ALTERNATIVE FINANCING FORMS
FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND INVESTORS

Author: Tatjana Anderer

Gründerin des FYB-Verlag
News

Munich — McDer­mott Will & Emery has advi­sed NORD/LB on the finan­cing of a majo­rity stake in cisbox GmbH by the soft­ware inves­tor Main Capi­tal. The cisbox foun­ders Stephan Kern and Sebas­tian Mehrle will remain in the company and have acqui­red a signi­fi­cant stake in the company.
Foun­ded in 2005, cisbox offers cloud and AI-based soft­ware solu­ti­ons for opti­mi­zing procure-to-pay (P2P) proces­ses, prima­rily in the health­care, hospi­ta­lity, services and public sectors. The company employs more than 150 people in Solin­gen and at two loca­ti­ons in Vietnam.

NORD/LB Nord­deut­sche Landes­bank is one of the leading German commer­cial banks. As a public-law insti­tu­tion, it is part of the S‑Finanzgruppe. The core busi­ness areas include corpo­rate custo­mers, special finan­cing in the energy and infra­struc­ture sector and for aircraft, the finan­cing of commer­cial real estate via Deut­sche Hypo, capi­tal market busi­ness, S‑Group busi­ness with the savings banks and private and busi­ness custo­mers inclu­ding private banking. The bank is based in Hano­ver, Braun­schweig and Magde­burg and has bran­ches in Olden­burg, Hamburg, Schwe­rin, Düssel­dorf and Munich. Outside Germany, NORD/LB is repre­sen­ted by a Pfand­brief bank (NORD/LB Covered Bond Bank) in Luxem­bourg and by bran­ches in London, New York and Singapore.

Advi­sor NORD/LB:
McDer­mott Will & Emery, Munich: Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger (photo), Ludwig Zesch (both Finance, both lead), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Meyer (Coun­sel, Tax Law, Frank­furt); Asso­cia­tes: Tim Becker, Laura Soll­a­cher, Romy Lanz (Düssel­dorf; all Finance)

 

News

Munich/ Stock­holm — EQT’s flag­ship private equity fund recei­ves commit­ments tota­ling EUR 22 billion (USD 24 billion) in its largest fund­rai­sing to date, of which EUR 21.7 billion (USD 23.5 billion) rela­tes to assets under manage­ment, excee­ding the target of EUR 20 billion (USD 21.6 billion).

This repres­ents an increase of almost 40 percent over EQT IX, thanks to strong support from exis­ting and new inves­tors, with a grea­ter propor­tion of commit­ments coming from private assets.

EQT X builds on EQT Private Equity’s 30-year track record of inves­t­ing prima­rily in the health­care, tech­no­logy and tech­no­logy-enab­led services sectors in Europe and North America.
EQT is plea­sed to announce that EQT X (the “Fund”) has comple­ted its final close and has raised a total of EUR 22 billion (USD 24 billion) in commit­ments, of which EUR 21.7 billion (USD 23.5 billion) are fee-gene­ra­ting assets under manage­ment. The fund­rai­sing excee­ded the target of EUR 20 billion (USD 21.6 billion) and repres­ents an increase of almost 40% compared to EQT IX, which closed in April 2021 at EUR 15.6 billion. It is also one of the largest private equity funds ever launched.

The fund recei­ved commit­ments from a wide range of inves­tors, inclu­ding pension and sove­reign wealth funds, asset mana­gers and the private wealth segment. The latter accoun­ted for a larger share of total commit­ments, reflec­ting EQT’s recent stra­te­gic efforts to offer this segment better access to EQT funds with the launch of EQT Nexus. The fund inves­tors were based in North and South America, the Asia-Paci­fic region, the Middle East, Europe and the Nordic countries.

EQT X is the latest fund in EQT’s private equity strategy

The stra­tegy has been inves­t­ing in the health­care, tech­no­logy, tech­no­logy-enab­led services and indus­trial tech­no­logy sectors in Europe and North America for thirty years and has achie­ved a gross multi­ple on inves­ted capi­tal of 2.7x during this time. The fund has announ­ced seven invest­ments since June 2022, start­ing with the acqui­si­tion of Envi­ro­tai­ner, the world’s leading provi­der of mission-criti­cal trans­por­ta­tion services to the biopharma indus­try. Other invest­ments include advan­ced medi­cal compon­ents provi­der Zeus, leading accounts receiva­ble auto­ma­tion company Bill­trust and vete­ri­nary phar­maceu­ti­cals company Dechra Pharmaceuticals.

Per Fran­zén (photo), Head of Private Capi­tal Europe & North America at EQT and Chair­man of the EQT Private Equity Invest­ment Commit­tee, said: “We remain focu­sed on support­ing and future-proofing busi­nesses in attrac­tive and resi­li­ent sectors such as health­care and tech­no­logy and have proven our ability to perform and return capi­tal through cycles. We are conti­nuing to invest in our sector exper­tise, shar­pe­ning our invest­ment model and deve­lo­ping our value crea­tion tools. Our thema­tic invest­ment stra­tegy and our strong local presence are compe­ti­tive advan­ta­ges when it comes to sourcing oppor­tu­ni­ties, not least in an envi­ron­ment where deals are slower to close. EQT X has made a good start: We have alre­ady announ­ced four take-priva­tes and offer exten­sive co-invest­ment opportunities.”

Suzanne Dono­hoe, Chief Commer­cial Offi­cer at EQT, said: “We would like to thank both our long-stan­ding and new clients for their support of EQT X. We look forward to working with them in the future. Around 70 percent of commit­ments to the fund came from exis­ting EQT IX inves­tors, a testa­ment to the long-term trust we have built toge­ther. We are also grateful for the support of new clients who have reco­gni­zed our 30-year track record of deli­ve­ring strong and consis­tent returns. We look forward to further streng­thening our part­ner­ships over the next 30 years and beyond.”

As one of EQT’s eleven busi­ness units, the EQT Private Equity team consists of more than 130 invest­ment profes­sio­nals spread across 15 offices in Europe and North America. They work with port­fo­lio compa­nies to acce­le­rate growth, streng­then profi­ta­bi­lity and increase resi­li­ence through an active parti­ci­pa­tion model. This is done by provi­ding prac­ti­cal support to manage­ment teams, taking a long-term perspec­tive and contri­bu­ting in-depth exper­tise in areas such as AI, digi­ta­liza­tion and sustaina­bi­lity. The teams also draw on the exper­tise of EQT’s network of over 600 indus­try consul­tants, all of whom have expe­ri­ence in mana­ging compa­nies in EQT Private Equity’s core sectors. EQT Private Equity works closely with EQT’s other private capi­tal busi­nesses, which include EQT Private Capi­tal Asia, EQT Future, EQT Health­care Growth, EQT Growth and EQT Ventures.

About EQT

EQT is a global invest­ment orga­niza­tion focu­sed on active owner­ship stra­te­gies. With its Nordic heri­tage and global mind­set, EQT has an almost three-decade track record of deve­lo­ping busi­nesses across geogra­phies, sectors and stra­te­gies. EQT has invest­ment stra­te­gies that cover all stages of a company’s deve­lo­p­ment, from start-up to matu­rity. EQT has total assets under manage­ment of EUR 232 billion (EUR 130 billion in fee-earning assets) in two busi­ness segments — Private Capi­tal and Real Assets.

EQT has its roots in the entre­pre­neu­rial mind­set of the Wallen­berg family and their philo­so­phy of long-term owner­ship and is guided by a strong set of values and a distinc­tive corpo­rate culture. EQT mana­ges and advi­ses funds and vehic­les that invest globally with the aim of future-proofing compa­nies, gene­ra­ting attrac­tive returns and making a posi­tive impact with ever­y­thing EQT does. www.eqtgroup.com

News

Frank­furt am Main — A team from the law firm HEUKING has advi­sed Harald Quandt Indus­trie­be­tei­li­gun­gen GmbH (HQIB) on the acqui­si­tion of Insti­tut Virion Serion GmbH and its Chinese joint venture (Virion\Serion). Virion\Serion has been active in the deve­lo­p­ment, manu­fac­ture and distri­bu­tion of in-vitro diagno­stics (IVD) for the diagno­sis of viral, bacte­rial, fungal and para­si­tic dise­a­ses for over 45 years. As a global supplier, the company offers both raw mate­ri­als and diagno­stic products. These are used by over 400 custo­mers, mainly labo­ra­to­ries and rese­arch insti­tu­tes, in more than 100 countries.

HQIB acqui­red Virion\Serion with the aim of further deve­lo­ping the medium-sized company in the long term. The main focus is on the further expan­sion of the raw mate­ri­als area and further inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion. With the help of HQIB’s finan­cial resour­ces and exper­tise, stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons of comple­men­tary tech­no­lo­gies and product groups should further acce­le­rate growth. The manage­ment team around CEO Dr. Judith Stür­mer will remain with Virion\Serion beyond the transaction.

About HQIB

As an invest­ment holding company, HQIB invests in small and medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries that are active in estab­lished, future-orien­ted and tech­ni­cally sophisti­ca­ted sectors with attrac­tive growth poten­tial. The focus is on the areas of secu­rity, digi­ta­liza­tion and health. HQIB holds invest­ments in a total of 23 compa­nies. As an indus­trial holding company, HQIB pursues a long-term and sustainable invest­ment approach and is not subject to any matu­rity rest­ric­tions or limi­ted holding periods.

Advi­sor Harald Quandt Indus­trie­be­tei­li­gun­gen GmbH: HEUKING

Dr. Pär Johans­son, photo (© Heuking), lead part­ner (corpo­rate law / M&A),
Markus Schmül­l­ing (labor law),
Dr. Verena Hoene, LL.M. (IP, Media & Technology),
Kris­tina Schnei­der, LL.M. (corpo­rate law / M&A), all Cologne,
Dr. Henrik Lay (tax law), Hamburg,
Dr. Katha­rina Pras­uhn (Corpo­rate Law / M&A), Munich,
Dr. Chris­toph Schork, LL.M. (Corpo­rate Law / M&A), Cologne

News

Bonn — Altium and Vali­space are joining forces to acce­le­rate the realiza­tion of a shared vision to support engineers.
HTGF was the first insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tor and led the seed round in 2018 and has closely supported Vali­space in all phases of its growth jour­ney. As part of the tran­sac­tion, HTGF will sell its shares.

Louise Lind­blad, co-foun­der of Vali­space: “We look forward to working with Altium to conti­nue our mission of empowe­ring engi­neers to create great products and acce­le­rate the path to a future where new tech­no­lo­gies and products improve people’s lives.”
Chris­tian Ziach, Prin­ci­pal at HTGF: “It has been a great plea­sure to work closely with the start-up over the past six years and I look forward to the syner­gies that will result from the acquisition.”

