News-Kategorie: Venture Capital

Frank­furt a. M./ Dres­den — The Frank­furt office of the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP has advi­sed INVEN CAPITAL on a further invest­ment in the Dres­den-based company Cloud&Heat Tech­no­lo­gies GmbH. In addi­tion to INVEN CAPITAL, the London-based inves­tor ETF Part­ners also parti­ci­pa­ted in this new finan­cing round of EUR 10 million.

Cloud&Heat Tech­no­lo­gies is a tech­no­logy company that designs, builds and opera­tes envi­ron­men­tally friendly, water-cooled, public and private data centers (also as contai­ne­ri­zed solu­ti­ons) for cloud compu­ting. Thanks to a unique solu­tion, up to 90 percent of the server waste heat is used for heating and hot water gene­ra­tion in office buildings.

INVEN CAPITAL is the venture capi­tal fund of the Czech energy provi­der ČEZ Group. With a market capi­ta­liza­tion of more than 10 billion euros, the listed ČEZ Group is one of the ten largest energy compa­nies in Europe.

Weil’s Frank­furt office alre­ady advi­sed INVEN CAPITAL on the first finan­cing round of Cloud&Heat Tech­no­lo­gies GmbH in May 2017. Weil is also active on behalf of ČEZ Group, a long-time client of the firm, most recently on the acqui­si­tion of Elevion Group from DPE Deut­sche Private Equity as well as on a number of the firm’s acqui­si­ti­ons in the German wind energy sector.

Advi­sors to INVEN CAPITAL: Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
The Weil tran­sac­tion team was led by Frank­furt-based Corpo­rate Part­ner Dr. Kamyar Abrar and supported by asso­cia­tes Thomas Weise and Aurel Hille (both Corpo­rate, Frankfurt).

Advi­sor Cloud&Heat Tech­no­lo­gies GmbH: Bryan Cave Leigh­ton Pais­ner LLP (Hamburg)
Lead Corpo­rate Part­ner Dr. Michael Leue and Asso­ciate Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Karacz

Advi­sor ETF Part­ners: Taylor Wessing Düsseldorf
Corpo­rate Part­ner Maria Weiers

About Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,100 lawy­ers, inclu­ding appro­xi­m­ately 300 part­ners. Weil is head­quar­te­red in New York and has offices in Boston, Dallas, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, London, Miami, Munich, Paris, Beijing, Prague, Prince­ton, Shang­hai, Sili­con Valley, Warsaw and Washing­ton, D.C.

Berlin — Berlin-based start-up Seniovo has recei­ved a seven-figure sum from its inves­tors in an early-stage finan­cing deal. The venture capi­tal fund PropTech1 Ventures, the holding company of the Berli­ner Inves­ti­ti­ons­bank (IBB) and the German Media Pool with its print media part­ners have participated.

Senio­vo­eine offers a one-stop solu­tion for acces­si­ble remo­de­ling and has digi­ti­zed the entire process needed to make a resi­den­tial property acces­si­ble, from provi­ding infor­ma­tion to occu­pants to apply­ing for health insu­rance subsi­dies to hiring trade­speo­ple. In doing so, Seniovo not only places these profes­sio­nals, but also acts as a gene­ral contrac­tor to respon­si­bly over­see the conver­sion of the property. In addi­tion to the capi­tal, Seniovo gains access to discoun­ted adver­ti­sing oppor­tu­ni­ties in local news­pa­pers through the German Media Pool, which play a major role in the company’s stra­tegy as a chan­nel of cont­act with the older population.

The PropTech startup enables people in need of care to remain living at home by provi­ding age-appro­priate and barrier-free remo­de­ling services — in many cases without co-payments of private funds.

Anja Rath (photo), Mana­ging Part­ner of PropTech1 Ventures, comm­ents on the invest­ment decis­ion: “Seniovo offers a service with an urgent and steadily growing need. The busi­ness model is attrac­tive and scalable. On top of that, we are very happy to support Seniovo, a company that makes an important social contri­bu­tion and makes barrier-free conver­sion much easier, espe­ci­ally for those who are alre­ady very busy with caring for rela­ti­ves or patients.”

Chris­tian Seegers, Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger of IBB Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft, adds: “Seniovo is a prime exam­ple of the compa­nies we are looking for: The Berlin-based team around Jona­than Kohl and Justus Klocke has foun­ded a fast-growing startup, convin­ced private capi­tal of their busi­ness model and also offers important social added value. The care market offers inno­va­tive start­ups excel­lent growth oppor­tu­ni­ties and we are plea­sed to be able to support Seniovo with our exper­tise in the care market.”

Jona­than Kohl, CEO & Co-Foun­der of Seniovodescri­bes the added value of the VC invest­ment: “The inves­tor consor­tium has proven to be very valuable from day 1. With PropTech1, we have gained our dream inves­tor, whose part­ners them­sel­ves bring count­less years of expe­ri­ence as entre­pre­neurs, giving us not only capi­tal but also acce­le­ra­ted access to wide circles in the real estate indus­try. IBB Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft alre­ady has seve­ral successful invest­ments in the care market and brings deep market know­ledge from which we can benefit.”

Nagel Holding GmbH & Co. KG has inves­ted in the young growth company copal­tec GmbH as part of a corpo­rate invest­ment. A team led by Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein, part­ner at the Stutt­gart office, provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to Nagel Holding. With the invest­ment, Nagel Holding offers copal­tec not only further capi­tal, but also stra­te­gic know-how and market access.

copal­tec GmbH, foun­ded in 2012 and head­quar­te­red in Böblin­gen, Germany, deve­lops and manu­fac­tures poly­ure­thane-based potting compounds. The products protect sensi­tive elec­tro­nic compon­ents from exter­nal influen­ces. The company’s port­fo­lio includes product lines of trans­pa­rent, insu­la­ting, flame retar­dant and cooling systems.

Nagel Maschi­nen und Werk­zeug­fa­brik GmbH specia­li­zes in the field of honing and super­fi­nis­hing tech­no­logy. The company is based in Nürtin­gen. Custo­mers come from the auto­mo­tive indus­try, compres­sor and mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, hydrau­lics and pneu­ma­tics, and medi­cal technology.

Advi­sors to Nagel Holding GmbH & Co. KG: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein, LL.M. (lead), Stutt­gart, Dr. Andreas Scha­ben­ber­ger (IP/IT)

Munich — The Consent Manage­ment Plat­form (CMP) provi­der User­cen­trics has, less than a year after its foun­da­tion, secu­red a growth invest­ment in the single-digit million range in a recent finan­cing round. The plat­form coll­ects and provi­des seve­ral million user cons­ents (eng. Cons­ents) for well-known compa­nies, agen­cies and adver­ti­sing tech­no­logy provi­ders at the minute, which have become neces­sary under the Gene­ral Data Protec­tion Regu­la­tion (GDPR) for the coll­ec­tion of perso­nal user data.

The lead inves­tors in the finan­cing round are Cavalry Ventures and Reimann Inves­tors. Other busi­ness angels invol­ved include Kai Seefeldt (Product­sup), Axel Täubert (Google/DoubleClick) and Jens Lapin­ski (Angel Invest Ventures).

With the new capi­tal, User­cen­trics will acce­le­rate the expan­sion of its core busi­ness and tackle the expan­sion into new markets, inclu­ding Euro­pean count­ries and the USA. The expan­sion of the team is also plan­ned as part of the growth stra­tegy. User­cen­trics plans to hire and grow prima­rily in IT, legal, sales and marketing.

The Munich-based tech­no­logy company has deve­lo­ped a soft­ware solu­tion for the new and stric­ter legal situa­tion under the DSGVO and the e‑privacy regu­la­tion. With the Consent Manage­ment Plat­form, compa­nies can obtain, manage, and docu­ment the consent of their website users for the use of web tech­no­lo­gies (cookies, pixels, etc.).

Munich/ Limburg/ — Sili­con LineGmbH succeeds in a further finan­cing round with a volume of seve­ral million euros. In addi­tion to the exis­ting inves­tors Munich Venture Part­ners Fund II GmbH & Co KG, Capital‑E NV, Capital‑E II Arkiv Comm.V.A, Limburgse Recon­ver­sie Maats­ch­ap­pij NV, Unix­tar Tech­no­lo­gies Inc. also acqui­red a new stake in Sili­con Line GmbH as part of the finan­cing round.

Sili­con Line is a global leader in inno­va­tive ultra-low power opti­cal link tech­no­logy that enables thin, light­weight and long high-speed cables for the mobile and consu­mer elec­tro­nics markets. Foun­ded in 2005 as an analog IC design house, Sili­con Line quickly deve­lo­ped proven exper­tise in ultra-low-power, analog and mixed-signal design. Sili­con Line has since sold over 1.4 billion units.

