News-Kategorie: Venture Capital

Berlin — German-Ameri­can venture capi­ta­list Bitkraft has laun­ched its first venture fund. With USD 165 million, the capi­tal raised by the fund, which is focu­sed on finan­cing start-ups in the gaming and e‑sports sector, signi­fi­cantly excee­ded the total volume targe­ted. Inves­tors include the family office of David Ruben­stein, co-foun­der of the Carlyle Group, and JS Capi­tal, an invest­ment firm run by Jona­than Soros. Toge­ther with the renow­ned US law firm Gunder­son Dett­mer, an SMP team led by Helder Schnitt­ker struc­tu­red Bitkraft Venture Fund I and advi­sed on tax and regu­la­tory issues.

“We are a good step closer to our goal of buil­ding the leading global invest­ment plat­form in the games and e‑sports indus­try,” explains Bitcraft foun­der Jens Hilgers.

Bitkraft Ventures
Bitkraft Ventures is a global invest­ment plat­form for gaming, e‑sports and inter­ac­tive media. Foun­ded by e‑sports vete­ran Jens Hilgers, Bitkraft connects inno­va­tive start­ups and foun­ders into a global network to drive the buil­ding of future-proof virtual worlds. The inter­na­tio­nally posi­tio­ned Bitkraft team adds signi­fi­cant value to its port­fo­lio compa­nies by buil­ding early partnerships.

About SMP
SMP is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm opera­ting in the core areas of corpo­rate, funds, liti­ga­tion, tax and tran­sac­tions. SMP attor­neys and tax advi­sors repre­sent a wide variety of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. Since its foun­da­tion in 2017, SMP has become one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners have been reco­gni­zed natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, and Cham­bers and Part­ners. Today, SMP employs over 50 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers and tax advi­sors in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne.

Consul­tant Bitkraft: SMP
Dr. Helder Schnitt­ker (Lead Part­ner, Fund Struc­tu­ring), Partner
Dr. Thomas Töben (Taxes), Partner
Lenn­art Lorenz (Regu­la­tory Law), Partner
Dr. Sebas­tian Schwarz (Taxes), Senior Associate

Garching b. Munich — 3YOURMIND, a leading provi­der of soft­ware solu­ti­ons for addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring (indus­trial 3D prin­ting), today announ­ced the successful closing of a new finan­cing round. The Series A+ is led by EnBW New Ventures (ENV), the venture capi­tal subsi­diary of EnBW, one of Europe’s largest energy and infra­struc­ture opera­tors. ENV and exis­ting inves­tors UVC Part­ners, AM Ventures, TRUMPF Venture and copa­rion are inves­t­ing a total of EUR 4.7 million in the Berlin-based soft­ware company. The current invest­ment round will not only acce­le­rate 3YOURMIND’s further growth in key indus­tries such as aero­space, auto­mo­tive and engi­nee­ring, but will also streng­then its posi­tion in the energy sector and infra­struc­ture. Today, 3YOURMIND custo­mers alre­ady include more than 50 compa­nies from nume­rous count­ries — with the soft­ware suite ensu­ring the smooth 3D prin­ting of seve­ral compon­ents every day.

3YOURMIND’s work­flow soft­ware is at the heart of manu­fac­tu­ring compa­nies that rely on addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring. This enables them to opti­mize their value chain, save up to 40 percent in costs, and achieve up to 18 percent shorter lead times compared with conven­tio­nal manu­fac­tu­ring. In addi­tion, indus­trial users are put in a posi­tion to help deter­mine the next gene­ra­tion of manu­fac­tu­ring at an early stage and use it for their own bene­fit. The work­flow soft­ware from 3YOURMIND is used prima­rily by compa­nies from a wide range of indus­tries that manu­fac­ture spare parts cost-effec­tively on demand, effi­ci­ently replace outda­ted machi­nery or switch to a digi­tal warehouse. Although most of 3YOURMIND’s custo­mers alre­ady rely heavily on addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring in their day-to-day produc­tion, the work­flow soft­ware also offers an opti­mal entry point for compa­nies that have yet to iden­tify use cases for indus­trial 3D prin­ting or want to plan and simu­late the use of agile manu­fac­tu­ring in their own production.