Altium, a leading provi­der of design soft­ware for the elec­tro­nics indus­try, has acqui­red Vali­space. Valispace’s systems and requi­re­ments engi­nee­ring capa­bi­li­ties will comple­ment the Altium 365 cloud plat­form for product and elec­tro­nics design. High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF), one of Europe’s leading seed inves­tors, was the first insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tor and has been closely support­ing the team since the seed invest­ment in 2018.

Marco Witz­mann, co-foun­der of Vali­space, says: “We are thril­led to announce this important mile­stone in the deve­lo­p­ment of Vali­space. This is also good news for exis­ting custo­mers: Not only will they conti­nue to have access to Valispace’s cutting-edge colla­bo­ra­tion soft­ware, but they will also gradu­ally bene­fit from features that inte­grate seam­lessly with detailed elec­tro­nics design proces­ses, closing the loop between system defi­ni­tion and implementation.”

Altium’s exten­sive expe­ri­ence in deve­lo­ping tools for thou­sands of engi­neers with essen­tial elec­tro­nics design soft­ware will ensure that the Vali­space team can conti­nue to provide engi­neers with the best expe­ri­ence of colla­bo­ra­tive and AI-enab­led systems and requirements.

Acce­le­ra­ting a shared vision

Altium and Vali­space join forces to acce­le­rate the realiza­tion of a shared vision to support engi­neers. Products are incre­asingly defi­ned by their elec­tro­nics: Whereas in the 1980s a car contai­ned around 20 chips, today there are more than 2000. At the same time, the requi­re­ments to track legal and other requi­re­ments down to compo­nent level are incre­asing, and modern systems engi­nee­ring proces­ses are needed more than ever to cope with the incre­asing comple­xity of products. Engi­neers ther­e­fore rightly demand modern tools that enable them to deve­lop future products with an end-to-end solu­tion, for which Vali­space at Altium will be an important buil­ding block.

“We would like to thank ever­yone who has supported and encou­ra­ged us along the way, inclu­ding our family, friends and inves­tors. And we now look forward to working with Altium to conti­nue our mission of empowe­ring engi­neers to create great products and acce­le­rate the path to a future where new tech­no­lo­gies and products improve people’s lives,” said Louise Lind­blad, co-foun­der of Valispace.

About Vali­space

For hard­ware engi­nee­ring teams deve­lo­ping multi­di­sci­pli­nary hard­ware products, Vali­space is a breakth­rough system and requi­re­ments engi­nee­ring tool that combi­nes system design and requi­re­ments engi­nee­ring in an AI-powered and data-driven approach. This impro­ves colla­bo­ra­tion, ensu­res faster itera­ti­ons, gets the product right first time and drives inno­va­tion by making the entire deve­lo­p­ment process from requi­re­ments to system design and veri­fi­ca­tion more efficient.

About Altium

Altium is a global soft­ware company head­quar­te­red in San Diego, Cali­for­nia, that acce­le­ra­tes the pace of inno­va­tion in elec­tro­nics. For over 30 years, Altium has provi­ded soft­ware that maxi­mi­zes the produc­ti­vity of PCB desi­gners and elec­tri­cal engi­neers. From indi­vi­dual inven­tors to multi­na­tio­nal compa­nies, more and more PCB desi­gners and engi­neers are choo­sing Altium soft­ware to design and realize elec­tro­nics-based products.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds

The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech start-ups with growth poten­tial and has supported more than 700 start-ups since 2005. with the launch of its fourth fund, HTGF now mana­ges around 1.4 billion euros. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and start-up experts supports young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. HTGF focu­ses on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digi­tal tech, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces, chemi­cals and rela­ted busi­ness areas, and to date, exter­nal inves­tors have contri­bu­ted around EUR 5 billion in capi­tal to the HTGF port­fo­lio in more than 2,000 follow-on finan­cing rounds, and HTGF has alre­ady successfully sold shares in more than 170 companies.

 

News

Düssel­dorf — The merger of HYPE and Plan­box crea­tes one of the largest inter­na­tio­nal provi­ders of inno­va­tion manage­ment soft­ware, with a turno­ver of almost 30 million euros. — Plan­box is the fourth acqui­si­tion of HYPE Inno­va­tion, a subsi­diary of Main Capi­tal since 2019, and demons­tra­tes the inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion of its port­fo­lio compa­nies in North America.

This stra­te­gic part­ner­ship bene­fits from Planbox’s exper­tise in full life­cy­cle inno­va­tion port­fo­lio manage­ment, emer­ging tech empower­ment and ecosys­tem enablem­ent. With more than two deca­des of expe­ri­ence, Plan­box has an impres­sive port­fo­lio of 400 imple­men­ta­ti­ons, over 5 million enga­ged parti­ci­pants and a $10 billion ROI for its clients. The company’s AI-powered, cloud-based agile inno­va­tion solu­ti­ons have been instru­men­tal in impro­ving the busi­ness results of inter­na­tio­nally reco­gni­zed brands Bayer, Anglo Ameri­can, Doosan Bobcat, Novar­tis, Elec­tro­lux Profes­sio­nal, and Honey­well. Since the merger with Brain­bank Soft­ware in 2015, Plan­box has taken a leading posi­tion in the indus­try and achie­ved top rankings in analyst reports, most nota­bly in the Forres­ter Wave 2020.

Frank Henningsen, CEO of HYPE Inno­va­tion, said: “Our jour­ney began with a vision to change the way compa­nies inno­vate. Joining forces with Plan­box soli­di­fies this vision by combi­ning more than two deca­des of insight, tech­no­logy and passion. As the boun­da­ries between regi­ons and markets conti­nue to blur, our combi­ned exper­tise is a model for global inno­va­tion, ensu­ring that our clients not only adapt, but thrive in this dyna­mic land­scape. We have seen how tecto­nic market shifts can rede­fine entire sectors. With this merger, we will usher in a new era of inno­va­tion manage­ment for the world.”

In view of the incre­asing importance of gene­ra­tive AI, the merger is setting new indus­try stan­dards for inno­va­tion manage­ment systems. HYPE’s AI compe­ten­cies, such as the inno­va­tion network graph, AI-based data rese­arch and AI manage­ment, are now enhan­ced and enri­ched by powerful features from Plan­box. The resul­ting best-in-class plat­form repres­ents a trans­for­ma­tive change in the inno­va­tion manage­ment envi­ron­ment and marks the begin­ning of a new chap­ter where human crea­ti­vity, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and gover­nance come toge­ther to unlock unpre­ce­den­ted inno­va­tion poten­tial. It simpli­fies proces­ses, enables effi­ci­ent use of resour­ces and bridges gaps between front-end inno­va­tion work and back-end proces­ses and systems.

Ludwig Melik, CEO of Plan­box, added: “In the fast-chan­ging global market, it’s not just about survi­ving, it’s about outper­forming. Our combi­ned strengths are more than just a stra­te­gic alli­ance — they are a commit­ment to our custo­mers. Toge­ther, we are crea­ting an envi­ron­ment in which compa­nies are able to be future-ready by pre-emptively adap­ting to and bene­fiting from market chan­ges rather than simply reac­ting to them. With our expan­ded capa­bi­li­ties, we envi­sion a future where inno­va­tion manage­ment beco­mes the corner­stone of every successful business.”

Toge­ther, HYPE Inno­va­tion and Plan­box want to revo­lu­tio­nize the inno­va­tion manage­ment indus­try, offer compa­nies world­wide added value and open up new oppor­tu­ni­ties for growth and success. In addi­tion, custo­mers bene­fit from an exten­ded network of part­ners, employees and experts that the Group makes available to promote oppor­tu­ni­ties for colla­bo­ra­tion and the exch­ange of expe­ri­ence and to acce­le­rate their inno­va­tion efforts.

Sven van Berge Henegou­wen, Mana­ging Part­ner and Head of the DACH region at Main Capi­tal Part­ners, concluded: “HYPE Inno­va­tion has become a leading soft­ware specia­list in the enter­prise inno­va­tion manage­ment soft­ware market. North America is a very stra­te­gic market for HYPE and we are plea­sed to support the company during this criti­cal growth phase. We believe that the combi­na­tion of HYPE and Plan­box crea­tes a stron­gly posi­tio­ned group with a promi­sing future.”

About HYPE Innovation

HYPE Inno­va­tion is a leading provi­der of soft­ware and consul­ting in the field of inno­va­tion manage­ment and offers a compre­hen­sive plat­form for the entire life cycle of your inno­va­tion program. HYPE’s solu­ti­ons include end-to-end idea­tion, tech­no­logy and trend manage­ment, startup scou­ting, inno­va­tion part­ner manage­ment and ecosys­tem enga­ge­ment. As a leader in inno­va­tion manage­ment, HYPE enables clients to iden­tify oppor­tu­ni­ties, foster colla­bo­ra­tion and achieve stra­te­gic goals — from growth to cost savings to sustainable trans­for­ma­tion — to excel in innovation.

News

Munich / Wede­mark — Liberta Part­ners (“LIBERTA”) acqui­res a majo­rity stake in Amec GmbH (“AMEC”) from company foun­der Marcel Fehr­mann. AMEC is a renow­ned value-added resel­ler of elec­tro­nic compon­ents based in Wede­mark near Hano­ver. Marcel Fehr­mann remains a member of the manage­ment and conti­nues to hold a stake in the company. The manage­ment team is comple­ted by Norman Kühn and Sebas­tian Neelen, who will become share­hol­ders as part of the transaction.

The company was foun­ded in 2004 and specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment and procu­re­ment of microelec­tro­nic compon­ents for OEMs and EMS compa­nies, parti­cu­larly in the German SME sector. Through inno­va­tive “design-in” solu­ti­ons, AMEC evalua­tes custo­mer sugges­ti­ons, checks their feasi­bi­lity and makes its own sugges­ti­ons for impro­ve­ments to form and function.

Marcel Fehr­mann commen­ted on the sale: “I am deligh­ted to have found a strong part­ner for AMEC in LIBERTA. LIBERTA will support AMEC with its entre­pre­neu­rial deve­lo­p­ment approach in a sustainable and long-term manner and thus accom­pany the company’s growth path. This is a posi­tive signal for our long-stan­ding custo­mers, employees and partners.”

Nils von Wietz­low, Part­ner at LIBERTA, empha­si­zed: “AMEC opera­tes in a promi­sing market. With a broad supplier network and the inno­va­tive “design-in” approach, the company is ideally posi­tio­ned to conti­nue its success story with the opera­tio­nal support of LIBERTA. With an increased focus on buy & build and a streng­thening of the orga­niza­tion, LIBERTA wants to set the frame­work for this.”

