S‑UBG: Fresh capital for Aachen’s startup landscape

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.