Advi­sor Sili­con Line GmbH: GÖRG Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten mbB
Dr. Bernt Paudtke, Part­ner, Dr. Chris­tian Glauer, Asso­ciate Part­ner, Tobias Reichen­ber­ger, Asso­ciate (all M&A/Corporate, Munich)

Advi­sors Limburgse Recon­ver­sie Maats­ch­ap­pij NV: Osborne Clarke LLP
Dr. Benja­min Monheim, Sarah-Julia Nießen, Enno Dreier

Advi­sor to Unix­tar Tech­no­lo­gies Inc.: KPMG Law Rechts­an­walts­ge­sell­schaft mbH
Dr. Daniel Kaut, Part­ner, Dr. Chris­tian Hensel, Senior Mana­ger (Lead), Denise Kühn-Rittirsch, Asso­ciate (all M&A / Corpo­rate, Nuremberg)

About Munich Venture Partners
Munich Venture Part­ners is a clean­tech venture capi­tal specia­list based in Munich. Munich Venture Part­ners focu­ses on venture capi­tal for high-tech start-up compa­nies with growth-orien­ted and reve­nue-gene­ra­ting products. The commit­ment is focu­sed on Europe and selec­ted inter­na­tio­nal invest­ments. Munich Ventures Part­ners supports foun­ders and entre­pre­neurs in solving entre­pre­neu­rial chal­lenges and is a valuable advi­sor and cont­act in all phases of development.

About Capital‑E and Capital‑E II
Capital‑E provi­des early-stage capi­tal to compa­nies deve­lo­ping unique selling propo­si­ti­ons based on elec­tro­nics or advan­ced mate­ri­als. By working closely with IMEC, the largest inde­pen­dent rese­arch center for micro- and nanoelec­tro­nics in Europe, Capital‑E and its compa­nies can directly access the support of more than 2,000 scien­tists and engi­neers, as well as IMEC’s more than 500 global part­ners, to cost-effec­tively promote the use of highly inno­va­tive products.

About Limburgse Recon­ver­sie Maats­ch­ap­pij NV (LRM)
LRM is an invest­ment company that deve­lops and stimu­la­tes econo­mic growth in Limburg. We provide a solid foun­da­tion so that compa­nies and projects that create jobs in Limburg can grow. LRM invests in compa­nies and projects that gene­rate econo­mic acti­vity in Limburg and thus contri­bute to the sustainable main­ten­ance and growth of employ­ment in Limburg.

About Unix­tar
Foun­ded in 1986, Unix­tar is a modern elec­tro­nics company with multi­ple loca­ti­ons in China and Cambo­dia. The company manu­fac­tures a wide range of cables and cable assem­blies, consu­mer elec­tro­nics products, elec­tro­me­cha­ni­cal assem­blies, prin­ted circuit boards and active fiber optic cables for custo­mers around the world. Unix­tar has 4,500 employees and reve­nues of $130 million.

Munich/Landshut — Bayern Kapi­tal invests in All3DP, opera­tor of a leading global inter­net plat­form for 3D prin­ting, in a series A2 closing. Bayern Kapi­tal had alre­ady inves­ted in the Series A1 finan­cing round around two years ago and now played a key role in struc­tu­ring the current round. The exis­ting inves­tors HTGF and Deut­sche Bala­ton AG are still on board. New addi­ti­ons are two busi­ness angels from the BayStartUP inves­tor network. All3DP opera­tes the online maga­zine All3DP.com, which provi­des infor­ma­tion about 3D prin­ting oppor­tu­ni­ties in the consu­mer and small busi­ness segments. The number of users is over 800,000 monthly, as All3DP foun­ders Stefan Schwarz-Ulrich, Anatol Locker, Mathias Plica (photo from left to right) explai­ned. All3DP also connects its users to 3D prin­ting service provi­ders via its own price compa­ri­son platform.

With the successful, English-language online maga­zine All3DP.com, the Munich-based start-up informs a broad target group from the consu­mer and small-busi­ness segment about the possi­bi­li­ties of 3D prin­ting. In addi­tion, users are refer­red directly to 3D prin­ting service provi­ders. This makes All3DP the inter­na­tio­nal market leader in this segment. More than 800,000 users visit the All3DP.com website each month, of which about 40 percent are from North America.

The 3D prin­ting market is growing at a rapid pace, with the number of desk­top 3D prin­ters sold doubling every year. All3DP’s custo­mers come from all over the world, with a focus on North America and Europe. The finan­cing round now closed will enable the company to keep pace with the strong growth of the market and expand its market-leading position.

Dr. Georg Ried, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapi­tal, says: “All3DP has deve­lo­ped excel­lently, the user numbers are impres­sive. Ther­e­fore, we have parti­ci­pa­ted in this round again with full convic­tion. Because All3DP combi­nes important aspects: Market leader­ship with a convin­cing and scalable busi­ness model in a highly inte­res­t­ing market that offers excep­tio­nal future prospects.

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 273 million euros of equity capi­tal in around 260 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 5,000 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable compa­nies. www.bayernkapital.de

Munich, Germany — Unter­neh­mer­tum Venture Capi­tal Part­ners (UVC Part­ners), btov Part­ners (btov Indus­trial Tech­no­lo­gies Fund) and AM Ventures have inves­ted in DyeM­an­sion GmbH as part of the appro­xi­m­ately EUR 4.5 million finan­cing round for the company.

Munich-based DyeM­an­sion offers indus­trial solu­ti­ons for surface finis­hing and colo­ring of addi­tively manu­fac­tu­red plas­tic parts. The entire solu­tion deve­lo­ped by DyeM­an­sion is refer­red to as a ‘print-to-product’ work­flow and covers all steps of the finis­hing process from raw part to finis­hed product. Alre­ady trus­ted by more than 400 custo­mers for color and finish solu­ti­ons, inclu­ding many 3D prin­ting service provi­ders and manu­fac­tu­r­ers from various indus­tries such as auto­mo­tive, life­style, retail, medi­cal and sport­ing goods, DyeMansion’s effec­tive ‘print-to-produce’ work­flow enables them to offer their custo­mers high-quality addi­tively manu­fac­tu­red products. As a result, the Munich-based company was able to quickly estab­lish itself as the world market leader in this field. DyeMansion’s solu­ti­ons are now compa­ti­ble with all powder-based tech­no­lo­gies, such as those from EOS, HP, 3D Systems and Prod­ways, and can be used regard­less of geometry.

Advi­sor Unter­neh­mer­Tum Venture Capi­tal Part­ners GmbH: GÖRG Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten mbB
Dr. Chris­tian Glauer, Asso­ciate Part­ner; Dr. Bernt Paudtke, Part­ner; Tobias Reichen­ber­ger, Asso­ciate, (all M&A / Corpo­rate); Dr. Ulrich Fülbier, Part­ner, Labor Law; Dr. Mela­nie Ries, Asso­ciate, IP & IT (all Munich)

Advi­sors to DyeM­an­sion GmbH: Orrick, Herring­ton & Sutcliffe LLP
Dr. Sven Greu­lich, LL.M., EMBA, Part­ner; Dr. Johan­nes Josef Rüberg, Mana­ging Asso­ciate; Vanessa Sousa Höhl, Inter­na­tio­nal Asso­ciate (all M&A / Corpo­rate, Düsseldorf)

About Unter­neh­mer­Tum Venture Capi­tal Partners
Unter­neh­mer­tum Venture Capi­tal Part­ners (UVC Part­ners) is an early-stage venture capi­tal firm that invests speci­fi­cally in tech­no­logy-based start­ups in the Indus­trial Tech­no­lo­gies, Enter­prise Soft­ware and Mobi­lity sectors. EUR 0.5 — 3 million are inves­ted per invest­ment round and up to EUR 12 million in total in successful investments.

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 180 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 Flix­Bus, Carjump (Freer2Move), KONUX, Blick­feld, 3YOURMIND and Vimcar.

About btov Part­ners Indus­trial Tech­no­lo­gies Fund
btov is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal company mana­ging appro­xi­m­ately EUR 375 million in insti­tu­tio­nal funds, part­ner funds and direct invest­ments from private inves­tors. btov teams in St.Gallen, Berlin, Munich and Luxem­bourg support start-ups with highly ambi­tious teams toge­ther with expe­ri­en­ced entre­pre­neurs from the btov network. The Indus­trial Tech­no­lo­gies team of btov Part­ners supports compa­nies like compo­nent, module and system hard­ware manu­fac­tu­r­ers with embedded soft­ware up to provi­ders of appli­ca­tion and infra­struc­ture soft­ware for the indus­try. The tech­no­logy focus is on robo­tics & auto­no­mous vehic­les, “machine lear­ning”, indus­try 4.0 and IoT, data secu­rity (cyber­se­cu­rity), elec­tro­nics & photo­nics, addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring, energy conver­sion and storage, medi­cal and quan­tum technologies.