This is the first invest­ment by Liberta Part­ners Fund III, which closed in 2023. The fund invests in succes­sion situa­tions and group spin-offs, with a strong focus on support­ing the opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment of its port­fo­lio companies.

About AMEC GmbH

AMEC GmbH is a leading value-added resel­ler of elec­tro­nic compon­ents based in Wede­mark near Hano­ver. The company acts as a deve­lo­p­ment and purcha­sing part­ner for microelec­tro­nic compon­ents, espe­ci­ally for OEMs and EMS compa­nies. The compon­ents offer high quality at low cost. Tech­ni­cally trai­ned sales engi­neers support over 300 custo­mers not only at purcha­sing level, but also in deve­lo­p­ment. Through “design-in” solu­ti­ons, AMEC deve­lops custo­mi­zed vari­ants for custo­mers, checks the feasi­bi­lity and makes its own sugges­ti­ons in terms of form and func­tion. You can find more infor­ma­tion at: www.amec-gmbh.de

About Liberta Partners

Liberta Part­ners was foun­ded in 2016 and is a multi-family holding company based in Munich. The company makes targe­ted invest­ments in compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries, parti­cu­larly in succes­sion situa­tions and group spin-offs, with clear opera­tio­nal and stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial. These compa­nies are actively deve­lo­ped as part of the “100% Core & Care” concept and bene­fit from the entre­pre­neu­rial exper­tise of Liberta Part­ners. The Liberta Part­ners team consists of 20 employees working in the areas of M&A, Corpo­rate Deve­lo­p­ment and Legal & Admi­nis­tra­tion, supported by an active indus­try advi­sory board. www.liberta-partners.com

News

Frank­furt — Gibson, Dunn & Crut­cher LLP has advi­sed AURELIUS Growth Capi­tal on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of the Dorn­seiff group of compa­nies by DID Group. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the financing.

As part of the AURELIUS Group, AURELIUS Wachs­tums­ka­pi­tal focu­ses on buyouts and succes­sion solu­ti­ons for medium-sized compa­nies. Under the umbrella of its port­fo­lio company DID Group, service compa­nies in the fields of machine rental and indus­trial assem­bly are loca­ted. Gibson Dunn regu­larly advi­ses AURELIUS and has in the past also advi­sed on the finan­cing of DID Group’s buy & build stra­tegy, inclu­ding the acqui­si­tion of Marcus Trans­port-GmbH, Ferdi­nand Scheu­rer GmbH and Schmidt-Falbe Gabel­stap­ler GmbH.

The Frank­furt finance team of Gibson Dunn, led by part­ner Sebas­tian Schoon, included asso­ciate Bastiaan Wolters.

About Gibson Dunn

Gibson Dunn & Crut­cher LLP is one of the leading inter­na­tio­nal law firms and is ranked among the world’s top law firms in indus­try surveys and by major publi­ca­ti­ons. With more than 1,900 lawy­ers in 21 offices, the firm has a global presence in all major econo­mic regi­ons. Gibson Dunn’s offices are loca­ted in Abu Dhabi, Brussels, Century City, Dallas, Denver, Dubai, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, London, Los Ange­les, Munich, New York, Orange County, Palo Alto, Paris, Beijing, Riyadh, San Fran­cisco, Singa­pore and Washing­ton, D.C. www.gibsondunn.com.

News

Zurich — Carbon­Pool, the world’s first insu­rance company with a carbon credit balance sheet, has closed a € 13 million seed round one year after its foun­da­tion. The finan­cing round was co-led by Heart­core Capi­tal and Vorwerk Ventures and included HCS Capi­tal, Revent Ventures and former members of the Execu­tive Board of insu­rance giant Alli­anz, Axel Theis and Chris­tof Mascher.

Foun­ded by former Alli­anz execu­ti­ves Coen­raad Vrolijk, Nandini Wilcke (photo © carbonpool.earth) and Frede­ric Olbert, Carbon­Pool aims to acce­le­rate invest­ments in carbon credits, which are criti­cal to achie­ving net zero, by provi­ding carbon credit insu­rance with bene­fits in kind.

Carbon­Pool offers in-kind credit insu­rance to ensure that compa­nies can guaran­tee the carbon credits they purchase. This insu­rance is the crucial miss­ing compo­nent that unlocks invest­ment in carbon credit projects. This market is curr­ently subject to a low level of confi­dence due to the high percei­ved risks

Almost half of the world’s 2,000 leading compa­nies plan to achieve net zero emis­si­ons by 2030. This is part of the acce­le­ra­ted efforts to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of global net zero by 2050. Many of these compa­nies, along with thou­sands of others, rely on carbon credits to achieve their net zero targets. Follo­wing signi­fi­cant turbu­lence in the carbon markets, credit inte­grity, proper risk write-downs and the accu­racy of results are criti­cal to demons­trate to inves­tors, regu­la­tors and other stake­hol­ders that these promi­ses repre­sent real envi­ron­men­tal gains.

“CarbonPool’s in-kind services make it unique among insu­r­ers in offe­ring protec­tion not only to carbon credit holders in the event of natu­ral disas­ters or tech­no­logy collapse, but also in ensu­ring that carbon credits live up to their promise, giving buyers peace of mind and ensu­ring that they can meet their net zero targets,” said “, Coen­raad Vrolijk, former regio­nal CEO of Alli­anz Africa and co-foun­der and CEO of the Mana­ging Direc­tor of CarbonPool.

” Insu­rance accounts for 5 to 10 percent of the turno­ver of most mature markets, but CO2 certi­fi­cate trading has only just begun. A sector that despera­tely needs the credi­bi­lity that estab­lished finan­cial controls such as insu­rance can provide, said Chris­tian Jepsen, foun­ding part­ner at Heart­core. ” We are deligh­ted to support a world-class team of climate scien­tists, CO2 specia­lists and, most importantly, insu­rance experts with a combi­ned expe­ri­ence of 60 years in global under­wri­ting. I am confi­dent that they will bring much needed profes­sio­na­liza­tion to this sector. ”

“CarbonPool’s offe­ring gives buyers, deve­lo­pers and inves­tors in carbon projects the confi­dence needed to invest at scale and build the carbon removal indus­try we need,” said Dr. Domi­nik Stein­küh­ler, Part­ner at Vorwerk Ventures. ” We were hugely impres­sed by the exper­tise and track record of the Carbon­Pool foun­ders and are deligh­ted to support such an ambi­tious and focu­sed team. Their inno­va­tive approach goes beyond typi­cal corpo­rate insu­rance and protects the earth’s carbon footprint. ”

CarbonPool’s insu­rance license appli­ca­tion is under­way in Switz­er­land and the company is alre­ady offe­ring valua­tions and pre-agree­ments to clients such as corpo­ra­ti­ons, insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors and carbon certi­fi­cate deve­lo­pers. It is also in discus­sion with govern­ment bodies, inclu­ding the United Nati­ons and the State of Cali­for­nia, sharing perspec­ti­ves on how insu­rance can solve some of the industry’s key chal­lenges, such as ensu­ring the perma­nence of carbon removal from the atmosphere.

” We are very exci­ted to invest in Carbon­Pool. As a VC with a deep focus on insur­tech, we believe in the power of inno­va­tion to address the pres­sing chal­lenges of our time, CarbonPool’s commit­ment to miti­ga­ting climate-rela­ted risks fits perfectly with our vision for the future of the insu­rance indus­try,” said Alex Horvitz, CEO of HCS Capi­tal.

About Carbon­Pool

Carbon­Pool helps the company achieve net zero by provi­ding property insu­rance for fail­ure to meet net zero obli­ga­ti­ons due to defi­cits and rever­sals, busi­ness inter­rup­ti­ons and natu­ral disas­ters that either reduce the amount of carbon dioxide removals or inad­ver­t­ently return carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

CarbonPool’s team of insu­rance execu­ti­ves, climate scien­tists, weather mode­lers, geograph­ers and engi­neers assess each risk to build custo­mi­zed risk models. In addi­tion to CarbonPool’s own capi­tal, the premi­ums coll­ec­ted from each custo­mer are inves­ted in high-quality CO2 removal projects to provide bene­fits in kind. www.carbonpool.earth

About Vorwerk Ventures

Vorwerk Ventures is an inde­pen­dent € 150 million venture capi­tal fund. We invest in foun­ders with sustainable busi­ness models that have a posi­tive impact. We are defi­ned by a strong commit­ment to consu­mer-orien­ted digi­tal compa­nies, but we also go beyond this and invest in selec­ted B2B compa­nies that match our indus­try exper­tise. Find out more: 
https://vorwerkventures.com/

About Heart­Core Capital

Heart­core Capi­tal is an early-stage venture capi­tal fund foun­ded in Denmark in 2007 with offices in Copen­ha­gen, Stock­holm, Berlin and Paris. We are a multi-product fund with 5 early-stage funds, 2 growth funds and 1 mana­ged Web3 fund. Our cumu­la­tive tied-up capi­tal is appro­xi­m­ately € 770 million. We are Euro­pean by origin, but globally orien­ted. Our team compri­ses nine natio­na­li­ties and speaks ten languages. To date, we have inves­ted in over 100 start-up teams from 13 count­ries. We have supported some of the largest cate­gory-defi­ning compa­nies in Europe, such as Tink, Neo4j, Boozt, Ernst­haft and Travel­Perk. www.heartcore.com

About HCS Capital

HCS Capi­tal is an insur­tech, fintech and cyber­se­cu­rity invest­ment fund foun­ded in 2017 and based in Miami. It invests mainly in North America, Latin America and Israel. The aim of the fund is to support tech­no­logy start-ups in beco­ming scalable, sustainable compa­nies with a social impact. HCS Capital’s focus is not only on inves­t­ing, but also on crea­ting an ecosys­tem where port­fo­lio start­ups can inter­act and receive finan­cial, stra­te­gic, human and tech­no­lo­gi­cal support from the HCS Capi­tal team. https://www.hcscapital.com

About Revent Ventures

Revent is a €60 million early-stage VC fund that invests first checks in mission-driven foun­ders across Europe. We are looking for step-change tech­no­lo­gies and finan­cial and data infra­struc­ture provi­ders to build the struc­tures that connect markets in the areas of climate, health­care and econo­mic empower­ment. https://www.revent.vc/

News

Berlin — Raue has advi­sed the Turin and Berlin-based tech­no­logy start-up Tau ACT GmbH (“Tau”) on the exten­sion of its Series B finan­cing round from 2023 (Series B Exten­sion) with a volume of EUR 11 million. This time, CDP Venture Capi­tal and Santan­der Alter­na­tive Invest­ments joined Tau as new lead inves­tors. CDP Venture Capi­tal is an asset manage­ment company that mana­ges 13 invest­ment funds with a total volume of over EUR 3 billion that support young compa­nies in all phases of their life cycle. Santan­der Alter­na­tive Invest­ments, part of Santan­der Asset Manage­ment, mana­ges alter­na­tive invest­ment funds with a volume of two billion euros.

