­ves through the use of state-of-the-art and intui­tive technology.”

Alex­an­der Ullmann, Invest­ment Mana­ger at BayBG, says: “With Opti­worX, Goodly opti­mi­zes produc­tion proces­ses and mini­mi­zes plan­ned and unplan­ned plant down­time and chan­geo­ver times. We were parti­cu­larly convin­ced by the outstan­ding unique selling point of the Goodly solu­tion. It is the only AR system that enables multi-member teams to work on a task simul­ta­neously and synchro­no­usly in real time.”

About Bayern Kapital
Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, based in Lands­hut, was foun­ded in 1995 as a wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern on the initia­tive of the Bava­rian state govern­ment. As the venture capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria, Bayern Kapi­tal provi­des equity capi­tal to the foun­ders of inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies and young, inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies in Bava­ria. Bayern Kapi­tal curr­ently mana­ges eleven invest­ment funds with an invest­ment volume of around 325 million euros. To date, Bayern Kapi­tal has inves­ted around 300 million euros of venture capi­tal in 270 inno­va­tive tech­no­logy-orien­ted compa­nies from a wide range of sectors, inclu­ding life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. As a result, more than 7,500 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable compa­nies. www.bayernkapital.de

About Goodly Inno­va­tions GmbH
Goodly Inno­va­tions GmbH is a leading provi­der of augmen­ted reality solu­ti­ons for indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. The Opti­worX product is the only multi-user team manage­ment solu­tion that uses AR. Opti­worX was desi­gned as a modu­lar, vendor-inde­pen­dent system and allows a fast and indi­vi­dual setup in almost any produc­tion envi­ron­ment, as a stand-alone system or inte­gra­ted, e.g. into exis­ting MES systems for the crea­tion of Elec­tro­nic Batch Records.
www.goodly-innovations.com

About BayBG
With an inves­ted volume of more than 300 million euros, BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH is one of the largest venture capi­tal and equity capi­tal provi­ders for start-ups and medium-sized compa­nies. With its venture capi­tal and equity invest­ments, BayBG faci­li­ta­tes the imple­men­ta­tion of inno­va­tion and growth projects, the regu­la­tion of corpo­rate succes­sion, restruc­tu­rings, or the opti­miza­tion of the capi­tal structure.
www.baybg.de

Munich — Munich-based start-up klarx secu­res EUR 12.5 million in a Series B finan­cing round. The lead inves­tor is B&C Inno­va­tion Invest­ments (BCII), and the former inves­tor Target Global is also parti­ci­pa­ting again. LUTZ | ABEL is advi­sing klarx in this finan­cing round.

Foun­ded in Munich in 2015 by brot­hers Florian and Matthias Hand­schuh and Vincent Koch, klarx is now one of the leading rental portals for cons­truc­tion machi­nery with over 50,000 rental requests proces­sed by now. The start-up aims to tap into the €25 billion market volume of the digi­tal rental market for cons­truc­tion equip­ment in Europe. The online rental plat­form now has 4,000 regis­tered part­ners and more than a quar­ter of a million pieces of light equip­ment with their tech­ni­cal data. In order to be able to provide cons­truc­tion custo­mers with a complete package of service and billing, klarx rents the equip­ment itself and subse­quently sublets complete cons­truc­tion site faci­li­ties, inclu­ding trans­port and insu­rance cover, to its customers.

With the help of Series B finan­cing, klarx is incre­asingly focu­sing on the inter­na­tio­nal market and the further deve­lo­p­ment of the plat­form into a digi­tal sche­du­ling tool for land­lords and cons­truc­tion compa­nies from all over Europe. The start-up aims to digi­tize the cons­truc­tion indus­try with its tech­no­logy plat­form. In addi­tion to lead inves­tor B&C Inno­va­tion Invest­ments (BCII), legacy inves­tor Target Global again parti­ci­pa­ted in the financing.

Consul­tant klarx: LUTZ | ABEL
Dr. Marco Eick­mann (Lead Part­ner), Phil­ipp Hoene and Dr. Sebas­tian Sumalvico

About B&C Inno­va­tion Invest­ments GmbH
B&C Inno­va­tion Invest­ments GmbH (BCII) invests in inno­va­tive growth compa­nies with a tech­no­lo­gi­cal back­ground that are rele­vant to the indus­try and thus to the “old economy”. The focus is on high-impact start-up teams, which BCII supports as an inves­tor and active shareholder.