About AM Venture Holding GmbH
AM Ventures Holding GmbH (AMV) is an inde­pen­dent, stra­te­gic inves­tor focu­sed on indus­trial 3D prin­ting. The company was foun­ded in 2015 by Dr. Hans J. Langer, CEO of the EOS Group. With the goal of estab­li­shing gene­ra­tive manu­fac­tu­ring as a key tech­no­logy of the future, AMV finan­ces and deve­lops start­ups that deal with inno­va­tive systems, soft­ware, mate­ri­als or appli­ca­ti­ons in indus­trial 3D prin­ting. In addi­tion, AMV deve­lops and opera­tes appli­ca­tion-speci­fic manu­fac­tu­ring faci­li­ties in which gene­ra­tive manu­fac­tu­ring is used for series produc­tion. Thus, the company offers unique access to tech­no­lo­gies, expert know­ledge and the network of the Langer Group — such as EOS, the world’s leading tech­no­logy provi­der in indus­trial 3D prin­ting of metals and plas­tics, and Scan­Lab, the tech­no­logy leader for high-precis­ion scan­ning solutions.

Munich — Bayern Kapi­tal invests in the start-up eKidz.eu, which has deve­lo­ped a program for mobile devices to faci­li­tate the acqui­si­tion of language and reading skills for child­ren and pupils. The young Munich-based company has now successfully comple­ted its seed finan­cing round with the support of the BayStartUP inves­tor network, recei­ving a high six-figure sum. In addi­tion to Bayern Kapi­tal, six busi­ness angels parti­ci­pa­ted in the round. With the capi­tal, eKidz.eu wants to finance the deve­lo­p­ment of new features of the app, expand the offer to other opera­ting systems and inte­grate addi­tio­nal content.

The start-up was foun­ded in Janu­ary 2017 by a team of three led by Nata­liya Tetruyeva (photo). eKidz.eu plans to use the funds from the seed round to drive the deve­lo­p­ment of the program and finance the roll­out in various Euro­pean count­ries. An English language version is also to be included in the app.

eKidz.eu has deve­lo­ped the first e‑learning program in Germany for so-called immersive language lear­ning speci­fi­cally for child­ren aged 5–10, where they are immer­sed in the virtual world in a natu­ral way when using the program. The app is also suita­ble for child­ren lear­ning German as a second language. The goal is to improve children’s language and reading skills in a natu­ral way. Speci­fi­cally, digi­tal children’s books can be acces­sed via app on mobile devices such as tablets. The appro­xi­m­ately 50 children’s books curr­ently available are syste­ma­ti­cally divi­ded into nine reading levels. Child­ren can have the texts read aloud at the appro­priate level, read for them­sel­ves, and answer compre­hen­sion ques­ti­ons. After­wards, teachers or parents can view the results of the exer­ci­ses. The app is available on iPad; Windows and Android versi­ons are under deve­lo­p­ment. In the future, the app will be supple­men­ted with audio recor­dings and other func­tions. eKidz.eu’s target groups are schools and families.

Dr. Georg Ried, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Bayern Kapi­tal, says: “So far, there has been no e‑learning appli­ca­tion for children’s language lear­ning in Germany. Howe­ver, the market promi­ses great poten­tial, as it is an excel­lent supple­ment to school educa­tion and is ther­e­fore likely to become incre­asingly popu­lar as society beco­mes more digi­ti­zed. Ther­e­fore, we see eKidz.eu with its sophisti­ca­ted app as an exci­ting invest­ment with excel­lent prospects.”

About eKidz.eu
eKidz.eu is the first digi­tal program in Germany for language lear­ning through reading and writing for child­ren. The app for lear­ning German is suita­ble for child­ren aged 5–10. The digi­tal children’s books are syste­ma­ti­cally struc­tu­red into 9 reading levels, intro­du­cing child­ren to fluent reading. Reading using new exci­ting media on iPad and tablet increa­ses children’s curio­sity and moti­va­tion. eKidz.eu uses new tech­no­lo­gies to make access to language lear­ning easier for child­ren and young adults as well. With eKidz.eu, every child recei­ves a mobile language labo­ra­tory in which indi­vi­dual language skills can be strengthened.

About BayStartUP
BayStartUP’s offe­rings give foun­ders, inves­tors and compa­nies orien­ta­tion in Bavaria’s startup scene. With the Bava­rian Busi­ness Plan Compe­ti­ti­ons, an exten­sive coaching offer and Germany’s largest inves­tor network, BayStartUP supports foun­ders and young compa­nies in opti­mi­zing their stra­tegy, buil­ding their busi­ness and finding start-up or growth capi­tal. Through BayStartUP, start­ups have cont­act oppor­tu­ni­ties with more than 280 listed busi­ness angels, over 100 insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, and finan­cing from 50,000 euros to 5 million euros. Each year, BayStartUP’s inves­tor network brokers around 50 million euros to start­ups. So far, more than 1,600 compa­nies have emer­ged from the Bava­rian Busi­ness Plan Compe­ti­ti­ons. Today, they are active on the market with appro­xi­m­ately 11,400 employees and gene­rate sales of around 1 billion euros. They have about 400 parti­ci­pant teams each year. www.baystartup.de

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 273 million euros of equity capi­tal in around 260 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 5,000 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable compa­nies. www.bayernkapital.de

Landshut/Munich — The Bava­rian Growth Fund, mana­ged by Bayern Kapi­tal, is inves­t­ing in VEACT GmbH from Munich as part of a Series B finan­cing round. The start-up has deve­lo­ped a soft­ware-based plat­form that can signi­fi­cantly increase the effi­ci­ency of marke­ting proces­ses in the auto­mo­tive indus­try. The mid-seven-figure finan­cing round is led by new lead inves­tor FIDURA Private Equity Fund. The previous inves­tors Seven­ture, Senovo, Unter­neh­mer­TUM and KfW also parti­ci­pa­ted in the capi­tal increase. The cont­act between inves­tors and VEACT came about at one of the BayStartUP Venture Confe­ren­ces, where outstan­ding young growth compa­nies meet renow­ned venture capi­tal repre­sen­ta­ti­ves, public capi­ta­lists and busi­ness angels from all over Germany.

Through consis­tent use of data, VEACT signi­fi­cantly increa­ses the effi­ci­ency of marke­ting and sales proces­ses in the auto­mo­tive indus­try. VEACT uses all rele­vant invoice, vehicle and service data from the manu­fac­tu­rer or dealer­ship and iden­ti­fies the opti­mal target group for each marke­ting campaign with its self-deve­lo­ped custo­mer vita­lity analy­sis. Using the VEACT Campaign Mana­ger, employees can then launch a suita­ble custo­mer commu­ni­ca­tion with a tail­o­red offer. As a result of this data-driven marke­ting, campaign sales can be increased by up to 200 percent — while simul­ta­neously redu­cing marke­ting costs.

VEACT was foun­ded in Munich in 2011, has around 70 employees and plans to grow to over 100 employees. The start-up aims to deve­lop new digi­tal products and services for targe­ting custo­mers and to drive inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion. To this end, VEACT recently opened foreign offices in Vienna and Madrid. VEACT is thus active in the DACH region, the Iberian Penin­sula, France, Great Britain, Italy, and nume­rous count­ries in Southe­as­tern Europe.

Bavaria’s Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs Franz-Josef Pschie­rer says: “VEACT has deve­lo­ped extra­or­di­na­rily well. I ther­e­fore expressly welcome the fact that the Bava­rian Growth Fund is support­ing the further deve­lo­p­ment of VEACT’s promi­sing tech­no­logy and helping to conti­nue the start-up’s success story. VEACT’s clever combi­na­tion of data analy­sis and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence has the poten­tial to rede­fine the rela­ti­onship between custo­mers and compa­nies in the auto­mo­tive sector. And that’s what the Bava­rian Growth Fund is all about: accom­pany­ing compa­nies with inno­va­tive ideas into the next phase.”

About VEACT
VEACT GmbH deve­lops and distri­bu­tes a soft­ware-based plat­form for the digi­ta­liza­tion of marke­ting proces­ses in the auto­mo­tive indus­try. With self-lear­ning tech­no­logy and a broad auto­mo­tive know-how, VEACT supports its custo­mers in making marke­ting and sales proces­ses more effi­ci­ent through data. To do this, VEACT uses all available data sources — e.g. invoices, service histo­ries, satis­fac­tion queries, and campaign data — and conden­ses them into a custo­mer profile. The aim is to process this infor­ma­tion quali­ta­tively in such a way that it can be used to create indi­vi­dual custo­mer profiles and recom­men­da­ti­ons for action (predic­tive custo­mer intel­li­gence). Car dealer­ships and manu­fac­tu­r­ers bene­fit from lower process costs, impro­ved custo­mer loyalty and thus higher sales. VEACT curr­ently employs around 70 people.

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 273 million euros of equity capi­tal in around 260 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 5,000 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable compa­nies. www.bayernkapital.de

Berlin — Samuel Aebi of the law firm Vogel Heerma Waitz advi­sed mitte­mitte on a USD 10.6 million seed finan­cing round. The finan­cing round is led by Danone Mani­festo Ventures, the New York venture arm of Danone, VisVi­res New Protein Capi­tal and Kärcher New Venture. Mitte­mitte is using the capi­tal for a new type of water system that combi­nes puri­fi­ca­tion and mine­ra­liza­tion of tap water in one device for home use.