“The current econo­mic situa­tion in the wake of the Corona Lock­downs is just forcing many compa­nies to review their supply chains and look for alter­na­ti­ves,” says Alek­san­der Ciszek, co-foun­der and CEO of 3YOURMIND GmbH. “Our custo­mers are alre­ady bene­fiting from our work­flow soft­ware, which opti­mally controls decen­tra­li­zed produc­tion, increa­ses flexi­bi­lity in supply networks and thus ensu­res the indus­trial value chain at all times. We are plea­sed that ENV and our port­fo­lio inves­tors share our vision of next-gene­ra­tion effi­ci­ent manu­fac­tu­ring and support it through this Series A+ investment.”

The current invest­ment round enables 3YOURMIND to signi­fi­cantly increase its soft­ware deve­lo­p­ment capa­ci­ties. In addi­tion, the deve­lo­p­ment of new markets is to be massi­vely acce­le­ra­ted, in addi­tion to the exis­ting loca­ti­ons in Europe and the USA.

“The success of Indus­try 4.0 is based on addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring,” says Crispin Leick, Mana­ging Direc­tor at ENV. “Thanks to 3YOURMIND’s soft­ware, compa­nies can easily and effi­ci­ently inte­grate addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring into their exis­ting produc­tion proces­ses. At the same time, this supports the sustaina­bi­lity of many manu­fac­tu­ring and MRO (Main­ten­ance, Repair & Opera­ti­ons) appli­ca­ti­ons. We are extre­mely plea­sed with our invest­ment in a company like 3YOURMIND that is play­ing a major role in shaping the future of indus­trial manu­fac­tu­ring.” ENV invests prima­rily in strong and inno­va­tive compa­nies that can have a major impact on the energy and mobi­lity market in the future.

“Even in this econo­mic year, domi­na­ted by a globally rampant virus and ther­e­fore unpre­ce­den­ted, we at 3YOURMIND expect to double our sales for the third year in a row,” says Stephan Kühr, CEO of 3YOURMIND GmbH and respon­si­ble for the company’s growth. “The invest­ment round, carried by ENV and our exis­ting inves­tors UVC Part­ners, AM Ventures, TRUMPF Venture and copa­rion, opens up new and very good pros­pects for us in terms of strong global expansion.”

Simi­lar to other energy suppli­ers, EnBW opera­tes nume­rous power plants of diffe­rent ages and an exten­sive infra­struc­ture for relia­ble energy supply. In order to relia­bly supply its more than six million custo­mers and ensure smooth opera­ti­ons, the company has to find effi­ci­ent solu­ti­ons to main­tain and renew outda­ted equip­ment. Addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring has proven to be a parti­cu­larly viable solution.

About 3YOURMIND
When 3YOURMIND was foun­ded in 2014, the goal was to provide wide­spread access to addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring. In the first few years, corpo­rate custo­mers such as Siemens Energy, DB and Volks­wa­gen are added. This made it possi­ble to directly address the needs of enter­prise produc­tion and deve­lop soft­ware that is ready for the future of manu­fac­tu­ring. From 2020, the Agile Manu­fac­tu­ring Soft­ware Suite will offer modu­les for opti­mi­zing AM work­flows along the entire value chain. This provi­des your custo­mers with trans­pa­rency and scala­bi­lity for the entire industry.
www.3yourmind.com

About UVC Partners
Unter­neh­mer­tum Venture Capi­tal Part­ners (UVC Part­ners) is an early-stage venture capi­tal firm based in Munich and Berlin that invests speci­fi­cally in tech­no­logy-based start­ups in the areas of indus­trial tech­no­lo­gies, enter­prise soft­ware and mobi­lity. Per invest­ment round € 0.5 — 3 million are inves­ted and in successful invest­ments up to € 12 million in total. Port­fo­lio compa­nies bene­fit from the exten­sive invest­ment and exit expe­ri­ence of the manage­ment team and from the close coope­ra­tion with Unter­neh­mer­TUM, Europe’s leading inno­va­tion and start-up center. With its more than 240 employees and more than 100 indus­try part­ners, Unter­neh­mer­TUM has many years of expe­ri­ence in buil­ding young compa­nies. Through the part­ner­ship, UVC Part­ners can offer start­ups unique access to talent, custo­mers and part­ners. The port­fo­lio includes invest­ments such as Blick­feld, Carjump (Free2Move), Flix­Bus, KONUX, TWAICE and Vimcar.
https://www.uvcpartners.com/

Berlin — Aigno­stics, a spin-off of Charité — Univer­si­täts­me­di­zin Berlin and the Berlin Insti­tute of Health (BIH) that deve­lops AI-based solu­ti­ons for patho­logy, today announ­ced the closing of a €5m seed funding. Böhrin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund (BIVF) acted as lead inves­tor, with parti­ci­pa­tion from High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF), the VC Fonds Tech­no­lo­gie of IBB Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft, and Future Capital.