BCII’s invest­ments are aimed at foun­ding teams pursuing busi­ness models with a tech­no­lo­gi­cal or inno­va­tive core and promi­sing growth oppor­tu­ni­ties. The aim of BCII is not “merely” to support foun­ding teams with capi­tal, but to network them with estab­lished compa­nies and estab­lish them in the market.

BCII does not pursue a manda­tory exit stra­tegy in its invest­ments. Longer-term part­ner­ships with growth compa­nies are also conceiva­ble for BCII under the condi­tion of value-enhan­cing development.

In addi­tion to its majo­rity share­hol­dings in AMAG, Lenzing, Sempe­rit and its long-stan­ding acti­vi­ties in the area of rese­arch promo­tion, the B&C Group is thus provi­ding further impe­tus for Austria as a busi­ness location.

Munich — King & Wood Malle­sons (KWM) advi­sed Marondo Capi­tal GmbH (Marondo) on its invest­ment in Data­vard AG (Data­vard) in the context of a capi­tal increase. Marondo’s invest­ment will enable data manage­ment expert Data­vard to conti­nue its stra­te­gic growth and successful corpo­rate development.

Head­quar­te­red in Heidel­berg, Germany, with addi­tio­nal loca­ti­ons world­wide (in Europe, the US, and Asia), Data­vard is an inno­va­tive provi­der of intel­li­gent solu­ti­ons and consul­ting for SAP data manage­ment, appli­ca­tion decom­mis­sio­ning, inte­gra­tion of SAP data into Big Data and Data Lakes, mana­ged services, and system land­scape trans­for­ma­tion, inclu­ding SAP S/4 HANA migra­tion. The IT company counts inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies such as Alli­anz, BASF and Nestlé among its customers.

Marondo is an inno­va­tive invest­ment company for fast-growing, tech­no­logy-focu­sed compa­nies of the next gene­ra­tion of SMEs in Germany and DACH. The fund invests in compa­nies in the clas­sic German engi­nee­ring disci­pli­nes through majo­rity & mino­rity tran­sac­tions. This includes the indus­try sectors soft­ware & IT, indus­try 4.0, envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­lo­gies, new mate­ri­als as well as medi­cal tech­no­logy and health tech­no­lo­gies. Photo: Marko Maschek, foun­ding part­ner Marondo Capital.

Advi­sor Marondo Capi­tal GmbH:
Dr. Michael Roos (Part­ner), Hilke Schmitt (Coun­sel), Dr. Laura Schu­mann (Asso­ciate)

Munich — Munich-based AI start-up E‑Bot7 raises EUR 5.5 million in a Series A finan­cing round. — Lead inves­tor is the inter­na­tio­nally active venture capi­ta­list RTP Global. LUTZ | ABEL is advi­sing RTP Global on the finan­cing round.

Start-up E‑Bot7 deve­lops and inte­gra­tes arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) and deep lear­ning into exis­ting custo­mer service CRM systems. The start-up aims to enable auto­ma­ted proces­ses in custo­mer service by analy­zing inco­ming custo­mer inqui­ries and forwar­ding them to the appro­priate depart­ment. With the fresh capi­tal, E‑Bot7 intends to further increase its tech­no­logy and busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment team so that the AI solu­tion can be further expan­ded. It will also help new custo­mers inte­grate arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence into their custo­mer service.

In addi­tion to RTP Global, exis­ting inves­tors 42CAP, main Incu­ba­tor and a private inves­tor also parti­ci­pa­ted in this finan­cing round. In the current finan­cing round, Dr. Marco Eick­mann, Part­ner (photo), Phil­ipp Hoene and Dr. Sebas­tian Sumal­vico provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to the inves­tor RTP Global. Advi­sor RTP Global Dr. Marco Eick­mann, LL.M. (part­ner) Phil­ipp Hoene Dr. Sebas­tian Sumal­vico, Euro­pean Lawyer (Univ. Würzburg)

About LUTZ | ABEL
With more than 60 lawy­ers and offices in Munich, Hamburg and Stutt­gart, the commer­cial law firm LUTZ | ABEL provi­des advice on all aspects of commer­cial law. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.lutzabel.com

Munich / Starn­berg — The inde­pen­dent payment service provi­der Delfac­tis AG, Starn­berg, has won BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft as an inves­tor. The company offers a solu­tion for 100% del credere protec­tion and reverse facto­ring in payment tran­sac­tions between supplier and purchaser.