Tau has estab­lished itself as an inno­va­tive supplier to the auto­mo­tive indus­try and has set a new global stan­dard for winding wire for e‑mobility. Tau reached an important commer­cial mile­stone when its wire products comple­ted vali­da­tion proces­ses for seve­ral auto­mo­tive OEMs and Tier 1 suppli­ers in Europe, Asia and North America. Tau is curr­ently expan­ding its produc­tion capa­ci­ties and prepa­ring for CO2-neutral produc­tion of winding wire in Italy.

Raue advi­sed Tau compre­hen­si­vely on all legal issues in connec­tion with the finan­cing round. Raue had alre­ady advi­sed the startup compre­hen­si­vely in its Series A and B finan­cing rounds in 2020, 2021 and 2023.

About dew

Tau focu­ses on appli­ca­ti­ons in the auto­mo­tive, energy and agri­cul­tu­ral sectors and makes protec­tive coatings for copper, alumi­num and steel wire more dura­ble, resistant and ligh­ter. The DryCy­cle and LILIT tech­no­lo­gies deve­lo­ped by Tau meet the requi­re­ments of elec­tric auto­mo­tive tech­no­logy for ever smal­ler, ligh­ter and yet more powerful and relia­ble elec­tric motors. DryCy­cle tech­no­logy offers higher perfor­mance, better sustaina­bi­lity and grea­ter relia­bi­lity of the wire. By using only solvent-free poly­mers, DryCy­cle redu­ces the produc­tion of harmful vola­tile orga­nic compounds during the coating process, ther­eby lowe­ring carbon dioxide emissions.

Consul­tant Tau: Raue, Berlin

Prof. Dr. Andreas Nelle, Foto (Part­ner, Lead, Corporate/M&A, PE/VC), Chris­to­pher Gardt (Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, PE/VC), Dr. Michael K. Berg­mann (Part­ner, Regu­la­tory), Dr. Bene­dikt Schwarz­kopf (Asso­ciate, Regulatory)

News

Stutt­gart — The Clima­te­Tech start-up Cyclize from Stutt­gart is leading the way with €4.75 million in seed capi­tal to initiate a revo­lu­tion in the chemi­cal indus­try. The aim: to replace fossil resour­ces through the inno­va­tive recy­cling of carbon from plas­tic waste and CO2. The finan­cing round is being led by UVC Part­ners. The capi­tal increase is comple­men­ted by High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF), Aurum Impact, Unter­neh­mer­TUM Funding for Inno­va­tors and busi­ness angels, inclu­ding Dr. Klaus Schä­fer, former CTO of Cove­s­tro, who will also be part of the Advi­sory Board of Cyclize.

Repla­cing fossil resources

The chemi­cal indus­try, once firmly ancho­red in the use of fossil resour­ces, must change in order to achieve the neces­sary climate targets. The carbon atoms contai­ned in natu­ral gas and coal are used to produce synthe­sis gas — a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydro­gen. This gas mixture is a basic buil­ding block of the chemi­cal indus­try and the start­ing point for products that surround us ever­y­where, such as plas­tics, foams, adhe­si­ves, paints and many more. Their produc­tion and inci­ne­ra­tion at the end of their life account for 15 percent of global indus­trial CO2 emis­si­ons. Other proces­ses, such as elec­tro­ly­sis or the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS), cannot meet the growing demand for CO2-neutral synthe­sis gas.

Cyclize offers a solu­tion here: a highly inno­va­tive, plasma-based process in which mixed plas­tic waste of all kinds is recy­cled to produce synthe­sis gas that easily compe­tes econo­mic­ally with fossil synthe­sis gas. Cyclize is thus setting pionee­ring stan­dards in the unri­val­led repla­ce­ment of fossil resources.

“With our process, we are sending an important signal for climate-neutral chemis­try. Our paten­ted Cyclize process enables chemi­cal compa­nies to remain compe­ti­tive despite rising energy prices in Europe. Cyclize plasma is not only the future of the chemi­cal indus­try — it is an inno­va­tor for the circu­lar economy: “Plas­tic waste beco­mes a real raw mate­rial with mone­tary value,” says Maike Lambarth, co-foun­der and CEO of Cyclize.

Setting out for new markets, the net zero revolution

The move towards net-zero produc­tion is opening up new markets in Europe and Cyclize is paving the way for the chemi­cal indus­try through a low-thres­hold trans­for­ma­tion. With the produc­tion of synthe­sis gas, the company is merely chan­ging the first step in a long value chain and substi­tu­ting the fossil carbon source. Thanks to the reten­tion of the follo­wing process steps, exis­ting assets can conti­nue to be used and produc­tion costs can be kept low.

With their solu­tion, they not only serve nume­rous chemi­cal segments that previously relied on fossil hydro­gen and synthe­sis gas, but also solve the global problem of recy­cling previously non-recy­clable plas­tic waste. Cyclize is an inno­va­tion pioneer that reso­lut­ely tack­les the global chal­lenges of our time.

Further deve­lo­p­ment of plasma technology 

Cyclize has alre­ady attrac­ted a great deal of inte­rest from indus­try and poli­tics. Since May 2022, the spin-off of the Univer­sity of Stutt­gart has been funded by the EXIST rese­arch trans­fer program of the Fede­ral Minis­try of Econo­mics and Climate Protec­tion (BMWK). With the newly raised capi­tal, the company is taking its realiza­tion to the next level. In the next step, Cyclize will dedi­cate itself to scaling up the tech­no­logy and apply­ing it on an indus­trial scale with an expan­ded team. Test series with pilot custo­mers who require synthe­sis gas or want to recy­cle complex waste streams are also alre­ady being plan­ned. The young company is thus actively driving tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment towards commer­cia­liza­tion. The next goal is to set up and operate the first waste-to-syngas plant of its kind in a chemi­cal park in order to demons­trate its appli­ca­bi­lity in an indus­trial envi­ron­ment through pilot opera­tion.About Cyclize

As a spin-off from the Univer­sity of Stutt­gart, Cyclize has deve­lo­ped a defos­si­liza­tion tech­no­logy for the chemi­cal indus­try in which mixed plas­tic waste and CO2 are used as a start­ing mate­rial to produce synthe­sis gas (a gas mixture of carbon monoxide and hydro­gen). This synthe­sis gas serves as a basic buil­ding block for higher-value chemi­cals and is used to produce plas­tics, metha­nol, hydro­gen and e‑fuels. To date, synthe­sis gas has still been produ­ced through the linear use of fossil resour­ces such as natu­ral gas. The inno­va­tive plasma-based process makes it possi­ble to replace fossil resour­ces with waste mate­ri­als, enable a circu­lar economy for carbon and avoid hundreds of mega­tons of CO2 annu­ally by 2050. www.cyclize.de.

About UVC Partners

UVC Part­ners is a leading early stage venture capi­tal firm based in Munich and Berlin that invests in Euro­pean B2B tech start-ups from pre-seed to Series A stage. With appro­xi­m­ately 400 million euros in assets under manage­ment, UVC Part­ners typi­cally invests between 500,000 and 10 million euros as an initial ticket and up to 30 million euros per company. The port­fo­lio includes leading compa­nies in the fields of deep tech, climate tech, hard­ware, soft­ware and mobi­lity. As an inde­pen­dent part­ner of Unter­neh­mer­TUM, Europe’s largest inno­va­tion and startup center, UVC Part­ners has access to proprie­tary deal flow, an indus­trial network of more than 1,000 compa­nies and access to talent from Europe’s leading tech­ni­cal univer­sity. Its invest­ments include Flix, Vimcar, planqc, Tanso, Isar Aero­space, TWAICE, Deep­Drive, STABL and many more. They all bene­fit from the team’s exten­sive invest­ment and exit expe­ri­ence, its ability to build sustainable indus­try leaders and its passion for deve­lo­ping the game chan­gers of tomor­row. www.uvcpartners.com.

About Aurum Impact

The impact inves­tor Aurum Impact supports start-ups and funds that are dedi­ca­ted to tack­ling major ecolo­gi­cal and social chal­lenges. As part of the Gold­beck Family Office, Aurum Impact acts as a relia­ble part­ner with a long-term invest­ment focus along the themes of circu­lar economy and mate­ri­als, climate and energy, ecosys­tems as well as equal oppor­tu­ni­ties and social stabi­lity. Initial invest­ments in start-ups focus on the early phase from pre-seed to Series A. The port­fo­lio includes compa­nies such as UNDO, Clean­Hub and Volt­fang as well as the impact funds Planet A Ventures, Revent and Syste­miq Capi­tal. Further infor­ma­tion: www.aurum-impact.de.

 

News

Hamburg — Picus Capi­tal Manage­ment has closed its venture capi­tal fund Picus Ventures Fund II with a target volume of €200 million. This gene­ra­tion of funds has more than double the volume of its prede­ces­sor, Picus Venture Fund I, which Picus Capi­tal initia­ted in 2021, and was laun­ched as a German fund structure.

The fund’s inves­tors include selec­ted insti­tu­tio­nal anchor inves­tors and Euro­pean family offices with deep roots in indus­try leaders and promi­nent tech unicorns. Some of the inves­tors are inves­t­ing again, having alre­ady inves­ted in the prede­ces­sor fund Picus Venture Fund I.
Picus Venture Fund II will invest predo­mi­nantly in promi­sing early stage tech­no­logy compa­nies globally, lever­aging the access and infor­ma­tion advan­tage that Picus Capital’s approach to early stage inves­t­ing provi­des to achieve supe­rior returns through a de-risked structure.

Advi­sor Picus Capi­tal Manage­ment : YPOG

Dr. Fabian Euhus (Lead, Funds), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Helder Schnitt­ker (Funds), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Saskia Bong (Funds), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Jannik Zerbst (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin/Hamburg Wolf­ram Dickers­bach (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin

About Picus Capi­tal and Picus Capi­tal Management

Picus Capi­tal is an inter­na­tio­nal venture capi­tal firm head­quar­te­red in Munich with offices in New York, Beijing, Berlin, London, Banga­lore, Singa­pore, Paris and Mexico City. Picus Capi­tal Manage­ment is the Group’s fund manage­ment unit. Picus Capi­tal accom­pa­nies entre­pre­neurs from the earliest stages to the growth phase with Picus Capi­tal Management’s Venture Fund stra­tegy. The company focu­ses on tech­no­logy compa­nies in the areas of finan­cial services, human resour­ces, energy & climate, health­care, logi­stics & mobi­lity, real estate & cons­truc­tion, crypto & web3, deept­ech and e‑commerce. As an entre­pre­neu­rial spar­ring part­ner, Picus Capi­tal pursues a long-term invest­ment philo­so­phy and supports foun­ders from the idea phase to the IPO and beyond. www.picuscap.com

About YPOG

YPOG is a law firm specia­li­zing in tax and commer­cial law, active in the core areas of funds, tax, banking + finance and tran­sac­tions. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. — Today, YPOG employs more than 120 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax consul­tants, tax specia­lists and a notary in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Colo­gne. http://www.ypog.law

News

Munich — RENK Group AG and its share­hol­der, Rebecca BidCo S.à.r.l. Holding, have issued shares in RENK Group AG from the holdings of the selling share­hol­der Rebecca BidCo S.à.r.l. to insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors in an acce­le­ra­ted book­buil­ding process as part of a private place­ment. This means that Renk is now valued at around 1.9 billion euros.