Formally, the deve­lo­p­ment of Aigno­stics began in early 2018 when rese­ar­chers from Charité and TU Berlin were accepted into BIH’s Digi­tal Health Acce­le­ra­tor (DHA) program to further deve­lop their inno­va­tive rese­arch in AI-based patho­logy and “Explainable AI” into a spin-off company.

Howe­ver, the foun­da­tion for Aigno­stics was laid much earlier, by Prof. Frede­rick Klau­schen, deputy. Direc­tor of the Insti­tute of Patho­logy at Charité, and rese­ar­chers from the Fraun­ho­fer Gesell­schaft and TU Berlin, led by Prof. Klaus-Robert Müller, Direc­tor of the Berlin Center for Machine Lear­ning (BZML), who filed their first patent for AI-based patho­logy back in 2011. Prof. Klau­schen, who studied physics as well as medi­cine, reco­gni­zed the poten­tial of AI for patho­logy early on. “While patho­lo­gists are excel­lent at compre­hen­si­vely analy­zing the morpho­lo­gi­cal features of tissues in indi­vi­dual samples, AI is parti­cu­larly well-suited for evalua­ting indi­vi­dual features in a stan­dar­di­zed and quan­ti­ta­tive manner, as well as unco­ve­ring corre­la­ti­ons in larger data­sets, such as clini­cal trials,” explains Prof. Klauschen.

Aigno­stics’ proprie­tary “Explainable AI” plat­form is parti­cu­larly well suited for such unco­ve­ring of new contexts. It is based on rese­arch by the Fraun­ho­fer Gesell­schaft, Charité and TU Berlin and allows to over­come the often criti­ci­zed “black box” problem of AI in patho­logy. “Explainable AI is a new and exci­ting field in modern AI rese­arch with a lot of poten­tial for both acade­mia and indus­try,” said Prof. Müller. “For exam­ple, we can train our AI with tissue samples that have a posi­tive or nega­tive response to therapy. We can then have the AI graphi­cally “explain” to us which morpho­lo­gi­cal charac­te­ristics distin­gu­ish the posi­tive cases from the nega­tive cases,” Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Alber, CTO of Aigno­stics, explains further. “This tech­no­logy is not only essen­tial for routine diagno­stics, where it can help verify the func­tio­ning of AI appli­ca­ti­ons, but is also a very inte­res­t­ing approach to find poten­tial new biomar­kers that can predict therapy response,” adds Prof. Klauschen.

“What makes us unique, howe­ver, is not only our tech­no­logy, but also our orga­niza­tio­nal struc­ture. We have exten­sive access to multi­mo­dal data as well as patho­lo­gists, which allows us to deve­lop tail­o­red algo­rithms for a wide variety of issues, from diagno­stics to rese­arch to CDx. In addi­tion, our close networ­king with Charité and TU Berlin is a great advan­tage, as we deve­lop our appli­ca­ti­ons in constant exch­ange with compu­ter scien­tists, rese­ar­chers, as well as patho­lo­gists as “end users”,” explains Viktor Matyas, CEO of Aigno­stics. “We are also very grateful for the support of Charité, BIH and Ascen­ion, without which we would not have come this far,” Matyas continues.

Aigno­stics will use the finan­cing to expand its port­fo­lio in phar­maceu­ti­cal rese­arch as well as fund longer-term projects aimed at deve­lo­ping companion/complementary diagno­stics (CDx) for routine diagno­stics. “We find Aigno­stics’ approach very promi­sing and think that more speci­fic diagno­stics will enable more perso­na­li­zed, effec­tive treat­ment for pati­ents,” said Dr. Alex­an­der Ehlgen of BIVF.

About Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund GmbH
The Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund (BIVF) supports early-stage rese­arch and tech­no­lo­gies through stra­te­gic invest­ments. Led by Frank Kalk­bren­ner, Global Head of the Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund. With a volume of €300 million, the BIVF invests in biotech and start-up compa­nies that have the poten­tial to deve­lop breakth­rough tech­no­lo­gies. The BIVF port­fo­lio curr­ently consists of 34 compa­nies. In addi­tion, the BIVF supports the crea­tion of new compa­nies based on promi­sing rese­arch projects at univer­si­ties or acade­mic insti­tu­ti­ons. The BIVF’s inte­rest in young, tech­no­logy-orien­ted compa­nies reflects its commit­ment to promo­ting inno­va­tive ideas and new scien­ti­fic approa­ches. The BIVF thus crea­tes oppor­tu­ni­ties for Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim to expand into new busi­ness areas with a focus on onco­logy, rege­ne­ra­tive medi­cine, infec­tious dise­a­ses and digi­tal health. www.boehringer-ingelheim-venture.com

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with growth poten­tial. With a volume of around EUR 900 million spread across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has supported almost 600 start-ups since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and start-up experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups from the fields of digi­tal busi­ness models, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces, chemis­try and rela­ted busi­ness areas. More than €2.5 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 1,600 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. In addi­tion, the fund has alre­ady 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 32 companies.

