News-Kategorie: Venture Capital

London/ Berlin/Frankfurt a. Main — Funds mana­ged by Accel Part­ners (“Accel”), toge­ther with other co-inves­tors, have inves­ted in start-up dash­dash in a Series A finan­cing round. Accel Part­ners was advi­sed by the law firm Henge­ler Mueller.

With Dash­dash, the two foun­ders Torben Schulz and Humberto Ayres Pereir want to create the possi­bi­lity for employees to build their own cloud-based web apps without any programming know­ledge. The product deve­lo­ped by the company is desi­gned to enable users without programming skills to deve­lop inter­ac­tive web apps them­sel­ves. Many people alre­ady use these Excel spreadsheets, for exam­ple for finan­cial plan­ning or to record a busi­ness plan. dash­dash was foun­ded in 2016.

In its current Series A funding round, Dash­dash has raised eight million dollars. The round was led by promi­nent VC Accel Part­ners. The Berlin-based funds Cherry Ventures and Atlan­tic Labs also parti­ci­pa­ted, as did angel inves­tors inclu­ding Felix Jahn, foun­der of Home24, and David Schnei­der, co-foun­der of Zalando. Cherry Ventures, Jahn and Atlan­tic Labs had alre­ady been invol­ved in the company since a pre-seed finan­cing from last year.

About Accel
Accel is one of the major U.S. venture capi­tal firms, foun­ded in 1986. In addi­tion to its Sili­con Valley head­quar­ters, Accel Part­ners has addi­tio­nal offices in London, Beijing, Shang­hai and Banga­lore. In addi­tion to biotech­no­logy and medi­cine, invest­ment fields also include the energy indus­try, mobile commu­ni­ca­ti­ons, media and many more.

Advi­sor Accel Part­ners: Henge­ler Mueller
Henge­ler Muel­ler advi­sed Accel on the tran­sac­tion. Part­ner Dr. Georg A. Frowein (Frank­furt) and asso­cia­tes Clemens Höhn (Berlin) and Loretta Lang (Frank­furt) (all M&A/Venture Capi­tal) were active.

Berlin — As part of a second round of finan­cing, the start-up Clark (www.clark.de) USD 29 million. Two new share­hol­ders, the Cana­dian early stage inves­tor Portag3 Ventures and the VC fund White Star Capi­tal, joined as lead inves­tors. In addi­tion, exis­ting inves­tors such as Copa­rion, Kulc­zyk Invest­ments and Yabeo Capi­tal as well as fintech company buil­der FinLeap also parti­ci­pa­ted in the finan­cing round.

As a digi­tal insu­rance mana­ger, Clark offers custo­mers the hand­ling of the entire insu­rance busi­ness via an app and covers the offe­rings of 160 insu­r­ers for this purpose. Clark, which was foun­ded three years ago, wants to support custo­mers in mana­ging insu­rance contracts, iden­ti­fy­ing insu­rance gaps and closing them with corre­spon­din­gly favorable offers from coope­ra­ting insu­rance compa­nies. In addi­tion, the user can store his insu­rance data and manage and execute corre­spon­ding noti­fi­ca­ti­ons via the app in the event of a claim. — Clark curr­ently employs almost 20 people, the majo­rity of whom work in soft­ware development.

Dr. Chris­to­pher Oster, CEO (photo) has outstan­ding expe­ri­ence in foun­ding and leading high-growth compa­nies. Prior to foun­ding Clark, he accom­pa­nied Wimdu as Co-Foun­der in the role of COO and was respon­si­ble for the opera­ti­ons and inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion of the offe­ring. Previously, Chris­to­pher spent seve­ral years with the Boston Consul­ting Group as a consul­tant to compa­nies in the finan­cial services industry.

Compa­nies like Clark, which not only have a scalable busi­ness, but are also open to coope­ra­tion in many direc­tions, seem to be inte­res­t­ing. In prin­ci­ple, every insu­rance company that has a func­tio­ning online busi­ness can bene­fit from the insurtech’s success.

Advi­sors: LUTZ | ABEL has alre­ady supported Clark in its Series A finan­cing round in 2016, in which the start-up was also able to raise a remar­kable sum of EUR 13.2 million. Consul­tant Clark:
Dr. Marco Eick­mann, LL.M. (Part­ner), Phil­ipp Hoene (Asso­ciate), Jan-Phil­lip Kunz, LL.M. (Asso­ciate)

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

Aachen — The S‑UBG Group pres­ents the new concept of the Seed Fonds III Aachen. More than 200 invi­ted guests gathe­red in the Digi­tal Church to kick off future invest­ments in tech­no­logy-orien­ted start­ups in the Aachen region toge­ther with the two S‑UBG board members Harald Heide­mann and Bern­hard Kugel as well as NRW Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart.

With its first two seed funds (laun­ched in 2007 and 2012), S‑UBG has alre­ady helped more than 20 start-ups get off the ground with capi­tal, stra­te­gic know­ledge and its exten­sive network, thanks to the finan­cial resour­ces of inves­tors Spar­kasse Aachen, NRW.BANK, DSA Invest, Kreis­spar­kasse Heins­berg and private inves­tors. As of now, around 20 million euros are available in the new fund for Aachen’s start-up scene. The fund can invest up to three million euros per company and over seve­ral finan­cing rounds.

Entre­pre­neu­rial potential
“Aachen has great inno­va­tion poten­tial in which we want to conti­nue to invest,” says Bern­hard Kugel, CEO of the S‑UBG Group and mana­ging direc­tor of the manage­ment company of Seed Fonds Aachen. “With talent hotbeds like RWTH Aachen Univer­sity, FH Aachen Univer­sity of Applied Scien­ces and nume­rous rese­arch insti­tu­tes, we draw from a never-ending stream of ideas.”

30 years of sustainable commit­ment and entre­pre­neu­rial partnership
Since 1988, the S‑UBG Group has been a leading part­ner in the provi­sion of equity capi­tal for estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies and young compa­nies with growth ambi­ti­ons in the econo­mic region of Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchen­glad­bach. “We have been inves­t­ing in sustainable busi­ness models with no time limit in compa­nies in this region for 30 years,” sums up Harald Heide­mann, S‑UBG board member and mana­ging direc­tor of the manage­ment company of Seed Fonds Aachen. “And in the deca­des to come, we see oursel­ves as a stra­te­gic part­ner and conti­nue to place great empha­sis on perso­nal conti­nuity in support.” The S‑UBG Group curr­ently holds stakes in around 40 compa­nies in the region, giving it a leading posi­tion in the Spar­kas­sen-Finanz­gruppe. Success refe­ren­ces include Dr. BABOR Cosme­tics, Lancom Systems and Talbot Services, which S‑UBG acqui­red toge­ther with its invest­ment part­ner QUIP AG.