As a payment insti­tu­tion appro­ved by the German Fede­ral Finan­cial Super­vi­sory Autho­rity (BaFin), Delfac­tis guaran­tees the highest level of secu­rity. The contract part­ners include more than 3,000 compa­nies from the food, indus­try and trade sectors.
image003.jpgCentral sett­le­ment with del credere is widely used as a service within purcha­sing groups or group purcha­sing organizations.

Delfac­tis is one of the few service provi­ders inde­pen­dent of asso­cia­ti­ons and indus­tries that offers central sett­le­ment, i.e. the central sett­le­ment of all payment flows between seve­ral suppli­ers and the medium-sized buyer directly. The Delfac­tis custo­mer (the buyer) has the advan­tage that he mana­ges his credit risk hims­elf. By bund­ling the coverage of its purcha­sing volume through just one credit insurer, poten­tial supplier supply cons­traints are elimi­na­ted and the leverage of its credit rating is maxi­mi­zed. Reverse facto­ring gives buyers addi­tio­nal oppor­tu­ni­ties to opti­mize their working capi­tal. Suppli­ers bene­fit from the 100 percent payment guaran­tee, the elimi­na­tion of deli­very limits impo­sed by trade credit insu­r­ers, and the ability to shor­ten their payment terms via reverse factoring.

Marcus Gulder (photo), Head of Venture Capi­tal at BayBG: “The effi­ci­ent proces­sing of payment tran­sac­tions via an actively mana­ged del credere hedge has alre­ady proven itself thou­sands of times. The product and team are well posi­tio­ned and have convin­ced us. We are looking forward to the coope­ra­tion.” Delfac­tis CEO Martin Kötje is also satis­fied: “We are proud to have gained a parti­cu­larly renow­ned inves­tor in BayBG. With this commit­ment and the BaFin appr­oval as a payment insti­tu­tion recei­ved at the end of 2017, we are now ideally posi­tio­ned to acce­le­rate our further growth.”

About Delfac­tis AG
Delfac­tis AG has been active on the market as a central regu­la­tor with default protec­tion (=del credere) since 2010. We alre­ady have long-stan­ding custo­mer rela­ti­onships with more than 3,000 well-known compa­nies from the food, indus­try and retail sectors. Risk provi­sio­ning by means of centra­li­zed and bund­led del credere insu­rance for all suppli­ers for one custo­mer is beco­ming incre­asingly important and brings a wide range of bene­fits. Reverse facto­ring for the opti­miza­tion of “working capi­tal” for supplier and buyer comple­tes the product range of Delfac­tis. Delfac­tis can draw on the top three trade credit insu­r­ers world­wide to achieve the best results as a service provi­der for suppli­ers and buyers from an inde­pen­dent position.

About BayBG
With an inves­ted volume of more than 310 million euros, BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH is one of the largest provi­ders of venture capi­tal and equity capi­tal (equity and/or mezza­nine) for medium-sized compa­nies. With its equity invest­ments and venture capi­tal invest­ments, BayBG enables medium-sized compa­nies and start-ups to imple­ment inno­va­tion and growth projects, manage corpo­rate succes­sion or opti­mize their capi­tal structure.

Munich — Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Clif­ford Chance has advi­sed Welling­ton Part­ners on its successful fund­rai­sing for its fifth fund, Welling­ton Part­ners Life Science Fund V (WPLS‑V). The fund closed at €210 million, making it Welling­ton Part­ners’ largest life science fund to date.

Welling­ton Part­ners is a leading Euro­pean venture capi­tal firm inves­t­ing in early and growth stage life science compa­nies. The funds from WPLS V will be spent on a port­fo­lio of appro­xi­m­ately 15 to 20 compa­nies that are active in biotech­no­logy or are deve­lo­ping new thera­pies and medi­cal devices. Selec­ted invest­ments in diagno­stics and digi­tal health are also part of the invest­ment stra­tegy. The geogra­phi­cal focus is on Europe, in parti­cu­lar the German-spea­king region. In addi­tion, isola­ted invest­ments in North America or Asia are also being considered.

WPLS‑V gained many new well-known inves­tors such as KfW Capi­tal, Talanx and the U.S. UTIMCO, the Univer­sity of Texas/Texas A&M Invest­ment Company. Exis­ting inves­tors such as the Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund and the Euro­pean Invest­ment Bank also participated.

The advi­sing Clif­ford Chance team was led by part­ner Sonya Pauls(photo, Corporate/Private Equity, Munich).