About Future Capital
Future Capi­tal (www.future-capital.com) is a public-private part­ner­ship between the state of Hesse and Sanofi-Aven­tis Deutsch­land GmbH. Since 1999, we have been support­ing early-stage and start-up compa­nies in the health­care sector with capi­tal, network and know-how. The company is head­quar­te­red in Frank­furt and we invest in our region, but also in Germany and Europe.

About IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft
IBB Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft(www.ibb-bet.de) provi­des venture capi­tal to inno­va­tive Berlin-based compa­nies and has estab­lished itself as the market leader in early stage finan­cing in Berlin. The funds are prima­rily used for the deve­lo­p­ment and market launch of inno­va­tive products or services and for busi­ness concepts in the crea­tive indus­tries. Since March 2015, two funds mana­ged by IBB Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft are in the invest­ment phase, the VC Fonds Tech­no­lo­gie Berlin II with a fund volume of EUR 60 million and the VC Fonds Krea­tiv-Wirt­schaft Berlin II with a fund volume of EUR 40 million. Both VC funds are finan­ced by funds from Inves­ti­ti­ons­bank Berlin (IBB) and the Euro­pean Regio­nal Deve­lo­p­ment Fund (ERDF), mana­ged by the State of Berlin. Since 1997, IBB Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft has provi­ded appro­xi­m­ately EUR 1.52 billion to over 210 Berlin-based crea­tive and tech­no­logy compa­nies in consor­tia with part­ners, of which IBB Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft has inves­ted EUR 217 million as lead, co-lead or co-investor.

About Ascen­ion
Ascen­ion GmbH (www.ascenion.de) is an inde­pen­dent tech­no­logy trans­fer company with parti­cu­lar exper­tise in the life scien­ces. It is a part­ner of more than 30 rese­arch insti­tu­ti­ons, univer­si­ties and univer­sity hospi­tals in Germany and Europe. Parti­cu­lar strengths are the support of spin-offs and project deve­lo­p­ment. As a tech­no­logy trans­fer part­ner of BIH and Charité, Ascen­ion accom­pa­nied the foun­ders and scien­tists and helped to launch the spin-off toge­ther with the BIH-Digi­tal Health Acce­le­ra­tor. In close coor­di­na­tion with BIH, Ascen­ion accom­pa­nied the nego­tia­tion of essen­tial contracts on the way to the foun­da­tion and finan­cing. www.ascenion.de

Munich, Germany — Tubu­lis today announ­ced the closing of a €10.7 million Series A finan­cing round. This is inten­ded to drive the deve­lo­p­ment of a new class of highly stable and potent Anti­body Drug Conju­ga­tes (ADCs, “anti­body-drug conju­ga­tes”) and to support the further growth of the company. Tubu­lis closes €10.7M Series A finan­cing was led jointly by BioMed­Part­ners and High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) with addi­tio­nal parti­ci­pa­tion from Seven­ture Part­ners, copa­rion, Bayern Kapi­tal and OCCIDENT as well as high net worth indi­vi­du­als and the founders.

Tubu­lis is a spin-off company that emer­ged in 2019 from the Leib­niz Rese­arch Insti­tute Berlin (FMP) and Ludwig Maxi­mi­lian Univer­sity (LMU) Munich to realize the thera­peu­tic poten­tial of ADCs for the treat­ment of cancer and other diseases.

“Tubu­lis’ goal is to use our dual plat­form to deve­lop ADCs that are perfectly matched to the dise­ase in ques­tion. Funding from such an expe­ri­en­ced consor­tium is further vali­da­tion of our tech­no­logy and reflects the current renais­sance that the field of ADCs is expe­ri­en­cing. The capi­tal gained will enable us to further advance the plat­forms and deve­lop our first two selec­ted ADC candi­da­tes towards the clinic,” said Domi­nik Schu­ma­cher, CEO and co-foun­der of Tubu­lis (photo: right, next to co-foun­der Dr. Jonas Helma-Smets).

