Jena/Munich — With the support of invest­ment bank Bryan, Garnier & Co, Jena-based rooom AG has just raised over 17 million euros in a successful finan­cing round. The finan­cing round is backed by a consor­tium of insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors led by Munich-based finan­cial inves­tor Marondo Capi­tal. Growth capi­tal provi­ders such as Tech­no­lo­gie-Grün­der­fonds Sach­sen (TGFS) and bm‑t Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment Thürin­gen as well as other exis­ting inves­tors are also involved.

Jena-based rooom AG has raised over 17 million euros in fresh capi­tal as part of a successful finan­cing round. In addi­tion to the new inves­tors Marondo Capi­tal and TGFS, exis­ting inves­tors such as bm|t and others parti­ci­pa­ted. This invest­ment also unders­cores the growing importance of 3D visua­liza­tion and Meta­verse solu­ti­ons in the enterprise.

Foun­ded in 2016, rooom AG offers soft­ware solu­ti­ons for crea­ting 3D content and digi­tal expe­ri­en­ces in augmen­ted and virtual reality, which are used in Meta­verse, among others. rooom’s custo­mers include Deut­sche Tele­kom, BMW, Zeiss, porta and Bosch. The Jena-based company curr­ently employs around 100 people and now reaches more than six million users in over 120 countries.

“Hans Elst­ner and his team have deve­lo­ped a proprie­tary tech­no­logy for crea­ting 3D content that stands up to global compa­ri­son. Without the use of special apps or virtual reality glas­ses, users can easily immerse them­sel­ves in virtual worlds and explore any type of 3D object using only their smart­phones,” explains Sebas­tian Schirl, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Bryan, Garnier & Co, who advi­sed on the transaction.

“A successful growth finan­cing round is anything but a matter of course in these tense times. We now want to use the funds raised prima­rily for marke­ting and further inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion, above all in the USA,” empha­si­zes Hans Elsner, foun­der and CEO of rooom AG.

Slowing tran­sac­tion momen­tum after initial hype in virtual reality soft­ware deve­lo­per market

As an analy­sis by Bryan, Garnier & Co shows, provi­ders of hard­ware and soft­ware solu­ti­ons in the areas of meta­verse and augmen­ted and virtual reality have been in high demand over the past two years: in 2021 and 2022, start­ups and tech­no­logy compa­nies were able to raise around €25 billion in capi­tal in almost 4,000 indi­vi­dual tran­sac­tions, but since the end of 2022, the number of tran­sac­tions has drop­ped signi­fi­cantly: In the first half of 2023, compa­nies raised only around EUR 2.0 billion in 542 tran­sac­tions, accor­ding to one result of the analysis.

“The initial hype around the Meta­verse has curr­ently died down a bit, but the market for virtual expe­ri­en­ces has long been there,” Schirl said. “Howe­ver, many compa­nies in this field are still in their infancy. rooom is one of the very few compa­nies here that is alre­ady selling its solu­ti­ons with great commer­cial success.” It is no coin­ci­dence that rooom was also named “Top Manage­ment Solu­tion Provi­der” and “Cool Vendor” by Gart­ner, the world’s leading rese­arch and consul­ting company in the IT sector.

Manage­ment consul­tants at Bain & Company expect that the market for meta­verse solu­ti­ons and virtual expe­ri­en­ces could reach a market volume of $700 billion to $900 billion by 2030. Until then, it will also become clear who the real winners in the market are.

The Bryan, Garnier & Co deal team consis­ted of Falk Müller-Veerse (photo © Bryan Garnier & Co), Sebas­tian Schirl, Berk Kirca, Alex­an­der Rein­auer and Paul Hirsch.

About Marondo

Marondo, with offices in Munich and Stutt­gart, is an invest­ment company for fast-growing, tech­no­logy-orien­ted, next-gene­ra­tion SMEs in Germany and DACH. The fund invests in compa­nies from the German tech­no­logy sector through majo­rity and mino­rity tran­sac­tions. These include soft­ware & IT, Indus­try 4.0, envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­lo­gies, new mate­ri­als, and health & medi­cal tech­no­lo­gies. In addi­tion to exten­sive expan­sion capi­tal, Marondo also offers liqui­dity solu­ti­ons for exis­ting share­hol­ders. The part­ner­ship is led by four part­ners with over 80 years of indus­try expe­ri­ence, 90 finan­ced compa­nies and seve­ral hundred tran­sac­tions over the past two deca­des. www.marondo.com.

About TGFS

The TGFS Tech­no­lo­gie­grün­der­fonds Sach­sen provi­des tech­no­logy-orien­ted foun­ders with equity capi­tal for the seed and start-up phase. The fund was first laun­ched in 2008 by the Free State of Saxony (inclu­ding ERDF funding) and Saxon finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons and has since supported over 100 start-ups. In 2023, the TGFS laun­ched its third gene­ra­tion of funds. The target compa­nies of the TGFS are young, inno­va­tive, tech­no­logy-orien­ted compa­nies that belong to the ICT, semi­con­duc­tor and micro­sys­tems tech­no­logy, medi­cal tech­no­logy, life science, envi­ron­men­tal and energy tech­no­logy, and new media sectors and have their head­quar­ters or opera­ting faci­li­ties in Saxony. www.tgfs.de

About bm|t

bm|t betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment thürin­gen gmbh, based in Erfurt, is the first address for venture capi­tal and private equity finan­cing in Thurin­gia. bm|t curr­ently mana­ges eleven funds with a total volume of more than 440 million euros and invests in inno­va­tive compa­nies in almost all sectors and in all phases of corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment — from the start-up and growth phase to corpo­rate succes­sion and buyouts. www.bm‑t.com

About rooom

rooom AG is an IT company from Jena, which was foun­ded in 2016. They offer web-based solu­ti­ons for the crea­tion, manage­ment and play­out of immersive 3D content. The plat­form can be used for a wide range of appli­ca­ti­ons and works with augmen­ted reality, virtual reality and gene­ra­tive AI. In recent years, the company has been awarded various inno­va­tion prizes such as the German Inno­va­tion Award, the Euro­pean Meta­verse Award and the Inno­va­tion and Excel­lence Award. rooom employs around 100 people and its most important custo­mers include Deut­sche Tele­kom, BMW, Zeiss, porta and Bosch. In addi­tion, the plat­form reaches over six million users in 120 count­ries. www.rooom.com/de

About Bryan, Garnier & Co

Bryan, Garnier & Co, foun­ded in 1996 in Paris and London, is an invest­ment bank focu­sed on Euro­pean growth compa­nies with over 200 employees in six offices in Europe (London, Paris, Munich, Stock­holm, Oslo, Amster­dam) and the US (New York). As an inde­pen­dent, full-service invest­ment bank, Bryan, Garnier & Co provi­des compre­hen­sive finan­cing advice and support along the complete life­cy­cle of its clients — from initial rounds of finan­cing to a poten­tial sale or IPO with subse­quent follow-on finan­cing. On average, the bank accom­pa­nies a good 70 tran­sac­tions per year.

The range of services includes equity analy­sis, equity sales and trading, private and public capi­tal raising, and M&A advi­sory for growth compa­nies and their inves­tors. The focus is on the growth sectors of tech­no­logy, health­care and sustaina­bi­lity. Bryan, Garnier & Co is a regis­tered broker and licen­sed with the AMF and FCA in Europe and FINRA in the US. www.bryangarnier.com