Advi­sor to mitt­te­mitte: Vogel Heerma Waitz
Samuel Aebi (Corpo­rate)

About Vogel Heerma Waitz
Vogel Heerma Waitz has been opera­ting since May 2014 as a law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media, based in Berlin, which can draw on a total of over 50 years of expe­ri­ence of its now five part­ners in connec­tion with growth capi­tal financings.

Hamburg/ Lipp­stadt — The new FinTech company troy is chan­ging the tradi­tio­nal debt coll­ec­tion indus­try with methods from marke­ting and CRM, it revo­lu­tio­ni­zes the debt coll­ec­tion process and combi­nes machine lear­ning with friend­li­ness. The goal of the start-up with loca­ti­ons in Lipp­stadt (NRW) and Hamburg is to main­tain the rela­ti­onship between company and custo­mer in addi­tion to the realiza­tion of receiv­a­bles. To achieve this, troy’s foun­ders, Philip Rürup and Till Völzke (photo), rely on multich­an­nel commu­ni­ca­tion, as well as indi­vi­dua­li­zed and data-driven approa­ches combi­ned with deca­des of debt coll­ec­tion expertise.

The two foun­ders and mana­ging direc­tors of troy, Philip Rürup and Till Völzke, foun­ded their FinTech in 2017. The first clients from the energy supply, publi­shing and multich­an­nel retail sectors are alre­ady using troy’s new debt coll­ec­tion service. In May 2018, troy was able to close a seven-figure finan­cing round and win over seve­ral inves­tors, inclu­ding High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF), 3E Capi­tal Group and seve­ral busi­ness angels from the FinTech world. The company is going public with the launch in August 2018.

The inves­tors
Lead inves­tors in troy include HTGF, expe­ri­en­ced serial foun­der Hans-Jürgen Even with his Foun­der Cata­lyst 3E Capi­tal Group, as well as busi­ness angels from the FinTech world, inclu­ding Tamaz Geor­gadze, Frank Freund and Michael Stephan (all Raisin / Welt­spa­ren), Gamal Mouka­bary and Andreas Bermig (both Bonify).

“About half of consu­mers fall behind on payments due to forgetful­ness or short-term shorta­ges. Nevert­hel­ess, these custo­mers have so far been trea­ted in the coll­ec­tion process as if they had deli­bera­tely not paid. The process is imper­so­nal, bureau­cra­tic and unplea­sant. It is obvious that compa­nies usually lose their custo­mers as a result. We change that! We conti­nue to treat the custo­mer as a custo­mer, using tried-and-tested methods of multich­an­nel CRM, targe­ting approa­ches and machine lear­ning. In this way, we reach custo­mers via the commu­ni­ca­tion chan­nel that is most conve­ni­ent for them and main­tain the custo­mer rela­ti­onship for our clients,” says Philip Rürup, foun­der and CEO of troy.

“It is parti­cu­larly plea­sing that the indi­vi­dua­li­zed, friendly commu­ni­ca­tion as well as flexi­ble proces­ses also have a posi­tive effect on the reco­very rate. This rein­forces our mission to become the most custo­mer-friendly debt coll­ec­tion company in Europe,” adds Till Völzke.

About troy
troy is a FinTech that specia­li­zes in custo­mer-friendly, digi­tal debt coll­ec­tion. The startup opti­mi­zes the custo­mer expe­ri­ence in debt coll­ec­tion and thus preser­ves the custo­mer rela­ti­onship. To do this, troy uses tools and methods from marke­ting and CRM and combi­nes them with data and machine lear­ning. troy was foun­ded in 2017 by Philip Rürup and Till Völzke in Lipp­stadt and curr­ently has loca­ti­ons in Lipp­stadt and Hamburg. The first clients come from the energy supply, publi­shing and multich­an­nel retail sectors. Lead inves­tors include the public-private part­ner­ship HTGF, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds, in which the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Energy is also invol­ved, 3E Capi­tal Group and busi­ness angels from the FinTech world inclu­ding Tamaz Geor­gadze, Frank Freund and Michael Stephan (all Raisin / Welt­spa­ren), Gamal Mouka­bary and Andreas Bermig (both Bonify).

Munich — Munich-based startup BLICKFELD is deve­lo­ping sensors for self-driving cars — and has recei­ved milli­ons in new funding. Sensors are the basis for auto­no­mous cars. They make the vehic­les “see” by scan­ning the envi­ron­ment and provi­ding 3D images. The Munich-based startup Blick­feld promi­ses to offer a parti­cu­larly afforda­ble vari­ant. To do this, the startup relies on sili­con structures.

Recently, the company foun­ded in 2017 by Mathias Müller, Florian Petit and Rolf Wojtech (photo from left to right) recei­ved new money. The exis­ting inves­tors, Flix­bus inves­tor Unter­neh­mer­Tum Venture Capi­tal Part­ners, Fluxu­nit, the invest­ment arm of light­ing manu­fac­tu­rer Osram, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) and Tengel­mann Ventures have increased their invest­ment to 8.5 million euros. In a first round they had given 3.6 million euros.

The fresh capi­tal is to be used, among other things, for series produc­tion, which will start next year. The plan is to deli­ver “seve­ral hundred” sensors to custo­mers in the first half of 2019 as part of the initial pilot series, he said. The startup explains that it is curr­ently nego­tia­ting with major auto­mo­tive suppli­ers, among others. How much the first sensors produ­ced by Euro­pean manu­fac­tu­r­ers will cost has not yet been deter­mi­ned, they say. In the long term, the price should drop to a few hundred euros.
www.blickfeld.com

Munich — With Buil­ding Radar, ASTUTIA Ventures welco­mes a new company to its port­fo­lio. The Munich-based start-up offers a B2B plat­form for cons­truc­tion projects that allows suppli­ers and service provi­ders to search projects world­wide and iden­tify them at an early stage. In real time, Buil­ding Radar provi­des multi-laye­red data and infor­ma­tion across all design and cons­truc­tion phases, inclu­ding satel­lite imagery, analy­tics and indus­try trends. “We are looking forward to working with the foun­ders Paul Indin­ger and Leopold Neuerbur,” said Bene­dict Roden­stock (photo), foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of ASTUTIA Ventures.

The Buil­ding Radar data analy­tics plat­form allows compa­nies to find out about all cons­truc­tion projects near them or around the world, track your compe­ti­tors’ next moves, or evaluate new stra­te­gic part­ner­ships. The satel­lite-assis­ted search algo­rithm makes it possi­ble to disco­ver new cons­truc­tion projects months earlier than compe­ti­tors, to verify data on projects (e.g. cons­truc­tion phase or buil­ding size) and to perform intel­li­gent real-time analy­ses, for exam­ple on indus­try trends.

About ASTUTIA Ventures
As an owner-mana­ged, inde­pen­dent invest­ment company, ASTUTIA Ventures has been inves­t­ing in inno­va­tive compa­nies with outstan­ding growth poten­tial for 10 years now. Our focus is on the Inter­net and digi­tal media. We offer foun­ders and compa­nies in the early growth phase venture capi­tal, a top-class inter­na­tio­nal network and cross-indus­try know-how for successful development.

Leip­zig — c‑LEcta, a leading global biotech­no­logy company focu­sed on enzyme engi­nee­ring and appli­ca­ti­ons in regu­la­ted markets such as the food and phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­tries, has closed a finan­cing round with Capri­corn Venture Part­ners and the invest­ment company bm|t. The capi­tal increase provi­des the company with growth capi­tal as well as valuable access to an inter­na­tio­nal network.

c‑LEcta alre­ady has a diver­si­fied share­hol­der struc­ture. In addi­tion to the foun­der Dr. Marc Stru­halla, private inves­tors from the indus­try and German insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, the company has now been able to expand its circle of share­hol­ders with two new inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors. The lead inves­tor Capri­corn Venture Part­ners is an inde­pen­dent, inter­na­tio­nally orien­ted invest­ment company based in Leuven (Belgium). Capri­corn invests in inno­va­tive, tech­no­logy-driven compa­nies and has a multi­di­sci­pli­nary team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers. As part of the finan­cing round, Capri­corn parti­ci­pa­ted through two funds, Capri­corn Sustainable Chemis­try Fund NV and Quest for Growth NV.

The German invest­ment company bm|t invests in high-growth tech­no­logy compa­nies led by teams of entre­pre­neurs. bm|t inves­ted via MFT Mittel­stands-Fonds Thürin­gen GmbH & Co. KG. The new capi­tal will be used in parti­cu­lar to finance the appr­oval, market launch and scaling of products from the project pipe­line on a commer­cial scale, the further deve­lo­p­ment of the pipe­line and the expan­sion of inter­na­tio­nal sales.