“Tubu­lis is directly addres­sing the current limi­ta­ti­ons in ADCs and actively shaping the future of ADC thera­peu­tics for the treat­ment of a variety of diffe­rent dise­a­ses. We look forward to support­ing the Tubu­lis team as they build their busi­ness in this rapidly growing area that is in dire need of inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons,” Michael Wacker, Part­ner at BioMedPartners

Tubu­lis’ unique and versa­tile ADC port­fo­lio consists of two proprie­tary tech­no­lo­gies. These are based on scien­ti­fic results from the rese­arch groups of Prof. Chris­tian Hacken­ber­ger (FMP), Prof. Hein­rich Leon­hardt (LMU) and Dr. Jonas Helma-Smets, who are all co-foun­ders of the company. Further­more, Jonas Helma-Smets serves as CSO of the company.

Both plat­forms address the comple­xity of modern ADC design in terms of protein format, drug potency, and drug hydro­pho­bicity. P5 conju­ga­tion is a novel tech­no­logy for cysteine-selec­tive conju­ga­ti­ons. It allows the deve­lo­p­ment of parti­cu­larly stable ADCs with unpre­ce­den­ted linker stabi­lity and chemi­cal flexi­bi­lity. This enables rapid iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of poten­tial deve­lo­p­ment candi­da­tes. The Tub-tag® plat­form is inspi­red by the biology of micro­tu­bu­les. The Tub-tag® modi­fi­ca­tion of the anti­body crea­tes a favorable microen­vi­ron­ment for the coupling of the most chal­len­ging drugs. In addi­tion, the Tub-tag® deri­ved from the human system redu­ces the risk of adverse immune reac­tions. The combi­na­tion of these plat­forms addres­ses the key chal­lenges in the field, ADC stabi­lity as well as drug-deri­ved toxicity.

Tubu­lis intends to prefe­ren­ti­ally use these tech­no­lo­gies for inter­nal drug iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and deve­lo­p­ment, with the goal of gene­ra­ting novel ADCs that deeply inter­fere with the biology of the respec­tive indication.During the spin-off phase, the company has alre­ady been awarded seve­ral start-up prizes. These include the Venture.Med 2019 “Outstan­ding Start-up Award,” the “Leib­niz Entre­pre­neur­ship Award,” and being named an offi­cial “EIT Health Success Story.” Further­more, Tubu­lis is a company supported by the EIT Health Inves­tor Network.

About Tubu­lis
Tubu­lis uses proprie­tary tech­no­lo­gies to deve­lop novel drugs whose mecha­nisms of action go deep at the root cause of the dise­ase in ques­tion. Our goal is to expand the thera­peu­tic poten­tial of so-called Anti­body Drug Conju­ga­tes (ADCs). We want to usher in a new era in this product class and ther­eby achieve better results for pati­ents. With our proprie­tary deve­lo­p­ment approach to ADCs, Tubu­lis will advance a number of product candi­da­tes that can be used for multi­ple indi­ca­ti­ons. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.tubulis.com or follow us on Linke­dIn and Twit­ter. www.tubulis.com

About BioMed­Part­ners
BioMed­Part­ners is an inde­pen­dent Euro­pean venture capi­tal firm based in Basel. It acts as a lead or co-lead inves­tor, provi­ding private capi­tal to early to mid-stage life science compa­nies. Since 2002, BioMed­Part­ners has inves­ted in seve­ral highly inno­va­tive compa­nies, 22 of which have alre­ady been successfully acqui­red by leading biopharma compa­nies or have comple­ted an IPO. BioMed­Part­ners has more than CHF 350 million in capi­tal available and has estab­lished itself as one of the leading early-stage health­care inves­tors in Europe with a strong team of expe­ri­en­ced indus­try experts and an exten­sive network in science and pharma.

In Febru­ary 2018, the company announ­ced the closing of BioMed­In­vest III, its third equity and corpo­rate capi­tal fund of over CHF 100 million. In this third fund, BioMed­Part­ners focu­ses on support­ing compa­nies with highly inno­va­tive early-stage tech­no­logy plat­forms. One of BioMed­In­vest III’s first invest­ments was the Swiss immuno-onco­logy company Amal SA (Geneva), which was acqui­red by Böhrin­ger Ingel­heim in June 2019. www.biomedvc.com.