About Clif­ford Chance
Clif­ford Chance, one of the world’s leading law firms, is present for its clients with around 3,400 legal advi­sors in all major busi­ness centers around the world. — In Germany, Clif­ford Chance is repre­sen­ted by around 300 lawy­ers, audi­tors, tax advi­sors and soli­ci­tors in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt am Main and Munich.

Tübingen/ Würz­burg — Masimo, a manu­fac­tu­rer of non-inva­sive pati­ent moni­to­ring tech­no­lo­gies based in Irvine, Cali­for­nia, has agreed on a stra­te­gic invest­ment with TNI medi­cal AG, a medi­cal tech­no­logy company based in Würz­burg, Germany. Funds advi­sed by SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment have been lead inves­tors in TNI medi­cal since 2010. Since then, the Tübin­gen-based medi­cal tech­no­logy and life science inves­tor has supported the company’s growth strategy.

Pati­ents with lung dise­ase receive a stream of warm, moist air applied directly to the nose without conden­sa­tion using TNI’s novel soft­Flow tech­no­logy. The flow rate of the air as well as the humi­dity can be precis­ely adjus­ted and oxygen can be added if neces­sary. The system, consis­ting of an inte­gra­ted flow gene­ra­tor, breathing circuit and pati­ent inter­face, opera­tes without pneu­ma­tic systems (i.e. without the use of extern­ally supplied compres­sed air) and can be used both in the hospi­tal and at home.

“The inno­va­tive products TNI has deve­lo­ped provide clini­ci­ans with important addi­tio­nal tools to treat the growing number of people affec­ted by lung dise­ase,” said Joe Kiani, foun­der, chair­man and CEO of Masimo. “We are plea­sed to provide TNI with an invest­ment that will enable the company to conti­nue to commer­cia­lize its products in the large and rapidly growing high-flow nasal therapy market.”

“We are proud of our successful part­ner­ship with TNI medi­cal, its manage­ment and employees. With the stra­te­gic invest­ment of Masimo, TNI medi­cal can bene­fit from a new part­ner with high exper­tise in inno­va­tive non-inva­sive moni­to­ring tech­no­lo­gies. We look forward to TNI’s future deve­lo­p­ment,” says Rein­hilde Spat­scheck, mana­ging part­ner at TNI’s lead inves­tor SHS Gesell­schaft für Beteiligungsmanagement.

About SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment mbH
Tübin­gen-based SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment invests in medi­cal tech­no­logy and life science compa­nies with a focus on expan­sion finan­cing, share­hol­der chan­ges and succes­sion situa­tions. In doing so, SHS enters into both mino­rity and majo­rity shareholdings.

As an expe­ri­en­ced indus­try inves­tor, the company, which was foun­ded in 1993, supports the growth of its port­fo­lio compa­nies through a network of colla­bo­ra­ti­ons, for exam­ple in the intro­duc­tion of new products, regu­la­tory issues or entry into addi­tio­nal markets. The German and inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors in SHS funds include profes­sio­nal pension funds, pension funds, stra­te­gic inves­tors, funds of funds, family offices, entre­pre­neurs and the SHS manage­ment team. The equity invest­ment of the AIFM-regis­tered company is up to € 30 million, volu­mes excee­ding this can be imple­men­ted with a network of co-inves­tors. Curr­ently, SHS is inves­t­ing from its fifth fund. The fund has alre­ady recei­ved capi­tal commit­ments of over 130 million euros. www.shs-capital.eu

Munich - air up secu­res 7‑figure invest­ment and successfully enters the market. Sold out in the mean­time and sales that please inves­tors — the successful launch in online and retail of air up ’s “scen­ted drin­king bottle” was prece­ded by a 7‑figure exten­ded seed round prepared by the BayStartUP inves­tor network. Stephan Huber, mana­ging direc­tor of the Munich-based phar­maceu­ti­cal company Denk Pharma, acts as lead inves­tor. The FRe UG of NavVis foun­der Dr. Felix Reins­ha­gen and private inves­tor Carl-Clau­dius Rosen­gar­ten also parti­ci­pate. The inves­tors from the first finan­cing round, Ralf Dümmel, Chris­toph Miller and Frank Thelen, remain on board. The team had met its lead inves­tor at one of the three BayStartUP Venture Confe­ren­ces 2019 — exclu­sive inves­tor panels where selec­ted start­ups present their solu­ti­ons. Last year, parti­ci­pa­ting teams were able to raise a total of more than 30 million euros in capi­tal through the series of events.