Ludwig Goris, Invest­ment Mana­ger of Capri­corn, explains the invest­ment in c‑LEcta: “We see that global mega­trends and chal­lenges in human nutri­tion are paving the way for indus­trial biotech compa­nies like c‑LEcta. Since its incep­tion, c‑LEcta has built a remar­kable track record in tech­no­logy and product deve­lo­p­ment and has been able to vali­date this with a growing custo­mer base of leading phar­maceu­ti­cal, chemi­cal and food ingre­di­ent compa­nies. In addi­tion, the highly quali­fied team in Leip­zig convin­ced us.

Foun­der and CEO Dr. Marc Stru­halla and his moti­va­ted team have crea­ted a great company that is at an attrac­tive inflec­tion point where the current product pipe­line provi­des the foun­da­tion for an acce­le­ra­ted growth trajec­tory. We are proud to be instru­men­tal in this funding round and to contri­bute to c‑LEcta’s success.”

Kevin Reeder, CEO of bm|t (Photo), adds: “bm|t, which has an exten­sive life scien­ces port­fo­lio, is very opti­mi­stic about the invest­ment in c‑LEcta. We were very impres­sed by the strong team, the successful deve­lo­p­ment and the compel­ling product pipe­line. We believe c‑LEcta is well posi­tio­ned to tran­si­tion into a large biotech­no­logy company.” The two new inves­tors expand the group of share­hol­ders, which previously included the follo­wing inves­tors: SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment mbH, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds Manage­ment GmbH, KfW Banken­gruppe, Dr. Marc Stru­halla, Warning Betei­li­gungs GmbH, Dr. Bader Betei­li­gungs GmbH and Arthur Stein­metzBetei­li­gungs GmbH.

In order to streng­then the manage­ment as well as the execu­tive board and to support the targe­ted growth, Thomas Pfaadt (45) has recently been appoin­ted CFO at c‑LEcta. He enri­ches the company with his expe­ri­ence in corpo­rate finance and M&A. Previously, Thomas Pfaadt worked for a private, owner-opera­ted opera­tor of reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics and for a family-owned inte­gra­ted health­care group. He also gained expe­ri­ence as an invest­ment banker and consul­tant focu­sed on the health­care indus­try. Thomas Pfaadt comm­ents on what attracts him to c‑LEcta: “c‑LEcta is a young, lean and dyna­mic company and at the same time a global player. We are addres­sing the major chal­lenges of modern human nutri­tion. A growing popu­la­tion and an incre­asing demand for healthy, natu­ral foods require solu­ti­ons through enzyme tech­no­lo­gies that the chemi­cal indus­try cannot provide. We are plea­sed to have attrac­ted the two new inves­tors to further deve­lop our company and seize the oppor­tu­ni­ties that present themselves.”

c‑LEcta is a fully inte­gra­ted biotech­no­logy company focu­sed on enzyme engi­nee­ring and biopro­cess deve­lo­p­ment for regu­la­ted markets such as the food and phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­tries. c‑LEcta is based in Leip­zig and curr­ently employs around 60 people. The company is broadly posi­tio­ned and covers a large part of the value chain: the rese­arch and engi­nee­ring of enzy­mes through to commer­cial produc­tion as well as the manu­fac­ture of other high-quality biotech­no­lo­gi­cal products are part of c‑LEcta’s service reper­toire — either as in-house deve­lo­p­ments or in close coope­ra­tion with indus­trial part­ners. c‑LEcta has comple­ted more than 30 enzyme engi­nee­ring projects in the last 5 years with a success rate of >90%. Just a few weeks ago, c‑LEcta became the first company to announce a major breakth­rough in a process to mass produce a plant-based sweete­ner with a sugar-like flavor. In addi­tion, two other products with high market poten­tial are at an advan­ced stage of deve­lo­p­ment and the project pipe­line includes seve­ral promi­sing candi­da­tes for the multi-billion euro food ingre­di­ent market. The finan­cing is inten­ded to enable c‑LEcta to grow stron­gly and to

About c‑LEcta
c‑LEcta is a fully inte­gra­ted biotech­no­logy company focu­sed on enzyme engi­nee­ring and biopro­cess deve­lo­p­ment for regu­la­ted markets such as the food and phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­tries. c‑LEcta is based in Leip­zig and curr­ently employs around 60 people. The company is broadly posi­tio­ned and covers a large part of the value chain: the rese­arch and engi­nee­ring of enzy­mes through to commer­cial produc­tion as well as the manu­fac­ture of other high-quality biotech­no­lo­gi­cal products are part of c‑LEcta’s service reper­toire — either as in-house deve­lo­p­ments or in close coope­ra­tion with indus­trial part­ners. c‑LEcta has comple­ted more than 30 enzyme engi­nee­ring projects in the last 5 years with a success rate of >90%. Just a few weeks ago, c‑LEcta became the first company to announce a major breakth­rough in a process to mass produce a plant-based sweete­ner with a sugar-like flavor. In addi­tion, two other products with high market poten­tial are at an advan­ced stage of deve­lo­p­ment and the project pipe­line includes seve­ral promi­sing candi­da­tes for the multi-billion euro food ingre­di­ent market. The funding is expec­ted to enable c‑LEcta to grow stron­gly and lift food ingre­di­ents out of the project pipe­line and into commer­cial produc­tion scale.

CEO Dr. Marc Stru­halla explains the core tech­no­logy of c‑LEcta and the capi­tal increase: “The perfor­mance requi­re­ments for enzy­mes used in indus­trial proces­ses are in most cases very speci­fic and diffe­rent from natu­rally occur­ring vari­ants. Enzy­mes ther­e­fore need to be adapted to indus­trial condi­ti­ons by enzyme engi­nee­ring and c‑LEcta has one of the most effi­ci­ent tech­no­logy plat­forms in this field. For enzyme opti­miza­tion as well as for the deve­lo­p­ment of arti­fi­cial enzyme acti­vi­ties, we use proprie­tary methods inspi­red by nature. The indus­trial appli­ca­tion of these tech­no­lo­gies holds great market poten­tial. The strong finan­cial base and valuable inter­na­tio­nal network we have gained through this finan­cing round now gives us the oppor­tu­nity to exploit the full poten­tial of our tech­no­lo­gies and our people. With Capri­corn Venture Part­ners and bm|t, we were able to bring on board two active inves­tors who can contri­bute signi­fi­cantly to our inter­na­tio­nal growth ambi­ti­ons. I am all the more plea­sed that Thomas Pfaadt will support us as our new CFO. Our goal is for c‑LEcta’s tech­no­lo­gies to be used in many things in ever­y­day life in the future.”

About Capri­corn Venture Partners
Capri­corn Venture Part­ners is an inde­pen­dent Euro­pean mana­ger of venture capi­tal and equity funds inves­t­ing in inno­va­tive Euro­pean compa­nies with a compe­ti­tive tech­no­lo­gi­cal advan­tage. It is based in Leuven (Belgium) and is licen­sed by the FSMA (Finan­cial Services and Markets Autho­rity in Belgium).

About bm|t
Erfurt-based bm|t betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment thürin­gen gmbh (bm|t) is the largest growth inves­tor in Thurin­gia. bm|t invests in inno­va­tive compa­nies with high growth poten­tial in all indus­tries and phases of the company life cycle.

About c‑LEcta
c‑LEcta is a fully inte­gra­ted, world-leading biotech­no­logy company focu­sed on enzyme engi­nee­ring and biopro­cess deve­lo­p­ment for regu­la­ted markets such as the food and phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­tries. The Leip­zig-based company has estab­lished itself as a leading provi­der in the realiza­tion of high-quality biotech­no­lo­gi­cal products, whether in in-house deve­lo­p­ments or in close coope­ra­tion with indus­try. c‑LEcta curr­ently employs around 60 people.

c‑LEcta deli­vers cost-effi­ci­ent and sustainable produc­tion proces­ses that open up new markets and enable better pene­tra­tion of exis­ting markets. The company excels in the rapid and effi­ci­ent deve­lo­p­ment of best-in-class biotech solu­ti­ons and the successful launch and commer­cia­liza­tion of the resul­ting products. This allows c‑LEcta to unleash the unique poten­tial of its core tech­no­lo­gies. c‑LEcta alre­ady has more than 10 successfully marke­ted, high-quality, indus­trial biotech products.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Gründerfonds(HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start­ups with growth poten­tial. With a total volume of 892.5 million euros distri­bu­ted over three funds (272 million euros Fund I, 304 million euros Fund II, 316.5 million euros Fund III) and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has alre­ady supported 506 start-ups 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 €1.8 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in over 1,300 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. The fund has also successfully sold shares in more than 90 companies.

Frank­furt a. M. ‑The High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) invests a high six-figure amount in the rapid control engi­nee­ring startup Ineco­sys. Ineco­sys GmbH supports its custo­mers in the imple­men­ta­tion of embedded projects through the Rapid Series Deve­lo­p­ment plat­form (RSD). Rese­arch and pre-deve­lo­p­ment results are gene­ra­ted in a conti­nuous and agile process on Rapid Control Proto-Typing systems and then trans­fer­red to the requi­re­ments of the final series product. As a result, custo­mers achieve signi­fi­cantly acce­le­ra­ted time to market while redu­cing over­all deve­lo­p­ment costs.