About Seven­ture Partners
With €750m net commit­ments under manage­ment as of the end of 2018, Seven­ture Part­ners is a leading venture capi­tal firm in Europe. Since 1997, Seven­ture Part­ners has been inves­t­ing in inno­va­tive busi­nesses with high growth poten­tial in two fields: Life scien­ces across Europe, Israel, Asia and North America and Digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies in France and Germany. In Life scien­ces, the main areas of focus include “clas­sic” approa­ches such as biotech­no­logy and phar­maceu­ti­cals, diagno­stic and medtech, indus­trial biotech­no­logy, as well as “beyond the pill” approa­ches such as MICRO­BIOME-linked inno­va­tions, nutri­tion, food­tech, digital/connected health and perso­na­li­zed medi­cine. www.seventure.fr/en

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

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 thir­teen invest­ment funds with an invest­ment volume of around 500 million euros. To date, Bayern Kapi­tal has inves­ted around 330 million euros of venture capi­tal in around 280 inno­va­tive tech­no­logy-orien­ted compa­nies from a wide range of sectors, inclu­ding life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. www.bayernkapital.de

About OCCIDENT
OCCIDENT is an inter­na­tio­nal venture capi­tal inves­tor with offices in Zug and Munich, is owner-mana­ged and invests its own assets. The claim is to make a posi­tive contri­bu­tion to society through sustainable and meaningful investments.

OCCIDENT invests in inno­va­tive deep tech start­ups with excel­lent tech­no­lo­gies from the life­sci­en­ces, digi­tal and high-tech sectors with broad appli­ca­ti­ons and the poten­tial for value-gene­ra­ting further deve­lo­p­ment. The geogra­phi­cal invest­ment focus is Germany and Switz­er­land. Initial finan­cing is prefer­a­bly from seed finan­cing round or later and from 0.5 million euros. OCCIDENT is charac­te­ri­zed in parti­cu­lar by its profound under­stan­ding of tech­no­logy and the versa­tile support of its port­fo­lio compa­nies by a compe­tent team of experts. For more infor­ma­tion, please visit www.occident.group.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with growth poten­tial. With a volume of around EUR 900 million spread across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has supported almost 600 start-ups since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and start-up experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups from the fields of digi­tal busi­ness models, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces, chemis­try and rela­ted busi­ness areas. More than €2.5 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 1,600 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. In addi­tion, the fund has alre­ady successfully sold shares in more than 100 companies.

Munich — User­lane — the deve­lo­pers of a leading digi­tal adop­tion solu­tion(photo from left Felix Eich­ler, Hart­mut Hahn and Kajetan A. Uhlig) — has successfully closed a Series B finan­cing round led by Five Elms Capi­tal. The backers inves­ted a total of around ten million euros, inclu­ding exis­ting inves­tors such as Capna­mic, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) and main incu­ba­tor, an early-stage inves­tor of the Commerz­bank Group. The invest­ment will drive Userlane’s inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and acce­le­rate product deve­lo­p­ment. The goal of these steps is to help compa­nies around the world improve adop­tion of the growing number of soft­ware solu­ti­ons that are criti­cal to busi­ness success.

“We see our custo­mers adop­ting soft­ware solu­ti­ons — espe­ci­ally given current market condi­ti­ons — to manage a more home office and remote work orien­ted work­force. Each of these custo­mers relies on User­lane to help their employees use soft­ware faster and effec­tively manage the increased demand for soft­ware support. With this new invest­ment, we are able to expand our inter­na­tio­nal presence and acce­le­rate our product road­map while provi­ding opti­mal support to our custo­mers across diffe­rent markets and time zones,” explains Hart­mut Hahn, CEO of Userlane.

“The need for digi­tal soft­ware adop­tion solu­ti­ons is growing expo­nen­ti­ally as orga­niza­ti­ons deploy more appli­ca­ti­ons to manage an incre­asingly complex and geogra­phi­cally disper­sed work­force. Hart­mut and his team have brought toge­ther an extre­mely talen­ted team, foste­red an incre­di­ble culture and deve­lo­ped an impres­sive product, all with limi­ted resour­ces. We look forward to helping the company build on its foun­da­tion of success and signi­fi­cantly increase its presence in the U.S. market,” said Joe Onofrio, Part­ner at Five Elms Capital

User­lane has seen increased demand since March­De­spite this period of econo­mic uncer­tainty, the number of compa­nies rely­ing on Userlane’s tech­no­logy has grown rapidly. In addi­tion to fast-growing tech­no­logy compa­nies like Celo­nis, Perso­nio and Freight­hub, large inter­na­tio­nal orga­niza­ti­ons like Beiers­dorf, Linde and Alli­anz have star­ted working with User­lane to empower their users and employees.