The tank trans­mis­sion manu­fac­tu­rer made the leap onto the Frank­furt Stock Exch­ange at the second attempt: a total of 33,333,333 shares were placed with inves­tors. The invest­ment company Tritonwhose “Triton V” fund alre­ady held a majo­rity stake in Rebecca BidCo S.à.r.l., will conti­nue to hold a majo­rity stake in RENK Group AG after the IPO. The total place­ment volume is appro­xi­m­ately EUR 500 million. Trading on the regu­la­ted market of the Frank­furt Stock Exch­ange (Prime Stan­dard) commen­ced on Febru­ary 7, 2024.

POELLATH provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to the manage­ment of RENK Group AG on the manage­ment parti­ci­pa­tion in the IPO with the follo­wing Munich team:

Dr. Bene­dikt Hohaus (Part­ner, Lead, Manage­ment Parti­ci­pa­ti­ons, M&A/Private Equity)
Dr. Nico Fischer (Part­ner, Taxes)
Jan Lukas Jung­claus, LL.M. (Stel­len­bosch) (Asso­ciate, Manage­ment Parti­ci­pa­ti­ons, M&A/Private Equity)

News

Munich / Gundel­fin­gen a.d. Donau — The NOBIX Group (“NOBIX”) has successfully acqui­red the company KUHN IT (“KUHN IT”), ther­eby conso­li­da­ting its market posi­tion in the Mana­ged IT Services sector. The acqui­si­tion is a signi­fi­cant step in the imple­men­ta­tion of the growth stra­tegy of the NOBIX system house group, which was foun­ded by Liberta Part­ners (“LIBERTA”). NOBIX is a pioneer in the digi­ta­liza­tion of opera­tio­nal proces­ses and busi­ness infor­ma­tion in the SME sector. KUHN IT will conti­nue to operate inde­pendently and will remain under the proven manage­ment of Thilo Kuhn.

KUHN IT, based in Welz­heim near Stutt­gart, is one of Germany’s leading DATEV Solu­tion and Corpo­rate Part­ners. The focus is on tax consul­tants, audi­tors, law firms and their clients. In addi­tion to SaaS inter­faces and mana­ged services in the DATEV envi­ron­ment, the company also offers tradi­tio­nal IT services and infra­struc­ture sales. KUHN IT has estab­lished itself as a relia­ble part­ner in the region, known for its inno­va­tive strength, quality stan­dards and first-class custo­mer service. Thanks to its own soft­ware deve­lo­p­ment depart­ment, KUHN IT GmbH crea­tes added value for its custo­mers and maxi­mi­zes the depth of inte­gra­tion of the DATEV products used.

Thilo Kuhn is deligh­ted with the take­over: “We see NOBIX as a future-orien­ted part­ner in a dyna­mic market. The poten­tial of the merger and the sustainable deve­lo­p­ment of the indi­vi­dual compa­nies convin­ced us to become part of this strong group. Our custo­mers and part­ners can be sure that we will conti­nue to provide them with relia­ble support. Toge­ther, we are a major player in the German system house market.”

NOBIX’s vision is to become one of the leading system house groups in the DACH region. NOBIX relies on the synergy of three central busi­ness areas: Mana­ged Print Services (“MPS”), Data Manage­ment Solu­ti­ons (“DMS”) and IT Services. The group of compa­nies, consis­ting of Kemm­ler Kopier Systeme, System­haus Bissin­ger, DRUCK-LOS and KUHN IT, posi­ti­ons itself as a compre­hen­sive solu­tion provi­der for its more than 7,500 custo­mers. The plan­ned growth will be driven by stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons, with a focus on poten­tial compa­nies in the IT services sector.

Jörg Radler, Mana­ging Direc­tor of NOBIX, comm­ents on the acqui­si­tion as follows: “The acqui­si­tion of KUHN IT is a great step in our stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment into an IT system house leader. We look forward to pursuing this path toge­ther with the KUHN IT team.”

Nils von Wietz­low, Part­ner at LIBERTA and respon­si­ble for succes­sion situa­tions, adds: “The acqui­si­tion of KUHN IT is an ideal, both regio­nal and stra­te­gic addi­tion to NOBIX. The growth stra­tegy of the system house group will thus be driven forward in a targe­ted manner.”

About KUHN IT

KUHN IT GmbH, based in Welz­heim near Stutt­gart, specia­li­zes in the sale and trading of DATEV licen­ses with a focus on tax consul­tants, audi­tors, law firms and their clients. The company offers its own SaaS inter­faces and mana­ged services in the DATEV envi­ron­ment. In addi­tion to its core busi­ness in the DATEV area, KUHN IT also pursues the sale of clas­sic IT services and IT infra­struc­ture. The site in Welz­heim employs 38 people, whose exper­tise and commit­ment guaran­tee first-class support and inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons. www.kuhnit.de

About the NOBIX Group

The NOBIX Group is a medium-sized system house group specia­li­zing in office infra­struc­ture, docu­ment manage­ment systems and IT services. With a clear vision and a strong commit­ment to digi­ta­liza­tion, NOBIX helps compa­nies to opti­mize their busi­ness proces­ses and focus fully on crea­ting value. The group curr­ently consists of Kemm­ler Kopier Systeme GmbH in Kaisers­lau­tern (www.kks-kl.de), System­haus Bissin­ger GmbH (www.bissinger.de) in Gundel­fin­gen an der Donau and DRUCK-LOS GmbH in Stutt­gart and employs over 130 people at six loca­ti­ons in southern Germany. www.nobix-group.de

About Liberta Partners

Liberta Part­ners was foun­ded in 2016 and is a multi-family holding company based in Munich. The company makes targe­ted invest­ments in compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries, parti­cu­larly in succes­sion situa­tions and group spin-offs, with clear opera­tio­nal and stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial. These compa­nies are actively deve­lo­ped as part of the “100% Core & Care” concept and bene­fit from the entre­pre­neu­rial exper­tise of Liberta Part­ners. The Liberta Part­ners team consists of 20 employees working in the areas of M&A, Corpo­rate Deve­lo­p­ment and Legal & Admi­nis­tra­tion, supported by an active indus­try advi­sory board. www.liberta-partners.com

News

Berlin — With the common goal of promo­ting sustainable and local chemi­cal and phar­maceu­ti­cal produc­tion in Europe, DuDe­Chem has raised a total of EUR 6.5 million. Vogel Heerma Waitz advi­sed b2venture and Vorwerk Ventures on the finan­cing of DuDe­Chem as part of a seed finan­cing round. Other inves­tors include Front­line, Borski Fund, Auxxo and Push Ventures. The company will use the funds to expand its team of expe­ri­en­ced scien­tists and provide the first product for one of the Euro­pean gene­rics manufacturers.

Dude Chem is mobi­li­zing an asset-poor network of Euro­pean contract manu­fac­tu­r­ers to reshape local, resi­li­ent pharma supply chains. The use of regio­nal capa­ci­ties provi­des an over­view, mini­mi­zes risks and redu­ces depen­dence on outda­ted methods and tech­no­lo­gies. By relia­bly provi­ding sustainable, Euro­pean-made chemi­cals and avoi­ding logi­sti­cal and poten­ti­ally geopo­li­ti­cal issues (the majo­rity of the world’s active ingre­di­ents come from China and India), Dude Chem is incen­ti­vi­zing play­ers across the value chain and support­ing moder­niza­tion in the region.

With its paten­ted tech­no­lo­gies and produc­tion proces­ses, Dude Chem redu­ces waste by up to 70% and CO2 emis­si­ons by 40% without compro­mi­sing on quality, which impro­ves both its envi­ron­men­tal foot­print and econo­mic compe­ti­ti­ve­ness. At the heart of Dude Chem’s green chemis­try kit and digi­tal plat­form is the opti­miza­tion of work­flows to improve trans­pa­rency, quality and sustaina­bi­lity throug­hout the supply chain. By redu­cing inef­fi­ci­en­cies in deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion, higher yields, lower costs, tracea­bi­lity and a lower envi­ron­men­tal impact are achieved.

Their envi­ron­men­tally friendly chemi­cal formu­la­ti­ons and synthe­sis opti­miza­ti­ons, in which toxic compounds are repla­ced by clea­ner alter­na­ti­ves, repre­sen­ted a convin­cing value propo­si­tion right from our first cont­acts. During our first visits to the Berlin labo­ra­tory, we were able to see first-hand the commit­ment and inno­va­tive strength of the Dude Chem team. Based on their broad patent port­fo­lio, they have achie­ved signi­fi­cant cost and issue reduc­tions, which have been confirmed by leading phar­maceu­ti­cal compa­nies as custo­mers, under­pin­ning their role. In addi­tion, its asset-light model, which is based on a part­ner network of Euro­pean contract manu­fac­tu­r­ers, offers flexi­bi­lity, scala­bi­lity and support for the local supply chain.

The foun­ders

Dude Chem’s ambi­tion to moder­nize and trans­form the chemi­cal indus­try is largely due to the company’s foun­ding team. Indus­try veterans Sonja, Tino, Henri­ette and Mathis have deca­des of combi­ned expe­ri­ence at leading compa­nies such as Bayer, Lonza and Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim in the fields of chemis­try, process engi­nee­ring, AI and data science.

Consul­tant: Vogel Heerma Waitz

Dr. Clemens Waitz, Falko Brüggemann

About Vogel Heerma Waitz

Vogel Heerma Waitz is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media.

News

Frank­furt a. Main/ Lappe­en­ranta (Finland) — Ardian, a leading global private invest­ment firm, in coope­ra­tion with its opera­ting plat­form eNor­dic, today announ­ces that it has taken the Final Invest­ment Decis­ion (FID) for the cons­truc­tion of the Merta­niemi battery storage project. This is a battery energy storage system (BESS) with a capa­city of 38.5 MW in one-hour opera­tion in Finland, which is inten­ded to support the Finnish elec­tri­city grid.