About Seed Fonds III Aachen
The “Seed Fonds III für die Region Aachen GmbH & Co. KG” is one of eleven regio­nal start-up funds that NRW.BANK is imple­men­ting with regio­nal invest­ment part­ners in North Rhine-West­pha­lia. Seed Fonds III Aachen provi­des young compa­nies in the start-up phase with the neces­sary equity capi­tal on a long-term basis. The fund can invest a maxi­mum of three million euros per company, and signi­fi­cantly more with co-inves­tors. The Seed Fonds II Aachen has been disbur­sed after about five years and a second follow-up fund — the Seed Fonds III Aachen — has been estab­lished from NRW.BANK’s seed fund initiative.

In order for foun­ders of tech­no­logy-orien­ted compa­nies to bene­fit from Chance Capi­tal, the company’s regis­tered office must be loca­ted in the Aachen econo­mic region, the company must be less than 18 months old, and the legal form must be a corpo­ra­tion. Behind the opera­tio­nal manage­ment of the fund (FM Fonds-Manage­ment für die Region Aachen Betei­li­gungs-GmbH) are the invest­ment experts of S‑UBG AG. The invest­ment company of the savings banks in the Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchen­glad­bach area looks back on 30 years of expe­ri­ence in finan­cing medium-sized compa­nies and tech­no­logy-orien­ted start-ups.

Berlin/ San Fran­cisco — Tech­no­logy startup uber­all has closed a Series B finan­cing round of appro­xi­m­ately US$25 million. The growth fund HPE Growth Capi­tal successfully parti­ci­pa­ted in this finan­cing round as a new lead inves­tor in the company. The Company’s other share­hol­ders include United Inter­net Ventures AG and Project A Ventures GmbH & Co. KG.

uber­all GmbH is a company specia­li­zing in digi­tal loca­tion marke­ting, based in Berlin and San Fran­cisco. The company is one of the world’s leading provi­ders of local online marke­ting and data manage­ment tools. For exam­ple, stored company addres­ses and opening hours are checked and published on Inter­net plat­forms such as search engi­nes or map services. In addi­tion, the soft­ware analy­zes user feed­back such as ratings and comments.

uber­all intends to use the capi­tal recei­ved for both product deve­lo­p­ment and inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion, espe­ci­ally in the USA.

Advi­sor HPE Growth Capi­tal: P+P Pöllath + Partners 
* Dr. Frank Thiä­ner (Part­ner, Lead Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
* Daniel Wied­mann, LL.M. (NYU) (Coun­sel, Anti­trust Law, Frankfurt)
* Tim Jung­in­ger (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
* Benja­min Macie­jew­ski (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
* Dr. Jesko von Mirbach, LL.M. (Stel­len­bosch) (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)

 

Colo­gne — The venture capi­tal company Iris Capi­tal (photo: part­ners of Iris Capi­tal (from left): Antoine Garri­gues, Erkan Kili­cas­lan, Erik) invests in the soft­ware company Jedox. Iris Capi­tal was advi­sed by Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek on its invest­ment in the enter­prise perfor­mance manage­ment company Jedox AG. A consor­tium consis­ting of Iris Capi­tal, eCAPI­TAL IV and Wecken & Cieinves­ted 20 million euros in the soft­ware company. Jedox is using the funding to drive inter­na­tio­nal growth and acce­le­rate product development.

Iris Capi­tal is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal firm specia­li­zing in the digi­tal economy. It invests in compa­nies at various stages of growth, from start­ups to late-stage and growth play­ers. Iris Capi­tal has offices in Paris, Berlin, San Fran­cisco, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Dubai. The Iris­Next fund’s invest­ments include ReBuy, Studi­temps, Talend or Unu Motors.

Jedox was foun­ded in 2002 in Frei­burg, Germany. Today, the company employs more than 160 people at eight loca­ti­ons in Germany, France, the USA, Austra­lia and Asia. Jedox’s inte­gra­ted CPM plat­form is used by 2,300 compa­nies in 140 count­ries for their real-time plan­ning solu­ti­ons on the web, mobile or in the cloud.

Dr. aus der Fünten regu­larly advi­ses Iris Capi­tal, most recently on the €21 million invest­ment in Open-Xchange AG.

Advi­sor to Iris Capi­tal: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Jörg aus der Fünten (Corpo­rate Law/M&A), Project Manage­ment, Cologne
Dr. Oliver Bött­cher (Corpo­rate Law), Cologne
Dr. Dirk Stolz (IP Law), Cologne
Dr. Lutz M. Keppe­ler (IP Law), Cologne
Dr. Sascha Sche­wiola (Labor Law), Cologne
Beatrice Stange, LL.M. (anti­trust law), Düsseldorf

Paris/Frankfurt — Idin­vest Part­ners, the Euro­pean invest­ment firm specia­li­zing in the SME segment, today announ­ced the successful first closing of its third fund focu­sed on the digi­tal economy, Idin­vest Digi­tal Fund III, at €180 million. This unders­cores the company’s long-term inte­rest in buil­ding a dedi­ca­ted ecosys­tem for Euro­pean entre­pre­neurs and nurtu­ring the next gene­ra­tion of entre­pre­neu­rial talent.

With this volume, Idin­vest Digi­tal Fund III has excee­ded the first close of its prede­ces­sor Idin­vest Digi­tal Fund II, which was 154 million euros. Idin­vest Digi­tal Fund III has a target volume of €300 million and is supported by nume­rous exis­ting and new inves­tors from Europe.

Mana­ged by a team of nine invest­ment profes­sio­nals, the fund invests in Euro­pean compa­nies with high growth poten­tial and serial foun­ders in the follo­wing areas: Enter­prise Soft­ware, Fintech and Insur­tech, Deept­ech (Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence, Big Data, Virtual Reality, IoT, Cyber­se­cu­rity) and Health­tech. The team has alre­ady iden­ti­fied two compa­nies in which the fund will invest.

The successful fund­rai­sing reflects Idinvest’s long-stan­ding commit­ment to the Euro­pean tech­no­logy sector. Over the past decade, the team has inves­ted in more than 130 B2B and B2C digi­tal start­ups, inclu­ding Talend, Social Point, and Zenly. Last year alone, the venture capi­tal team inves­ted 190 million euros in 21 compa­nies and sold twelve invest­ments with a volume of 260 million euros.

Benoist Gross­mann, Mana­ging Part­ner of Idin­vest, empha­si­zed: “Over the past 20 years, Idin­vest Part­ners has conti­nuously expan­ded its network to Euro­pean start-ups thanks to its exper­tise and commit­ment. Thanks to our long-term approach and our consis­tent support of the Euro­pean tech­no­logy sector, Idin­vest today has exten­sive access to all compa­nies in the Euro­pean digi­tal economy and always works with the best minds.”

Matthieu Baret, Part­ner at Idin­vest, added: “We are proud of the success of the first closing of Idin­vest Digi­tal Fund III, which was made possi­ble by the support of Europe’s leading insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors and tech­no­logy compa­nies. The excep­tio­nally strong inte­rest in this fund unders­cores the tremen­dous growth poten­tial of the digi­tal economy and the attrac­tive invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties it conti­nues to offer investors.”