Acce­le­ra­ted deve­lo­p­ment with lower embedded hard­ware costs Agility, acce­le­ra­ted time-to-market and digi­ta­liza­tion are just a few of the chal­lenges facing compa­nies today. Ineco­sys GmbH supports its custo­mers in the imple­men­ta­tion of embedded projects and offers with RSD a plat­form to reduce over­all project costs and acce­le­rate the time to market. The range of services offe­red by Ineco­sys GmbH extends from the provi­sion of the plat­form and the imple­men­ta­tion of the process to deve­lo­p­ment services and series produc­tion. So far, Ineco­sys has mainly coun­ted compa­nies from the auto­mo­tive sector among its well-known customers.

Deve­lo­p­ment of the plat­form and addres­sing new markets
With the seed invest­ment, HTGF is finan­cing the deve­lo­p­ment of the RSD process and the under­ly­ing embedded hard­ware. With this new plat­form, addi­tio­nal custo­mers from the mecha­ni­cal and plant engi­nee­ring, produc­tion, energy and cons­truc­tion machi­nery sectors will be addres­sed in addi­tion to exis­ting customers.

“Our custo­mers deve­lop very complex and cost-inten­sive devices and systems in small quan­ti­ties and have high demands on the under­ly­ing control units. Often, howe­ver, without having suffi­ci­ent deve­lo­p­ment resour­ces of their own available for this,” says Thomas Zimmer one of the mana­ging direc­tors of Ineco­sys. “We support our custo­mers with our tools and process in the deve­lo­p­ment of embedded compon­ents and complete systems,” Zimmer added. The aim is to quickly and easily trans­fer the know-how from rese­arch and pre-deve­lo­p­ment to series deve­lo­p­ment, thus offe­ring the custo­mer the afore­men­tio­ned time and cost advantages.

Gregor Haidl, Invest­ment Mana­ger of HTGF, adds: “The skills and profes­sio­na­lism of the team in combi­na­tion with a good product idea and posi­tive refe­ren­ces from previous custo­mer projects have convin­ced us. Ineco­sys GmbH’s end-to-end rapid series deve­lo­p­ment plat­form provi­des an important corner­stone for auto­ma­ting ECU deve­lo­p­ment, which is still very manual in some cases, in the future.”

About Ineco­sys
Ineco­sys GmbH was foun­ded in 2014 by three PhD students from the Chair of Combus­tion Engi­nes at the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich. The foun­ders brought their exper­tise in test bench control and rapid control proto­ty­p­ing to the company during ECU deve­lo­p­ment. Self-finan­ced, Ineco­sys GmbH worked in the field of rese­arch and pre-deve­lo­p­ment for various well-known custo­mers. Alre­ady, their custo­mers have been able to achieve signi­fi­cant time and cost advan­ta­ges by using rapid control proto­ty­p­ing during the early stages of product deve­lo­p­ment. www.inecosys.de

About High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF)
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start­ups with growth poten­tial. With a total volume of 892.5 million euros distri­bu­ted across three funds (272 million euros Fund I, 304 million euros Fund II, 316.5 million euros Fund III) and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has alre­ady shaped 500 start­ups into compa­nies since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and startup experts accom­pa­nies the deve­lo­p­ment of 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, health care, chemi­cals and life scien­ces. More than €1.5 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in over 1,200 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. The fund has successfully sold shares in more than 90 companies.

Inves­tors in the public-private part­ner­ship include the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Energy, KfW, the Fraun­ho­fer-Gesell­schaft and the busi­ness enter­pri­ses ALTANA, BASF, Bay- er, Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim, B.Braun, Robert Bosch, BÜFA, CEWE, Deut­sche Post DHL, Dräger, Dril­lisch AG, EVONIK, EWE AG, 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.
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

Basel, Switzerland/Berlin, Germany — German-Swiss PropTech company Allt­hings closes its Series A finan­cing with 13.7 million Swiss francs. In addi­tion to lead inves­tors Early­bird, Idin­vest andKing­s­tone Capi­tal Part­ners, exis­ting inves­tors Crea­thor Ventures, Tech­no­logy Funds as well as current advi­sors are parti­ci­pa­ting. The capi­tal will be used to further deve­lop the plat­form and drive expan­sion within Europe.

Allt­hings trans­forms buil­dings into digi­tal products. The plat­form gives buil­ding users access to digi­tal services that make ever­y­day life easier, connect people and improve commu­ni­ca­tion. Property owners bene­fit from unpre­ce­den­ted trans­pa­rency in buil­dings, neigh­bor­hoods and entire port­fo­lios. Thanks to the modu­lar and open struc­ture of the Allt­hings plat­form, third-party services can be inte­gra­ted at will, as in an app store for buildings.

“The real estate indus­try is just start­ing to adapt to the digi­tal age and holds great poten­tial. Allt­hings inte­gra­tes all parties such as owners, asset mana­gers, property mana­gers, service provi­ders and tenants on one plat­form. This funda­men­tally impro­ves value crea­tion and enables the real estate sector to make data-driven decis­i­ons,” said Dr. Fabian Heile­mann, Part­ner at Earlybird.

“One way to make cities smar­ter is to start with the buil­dings. Connec­ting all parties of a buil­ding and offe­ring a variety of digi­tal services increa­ses the quality of life and work. This is what Allt­hings does very successfully and ther­e­fore fits perfectly into our smart city stra­tegy,” says Matthieu Bonamy, senior invest­ment direc­tor at Idinvest.

Curr­ently, more than 100 medium to large real estate compa­nies in Switz­er­land, Germany, Austria, France, Portu­gal and the Nether­lands use the plat­form as part of their digi­tiza­tion stra­tegy. “Just as in other indus­tries before, property owners now want to take control and manage the rela­ti­onship with their custo­mers. We help them do that in a scalable and modu­lar way. With our new inves­tors, we are taking the next steps on our jour­ney — for a better life in buil­dings,” said Marc Beer­mann, COO and co-foun­der of Allthings.

About Allt­hings
Allt­hings trans­forms buil­dings into digi­tal products. The company was foun­ded in Basel in 2013 as a spin-off from ETH Zurich and has loca­ti­ons in Basel, Berlin, Frank­furt am Main and Frei­burg im Breis­gau. The 60-member team aims to improve indoor living in a sustainable way. A digi­tal pioneer in the indus­try, Allt­hings has won nume­rous awards and counts some of Europe’s largest real estate compa­nies among its clients. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.allthings.me.

About Early­bird
Early­bird is a venture capi­tal inves­tor focu­sed on tech­no­logy compa­nies in Europe. Foun­ded in 1997, the capi­tal provi­der focu­ses on invest­ments in various growth phases of corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment and offers its port­fo­lio compa­nies not only finan­cial resour­ces, but also stra­te­gic and opera­tio­nal support as well as access to an inter­na­tio­nal network and the capi­tal market. Early­bird mana­ges funds in the areas of digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies in Eastern and Western Europe, as well as in Health Technologies.
With over €1 billion in capi­tal under manage­ment, seven IPOs and 22 trade sales, Early­bird is one of the most expe­ri­en­ced and successful Euro­pean venture capi­ta­lists. www.earlybird.com

About Idin­vest Partners
Idin­vest Part­ners is a leading Euro­pean invest­ment firm focu­sed on the mid market. Curr­ently, Idin­vest Part­ners mana­ges assets of around €8 billion with more than 90 employees and has offices in Paris, Frank­furt, Madrid, Shang­hai and Dubai. The company has three busi­ness units: Private Funds Group, Private Debt and Venture & Growth Capi­tal. The company was foun­ded in 1997 as part of the Alli­anz Group and has been inde­pen­dent since 2010. In Janu­ary 2018, Idin­vest Part­ners merged with Eura­zeo. The merger has crea­ted a leading invest­ment company in Europe and North America with 15 billion euros in assets under manage­ment. www.idinvest.com.

About King­s­tone Capi­tal Partners
King­s­tone Capi­tal Part­ners GmbH (KCP) is an inde­pen­dent and family-owned real estate invest­ment manage­ment & PropTech invest­ment company. KCP offers its inves­tors a “one-stop-shop” solu­tion for Euro­pean real estate invest­ments (focus on Germany as well as CEE). King­s­tone Capi­tal Part­ners is also an active inves­tor and advi­sor in the PropTech start-up space in Europe and the US. KCP takes a pro-active share­hol­der approach and supports ventures with cont­acts, real estate exper­tise and access to decis­ion makers in the industry.