The invest­ment, made from the Ardian Clean Energy Ever­green Fund (ACEEF), is the fund’s first invest­ment in the BESS asset class, which is expec­ted to grow from 11 GWh of instal­led capa­city in Europe today to 75 GWh by 2030, accor­ding to Bloom­berg New Energy Finance. Ardian evalua­ted the merits of this invest­ment using OPTA, Ardian’s proprie­tary data analy­tics plat­form, which forms the basis for the reve­nue and opera­tio­nal stra­tegy of Ardian’s rene­wa­ble energy port­fo­lio around the world.

The project is in line with the ACEEF stra­tegy in Finland, which aims to acquire and bundle wind and solar energy plants to bene­fit from econo­mies of scale and make better use of grid inter­con­nec­tion points through the deve­lo­p­ment of battery storage. This follows the acqui­si­tion of two wind farms in Finland in 2023 with a total capa­city of more than 27 mega­watts. The stra­tegy will be imple­men­ted by eNor­dic, a rene­wa­ble energy plat­form deve­lo­ped and wholly owned by Ardian to serve the Nordic region.

The battery storage project in Merta­niemi is a joint venture between ACEEF and Lappe­en­r­annan Ener­gia, a Finnish muni­ci­pal energy company. It envi­sa­ges the deve­lo­p­ment of a 38.5 mega­watt energy storage system for one hour. The project is sche­du­led for comple­tion in spring 2025 and is loca­ted near the Merta­niemi power plant in Lappeenranta.

In addi­tion to the energy storage system, the project also includes the deve­lo­p­ment of equip­ment to protect the batte­ries from extreme weather condi­ti­ons. Once comple­ted, the system will parti­ci­pate in the frequency reserve markets of the local grid and support the balan­cing of gene­ra­tion and consump­tion in the elec­tri­city grid.

ACEEF will conti­nue to pursue its stra­tegy of expan­ding the plat­form in Finland with the acqui­si­tion of further wind and battery systems in the region.

In total, Ardian’s invest­ment port­fo­lio in the rene­wa­ble energy sector in the Nordic count­ries amounts to EUR 1.2 billion. It compri­ses wind farms with a total capa­city of over 500 MW and the rene­wa­ble energy company Nevel, which is active in district heating, indus­trial energy supply and biogas in Finland, Sweden and Esto­nia. Recently, Ardian announ­ced the acqui­si­tion of Verne Global, a company that owns and opera­tes three data centers in Finland, among others; this acqui­si­tion is still in the process of being appro­ved by the local authorities.

“The invest­ment in a new battery storage system, which is a first for Ardian’s Ever­green clean energy fund, is a key part of our stra­tegy in Finland. We have reco­gni­zed the oppor­tu­nity to increase Finnish wind power capa­city and incor­po­rate battery storage tech­no­lo­gies to create a balan­ced and produc­tive energy system. With our strong presence and network in the Nordics and our expe­ri­ence in finan­cing and opera­ting long-term rene­wa­ble energy projects, Ardian is perfectly posi­tio­ned to support this new market oppor­tu­nity,” said Benja­min Kennedy (photo © ardian.com), Mana­ging Direc­tor Rene­wa­bles Infra­struc­ture, Ardian.

“Ardian is commit­ted to driving the energy tran­si­tion and promo­ting the use of rene­wa­ble energy to reduce carbon emis­si­ons. Rene­wa­ble energy is curr­ently being gene­ra­ted on an unpre­ce­den­ted scale and the deve­lo­p­ment of elec­tri­city storage solu­ti­ons is crucial to balan­cing supply and demand on the grid and crea­ting a stable modern elec­tri­city network. This invest­ment is an important step towards a more sustainable and relia­ble energy future in Finland.”
Mathias Burg­hardt, Execu­tive Vice Presi­dent and Head of Infra­struc­ture, Ardian.

“The Nordic energy market is alre­ady one step ahead in the energy tran­si­tion, mainly due to the scope of new tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ments. The battery storage project in Merta­niemi is an exam­ple of how eNor­dic is at the fore­front of this move­ment, helping to realize the region’s goal of beco­ming a leading player in sustainable energy.”

ACEEF will conti­nue to focus on the most important rene­wa­ble ener­gies such as solar, wind and hydro­power, but also on new tech­no­lo­gies such as biogas, biomass, storage and energy efficiency.

Ardian is a pioneer of the energy tran­si­tion and began inves­t­ing in rene­wa­ble ener­gies in 2007. Across all infra­struc­ture funds, the team mana­ges a rene­wa­ble energy port­fo­lio of more than 8 GW of ther­mal and rene­wa­ble energy capa­city in Europe and the Ameri­cas and over USD 28 billion in assets under manage­ment around the world.

About Ardian

Ardian is a leading global private invest­ment firm that mana­ges or advi­ses on behalf of more than 1,560 clients world­wide with assets under manage­ment of USD 164 billion. Our exten­sive exper­tise in the areas of private equity, real assets and credit enables us to offer a broad range of invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties and to respond flexi­bly to the diffe­rent needs of our clients. Through Ardian Custo­mi­zed Solu­ti­ons, we create bespoke port­fo­lios that allow insti­tu­tio­nal clients to deter­mine their desi­red asset mix and gain access to funds mana­ged by leading third-party provi­ders. Private Wealth Solu­ti­ons offers specia­li­zed services and access solu­ti­ons for private banks, family offices and private insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors world­wide. Ardian’s most important share­hol­der group is its employees, and we place great empha­sis on deve­lo­ping our people and foste­ring a culture of colla­bo­ra­tion based on coll­ec­tive intel­li­gence. Our more than 1,050 employees in 19 offices in Europe, North and South America, Asia and the Middle East are commit­ted to the prin­ci­ples of respon­si­ble inves­t­ing and are. www.ardian.com

News

Esch­born — Rödl & Part­ner has provi­ded compre­hen­sive finan­cial advice to Product­Life Group (PLG), a French and global provi­der of consul­ting services to the life scien­ces indus­try, on the acqui­si­tion of Commer­cial Eyes Pty Ltd, an Austra­lian company focu­sed on the commer­cia­liza­tion of phar­maceu­ti­cals and medi­cal devices.

This part­ner­ship opens up nume­rous synergy effects for both compa­nies and their custo­mers. For PLG, this means not only expan­ding its geogra­phic presence and exten­ding its offe­ring to global markets, but also better support­ing custo­mers in their over­all market and pati­ent access stra­tegy. Joining PLG repres­ents a signi­fi­cant stra­te­gic step for Commer­cial Eyes for all stake­hol­ders and offers the oppor­tu­nity to utilize the plat­form built up over the last 22 years to successfully drive global expansion.

Part­ner Jochen Reis was respon­si­ble for over­all project manage­ment. The finan­cial due dili­gence was led by Asso­ciate Part­ner Felix Markow­sky; Asso­ciate Svenja Schramm comple­men­ted the Rödl & Part­ner advi­sory team.

About Product­Life Group (PLG)

Since 1993, PLG has been support­ing custo­mers around the world throug­hout the life scien­ces product life­cy­cle. The Group combi­nes local exper­tise with global reach and is active in over 150 count­ries. PLG is a consul­ting company that offers outsour­cing services in the areas of Regu­la­tory Affairs, Quality & Compli­ance, Vigi­lance and Medi­cal Infor­ma­tion. PLG’s exper­tise extends to estab­lished products as well as inno­va­tive thera­peu­tics and diagnostics.

About Commer­cial Eyes Pty Ltd

Commer­cial Eyes, head­quar­te­red in Melbourne and with a presence in New Zealand, has estab­lished itself as one of the largest local provi­ders of marke­ting services in the phar­maceu­ti­cal and medtech sector. With a team of over 100 employees, Commer­cial Eyes says it has served more than 800 clients for over 22 years, repre­sen­ting the entire spec­trum of health­care tech­no­logy compa­nies. The company’s services include Access, Rese­arch & Intel­li­gence as well as Regu­la­tory, Quality and Compli­ance, Pati­ent Safety and Medi­cal Information.

Advi­sor Product­Life Group: Rödl & Partner

Jochen Reis (photo © Rödl), Part­ner, Head of Tran­sac­tion & Valua­tion Services Esch­born, over­all project manage­ment — Financial
Felix Markow­sky, Asso­ciate Part­ner, Esch­born — Financial
Svenja Schramm, Asso­ciate, Esch­born — Financial

News

Milan/London/Paris/Munich — Ambi­enta SGR SpA (“Ambi­enta”), one of Europe’s largest and leading asset mana­gers focu­sed on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity, is acqui­ring a majo­rity stake in Offi­cine Macca­ferri S.p.A. (“Macca­ferri” or “the Group”) from current share­hol­ders Carlyle Global Credit, Stellex Capi­tal Manage­ment and Man GLG. Toge­ther with the senior manage­ment team, Ambi­enta holds a majo­rity stake in the company. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to be comple­ted in the second quar­ter of 2024.

Offi­cine Macca­ferri, foun­ded in 1879 and based in Bolo­gna, Italy, is a provi­der of envi­ron­men­tal engi­nee­ring solu­ti­ons and a major player in the design and deve­lo­p­ment of solu­ti­ons in the fields of envi­ron­men­tal, civil and geotech­ni­cal engi­nee­ring. Offi­cine Macca­ferri is active in more than 130 count­ries, with produc­tion sites on four conti­nents and around 3,000 employees who realize over 10,000 projects every year. With a turno­ver of over 600 million euros, the company stands for tech­ni­cal excel­lence, relia­bi­lity and ecolo­gi­cal sustaina­bi­lity. Macca­ferri products repre­sent a low-CO2 and envi­ron­men­tally friendly alter­na­tive in the field of buil­ding mate­ri­als. With a focus on envi­ron­men­tally friendly solu­ti­ons, the Group is aiming for growth above the market average. This acqui­si­tion ther­e­fore contri­bu­tes to both resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion as part of Ambienta’s envi­ron­men­tal impact assess­ment (EIA).

The global infra­struc­ture market has a volume of 12 tril­lion euros and is respon­si­ble for five percent of global CO2 emis­si­ons, with buil­ding mate­ri­als accoun­ting for the majo­rity. The market is expe­ri­en­cing conti­nuous growth driven by seve­ral funda­men­tal factors, inclu­ding the growing share of the urban popu­la­tion, the need for new infra­struc­ture in deve­lo­ping count­ries, the moder­niza­tion of infra­struc­ture in deve­lo­ped count­ries and the incre­asing impact of climate-rela­ted hazards. Against this back­drop, Macca­ferri plays a key role as a diffe­ren­tia­ted provi­der of envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons with a compre­hen­sive product range that impro­ves the envi­ron­men­tal foot­print by 30 to 90 percent compared to other products in the indus­try. Accor­ding to preli­mi­nary esti­ma­tes, the Group is helping to save mate­ri­als equi­va­lent to the weight of around 700,000 SUVs and reduce emis­si­ons equi­va­lent to the CO2 sequestra­tion of around 2 million trees.