About IDINVEST Partners
Idin­vest Part­ners is a leading Euro­pean invest­ment firm focu­sed on the mid market. The company was foun­ded in 1997 as part of the Alli­anz Group under the name AGF Private Equity and has been inde­pen­dent since 2010. Curr­ently, Idin­vest Part­ners mana­ges assets of nearly €9 billion with more than 90 employees and has offices in Paris, Frank­furt, Madrid, Shang­hai and Dubai.

PayPal foun­der Peter Thiel ’s venture capi­tal fund Valar Ventures (Valar) has inves­ted in smart­phone bank N26 for the second time. The finan­cing invol­ves an amount in the double-digit milli­ons. Valar was again advi­sed by the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Taylor Wessing. The first invest­ment took place when N26 was laun­ched in 2015. The current tran­sac­tion, tota­ling 160 million euros, is the largest equity injec­tion a local fintech has recei­ved to date.

With the funds gained, the mobile bank plans to conquer the U.S. and U.K. markets this year and further deve­lop exis­ting products. In addi­tion to Valar, the insu­rance group Alli­anz and the Chinese Inter­net company Tencent, among others, have parti­ci­pa­ted in the mega-investment.

Valar Ventures is a US-based venture capi­tal firm whose foun­ders include Peter Thiel. For the current invest­ment in N26, Valar was compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed by Frank­furt-based Taylor Wessing part­ner Volker Baas, speci­fi­cally in the area of compli­ance with the German Banking Act Compli­ance as well as other regu­la­tory issues. Baas specia­li­zes in banking, banking regu­la­tory and invest­ment law and has many years of expe­ri­ence in advi­sing dome­stic and foreign clients in the German legal environment.

N26 is one of the few German fintechs that has a banking license and can ther­e­fore fully compete with tradi­tio­nal credit insti­tu­ti­ons. N26’s custo­mer base has grown to 850,000 since its foun­ding in 2015. This is expec­ted to grow to five million users by the end of 2020.

Legal advi­sors Valar Ventures: Taylor Wessing
Lead Part­ner Dr. Volker Baas (Part­ner, Banking & Finance, Frank­furt); Till Chris­to­pher Otto (Profes­sio­nal Support Lawyer, Banking & Finance, Frankfurt)

London/ Berlin/ Hamburg — One Peak Part­ners acqui­res Spry­ker and was advi­sed by Vogel Heerma Waitz on the finan­cing. The Hamburg-based company will receive a total of $22 million. The round was led by British funder One Peak Part­ners. Legacy inves­tors such as Project A also parti­ci­pa­ted again. Spry­ker foun­der Alex­an­der Graf intends to use the new capi­tal prima­rily to expand abroad.

Spry­ker helps compa­nies reach their custo­mers through every conceiva­ble touch­point. The Spyker Commerce OS (opera­ting system) provi­des all the features for a successful commerce busi­ness. It is comple­tely modu­lar and does not dictate which modu­les must be used.

About One Peak Partners
Growth Inves­tors in Rising Stars! One Peak is a specia­list inves­tor in exci­ting growth stage tech­no­logy and tech-enab­led compa­nies in Europe. We part­ner with excep­tio­nal entre­pre­neurs and manage­ment teams to trans­form rapidly growing busi­nesses into lasting, cate­gory-defi­ning indus­try leaders. Our invest­ment philo­so­phy is simple. We invest in rapidly growing compa­nies with proven and proprie­tary tech­no­logy, scalable busi­ness models, excep­tio­nal manage­ment teams and signi­fi­cant upside potential.

As a growth inves­tor, releasing poten­tial is at the heart of ever­y­thing we do. We bring deep sector exper­tise, a vast network of rela­ti­onships and a colla­bo­ra­tive approach to help our manage­ment teams build and scale their compa­nies. One Peak is commit­ted to being a respon­si­ble inves­tor and, as such, adhe­res to the prevai­ling prin­ci­ples for respon­si­ble investment.

Advi­sor One Peak Part­ners: About Vogel Heerma Waitz 
Dr. Frank Vogel, Photo (Part­ner) (Corpo­rate)
Dr. Jan Heerma (Part­ner) (IP/IT/Commercial)
Claas Hohl­we­ger (Asso­ciate) (Corpo­rate)
Anne Leßner (Asso­ciate) (IP/IT/Commercial)
Linus Korherr (Asso­ciate) (Corpo­rate)

About Vogel Heerma Waitz
About Vogel Heerma Waitz is a Ber-lin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media that has been in opera­tion since May 2014 and can draw on a total of over 40 years of expe­ri­ence of its part­ners and staff in connec­tion with growth capi­tal financings.

Munich - The private invest­ment company DRS Invest­ment acqui­res its first invest­ment, the soft­ware company Ascora GmbH from company foun­der Dr. Sven Abels. The latter will remain with the company in the long term as mana­ging direc­tor and has taken a 50 percent stake in the plat­form invest­ment in order to build up a soft­ware group around the digi­ta­liza­tion of busi­ness proces­ses in part­ner­ship with DRS Investment.

In addi­tion to consu­mer soft­ware, Ascora specia­li­zes in data manage­ment in cloud-based envi­ron­ments and digi­tiza­tion services for medium-sized compa­nies. The aim of the invest­ment is to further deve­lop and inter­na­tio­na­lize the company, parti­cu­larly in the B2B area.

Ascora GmbH, Gander­ke­see, was foun­ded in 1994 by the compu­ter scien­tist Dr. Sven Abels. It has deve­lo­ped into an estab­lished part­ner for all aspects of busi­ness process digi­tiza­tion and today employs over 30 soft­ware deve­lo­pers. Ascora curr­ently has more than 12 million soft­ware licen­ses in use. This makes the company one of the German soft­ware manu­fac­tu­r­ers with the widest reach. In addi­tion, Ascora mana­ges seve­ral rese­arch projects in the areas of Indus­try 4.0 and eHealth (EU, BMBF) as consor­tium leader.

Growth plan­ned through acquisitions
With the parti­ci­pa­tion of DRS Invest­ment, Ascora’s B2B deve­lo­p­ments are to be signi­fi­cantly expan­ded. By acqui­ring soft­ware compa­nies, the specia­list wants to open up new busi­ness areas and become a plat­form for nume­rous appli­ca­ti­ons in the B2B envi­ron­ment. “The deve­lo­pers behind Ascora have deep and deep exper­tise in secure data manage­ment and scaling of big data,” said Dr. Andreas Spie­gel, Mana­ging Part­ner of DRS Invest­ment GmbH. “Medium-sized compa­nies in parti­cu­lar can bene­fit from this deve­lo­p­ment power and thus drive the digi­tiza­tion and auto­ma­tion of their busi­ness processes.”