About Crea­thor Ventures
Crea­thor Ventures invests in tech­no­logy-driven, high-growth compa­nies at all stages of their deve­lo­p­ment, parti­cu­larly in the areas of Specia­li­zed Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence, Advan­ced Indus­try Tech and Enab­ling Plat­forms. The regio­nal focus is on Germany, Switz­er­land, Austria, France and Scan­di­na­via. From its offices in Bad Homburg and Zurich, the 17-strong team curr­ently actively supports more than 30 tech and life science compa­nies in their company set-up and growth as well as their inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion. The manage­ment team consists of the Mana­ging Part­ners Dr. Gert Köhler, Karl­heinz Schme­lig and Cédric Köhler as well as the Part­ners Chris­tian Leikert, Dr. Chris­tian Weiss and Chris­tian Weni­ger. It has been successfully inves­t­ing in start­ups for over 30 years and has taken over 20 compa­nies to inter­na­tio­nal stock exch­an­ges during this time. Crea­thor Ventures curr­ently mana­ges a fund volume of over 230 million euros. As the largest fund inves­tor, manage­ment unders­cores its entre­pre­neu­rial focus. www.creathor.com.

Thetotal market capi­ta­liza­tion is appro­xi­m­ately 106.5 million euros with a free float of more than 20 percent The first day of trading of the secu­ri­ties on the regu­la­ted market (Prime Stan­dard) of the Frank­furt Stock Exch­ange is expec­ted to be July 25.

Foun­ded in 2014, the company brokers loans to small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses on its digi­tal plat­form. Credit­s­hel CEO Tim Thabe says the IPO is inten­ded to fuel the company’s growth. The medium-term goal is a broke­red loan volume of around 500 million euros per year. From the launch of the plat­form in 2015 to the end of March 2018, it was about 58 million euros. — In order for the IPO to succeed, Elgeti had placed a so-called back­stop order for up to 15 million euros through his company Hevella Capi­tal, so that he would not acquire shares subscri­bed by other inte­res­ted parties. This was not taken up.

In terms of going public, the company has a “first mover” effect in seve­ral respects. Credit­s­helf is one of the first repre­sen­ta­ti­ves from the fintech sector to realize an IPO in this coun­try and the first credit inter­me­diary to rely on an Inter­net platform.

Book­run­ner: Commerz­bank AG acts as Sole Global Coor­di­na­tor and Sole Bookrunner

Finan­cial advi­sor: Lazard

Tübin­gen - SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment has recei­ved capi­tal commit­ments of more than EUR 90 million for its now fifth fund at the so-called “first closing”. The Tübin­gen-based medi­cal tech­no­logy inves­tor has thus reached almost two-thirds of its target of 150 million euros faster than expected.

The fifth gene­ra­tion of SHS funds also targets the life scien­ces and medi­cal tech­no­logy sectors and thus the globally growing health­care market with inno­va­tive and strong compa­nies, espe­ci­ally in Germany and Switz­er­land. 12–15 enga­ge­ments are plan­ned. With the “first closing”, fund compa­nies complete an initial capi­tal coll­ec­tion phase — usually when half of the total target volume has been reached. With the formal comple­tion of this first phase, the capi­tal coll­ec­ted can alre­ady be inves­ted in compa­nies. Inves­tors can still parti­ci­pate in SHS V until the “final closing”. Around half of the inves­tors in SHS V had alre­ady parti­ci­pa­ted in the Tübin­gen-based company’s prede­ces­sor funds.

SHS attri­bu­tes the strong demand from insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors and family offices to its posi­tio­ning as a sector specia­list. “We would like to thank the inves­tors for their trust. For 25 years on the market, we have focu­sed on invest­ments in compa­nies from the medi­cal tech­no­logy and diagno­stics sectors. We have built up a great deal of indus­try expe­ri­ence and trust, and also have the neces­sary intui­tion for feasi­ble inno­va­tions. Our port­fo­lio compa­nies can build on an estab­lished network of indus­try experts, health insu­r­ers and medi­cal opinion leaders. In addi­tion, we support the compa­nies’ value deve­lo­p­ment with inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion know-how as well as exper­tise in reim­bur­se­ment and regu­la­tory issues and in initia­ting stra­te­gic part­ner­ships,” says Huber­tus Leon­hardt, SHS part­ner and mana­ging direc­tor respon­si­ble for fundraising.

Focus on expan­sion finan­cing and corpo­rate successions
Mini­mally inva­sive surgi­cal proce­du­res, robo­tics-supported forms of therapy and digi­tal solu­ti­ons for the health­care sector are seen as parti­cu­larly inno­va­tive and fast-growing fields in Tübin­gen. Indus­trial exper­tise, the avai­la­bi­lity of well-trai­ned engi­neers, and above all the close links between the univer­sity and rese­arch land­scape and indus­try have crea­ted a good climate in the indus­try in Germany and Switzerland.

“We alre­ady see a large number of fast-growing health­care compa­nies, both young and estab­lished, in which our fifth fund could invest. Tigh­ter regu­la­tion and high pres­sure to inno­vate and inter­na­tio­na­lize are leading to incre­asing demand for capi­tal in the sector. The incre­asing comple­xity of the health­care market is driving concen­tra­tion proces­ses. In addi­tion, some compa­nies are strugg­ling to ensure a successful hando­ver to the next gene­ra­tion. As an expe­ri­en­ced part­ner, we can provide compa­nies with targe­ted and compe­tent support here,” says Leonhardt.

Accor­ding to SHS, the maxi­mum invest­ment amount of the fifth fund per invest­ment is 30 million euros. Toge­ther with coope­ra­tion part­ners, equity tran­sac­tions of up to EUR 60 million can be carried out. Majo­rity and mino­rity share­hol­dings are possi­ble. The focus is on expan­sion and inno­va­tion finan­cing, succes­sion situa­tions and share­hol­der chan­ges. SHS is expan­ding its previous coun­try focus on Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land to include Scan­di­na­via and the Bene­lux count­ries. SHS had contri­bu­ted capi­tal, many years of exper­tise, market know­ledge and its network to the Fonds IV invest­ments — such as EIT, a 3D prin­ting specia­list for the ortho­pe­dics sector, the Austrian robo­tics company Tyro­mo­tion, which is active in the reha­bi­li­ta­tion sector, and the Swiss manu­fac­tu­rer of cardio­logy products SIS Medical.

With invest­ments from the SHS III fund, for exam­ple, the Bochum-based company phenox, which specia­li­zes in tech­no­lo­gies for the treat­ment of neuro­vas­cu­lar dise­a­ses, was successfully deve­lo­ped. SHS recently announ­ced the sale of its SHS III invest­ment AMW, a Warn­gau-based specia­list in drug deli­very systems, to an inter­na­tio­nal strategist.

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, SHS, 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.

German and inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors in SHS funds include the Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund, profes­sio­nal pension funds, pension funds, funds of funds, family offices, entre­pre­neurs and the SHS manage­ment team. The equity invest­ment of the AIFM-regis­tered company is up to 30 million euros. Tran­sac­tions in the mid double-digit million range can be imple­men­ted toge­ther with a network of co-inves­tors. Mana­ging part­ners at SHS are Rein­hilde Spat­scheck, Dr. Bern­hard Schirm­ers, Huber­tus Leon­hardt and Uwe Steinbacher.

Berlin — Schnitt­ker Möll­mann Part­ners (SMP) advi­sed the share­hol­ders of nu3 GmbH on the sale of all nu3 shares to Shop Apotheke. The acqui­si­tion of the online plat­form for nutri­tio­nal products is made against the issue of a package of a total of 54,470 shares in the listed Shop Apotheke Europe N.V. and payment of a cash amount. The foun­ders of nu3 GmbH will remain with the company in their current roles. Toge­ther with the Jahr Group, they will also become share­hol­ders of Shop Apotheke Europe N.V. as part of the transaction.

nu3 GmbH was foun­ded in 2011 by Robert Sünder­hauf, Kassian Ortner and Felix Kaiser. The company specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment and distri­bu­tion of func­tional nutri­tion products and super­foods. The company now employs around 100 people and gene­ra­ted sales of around 30 million euros in fiscal year 2017. Since its foun­da­tion, nu3 GmbH and its share­hol­ders have been compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed by SMP lawy­ers — espe­ci­ally in the context of all finan­cing rounds.

Advi­sor nu3: Schnitt­ker Möll­mann Part­ners (Berlin)
Dr. Peter Möll­mann, Photo (lead), Partner
Dr. Martin Scha­per (Lead Part­ner), Senior Associate
Dr. Tim Schlös­ser, Partner
Dr. Benja­min Ullrich, Partner
Janina Erich­sen, Associate

Van Campen Liem (Amster­dam): Thomas W. Mitchell, Partner
KNPZ (Hamburg): Dr. Kai-Uwe Plath, Partner

About Schnitt­ker Möll­mann Partners
Schnitt­ker Möll­mann Part­ners is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm active in three core areas: tax, funds and tran­sac­tions. The attor­neys at Schnitt­ker Möll­mann Part­ners repre­sent a wide range of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons or private equity/venture capi­tal funds.

Munich/ Berlin — Venture capi­ta­list Early­bird Venture Capi­tal has reached a record hard cap of EUR 175 million with the final closing of Early­bird Digi­tal West Early Stage Fund VI. P+P advi­sed Earlybird’s manage­ment on the transaction.