At the heart of User­lane tech­no­logy are inter­ac­tive step-by-step guides that can be laye­red over any brow­ser-based soft­ware. These guides can be crea­ted without prior tech­ni­cal know­ledge and lead users through complex proces­ses directly in the appli­ca­tion. Unlike video tuto­ri­als, User­lane commu­ni­ca­tes live with soft­ware users by using auto­ma­ti­cally coll­ec­ted data from the under­ly­ing appli­ca­tion to guide them through hundreds of actions. Users can learn how to complete any task within the soft­ware plat­form through their own actions, which in turn increa­ses soft­ware adoption.

The trend toward a remote work­force and the costs asso­cia­ted with imple­men­ting soft­ware to manage a more complex orga­niza­tion are putting tremen­dous pres­sure on compa­nies. User­lane is speci­fi­cally desi­gned to help compa­nies acce­le­rate their digi­tiza­tion efforts and promote effi­ci­ent and accu­rate soft­ware adop­tion. User­lane has enab­led custo­mers to reduce trai­ning and support costs by up to 75%, roll out new soft­ware and/or proces­ses three times faster, and onboard end users in half the time. Userlane’s plat­form has and will conti­nue to help compa­nies be more agile and respond more quickly to new challenges.

About User­lane
User­lane is an award-winning digi­tal adop­tion plat­form that helps compa­nies world­wide maxi­mize soft­ware adop­tion and usage. Users are intro­du­ced to new soft­ware with User­lane through inter­ac­tive in-app guidance and real-time contex­tual support. With over 200 inter­na­tio­nal custo­mers, the company is one of the top 50 tech start­ups in Europe and ranks 26th on the FAZ list of top German compa­nies. www.userlane.com.

About Five Elms Capital
Five Elms Capi­tal is a global inves­tor in fast-growing B2B soft­ware busi­nesses that users love. Five Elms provi­des capi­tal and resour­ces to help compa­nies acce­le­rate growth and further cement their role as indus­try leaders. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.fiveelms.com.

About Capna­mic Ventures
Capna­mic Ventures is one of Europe’s leading early-stage venture capi­tal inves­tors, based in Berlin and Colo­gne. The VC’s invest­ment focus is on tech­no­logy start­ups in German-spea­king count­ries. In addi­tion, Capna­mic invests with inter­na­tio­nal co-inves­tors. All port­fo­lio compa­nies are supported by Capnamic’s global indus­try network. The exten­sive know-how of the Capna­mic team is based on more than 80 invest­ments, nume­rous successful trade sales and IPOs as well as own entre­pre­neu­rial expe­ri­ence in the invest­ment team. Capna­mic is led by Chris­tian Siegele, Jörg Binnen­brü­cker and Olaf Jacobi and as Mana­ging Part­ner. www.capnamic.com

About main incubator
main incu­ba­tor is the early-stage inves­tor and rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment unit of Commerz­bank Group. It inves­ti­ga­tes future tech­no­lo­gies that are rele­vant to the economy and society, and promo­tes and deve­lops sustainable solu­ti­ons. He deve­lops proto­ty­pes based on future tech­no­lo­gies such as addi­tive prin­ting, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, cross reality, Inter­net of Things, networks, robo­tics and quan­tum compu­ting, often in colla­bo­ra­tion with part­ners from indus­try and rese­arch. In this way, it actively helps to shape future-proof products, solu­ti­ons and infra­struc­tures. — Main Incu­ba­tor GmbH, or main incu­ba­tor for short, is a wholly owned subsi­diary of Commerz­bank AG based in Frank­furt am Main.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with growth poten­tial. With a volume of around EUR 900 million spread across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has supported almost 600 start-ups since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and start-up experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digi­tal tech, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces, chemis­try and rela­ted busi­ness areas. More than €2.5 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 1,600 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. In addi­tion, the fund has alre­ady 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 32 compa­nies. Inves­tors in the public-private part­ner­ship include the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capi­tal, the Fraun­ho­fer-Gesell­schaft and the 32 companies.

Growth capi­tal Lands­hut / Munich — The successful Bava­rian Growth Fund initia­ted by the Bava­rian Minis­try of Econo­mic Affairs is getting a capi­tal-strong succes­sor. Endo­wed with 115 million euros, Wachs­tums­fonds Bayern 2 is again mana­ged by Bayern Kapi­tal, the wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern for venture capi­tal invest­ments. The resour­ces from the growth fund are inten­ded to support inno­va­tive and tech­no­logy-orien­ted start-ups in the Free State of Bava­ria in conclu­ding large-volume finan­cing rounds in coope­ra­tion with private investors.