The inves­tors’ goal is to accom­pany the further deve­lo­p­ment of Ascora GmbH in the long term. Ascora foun­der Abels says, “In DRS Invest­ment, we have found an expe­ri­en­ced part­ner who under­stands how to acce­le­rate growth with acqui­si­ti­ons as well as how to leverage Ascora’s core compe­ten­cies for new busi­ness areas.”

About DRS Invest­ment GmbH
DRS Invest­ment GmbH was foun­ded in 2017 by entre­pre­neur and inves­tor Dr. Andreas Spie­gel (photo) with the support of other inves­tors from the private equity envi­ron­ment in order to become priva­tely invol­ved in compa­nies by means of direct invest­ments and to deve­lop them in the long term. Spie­gel (born 1974) has been working in the private equity envi­ron­ment for seve­ral years and has advi­sed on various tran­sac­tions (entry and exit). With a docto­rate in busi­ness admi­nis­tra­tion, he has previously worked in consul­ting and as an inte­rim mana­ging direc­tor in various indus­tries in Germany and abroad. He has foun­ded seve­ral compa­nies hims­elf and is a specia­list in corpo­rate growth. Spie­gel and the select circle of inves­tors contri­bute only parts of their private assets. For the first invest­ments, DRS has EUR 10.0 million available for direct invest­ments, with further funds remai­ning on call. A parti­cu­lar focus is on tech­no­logy-orien­ted growth companies.

Berlin — The Berlin-based AI start-up i2x, owned by tech­no­logy entre­pre­neur and angel inves­tor Michael Brehm, aims to use arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence to improve the quality of custo­mer services. The company is deve­lo­ping soft­ware to opti­mize sales and custo­mer calls via auto­ma­ted coaching in real time. An idea that HV Holtz­brinck Ventures is convin­ced of. The venture capi­ta­list led the seed finan­cing round, which included other inves­tors in addi­tion to HV Holtz­brinck Ventures. The new capi­tal will now be used prima­rily to further deve­lop the tech­no­logy and inten­sify sales.

LUTZ | ABEL regu­larly advi­ses HV Holtz­brinck Ventures on finan­cing rounds.

Advi­sor HV Holtz­brinck Ventures: LUTZ | ABEL Rechts­an­walts GmbH
Dr. Marco Eick­mann, LL.M. (Part­ner), Phil­ipp Hoene (Asso­ciate)

About LUTZ | ABEL
With more than 50 lawy­ers and offices in Munich, Hamburg, Stutt­gart and Brussels, the commer­cial law firm LUTZ | ABEL advi­ses on all aspects of commer­cial law.

Commerz­Ven­tures GmbH has inves­ted in Payworks, a provi­der of mobile payment services, as part of a Series B finan­cing round.

Commerz­Ven­tures as well as Visa inves­ted in the company for the first time as main inves­tors. In addi­tion, legacy inves­tors Speed­in­vest and Finparx were also repre­sen­ted again. In total, Payworks raised $14.5 million in new capi­tal from inves­tors for its inter­na­tio­nal growth and inno­va­tion strategy.

Payworks inte­gra­tes mobile payments into apps and card readers. The Munich-based company offers a B2B service that provi­des an easy path to mobile payment (point-of-sale) capa­bi­li­ties. The GmbH was foun­ded in April 2012 by Chris­tian Deger, David Bellem, Simon Eumes and Johan­nes Lechner.

Commerz­Ven­tures GmbH is a wholly owned subsi­diary of Commerz­bank based in Frank­furt. The corpo­rate venture capi­tal company with a focus on finan­cial services invests in young compa­nies that specia­lize in inno­va­tive products, services and tech­no­lo­gies in the FinTech sector.

Advi­sor Commerz­Ven­tures: P+P Pöllath + Partners 
— Dr. Michael Inhes­ter (Part­ner, M&A/Venture Capi­tal, Munich)
— Andreas Kühnert (Asso­ciate, M&A/Venture Capi­tal, Munich)

Munich — Munich-based parking sensor provi­der Cler­ver­citi Systems has found a second inves­tor in EnBW New Ventures. The venture capi­tal subsi­diary of the Baden-Würt­tem­berg-based energy giant is inves­t­ing ten million euros in the start-up, which wants to take the plunge into the Ameri­can market. The group of inves­tors in Clever­citi Systems alre­ady includes the Belgian invest­ment company SPDG.

Clever­citi Systems has been produ­cing systems for energy-saving parking manage­ment since 2012. Free parking spaces are displayed to the minute by means of perma­nently instal­led sensors. In 2016, the company was able to win the Belgian inves­tor SPDG. With EnBW New Ventures, the company is now aiming to market its digi­tal tech­no­logy internationally.

For some time now, EnBW New Ventures has been making targe­ted invest­ments in young compa­nies that repre­sent the digi­ta­li­zed energy world of the future. The port­fo­lio includes, for exam­ple, Theva, a Bava­rian equip­ment manu­fac­tu­rer, and Lumen­aza, a Berlin-based soft­ware company foun­ded in 2013 that offers solu­ti­ons for regio­nal power supply.

Advi­sor EnBW: Weit­nauer (Munich)
Dr. Wolf­gang Weit­nauer (Corporate/M&A)
Inhouse Legal: Martin Düker (Gene­ral Counsel)

Advi­sors to Clever­citi Systems: Baker & McKen­zie (Munich)
Dr. Michael Barto­sch (Lead), Bert­hold Hummel (both Corporate/M&A), Dr. Lothar Deter­mann (IP Law; San Fran­cisco); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Tino Marz, Hanna Lütkens (both Corpo­rate), Fabian Bött­ger (Munich), Dr. Markus Hecht (both IP Law; Frankfurt)
GKK Part­ners (Munich)
Hermann Krämer (auditor/tax consul­tant) — known from the market

Berlin — InFarm recei­ves EUR 20 million Series A finan­cing from Cherry Ventures, led by Balder­ton Capi­tal. In addi­tion to new share­hol­ders such as Triple­Point and Mons Invest­ments LLC, exis­ting inves­tors Cherry Ventures, Quadia and Local­Globe also parti­ci­pa­ted. Cherry Ventures was advi­sed by Clemens Waitz and Sabine Röth of the law firm Vogel Heerma Waitz. Spring 2017, Clemens Waitz and Sabine Röth (Photo) advi­sed Cherry Ventures on the seed finan­cing round led by Cherry Ventures. In this frame­work, Quadia and Local­Globe had also participated.

InFarm, a verti­cal farming startup, was foun­ded in 2013. There are now more than 50 verti­cal farms in Berlin restau­rant kitchens, super­mar­kets and warehou­ses, inclu­ding Edeka and Metro stores. With the fresh money, InFarm plans to go to Paris, London and Copen­ha­gen this year, as well as launch in other German cities.