Early­bird is one of the largest German venture capi­ta­lists and specia­li­zes in tech­no­logy compa­nies in Europe. Early­bird has so far laun­ched five early stage funds with a focus on Western Europe, one fund for medi­cal tech­no­logy and one for fund invest­ments in Eastern Europe.

The new sixth fund is desi­gned to invest prima­rily in disrup­tive digi­tal busi­ness models and has alre­ady made 13 invest­ments in Euro­pean digi­tal compa­nies. In total, the fund is expec­ted to make 20 to 25 invest­ments in young high-growth compa­nies (“start-ups”).

Advi­sors to Ealy­bird: P+P Pöllath + Partners
P+P Pöllath + Part­ners compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed the mana­ger of Early­bird Digi­tal West Early Stage Fund VI, Early­bird DWES Manage­ment GmbH & Co. KG, on all contrac­tual, tax and regu­la­tory aspects of the fund struc­tu­ring and launch as well as the distri­bu­tion with the follo­wing cross-loca­tion private funds team:
Dr. Andreas Rodin (Part­ner, Private Funds, Tax Law, Frank­furt am Main)
Joel El-Qalqili, LL.M. (Flet­cher) (Senior Asso­ciate, Private Funds, Venture Capi­tal, Berlin)
Jan Phil­ipp Neidel, LL.M. (UCONN) (Asso­ciate, Private Funds, Tax Law, Venture Capi­tal, Berlin)
–

Dresden/ Munich — Ferro­elec­tric Memory GmbH (FMC) markets tech­no­logy for disrup­tive, non-vola­tile memory solu­ti­ons for micro­con­trol­lers. The company closed a growth finan­cing in the amount of 4.6 million euros. Lead inves­tor of this finan­cing round was eCAPI­TAL entre­pre­neu­rial Part­ners AG with parti­ci­pa­tion of the exis­ting inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds. The funds will be used to expand the team, acce­le­rate further deve­lo­p­ment of the tech­no­logy, and gain signi­fi­cant market share by repla­cing the current off-the-shelf technology.

Driven by the global trend towards digi­ta­liza­tion, auto­ma­tion and networ­king, billi­ons of devices are equip­ped with an incre­asing number of micro­con­trol­lers. These tiny single-chip compu­ter systems are at the heart of inno­va­tion in fast-growing key tech­no­lo­gies such as the Inter­net of Things and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence. Indus­tries such as consu­mer elec­tro­nics, health­care, secu­rity, auto­mo­tive and aero­space are expe­ri­en­cing disrup­tive chan­ges as a result.

The chall­enge of the digi­tal future for micro­con­trol­lers is not only that ever more complex data must be saved on ever smal­ler memo­ries, but the data must also remain available for a long time. Incre­asingly higher demands are being placed on the memory in terms of the number of write cycles and the dura­tion of data reten­tion, even at extreme tempe­ra­tures. The current indus­try stan­dard for non-vola­tile memory, eFlash tech­no­logy, only meets the growing requi­re­ments at the price of extre­mely complex manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses, thus hinde­ring further progress in the minia­tu­riza­tion of micro­con­trol­lers. Compared to the latest gene­ra­tion of stan­dard CMOS logic, eFlash is now five tech­no­logy gene­ra­ti­ons behind.

FMC’s memory tech­no­logy is directly deri­ved from stan­dard CMOS logic, thus solving the minia­tu­riza­tion problem.

The market for this is huge and fast-moving. The main play­ers are inte­gra­ted manu­fac­tu­r­ers or semi­con­duc­tor fabri­ca­tors and so-called fabless semi­con­duc­tor compa­nies. FMC offers its proprie­tary Ferro­elec­tric Field Effect Tran­sis­tor (FeFET) tech­no­logy to these compa­nies. FeFETs exploit the ferro­elec­tric property of hafnium oxide, which can be used to convert CMOS tran­sis­tors into effi­ci­ent memory devices. CMOS tran­sis­tors still scale accor­ding to Moore’s Law and FeFETs deri­ved from them exhi­bit supe­rior perfor­mance, high density, extre­mely low power consump­tion and very good tempe­ra­ture stability.

The key to the new stan­dard in this indus­try is that FMC tech­no­logy thus enables the further minia­tu­riza­tion of micro­con­trol­lers. FeFETs can be inte­gra­ted into exis­ting produc­tion lines without signi­fi­cant modi­fi­ca­tion or invest­ment, as hafnium oxide is alre­ady stan­dard indus­try insu­la­tor mate­rial. Compared to eFlash, the manu­fac­tu­ring process is much simp­ler, so produc­tion costs can be drasti­cally reduced.

“Our non-vola­tile memory tech­no­logy addres­ses the current and future needs of the indus­try with 1,000x higher speed and 1,000x lower power consump­tion while signi­fi­cantly redu­cing manu­fac­tu­ring costs. With eCAPITAL’s support, we can hire the right talent — such as analo­g/­mi­xed-signal desi­gners and charac­te­riza­tion engi­neers — to acce­le­rate our product deve­lo­p­ment and drive market pene­tra­tion,” explains Dr. Stefan Müller, CEO of FMC.

“The disrup­tive poten­tial of the tech­no­logy and the custo­mers the company has alre­ady won so far are truly impres­sive. FMC has the poten­tial to set the new indus­try stan­dard and we look forward to support­ing the company in this endea­vor,” adds Willi Mann­heims, Mana­ging Part­ner at eCAPITAL.

“With FMC we have iden­ti­fied another tech­no­logy jewel in Dres­den that can change entire indus­tries and become a real game chan­ger. We welcome FMC to the eCAPI­TAL port­fo­lio and will contri­bute our expe­ri­ence and network to secure FMC’s fast successful deve­lo­p­ment”, comm­ents Dr. Paul-Josef Patt, Mana­ging Part­ner and CEO of eCAPI­TAL. Patt was alre­ady the lead inves­tor in Dres­den-based Nova­led, which eCAPI­TAL was able to sell very successfully to Samsung at the end of 2013, and is a member of the advi­sory board of Dres­den-based Helia­tek, an OPV provi­der. FMC is alre­ady the 11th invest­ment of the current eCAPI­TAL fund eCAPI­TAL IV, which was laun­ched in 2016.

“In the possi­bi­lity of conver­ting conven­tio­nal tran­sis­tors into non-vola­tile memory units, we see an enorm­ously high disrup­tion poten­tial. With the seed finan­cing by HTGF, the company has now reached the next level. We have ther­e­fore increased our invest­ment in FMC to a total of 1.6 million euros and are plea­sed to have gained a valuable part­ner in eCAPI­TAL for further growth,” adds Yann Fiebig, Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger at HTGF.

About FMC
FMC is the provi­der of highly effi­ci­ent FeFET memory solu­ti­ons for non-vola­tile memory. FeFET memo­ries are extre­mely low power, high perfor­mance, have high storage density and high tempe­ra­ture stabi­lity. By scaling our disrup­tive tech­no­logy to tran­sis­tor sizes of 28nm and below, we are solving the scaling problem faced by semi­con­duc­tor manu­fac­tu­r­ers and fabless semi­con­duc­tor compa­nies. The tech­no­logy deve­lo­p­ment was funded by the Euro­pean Regio­nal Deve­lo­p­ment Fund (ERDF) and the Free State of Saxony. The FMC team was supported by “EXIST Forschungs­trans­fer”, a program of the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Energy. The company was foun­ded in 2016 and is based in Dresden.

About eCAPI­TAL AG
eCAPI­TAL entre­pre­neu­rial Part­ners AG, based in Müns­ter, is a capi­tal manage­ment company for alter­na­tive invest­ment funds (AIF) accor­ding to the EuVECA regu­la­tion. The company is one of the leading venture capi­tal inves­tors in Germany and has been actively support­ing inno­va­tive entre­pre­neurs in promi­sing indus­tries since 1999. The focus is on fast-growing compa­nies in the software/IT, Indus­try 4.0, clean­tech and new mate­ri­als segments. eCAPI­TAL curr­ently mana­ges six funds with a subscrip­tion capi­tal of over 220 million euros.

About High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF)
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start­ups with growth poten­tial. With a total volume of 892.5 million euros distri­bu­ted across three funds (272 million euros Fund I, 304 million euros Fund II, 316.5 million euros Fund III) and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has alre­ady shaped 500 start­ups into compa­nies since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and startup experts accom­pa­nies the deve­lo­p­ment of 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, health care, chemi­cals and life scien­ces. More than €1.5 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in over 1,200 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. The fund has also successfully sold shares in more than 90 companies.

Inves­tors in the public-private part­ner­ship include the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Energy, KfW, the Fraun­ho­fer-Gesell­schaft and the busi­ness enter­pri­ses ALTANA, BASF, Bay- er, Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim, B.Braun, Robert Bosch, BÜFA, CEWE, Deut­sche Post DHL, Dräger, Dril­lisch AG, EVONIK, EWE AG, 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.