With air up’s tech­no­logy, you perceive flavor even though you’re only drin­king water: the drin­king system can flavor water only via scent. This crea­tes flavor without any other addi­ti­ves or calo­ries. “Some ideas are so obvious and yet no one has yet come up with the idea of pack­a­ging taste sensa­tion through retro­na­sal smel­ling into an inno­va­tive product,” says Harald Wagner, head of finan­cing coaching at BayStartUP.

The prelude for talks with lead inves­tor Stephan Huber and for his invest­ment in the company was one of BayStartUP’s Venture Confe­ren­ces in March 2019: “air up convin­ced me with its inno­va­tive product and its strong team. I was parti­cu­larly impres­sed that the team mana­ged to gain access to key play­ers in the beverage indus­try in a very short time. This enab­led it to stra­te­gi­cally place its products with manu­fac­tu­r­ers and retail­ers — an outstan­ding achie­ve­ment!” air up intends to invest the newly acqui­red capi­tal in marke­ting, company deve­lo­p­ment and product deve­lo­p­ment in order to make the brand even better known and to retain custo­mers in the long term. “In the next few months, we want to show that air up is accepted by custo­mers in the market and that our user promise appeals precis­ely to users,” says Fabian Schlang, co-foun­der, food tech­no­lo­gist and nutri­tion expert.

Berlin — Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Bryan Cave Leigh­ton Pais­ner (BCLP) has advi­sed North­zone on its follow-on invest­ment in the Series B funding round for Berlin-based games deve­lo­per Klang Games.

As part of the finan­cing round, Nova­tor Part­ners and LEGO Ventures joined as new inves­tors. In addi­tion to North­zone, other legacy inves­tors Neoteny, first­mi­nute capi­tal, Makers Fund and New Life Ventures also parti­ci­pa­ted, brin­ging Klang Games’ total raised to over USD 22 million. The Berlin-based games start-up was foun­ded in 2013 by CEO Mundi Vondi in Reykja­vik, Iceland, and later moved to the German capi­tal. With the newly raised capi­tal, Klang Games plans to further deve­lop its hit game “Seed”, an MMO game with persis­tent story­li­nes that can be used by thou­sands of play­ers simultaneously.

North­zone is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal fund that helps entre­pre­neurs build compa­nies of the future. With the EUR 350 million NZ VIII Fund, North­zone runs one of the largest venture funds in Europe speci­fi­cally focu­sed on early stage entre­pre­neur­ship. North­zone has offices in London, Stock­holm, New York and Oslo and is among the early inves­tors in compa­nies such as Spotify, iZettle and Trustpilot.

The BCLP team, led by Berlin-based part­ner Dr. Albrecht von Brei­ten­buch, had alre­ady advi­sed North­zone as lead inves­tor in the previous Series A finan­cing round. He regu­larly advi­ses North­zone on their invest­ments in Germany, inclu­ding invest­ments in Outfit­tery, TIER, Freight­Hub and Perso­nio. At the Berlin office, he has built a growing prac­tice in the area of tech­no­logy compa­nies and venture capi­tal inves­tors and leads this prac­tice area of BCLP in Germany.

About Bryan Cave Leigh­ton Paisner
Bryan Cave Leigh­ton Pais­ner is a fully inte­gra­ted global busi­ness law firm with more than 1,400 lawy­ers in 31 offices across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, provi­ding clients with compre­hen­sive legal coun­sel where­ver and when­ever they need it. Known for its service and team-orien­ted culture and indus­try-speci­fic inno­va­tions, the firm offers clients one of the most active M&A, real estate, finan­cial services, liti­ga­tion and corpo­rate risk prac­ti­ces in the world.

Biele­feld — Buying dental equip­ment as easy as buying shoes! With its inde­pen­dent online plat­form, the Biele­feld-based startup Zahn­arzt-Helden not only brings sales to the Inter­net, but also funda­men­tally chan­ges the way large-scale dental equip­ment is acqui­red, used and tech­ni­cally serviced. The High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces this inno­va­tion toge­ther with the Tech­no­logy Fund OWL mana­ged by Enjoy­Ven­ture as well as seve­ral busi­ness angels within the scope of a seed invest­ment in the amount of millions.

Until now, dentists have only been able to purchase dental equip­ment through consul­tants at specia­list dealers — in a time-consum­ing and non-trans­pa­rent process. Thanks to Zahn­arzt-Helden, dentists can now purchase large-scale dental equip­ment such as treat­ment units, X‑ray units and intra­oral scan­ners online and at fair prices via www.zahnarzt-helden.de. With the option of a long-term rental, the startup provi­des an alter­na­tive finan­cing method to the clas­sic purchase or leasing, which has long been common in other indus­tries. And not only for dental equip­ment, but also for tech­ni­cal service, which can be taken advan­tage of via a monthly subscription.