Consul­tant: Vogel Heerma Waitz
Dr. Clemens Waitz (Part­ner)
Sabine Röth (Part­ner)

About Vogel Heerma Waitz
Vogel Heerma Waitz is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media that has been in opera­tion since May 2014 and can draw on a total of more than 40 years of expe­ri­ence of its part­ners and staff in connec­tion with growth capi­tal financings.

Buda­pest (Hungary) / Berlin — Sabine Röth and Clemens Waitz of Vogel Heerma Waitz advi­sed AImo­tive, based in Buda­pest, on a USD 38 million / EUR 32 million Series C finan­cing round. The finan­cing round was led by B Capi­tal Group and Prime Ventures. Cisco Invest­ments, Samsung Cata­lyst Fund, and Series A and Series B inves­tors Robert Bosch Venture Capi­tal, Inven­ture, Draper Asso­cia­tes and Day One Capi­tal also parti­ci­pa­ted. AImo­tive, active in Auto­no­mous Driving Tech­no­logy, will use the new capi­tal to further deve­lop its proprie­tary auto­no­mous driving tech­no­logy, which is prima­rily based on conven­tio­nally available came­ras combi­ned with arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence image processing.

 

Advi­sors to AImo­tive: Vogel Heerma Waitz
Sabine Röth (Part­ner)
Dr. Clemens Waitz (Part­ner)

About­Vo­gel Heerma Waitz
Vogel Heerma Waitz is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media that has been in opera­tion since May 2014 and can draw on a total of more than 40 years of expe­ri­ence of its part­ners and staff in connec­tion with growth capi­tal financings.

About B Capi­tal Group
B Capi­tal Group is a global venture capi­tal firm that invests in pionee­ring indus­trial logi­stics, health­care, fintech and consu­mer enablem­ent compa­nies that are primed to scale across the global stage. Foun­ded in part­ner­ship with The Boston Consul­ting Group, B Capi­tal Group deli­vers unique access to top corpo­ra­ti­ons to match cutting-edge start-ups with the world’s leading CEOs, plat­forms, and brands. www.bcapgroup.com.

About Prime Ventures
Prime Ventures is a leading venture capi­tal and growth equity firm focu­sing on inves­t­ing in high growth Euro­pean tech­no­logy compa­nies. The firm lever­a­ges its capi­tal, expe­ri­ence and network to actively guide its port­fo­lio to become global cate­gory leaders. From its offices in The Nether­lands and the UK the inde­pen­dent part­ner­ship mana­ges over 500 million euro in commit­ted capi­tal. www.primeventures.com.

Hamburg — New busi­ness models that contri­bute to corpo­rate know­ledge and its deve­lo­p­ment are worth a whop­ping 85 million to the Otto Group. They are now to be made available for self-foun­da­ti­ons in the startup sector. This is inten­ded to streng­then corpo­rate company buil­ding through Otto Group Digi­tal Solu­ti­ons (OGDS), one of the company’s stra­te­gic pillars

OGDS will focus on the crea­tion of retail-rela­ted start­ups in order to actively shape the digi­tal future of the Otto Group. Two to three new busi­ness models with a focus on logi­stics, e‑commerce and fintech are to be crea­ted each year in the inter­nal company forge.

Since 2012, this model has been an inte­gral part of the digi­tal stra­tegy and successfully imple­men­ted by the company buil­der Liquid Labs; more than ten compa­nies have alre­ady been foun­ded since then. This makes the Otto Group a pioneer in the area of company-owned incubators.

“We solve the chal­lenges of digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion with the advan­ta­ges of a startup and the connec­tion to the stra­te­gic assets of the Otto Group. This model gives us a clear compe­ti­tive advan­tage. Unlike exter­nal start­ups, we can take advan­tage of the Group struc­ture, still test our ideas quickly and immensely acce­le­rate the growth of our start­ups,” explains Paul Joze­fak (pictu­red), mana­ging direc­tor of Otto Group Digi­tal Solu­ti­ons and Liquid Labs, in a press release issued by the company yester­day (Tues­day).

“By focu­sing on our own start­ups, we are clearly focu­sing on inno­va­tions for our core busi­ness rather than on quick returns. With our start­ups, we are not only driving our own digi­tiza­tion, but also provi­ding the market with digi­tal solu­ti­ons for the future,” confirms Dr. Rainer Hille­brand, Member of the Group Manage­ment Board respon­si­ble for Group Stra­tegy, E‑Commerce, Busi­ness Intel­li­gence and Deputy Chair­man of the Manage­ment Board.

Previous OGDS start­ups include coll­ec­tAI, an end-to-end digi­tal receiv­a­bles manage­ment provi­der; RISK IDENT, a service that detects frau­du­lent acti­vity during online orde­ring and payment proces­ses in real time; and Border­Guru, a full-service solu­tion for cross-border e‑commerce that is now part of Hermes Group. They have all been able to deve­lop into estab­lished play­ers in the free market, offe­ring added value along their value chain to trading and finan­cial compa­nies in particular.

Other start­ups include Shopping24 Inter­net Group, a provi­der of shop­ping portals and product search engi­nes, Otto Group Media for data-driven adver­ti­sing, and the two idea labs Liquid Labs and Into‑e.

One advan­tage for OGDS is that it can use inter­nal Otto Group assets, such as know­ledge of custo­mer groups, website reach or logi­stics infra­struc­ture as stra­te­gic leverage to acce­le­rate growth and ther­eby build market-rele­vant businesses.

Berlin — Berlin-based startup Home­bell recei­ves new capi­tal tota­ling around €11 million in a Series B finan­cing round. The new inves­tors include (among others) insu­rance compa­nies AXA and Helve­tia as well as Seven­Ven­tures, the finan­cial inves­tor of the ProSiebenSat1 media group. Part of the finan­cing amount flows into TV adver­ti­sing time provi­ded by the ProSiebenSat1 Group. Home­bell was foun­ded in Berlin in Septem­ber 2015.

The company offers online place­ment of handy­man services such as pain­ting or elec­tri­cal work. Home­bell was alre­ady able to coll­ect milli­ons of euros in invest­ments at the start. The inves­tors at the time included Index Ventures, the invest­ment company Lake­star and the Rocket Inter­net fund Rocket Inter­net Capi­tal Part­ners.

With the new money, the plat­form intends to further expand its presence in Germany and the Nether­lands and grow by adding new product cate­go­ries. In the future, for exam­ple, the website will also offer custo­mers inspi­ra­tion and ideas for renovation.

Advi­sor Home­bell: P+P Pöllath + Partners
The P+P Venture Capi­tal Team Chris­tian Tönies, LL.M. Eur. (Part­ner, Lead, VC, Munich/Berlin) and Dr. Sebas­tian Gerlin­ger, LL.M. (Senior Asso­ciate, VC, Munich/Berlin) has advi­sed Home­bell since its incep­tion and so also in the current finan­cing round.