The busi­ness model is also charac­te­ri­zed by its sales approach: on the one hand, direct sales with highly quali­fied specia­lists and, on the other hand, local sales via the world­wide branches.

In a highly frag­men­ted market, Offi­cine Macca­ferri stands out as one of the most respec­ted play­ers and is well posi­tio­ned to conti­nue to grow both orga­ni­cally and through stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons globally. Ambi­enta will support the company in conso­li­da­ting its posi­tion as a leading inde­pen­dent provi­der of envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons for the protec­tion of people and nature and in streng­thening its presence in the Asia-Paci­fic region and North America.

Mauro Roversi(photo © ambi­enta), Private Equity Part­ner, Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer and Foun­ding Part­ner of Ambi­enta, said: “We are proud to invest in Offi­cine Macca­ferri, a flag­ship company in the field of green buil­ding solu­ti­ons. It is a unique oppor­tu­nity to take advan­tage of the expec­ted high demand for dura­ble and envi­ron­men­tally friendly solu­ti­ons for infra­struc­ture projects.”

Sergio Iasi, CEO of Macca­ferri, said: “We look forward to working with Ambi­enta to drive Maccaferri’s new phase of growth and deve­lo­p­ment by further conso­li­da­ting our inter­na­tio­nal presence and unique posi­tion. The manage­ment team, which has successfully stee­red the company’s growth to date, is fully behind the part­ner­ship and is inves­t­ing signi­fi­cantly in the tran­sac­tion. Ambienta’s approach and focus on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity is highly aligned with our core values and we see the company as an ideal part­ner to support Maccaferri’s future growth.”

Consul­tant from Ambienta
Bain (Commer­cial), KPMG (Finan­cial, ESG and Tax), Alix­Part­ners (Opera­ti­ons), PwC (M&A and Debt Advi­sory), Clif­ford Chance (Legal) and FRM (Tax and Structuring).

About Ambi­enta

Ambi­enta is a Euro­pean envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity inves­tor specia­li­zing in private equity, public markets and private credit. From Milan, London, Paris and Munich, Ambi­enta mana­ges assets of more than 3 billion euros. The focus is on invest­ments in private and listed compa­nies that are driven by envi­ron­men­tal mega­trends and whose products or services improve resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion. Ambi­enta has made 69 private equity invest­ments to date. In the public equity sector, Ambi­enta has laun­ched one of the world’s largest abso­lute return funds fully focu­sed on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity and mana­ges a whole range of other sustainable invest­ment products from low-risk multi-asset funds to long-only equity funds. Ambi­enta has also recently laun­ched a private credit stra­tegy, which — as with the other asset clas­ses — focu­ses on envi­ron­men­tal sustainability.
www.ambientasgr.com

News

Stutt­gart — The global invest­ment company Stra­te­gic Value Part­ners, LLC has acqui­red the APCOA Parking Group. Stra­te­gic Value Part­ners, LLC acqui­red all remai­ning shares in the APCOA Parking Group from Center­bridge Part­ners L.P. and other mino­rity investors.

APCOA is a Europe-wide parking space manage­ment company based at Stutt­gart Airport. The company opera­tes more than 1.8 million parking spaces, multi-storey parking lots and park-and-ride faci­li­ties in over 400 cities and offers a wide range of parking manage­ment services. Its annual turno­ver is around EUR 900 million.

Advi­sor APCOA Parking Group: Poellath

Dr. Bene­dikt Hohaus (Part­ner, Lead, Manage­ment Parti­ci­pa­ti­ons, M&A/Private Equity)
Jan Lukas Jung­claus, LL.M. (Stel­len­bosch) (Asso­ciate, Manage­ment Parti­ci­pa­ti­ons, M&A/Private Equity)

About POELLATH

POELLATH is a market-leading inter­na­tio­nal busi­ness and tax law firm with more than 180 lawy­ers and tax advi­sors in Berlin, Frank­furt and Munich. We stand for high-end advice on tran­sac­tions and asset manage­ment. We offer legal and tax services from a single source. In our selec­ted and highly specia­li­zed prac­tice groups, we not only know the law, but also shape best prac­tice in the market toge­ther with our clients. Natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal rankings regu­larly list our consul­tants as leading experts in their field.
We offer compre­hen­sive services in the follo­wing areas: Mergers & Acqui­si­ti­ons | Private Equity | Venture Capi­tal | Private Funds | Real Estate Tran­sac­tions | Corpo­rate and Capi­tal Market Law | Finan­cing | Tax Law | Succes­sion and Assets | Foun­da­ti­ons and Non-Profit Orga­niza­ti­ons | IP/IT, Distri­bu­tion and Anti­trust Law | Liti­ga­tion and Arbi­tra­tion. www.pplaw.com

News

Berlin — The finan­cing round at Myoso­tis was led by TVM. TWIP is invol­ved in the finan­cing round as a co-inves­tor. Myoso­tis, based in Berlin, deve­lops and distri­bu­tes an app for the digi­ta­liza­tion of commu­ni­ca­tion in elderly care. The “myo” app connects elderly care faci­li­ties with rela­ti­ves and service provi­ders. The money will be used to expand the busi­ness in the DACH region and in the UK. The plan is to expand marke­ting acti­vi­ties, opti­mize service quality for exis­ting custo­mers and deve­lop new modules.

About Myoso­tis

Myoso­tis is a Berlin-based start-up with a mission to revo­lu­tio­nize commu­ni­ca­tion in elderly care. The inte­gra­tion of our app into ever­y­day care has a posi­tive effect on ever­yone invol­ved: Faci­li­ties and staff, resi­dents and their fami­lies as well as service provi­ders in elderly care. For more satis­fac­tion, time savings and trans­pa­rency. www.myo.de

Consul­tant: Vogel Heerma Waitz 

Dr. Clemens Waitz, Falko Brüggemann

The law firm
Vogel Heerma Waitz is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media.

News

Munich — The inter­na­tio­nal law firm Bird & Bird has advi­sed the Munich-based food tech­no­logy company Planet A Foods on its Series A finan­cing in the amount of 15.4 million US dollars.

Planet A Foods is a leading company in the field of sustainable food tech­no­logy with the aim of revo­lu­tio­ni­zing the choco­late indus­try. The company has deve­lo­ped its paten­ted ChoViva product with the mission of offe­ring consu­mers world­wide a climate-friendly alter­na­tive to cocoa. Led by the World Fund, this finan­cing round marks a signi­fi­cant mile­stone for Planet A Foods as the company looks to bring its climate-friendly cocoa alter­na­tive ChoViva to a wider custo­mer base.

With the Series A finan­cing, Planet A Foods plans to increase its produc­tion capa­city to meet the growing demand for its cocoa alter­na­tive. The company is also aiming to expand its market beyond Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land to include choco­la­tiers in the UK and the USA. Planet A Foods also intends to address other envi­ron­men­tal issues in the food indus­try, parti­cu­larly palm oil, which is asso­cia­ted with defo­re­sta­tion and harmful emissions.

Consul­tant Planet A Foods: Bird & Bird

Asso­ciate Louisa Graf, LL.M. (Lead, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Stefan Gott­ge­treu (Düssel­dorf), Coun­sel Andrea Schlote (Munich), Asso­ciate Benita Schild (Düssel­dorf) (all Corpo­rate), Part­ner Dr. Ralph Panzer, Coun­sel Sandy Gerlach, Asso­ciate Cara-Marlene Fuchs (all Employ­ment Law, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Markus Körner (IP, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Rolf Schmich (Tax Law, Frankfurt).

www.twobirds.com

News

Inns­bruck — The Inns­bruck-based tech start-up Inner­space, which uses soft­ware and virtual reality (VR) to enable the risk assess­ment of produc­tion proces­ses and the effec­tive trai­ning of clean­room person­nel at leading phar­maceu­ti­cal compa­nies, can conti­nue its growth trajec­tory follo­wing a very successful finan­cing round. US inves­tor River­side inves­ted in the Tyro­lean company back in July. A few days before the turn of the year, Inner­space fina­li­zed a substan­tial seed round with the new lead inves­tor Matter­wave Ventures. The three exis­ting inves­tors MAD Ventures, aws Grün­dungs­fonds and High-Tech Grün­der­fonds also inves­ted again.

“The great inte­rest shown by inves­tors natu­rally encou­ra­ges us to be on the right track. Digi­tal twins for process design and trai­ning are essen­tial for criti­cal manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses. We alre­ady count seve­ral of the world’s largest phar­maceu­ti­cal compa­nies among our custo­mers and will multi­ply both sales and the number of custo­mers in the coming years,” says Walter Ischia, CFO of Innerspace.

“Inner­space enables its custo­mers to avoid quality problems and mini­mize conta­mi­na­tion risks inher­ent in produc­tion. We were impres­sed by the team’s accu­mu­la­ted exper­tise in one of the most highly regu­la­ted indus­tries of all. The tech­no­logy enables signi­fi­cant process impro­ve­ments and, as a result, very substan­tial custo­mer bene­fits,” explains Bene­dikt Kron­ber­ger, Part­ner at Matter­wave Ventures

Inner­space will use the fresh capi­tal to expand its inter­na­tio­nal market presence and further deve­lop its unique “frame-by-frame” tech­no­logy. In future, the Tyro­lean company will focus even more stron­gly on the large growth market of America. Nume­rous well-known compa­nies from the phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­try world­wide alre­ady rely on the company’s expertise.

“The care and precis­ion requi­red in the produc­tion of medi­ci­nes has so far eluded simple digi­ta­liza­tion approa­ches. We break this barrier with our proprie­tary frame-by-frame approach. Design, further deve­lo­p­ment and teaching of any type of manu­fac­tu­ring process can now be carried out in the digi­tal twin. This saves an enorm­ous amount of time and money and also increa­ses process relia­bi­lity and quality,” explains Sebas­tian Sche­ler, co-foun­der and Chief Metho­do­lo­gist at Innerspace

Inner­space also achie­ved another mile­stone in its young company history in the past finan­cial year: the global Paren­te­ral Drug Asso­cia­tion (PDA), which has more than 10,500 members, and Inner­space announ­ced a long-term stra­te­gic part­ner­ship for the deve­lo­p­ment of globally reco­gni­zed PDA trai­ning cour­ses. This close coope­ra­tion includes the use of Inner­space tech­no­logy, i.e. VR simu­la­tors with frame-by-frame risk profile crea­tion func­tions in the PDA’s stan­dard trai­ning cour­ses. The aim of this part­ner­ship is to offer a range of trai­ning cour­ses globally for profes­sio­nals in the phar­maceu­ti­cal and biophar­maceu­ti­cal industry.