Among other things, Zahn­arzt-Helden would like to use the seed invest­ment to set up an online plat­form on which, for the first time, all the infor­ma­tion requi­red for a device purchase is bund­led and presen­ted inde­pendently. In addi­tion, the exis­ting service tech­ni­cian network of over 80 part­ners to date is to be further expan­ded and conso­li­da­ted. “Not only are we chan­ging the way we use equip­ment, but we’re also putting an end to nasty finan­cial surpri­ses when it comes to tech­ni­cal service work. Our flat rate for tech­ni­cal support enables dentists to plan costs,” explains Philip Pieper, co-foun­der & CEO of Zahnarzt-Helden.

Maurice Kügler, Invest­ment Mana­ger at HTGF: “Zahn­arzt-Helden has the poten­tial to trans­form the dental equip­ment retail indus­try with its market approach. The company’s market success to date impres­si­vely confirms this.” Stefan Bölte, Invest­ment Mana­ger at Tech­no­lo­gie­fonds OWL, adds: “The trio of foun­ders convin­ced us imme­dia­tely. With the approach of Zahn­arzt-Helden, an indus­try will be sustain­ably chan­ged and dentists will bene­fit from the new market transparency.”

The foun­da­tion for foun­ding the company was laid two years ago through the Foun­ders Academy and the acce­le­ra­tor program of the Foun­ders Foun­da­tion, Ostwestfalen’s startup cadre. To date, more than 3,000 dentists have alre­ady taken advan­tage of the Zahn­arzt-Helden offer, show­ing the team led by foun­der trio Cars­ten Janetzky, Philip Pieper and Martin Wert­gen that they are on the right track with their restruc­tu­ring of the dental market.

About the dentist heroes GmbH
Zahn­arzt-Helden GmbH, based in Biele­feld, was foun­ded in Decem­ber 2017 by Cars­ten Janetzky, Philip Pieper and Martin Wert­gen and curr­ently employs 20 people. The company’s goal is to make the dental market fairer and more trans­pa­rent for dentists. An inde­pen­dent online plat­form enables dentists to quickly and easily purchase costly large-scale equip­ment for their prac­tice. In this context, Zahn­arzt-Helden is not only respon­si­ble for compre­hen­sive product advice and the purchase of dental equip­ment, but also offers perma­nent tech­ni­cal service at a monthly rate.

About HTGF
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start­ups with growth poten­tial. With a total volume of EUR 895.5 million distri­bu­ted across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has alre­ady supported more than 540 start­ups since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and startup experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the soft­ware, media and Inter­net sectors, as well as hard­ware, auto­ma­tion, health­care, chemi­cals and life scien­ces. More than EUR 2 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 1,400 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. The fund has also successfully sold shares in more than 100 companies.

Inves­tors in the public-private part­ner­ship include the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capi­tal, the Fraun­ho­fer-Gesell­schaft and the busi­ness enter­pri­ses ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim, B.Braun, Robert Bosch, BÜFA, CEWE, Deut­sche Post DHL, Dräger, Dril­lisch AG, EVONIK, EWE AG, FOND OF, Haniel, Hettich, Knauf, Körber, LANXESS, media + more venture Betei­li­gungs GmbH & Co. KG, PHOENIX CONTACT, Post­bank, QIAGEN, RWE Gene­ra­tion SE, SAP, Schufa, Schwarz Gruppe, STIHL, Thüga, Vector Infor­ma­tik, WACKER and Wilh. Werhahn KG.

About the Tech­no­logy Fund OWL
The Tech­no­logy Fund OWL focu­ses in parti­cu­lar on start­ups from the IT or IoT sectors as well as on inno­va­tive busi­ness models with high market and scaling poten­tial. The fund mana­ged by Enjoy­Ven­ture has been on the market since 2017 as an early-stage inves­tor with 5 invest­ments to date. Initia­ted by the share­hol­ders Spar­kasse Pader­born-Detmold, NRW Bank, Phoe­nix Cont­act and Unity AG and supported by the fund manage­ment Enjoy­Ven­ture, the leading-edge clus­ter it’s OWL and the Tech­no­logy Trans­fer and Start-up Center of the Univer­sity of Pader­born (TecUP), the Tech­no­logy Fund OWL can invest up to 1.5 million euros in an investment.