Berlin/ London — Dr. Clemens Waitz and Dr. Simon Pfef­ferle of Vogel Heerma Waitz have advi­sed Titel Media (High­sno­biety) on a USD 8.5 million finan­cing from Felix Capi­tal, London. High­sno­biety, which was foun­ded in 2005 as a snea­ker passion blog, has evol­ved into what is now a high fashion, street­wear and culture website visi­ted monthly by more than 9 million users. The new capi­tal will be used prima­rily for new tech­no­logy and digi­tal media.

Consul­tant: About Vogel Heerma Waitz
Dr. Clemens Waitz (Part­ner)
Dr. Simon Pfef­ferle (Asso­ciate)

About Vogel Heerma Waitz
Vogel Heerma Waitz is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media that has been in opera­tion since May 2014 and can draw on a total of more than 40 years of expe­ri­ence of its part­ners and staff in connec­tion with growth capi­tal financings.

Berlin/Dakar — Partech Ventures announ­ces the launch of the Partech Africa Fund: The fund has a target volume of 100 million euros — more than 57 million euros of which have alre­ady been secu­red. This makes the Partech Africa fund the first fund from a top VC dedi­ca­ted exclu­si­vely to Africa’s rapidly growing tech ecosystem.

Partech Africa focu­ses on early-stage growth finan­cing and aims to help talen­ted Afri­can teams and their tech­no­lo­gies take advan­tage of growth oppor­tu­ni­ties in emer­ging markets with finan­cing between €0.5 and €5 million. Partech Africa is desi­gned as a gene­ra­list tech­no­logy fund whose target sectors range from the finan­cial scene (FinTech, Insur­Tech, new distri­bu­tion models) to online and mobile services (commerce, enter­tain­ment, lear­ning, digi­tal services) to mobi­lity, supply chain services and the digi­tiza­tion of the infor­mal economy.

The fund starts against the back­drop of an emer­ging and fast-growing market. “Tech VC invest­ments in Africa, with ticket sizes ranging from $200,000 to $40 million, have increased almost tenfold in recent years, from $40 million in 2012 to $367 million in 2016. Alre­ady, the sector is growing much faster than the projec­ted $1 billion annu­ally by 2020,” explains Cyril Collon (photo right), Gene­ral Part­ner at Partech Africa. “Most invest­ment rounds in Africa have been led by inves­tors based in the US or EU. The ecosys­tem is ready for local play­ers, with Afri­can teams funding the best Afri­can startups.”

As a key compo­nent of Partech’s global plat­form, Partech Africa will prima­rily bene­fit from the trans­at­lan­tic VC’s vast indus­try exper­tise, unique port­fo­lio support and busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment skills. “Partech’s highly hands-on team with its hands-on menta­lity, which closes more than 70 invest­ments per year, will also greatly bene­fit Afri­can foun­ders,” adds Tidjane Dème (photo left), Gene­ral Part­ner of Partech Africa. “Thanks to our global part­ner network, our dedi­ca­ted busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment teams will help Afri­can start­ups estab­lish and deepen cont­acts with the Euro­pean as well as the U.S. market to make long-term stra­te­gic part­ner­ships and trade agree­ments possible.”

High-profile inves­tors come toge­ther at Partech Africa
The launch of Partech Africa is also supported by key finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, inclu­ding the IFC (member of the World Bank Group), the Euro­pean Invest­ment Bank (EIB) and Aver­roès Finance III (the fund of funds mana­ged by Bpifrance and co-supported by Proparco).

“Tech­no­lo­gi­cal progress can have a huge trans­for­ma­tive impact in Africa, espe­ci­ally in sub-Saha­ran Africa. There is huge untap­ped poten­tial for entre­pre­neu­rial energy here,” said Phil­ippe Le Houé­rou, Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer of IFC. “Africa’s popu­la­tion is very young — there are many people here with strong tech­ni­cal skills and inno­va­tive ideas that can improve the lives of many. What they still lack is the neces­sary finan­cial support. We believe the Partech Africa fund will make an important contri­bu­tion to closing this finan­cing gap and driving entre­pre­neur­ship and growth.”

Partech Africa is also supported by the giant mobile network opera­tor Orange, as well as leading play­ers in emer­ging markets such as Eden­red and JCDe­caux Holding.

“As one of the leading trail­bla­zers in the Afri­can tech­no­logy indus­try, Orange is stron­gly pushing for the next pan-Afri­can digi­tal cham­pi­ons to emerge and grow. Our commit­ment to Partech Africa is an important part of our Orange Digi­tal Ventures Africa initia­tive, which aims to acce­le­rate the growth and scala­bi­lity of inno­va­tive tech­no­logy-driven compa­nies,” said Pierre Louette, Deputy Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer of Orange and Chair­man of Orange Digi­tal Investment.

Partech Ventures once again as a trailblazer
In recent years, Partech Ventures has repea­tedly been a pioneer in the further deve­lo­p­ment of the inter­na­tio­nal venture capi­tal market: The company was one of the first Euro­pean VCs to open an office in Sili­con Valley and has since deve­lo­ped into one of the few successful trans­at­lan­tic as well as pan-Euro­pean play­ers with teams in San Fran­cisco, Paris and Berlin.

“We are exci­ted to now be present on three conti­nents with the opening of our head­quar­ters in Dakar, Sene­gal. Not only does this make us even more global, but it also gives us an even better and more compre­hen­sive under­stan­ding of emer­ging inno­va­tions and global tech trends,” says Phil­ippe Collom­bel, Co-Mana­ging Part­ner of Partech Ventures. “In many areas, we see Afri­can entre­pre­neurs leading the way with their inno­va­tions in a wide variety of emer­ging markets. They’re using digi­tal tools and crea­tive busi­ness models to solve pres­sing problems, tapping into huge, previously untap­ped market segments — and that’s just the beginning.”

About Partech Ventures
Foun­ded in Sili­con Valley in 1982, Partech Ventures is a globally active invest­ment company with offices in Paris, Berlin, San Fran­cisco and Dakar. A large number of the part­ners are them­sel­ves entre­pre­neurs or have held manage­ment posi­ti­ons in tech­no­logy compa­nies. The company opera­tes and invests as a team, helping entre­pre­neurs from Europe, the U.S. and Africa build fast-growing tech­no­logy and digi­tal compa­nies that address large markets on multi­ple conti­nents. To this end, Partech Ventures invests in seed‑, venture- and growth-stage entre­pre­neurs. Since its incep­tion, Partech has successfully comple­ted 21 IPOs and assis­ted in more than 50 major M&A tran­sac­tions. Since 2012, the Partech Ventures team has built a pionee­ring busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment plat­form that fosters busi­ness rela­ti­onships and syner­gies between entre­pre­neurs and stra­te­gic partners.
About Partech Africa partners

Cyril Collon has held various manage­ment posi­ti­ons at mobile and Inter­net compa­nies, always with a consis­tent focus on Africa and the Middle East. Most recently, he spent four years as VP Sales for Europe and Africa at Vers­com Solu­ti­ons, a leading systems inte­gra­tor pionee­ring cloud/SaaS packet voice solu­ti­ons for emer­ging markets. He has also gained network trans­for­ma­tion expe­ri­ence at Genband, worked at UTStar­com to deploy the first IP-based mobile networks in Africa, and worked at Ascend Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons, a global leader in infra­struc­ture for Inter­net service provi­ders. Cyril grew up on the Afri­can conti­nent until the age of 18.

