Frankfurt a.M. — Goodwin advised the legal tech company RightNow GmbH on a Series A financing of $10.5 million. Lead investors are venture capitalist VR Ventures and the family office of Schwarzwälder Boten, which in turn was advised by VC investor Redstone.
VR Ventures also facilitated an investment in the bond issued by RightNow to purchase government-guaranteed Covid19 travel vouchers.
RightNow had already received $2.1 million in a pre-Series A financing in a first closing that included participation from the founders of Trivago in 2019.
Founded in 2017, RightNow GmbH is considered one of the pioneers in the modernization of consumer protection. The start-up, which specializes in “consumer claims purchasing,” buys claims from consumers against airlines, tour operators, hotels, insurance companies and other companies and asserts the claims at its own risk. RightNow founders Dr. Torben Antretter, Phillip Eischet and Dr. Benedikt M. Quarch were recently named to the “30 under 30” by Forbes magazine.
Advisor RightNow GmbH: Goodwin, Frankfurt a.M.
Gregor Klenk (Partner, Private Equity, Lead), Heiko Penndorf (Partner, Tax), Joana Pamukova (Associate, Private Equity)
About VR Ventures
Founded in February 2020, the venture capital fund VR Ventures sees itself as an innovation driver in the finance and real estate industry. The fund’s investment focus is on startups in FinTech and PropTech as well as adjacent digital business solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises. Invests in the best teams and solutions across Europe from the late seed stage.
VR Ventures is backed by the Berliner Volksbank Ventures team, which has been managing Berliner Volksbank’s startup investments since 2015. The existing partnership with Redstone Digital will also continue. Andreas Laule (Managing Director, VR Ventures): “The idea of VR Ventures is to build on the experience of Berliner Volksbank Ventures and provide participating investors with immediate access to strategically relevant startups in addition to an attractive return.”
Timo Fleig (Managing Director, VR Ventures): “We invest in industries where we know our way around and where our investors do business themselves. This market knowledge not only helps us to select strong portfolio companies, rather we want to bring our experience and strong network to the collaboration and seize the opportunities of digitalization together with our portfolio companies.”
For the Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken, VR Ventures is another leap into the future of banking. In addition to Berliner Volksbank, the following other Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks are involved in VR Ventures: Bank 1 Saar, Rheingauer Volksbank, Verbund Volksbank OWL, Volksbank Bielefeld-Gütersloh, Volksbank Kassel Göttingen, Volksbank Rhein-Ruhr, VR-Bank Südpfalz and VR-Bank Würzburg. In addition, IDEAL Lebensversicherung, a company outside the Genossenschaftliche FinanzGruppe, was won as an investor. A total of ten investors have invested a total of around €40 million in the fund. Over the next twelve months, participation in VR Ventures is open to additional institutional investors.