Bavaria’s Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs Hubert Aiwan­ger: “With the first Bava­rian Growth Fund, we have alre­ady supported many inno­va­tive compa­nies. Now, toge­ther with Bayern Kapi­tal, we are conti­nuing the successful concept with the Bava­rian Growth Fund 2: We support young compa­nies with growth finan­cing to successfully place their product on the market and deve­lop into successful, inter­na­tio­nally compe­ti­tive compa­nies in the long term.”

The track record of the Bava­rian Growth Fund speaks for itself: Over the past five years, Bayern Kapi­tal has inves­ted a total of 70 million euros in 23 start-ups from the fund, mobi­li­zing a further 300 million euros of private capi­tal for Bavaria’s foun­ders through coope­ra­tion with dome­stic and foreign inves­tors, such as private venture capi­ta­lists and family offices.

“Parti­cu­larly in the tech­no­logy sector, compa­nies not only need deve­lo­p­ment time for long-term success, but above all finan­cial support. Inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion stra­te­gies and the deve­lo­p­ment of new markets, but also appr­oval studies and the further deve­lo­p­ment or diver­si­fi­ca­tion of one’s own product range are capi­tal-inten­sive and often present young compa­nies with immense chal­lenges. We are ther­e­fore plea­sed to be able to conti­nue to relia­bly support the inno­va­tion leaders of the Free State in large-volume finan­cing rounds with the Bava­ria 2 Growth Fund,” says Roman Huber (photo), Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapi­tal.

“Whether it’s service robots from Robo­tise, high-reso­lu­tion LiDAR sensors from Blick­feld, the smart ProGlove glove to opti­mize manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses, the mole­cu­lar diagno­stics company GNA Bioso­lu­ti­ons, which is curr­ently making great stri­des in the deve­lo­p­ment of a rapid corona test, or Regens­burg-based Numa­res AG, which offers diagno­stic tests based on NMR tech­no­logy: With the Bava­rian Growth Fund, we have been able to support a wide range of viable compa­nies in recent years, inclu­ding larger finan­cing rounds with natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors,” sums up Dr. Georg Ried, also Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapital.

The second edition of the Bava­rian Growth Fund, with a capi­tal of 115 million euros and an addi­tio­nal 15 million euros, can provide the inno­va­tion leaders of the Free State with invest­ment volu­mes of between two and, in indi­vi­dual cases, up to ten million euros per inves­tee, depen­ding on the situa­tion. A gene­ral condi­tion for parti­ci­pa­tion by the Bava­rian Growth Fund 2 is that at least one other private inves­tor commits on the same terms. Thus, the start-ups not only have the pros­pect of larger capi­tal volu­mes, but also bene­fit from the exper­tise as well as the regio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal network of the invest­ment partners.

“Throug­hout the Free State, Bavaria’s foun­ders are produ­cing exci­ting and inno­va­tive busi­ness models — from Passau to Würz­burg, from Regens­burg to Augs­burg. Howe­ver, in order to succeed on the market, young compa­nies are often depen­dent on state finan­cing instru­ments. This is true both in times of econo­mic weak­ness and in growth phases. Without targe­ted support, promi­sing ideas would often fall by the wayside at crucial moments because the compa­nies lack money for larger invest­ments. The Bava­ria 2 Growth Fund is ther­e­fore an important tool for driving the long-term busi­ness success of Bavaria’s tech­no­logy leaders,” says Dr. Otto Beierl, Chair­man of the Board of LfA Förder­bank Bayern.

Growth finan­cing for high-tech compa­nies ulti­m­ately bene­fits Bava­ria as a busi­ness loca­tion as a whole: Around 1,700 highly quali­fied, new jobs and many inno­va­tive busi­ness models ‘Made in Bava­ria’ in various indus­tries of the future have been crea­ted thanks to the first growth fund in the Free State alone.

Bavaria’s Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs Hubert Aiwan­ger: “The Bava­ria 2 Growth Fund is an important compo­nent of our econo­mic policy course. We want to create many strong clus­ters for econo­mic growth in all admi­nis­tra­tive districts in the long term and at the same time provide targe­ted support for future indus­tries. In this way, we are secu­ring today’s jobs and at the same time crea­ting the career pros­pects for tomorrow.”

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 13 invest­ment funds with an invest­ment volume of around 500 million euros. To date, Bayern Kapi­tal has inves­ted around 320 million euros of venture capi­tal in over 275 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