Tidjane Dème led Google offices in Africa for over seven years, was respon­si­ble for YouTube stra­tegy in the region, drove major broad­band infra­struc­ture invest­ments, and worked to deve­lop the Afri­can tech ecosys­tem. Prior to joining Google, Tidjane was foun­der and CEO of Common­Sys, an IT consul­ting firm in West Africa. He also worked with Sili­con Valley startup Cosine Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons as well as CapGe­mini to deve­lop large-scale ISP-focu­sed IT solu­ti­ons. Tidjane grew up in Dakar (Sene­gal) until the age of 19.

Cologne/Aachen — The S‑UBG Group is parti­ci­pa­ting with its venture capi­tal fund (S‑VC GmbH) in the second round of finan­cing in the FinTech company entra­fin GmbH, which was foun­ded in 2015. Also inves­t­ing are the foun­ders and mana­ging direc­tors of zeb, a manage­ment consul­tancy specia­li­zing in finan­cial service provi­ders, Prof. Dr. Stefan Kirmße, Prof. Dr. Bernd Rolfes and Dr. Patrick Tege­der, the exis­ting inves­tors Dieter von Holtz­brinck Ventures and the foun­ders and mana­ging direc­tors of entra­fin. “We will use the fresh capi­tal to grow further. Our goal is to give signi­fi­cantly more custo­mers access to our inno­va­tive form of purchase finan­cing. To this end, we are conti­nuously deve­lo­ping our trading plat­form as well as our sales chan­nels,” says Chris­toph Bauer (photo, left of co-foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor Dr. Stefan Fenner), Foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor of entra­fin GmbH.

FinTech made in NRW: Inno­va­tive model for liqui­dity opti­miza­tion entra­fin has deve­lo­ped a comple­tely digi­tal plat­form for purchase finan­cing, where suppli­ers are paid in full directly after deli­very and buyers can take advan­tage of a flexi­ble payment term of up to 120 days for them­sel­ves. This crea­tes attrac­tive liqui­dity scope for the compa­nies. In this way, entra­fin meets the growing need of SMEs to be able to use finan­cing in an uncom­pli­ca­ted, fast, and flexi­ble manner precis­ely where it is needed at short notice: at the trading busi­ness itself with its goods and services. “Through future further deve­lo­p­ments, we will like­wise be able to offer our custo­mers a quick and easy connec­tion of their eCom­merce solu­ti­ons to our retail plat­form. In this way, we will also consis­t­ently serve the finan­cing needs directly and digi­tally at the point of sale,” explains Bauer.

Medium-sized company finan­cing in transition
“With its purchase finan­cing model and its inno­va­tive, digi­tal initia­tion and proces­sing, entra­fin GmbH is meeting with high demand in the market,” says Harald Heide­mann, CEO of S‑UBG. “The finan­cing of medium-sized compa­nies in Germany is under­go­ing change, and entre­pre­neurs are incre­asingly looking for alter­na­ti­ves to tradi­tio­nal bank loans. There is ther­e­fore simi­lar market poten­tial for purchase finan­cing as there is for the alre­ady estab­lished facto­ring. The total volume of the German facto­ring indus­try alone curr­ently amounts to around 217 billion euros a year and has shown an average year-on-year increase of more than eight percent over the last four years,”[2] Heide­mann continues.

The next mile­sto­nes for entra­fin are ther­e­fore clear: a signi­fi­cant expan­sion of sales in the exis­ting sales chan­nels and the digi­tal deve­lo­p­ment of new market segments through the further deve­lo­p­ment of the trading platform.

About S‑UBG Group:
The S‑UBG Group, Aachen, is the leading part­ner in provi­ding equity capi­tal for estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies (S‑UBG AG) and young, tech­no­logy-orien­ted start-ups (S‑VC GmbH) in the econo­mic regi­ons of Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchen­glad­bach. S‑UBG AG invests in growth sectors; high quality of corpo­rate manage­ment is a key invest­ment criter­ion for the invest­ment company. In 1997, the share­hol­der savings banks estab­lished an early-stage fund under S‑VC GmbH to finance start­ups. In 2007, the Seed Fonds I Aachen was added, expan­ding the range to include equity capi­tal for tech­no­logy-orien­ted start-ups. After it was fully finan­ced, a new fund (Seed Fonds II Aachen) was set up in 2012. The third seed fund gene­ra­tion will start at the begin­ning of 2018. The S‑UBG Group curr­ently has invest­ments in over 40 compa­nies in the region and mana­ges appro­xi­m­ately €100 million. Further infor­ma­tion: www.s‑ubg.de

About FinTech Funds:
Dieter von Holtz­brinck Ventures (DvH Ventures) is one of the leading early-stage inves­tors in Europe and invests in tech­no­logy-orien­ted start­ups that deve­lop disrup­tive products and services — from FinTech, Insur­Tech and Big Data to arts and culture, from educa­tion and trai­ning to mobile adver­ti­sing. As an inde­pen­dent venture capi­tal fund, DvH Ventures invests with capi­tal, manage­ment support as well as the charisma of strong brands and large reach of the jour­na­li­stic heavy­weights Handels­blatt, Wirt­schafts­Wo­che, Tages­spie­gel and DIE ZEIT. The manage­ment is formed by Peter Rich­arz and Fabian von Trotha. For more infor­ma­tion, visit: www.dvhventures.de

About entra­fin:
entra­fin is a FinTech for purchase finan­cing specia­li­zed in SMEs. entra­fin offers its B2B custo­mers a digi­tal finan­cing alter­na­tive for their working capi­tal that is faster, easier, and usually chea­per than the house bank. Custo­mers can initiate and settle trading tran­sac­tions with their suppli­ers in real time via the entra­fin digi­tal trading plat­form — entra­fin pays the suppli­ers’ invoice imme­dia­tely after deli­very and grants the custo­mer a payment term of up to 120 days. The traded goods serve as colla­te­ral. Further infor­ma­tion: www.entrafin.de

Puidoux — Follo­wing an initial Series A funding round of 3 million Swiss francs in 2016, DEPsys has recei­ved addi­tio­nal funding of 2 million Swiss francs from exis­ting inves­tors Stat­kraft Ventures and VNT Manage­ment, as well as from a new inves­tor, Swiss single family office Wecken & Cie. These funds will be used to further deve­lop the company’s smart grid solu­tion and thus streng­then its posi­tion on the Euro­pean market. The products and services help grid opera­tors seam­lessly inte­grate the incre­asing number of rene­wa­ble energy sources and elec­tric vehicles.

While the origi­nal funding enab­led the indus­tria­liza­tion of the GridEye solu­tion as well as the estab­lish­ment of a profes­sio­nal corpo­rate struc­ture, the addi­tio­nal funding serves to acce­le­rate the appli­ca­tion deve­lo­p­ment as well as the further deve­lo­p­ment of the inter­na­tio­nal market presence.
With this finan­cing, DEPsys crea­tes a very strong inves­tor base, which lays the foun­da­tion for another round of finan­cing in the double-digit milli­ons by other well-known inves­tors, which in turn will enable the prepa­ra­tion of the upco­ming globa­liza­tion as well as the posi­tio­ning as a world­wide market leader for the unique technology.

“Our solu­tion has matu­red signi­fi­cantly over the past 18 months, and we have been able to deve­lop a clear vision of the power grid of the future in the process,” explains DEPsys CEO Michael De Vivo. “We signed a number of very important inter­na­tio­nal agree­ments and contracts in 2017. This funding gives us the oppor­tu­nity to further streng­then our compe­ti­tive advan­tage and expand our reach.”

“We are very impres­sed by how quickly DEPsys has evol­ved from a clas­sic start-up to a domi­nant market player with dozens of custo­mers around the world. We look forward to further support­ing Michael De Vivo and his great team,” says Stefan Hülsen, Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger at Stat­kraft Ventures GmbH and member of the DEPsys Board of Directors.

“The DEPsys solu­tion has the poten­tial to become the leading real-time plat­form for low-voltage network manage­ment. Distri­bu­tion network opera­tors speci­fi­cally bene­fit from the “plug & play” concept, its easy instal­la­tion and the elimi­na­tion of a network model, which elimi­na­tes the need for time-consum­ing updates,” says Peter Auner, Part­ner at VNT Management.

Power grids require a balance between power gene­ra­tion and consump­tion. Due to the energy tran­si­tion, the simul­ta­neous gene­ra­tion of elec­tri­city by photo­vol­taic systems or the simul­ta­neous char­ging of elec­tric vehic­les exerts addi­tio­nal pres­sure on the balance of the power grid, which, in the worst case, can cause dange­rous situa­tions and possi­ble faults in the power supply. DEPsys’ GridEye smart grid solu­tion moni­tors, stabi­li­zes and opti­mi­zes the power grid in this new era thanks to high-precis­ion measu­re­ments and advan­ced control algo­rithms in a fully decen­tra­li­zed architecture.

About DEPsys
Foun­ded in 2012, DEPsys AG is a Swiss tech­no­logy company that is a thought leader in the energy market. It provi­des smart solu­ti­ons that allow tradi­tio­nal low-voltage grids to handle the problems posed by the decen­tra­li­zed produc­tion of rene­wa­ble energy sources, such as solar panels, and large loads, such as char­ging infra­struc­ture for elec­tric mobility.

About Stat­kraft Ventures
Stat­kraft Ventures GmbH is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal firm working with excep­tio­nal entre­pre­neurs who are funda­men­tally chan­ging the energy sector. The company opera­tes an exit stra­tegy and is supported by the Stat­kraft Group, Europe’s largest produ­cer of rene­wa­ble energy. Stat­kraft Ventures invests on gene­ral venture capi­tal terms. The company invests 10 million euros every year.

About VNT Management
VNT is one of the first Euro­pean venture capi­tal compa­nies to focus on clean tech­no­lo­gies, parti­cu­larly rene­wa­ble energy, power elec­tro­nics and energy conser­va­tion. VNT is active in Scan­di­na­via as well as in German-spea­king count­ries. Curr­ently, VNT mana­ges three funds (Power Fond I, II, III) with an invest­ment capi­tal of 157 million euros. VNT invests mainly in tech­no­logy-orien­ted start­ups and growth compa­nies. VNT execu­ti­ves have core expe­ri­ence in the power conver­sion and energy control indus­try. This gives the target compa­nies of the VNT funds the decisive added value. Exten­sive busi­ness expe­ri­ence, active manage­ment and fair play charac­te­rize VNT’s busi­ness principle.

About Wecken & Cie
The single-family office based in Basel invests, among others, in start-up and growth compa­nies with a focus on inter­net, soft­ware, tech­no­logy, medi­cal tech­no­logy in Germany and Europe.

Colo­gne — Venture capi­tal inves­tor Endeit Capi­tal and Tengel­mann Ventures invest $34 million in Chron­ext AG, an emer­ging online portal for luxury watches.

Partech Ventures, Capna­mic Ventures, NRW.BANK, InVen­ture Part­ners and Octo­pus Vent ures most recently inves­ted 11 million euros in 2016 in the young company, which is based in Zug, Switz­er­land, in London and in Colo­gne. Previously, around more than $5 million had alre­ady flowed into the watch store, which was laun­ched in 2013. Chron­ext compe­tes in the watch segment with compa­nies such as Chrono24, Horando, Mont­redo and Watch­mas­ter, among others. Chrono24 alre­ady raised 21 million euros in 2015.

Endeit Capi­tal is a VC inves­tor based in Amster­dam and Hamburg that provi­des growth capi­tal to young tech­no­logy companies.

Since 2009, Tengel­mann Ventures has inves­ted in more than 50 compa­nies and is one of the leading venture capi­tal inves­tors in Germany. Many of these compa­nies have become global play­ers and market leaders in their respec­tive market segments. The focus is on early and later stage invest­ments in the areas of consu­mer inter­net, market­places and technology.

CHRONEXT AG (www.chronext.com) was foun­ded in 2013 by Phil­ipp Man and Ludwig Wurlit­zer. The leading e‑commerce company for luxury watches has opened its first store in London, employs around 100 people and has a 250 sqm watch work­shop for quality and authen­ti­city test­ing. With a head office in Zug (Switz­er­land) and further offices in London and Colo­gne, the company is inter­na­tio­nally posi­tio­ned and ensu­res a fast and secure service. CHRONEXT simpli­fies the comple­xi­ties of the watch market and enables a unique buying experience.

Advi­sors to Endeit Capi­tal: CMS Germany
A cross-border team led by Dr. Malte Bruhns and Dr. Stephan Werlen provi­ded legal advice to Endeit Capi­tal. In addi­tion to Endeit Capi­tal and Tengel­mann Ventures, exis­ting inves­tors inclu­ding Partech Ventures, Capna­mic Ventures and Octo­pus Ventures parti­ci­pa­ted in the $34 million finan­cing round. CMS has acted for Endeit Capi­tal on seve­ral occa­si­ons in the past.
Dr. Malte Bruhns, Lead Part­ner, Stephan Weling, Senior Asso­ciate, both Corporate/M&A
CMS Switz­er­land: Dr. Stephan Werlen, Part­ner, Corporate/M&A