The cour­ses contain essen­tial VR modu­les that are much more effec­tive and immersive than tradi­tio­nal methods, but also provide a wealth of data on what people find harder or easier to learn and where there are risks that can be opti­mi­zed through more trai­ning or process redesign.

About Inner­space

The Austrian company Inner­space focu­ses on the risk assess­ment and effec­tive trai­ning of clean­room person­nel at leading phar­maceu­ti­cal compa­nies. Through the targe­ted use of psycho­lo­gi­cal insights and inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies, Inner­space aims to mini­mize errors in phar­maceu­ti­cal proces­ses and reduce risks. Both the speci­ally deve­lo­ped “Frame-by-Frame Risk Profil­ing” method for compre­hen­sive risk assess­ment and a stan­dar­di­zed clean­room simu­la­tor for trai­ning staff in virtual reality are used. In its role as an offi­cial part­ner of the Paren­te­ral Drug Asso­cia­tion (PDA), Inner­space is actively invol­ved in the deve­lo­p­ment and deli­very of high quality trai­ning cour­ses for the phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­try. https://innerspace.eu

About Matter­wave Ventures

Matter­wave Ventures is a Munich-based venture capi­tal company that has specia­li­zed in deep-tech inno­va­tions with indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons for many years and is active with invest­ments throug­hout Europe. As an early-stage inves­tor, the focus is on early-stage compa­nies and includes soft­ware and hard­ware-based busi­ness models. The aim is to build leading global compa­nies that drive the future of indus­trial value crea­tion, prima­rily through resource effi­ci­ency and digi­ta­liza­tion. The vision is to regain more tech­no­lo­gi­cal leader­ship, produc­tion capa­city and energy and raw mate­rial auto­nomy in Europe. The team has inves­ted in more than 60 compa­nies over the last 20 years and invests “full-stack”, from mate­ri­als and compon­ents to complete systems and soft­ware solu­ti­ons. With over EUR 250m of capi­tal under manage­ment, Matter­wave typi­cally parti­ci­pa­tes in seed and Series A finan­cings across Europe with initial invest­ments of between EUR 1–4m. Inclu­ding follow-on finan­cing rounds, over EUR 10m can be inves­ted per port­fo­lio company. www.matterwave.vc

About the aws start-up fund

The aws Grün­dungs­fonds is an Austrian venture capi­tal fund with a fund volume of approx. 70 million euros. As a seed inves­tor, he supports start-ups from the initial growth phase through further follow-up finan­cing rounds (Series A/B) to the exit. The fund sees itself as a long-term, stable part­ner with a hands-on menta­lity and supports the foun­ding teams as an active spar­ring part­ner. Since 2013, the aws Start-up Fund has inves­ted more than EUR 500 million in 45+ invest­ments toge­ther with natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal co-inves­tors and has been able to realize nume­rous successful exits.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds

The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with growth poten­tial and has supported more than 700 start-ups since 2005. With the launch of the fourth fund, HTGF has around 1.4 billion euros under manage­ment. The team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and start-up experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digi­tal tech, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces, chemi­cals and rela­ted busi­ness areas. To date, exter­nal inves­tors have inves­ted around 5 billion euros in the HTGF port­fo­lio in more than 2,000 follow-up finan­cing rounds. In addi­tion, the fund has alre­ady successfully sold shares in more than 170 companies.Fund inves­tors in the public-private part­ner­ship include the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Climate Protec­tion, KfW Capi­tal and 45 compa­nies from a wide range of sectors.

News

Milan — Rödl & Part­ner provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to the Hettich Group on the complete take­over of the Italian company Formenti e Giovenz­ana (FGV).

The Hettich and Formenti e Giovenz­ana groups are two family-owned compa­nies with more than 200 years of expe­ri­ence in the furni­ture fittings sector. Hettich was foun­ded in 1888 and is today one of the world’s largest and most successful manu­fac­tu­r­ers of furni­ture fittings. The company is head­quar­te­red in Kirchlen­gern in the furni­ture clus­ter of East West­pha­lia. The FGV Group, which opera­tes in the same sector, was foun­ded in Vedug­gio con Colzano in 1947 and has six produc­tion sites worldwide.

Rödl & Part­ner Italy advi­sed Hettich on the entire contract nego­tia­ti­ons, inclu­ding signing and closing, with an inter­di­sci­pli­nary team. Stefan Bran­des, Mana­ging Part­ner of Rödl & Part­ner Italy, was respon­si­ble for the over­all project manage­ment and was supported in parti­cu­lar by Sebas­tiano Iacono (Mana­ger) during the purchase agree­ment nego­tia­ti­ons and imple­men­ta­tion of the tran­sac­tion. The tax law team was led by Thomas Giuliani (part­ner). In addi­tion to other lawy­ers and tax consul­tants from Rödl & Part­ner Italy, consul­tants from Rödl & Part­ner Poland, Brazil, China, Germany, France and Slova­kia were also invol­ved in the over­all project.

The sellers were advi­sed by UBS (respon­si­ble direc­tor Franco Cappiello) as finan­cial advi­sor and Bonel­liE­rede (respon­si­ble part­ner Feder­ico Vermic­elli) as legal advi­sor. The nota­riza­tion was carried out by ZNR notai.

Advi­sor Hettich Group: Rödl & Partner

Italy:
Stefan Bran­des, Part­ner, M&A Tran­sac­tion, Milan, Over­all Project Manage­ment — Legal
Sebas­tiano Iacono, Mana­ger, M&A Tran­sac­tion, Milan — Legal
Marghe­rita Cera (Asso­ciate Part­ner) — Legal
Anna Maria Desi­dera (Asso­ciate Part­ner) — Legal
Davide Giord­ano (Asso­ciate Part­ner) — Legal
Massimo Riva (Asso­ciate Part­ner) — Legal
Rebecca Salat (Asso­ciate) — Legal
Agata Trivel­lato (Asso­ciate) — Legal

Thomas Giuliani, Part­ner, Tax, Milan — Tax
Birgit Rauschen­dor­fer (Part­ner) — Tax
Manuel Buratti (Part­ner) — Tax
Gior­gia Cavall­aro (Senior Asso­ciate) — Tax
Andrea Crispi (Senior Asso­ciate) — Tax
Erald Karriqi (Asso­ciate) — Tax
Eleo­nora Mangia (Asso­ciate) — Tax

Brazil:
Rafael Martins (Part­ner) — Legal/Labour (Consul­ting)
Samara Abudd (Asso­ciate)

Enrico Pfänd­ner (Asso­ciate Part­ner) — Tax
Edgard Venan­cio (Mana­ger) — Tax
Eric Lerri (Asso­ciate) — Tax
Felipe Fogaca (Asso­ciate) — Tax

China:
Sebas­tian Wien­dieck (Part­ner) — Legal
Qiang Cao (Asso­ciate Part­ner) — Legal
Daojie Wang (Senior Asso­ciate) — Legal
Xiao­lan Zhao (Senior Asso­ciate) — Legal

Vivian Yao (Part­ner) — Tax
Monica Chen (Asso­ciate Part­ner) — Tax
Elisa Guo (Senior Asso­ciate) — Tax

Germany:
Dr. Johan­nes Scher­zin­ger — Legal
Katrin Mikschl (Senior Asso­ciate) — Legal
Dr. Mela­nie Köst­ler (Asso­ciate Part­ner) — Tax
Max Gareis (Senior Asso­ciate) — Tax

France:
Jean-Yves Trochon (Senior Coun­sel) — Legal
Hugues Bois­sel Dombr­e­val (Asso­ciate Part­ner) — Legal
Poland
Jarosław Kamiń­ski (Asso­ciate Part­ner) — Legal
Marta Wiśniewska (Mana­ger) — Legal
Damian Dobosz (Project Leader) — Legal
Maciej Woźnica (Senior Asso­ciate) — Legal

Anna Hara­si­mo­wicz (Asso­ciate Part­ner) — Tax
Anna Ziel­ony (Mana­ger) — Tax
Justina Pomor­ska-Porębska (Mana­ger) — Tax
Marcin Muchow­ski (Senior Asso­ciate) — Tax

USA:
Frank Brei­ten­feldt (Part­ner) — Tax
Dennis Wieckert (Asso­ciate) — Tax

News

Berlin — Arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence start-up Qdrant raises €28 million in its Series A finan­cing round. The lead inves­tor in the round was the Ameri­can early-stage inves­tor Spark Capi­tal, accom­pa­nied by exis­ting inves­tors Unusual Ventures and 42CAP.

Qdrant was foun­ded in Octo­ber 2021 by Andre Zayarni and Andrey Vasnetsov in Berlin. The AI start-up is deve­lo­ping a high-perfor­mance, scalable, open-source vector data­base and search engine that is essen­tial for deve­lo­ping the next gene­ra­tion of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and metric lear­ning appli­ca­ti­ons. Qdrant can process billi­ons of vectors and supports the matching of seman­ti­cally complex objects. This allows complex data such as images, audio tracks and videos to be organized.

Qdrant excels at mana­ging and sear­ching high-dimen­sio­nal data and proces­sing billi­ons of vectors with unmat­ched effi­ci­ency and scala­bi­lity. It is ther­e­fore indis­pensable for modern AI and machine lear­ning appli­ca­ti­ons in all indus­tries. In the past year, Qdrant has had more than 5 million down­loads and has been widely used by compa­nies such as Deloitte, Hewlett Packard Enter­prise, Bayer and many other Fortune 500 compa­nies. Qdrant has also recently expan­ded its mana­ged cloud offe­ring through part­ner­ships with AWS, Google Cloud and Micro­soft Azure. Qdrant is commit­ted to data protec­tion and secu­rity, which are crucial for modern AI appli­ca­ti­ons. www.qdrant.tech .

The company intends to use the newly raised capi­tal to expand its vector data­base and improve scala­bi­lity and effi­ci­ency for next-gene­ra­tion AI use cases.

Consul­tant 42CAP: YPOG
Dr. Frede­rik Gärt­ner (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin Dr. Bene­dikt Flöter (AI/IP/IT), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin Alex­an­der Sekunde (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin.
Frede­rik Gärtner’s team has alre­ady advi­sed 42CAP on the €2 million pre-seed finan­cing round of Qdrant in 2022 and on the €7.5 million seed finan­cing round in April 2023.

Advi­sor Qdrant Solu­ti­ons GmbH: Green­gate Partners
Marc René Spitz, LL.M. (Lead / Part­ner / Corpo­rate) Dr. Leonie Singer, LL.M. (Asso­ciate / Corpo­rate) Constan­tin Forst­ner (Asso­ciate / Corpo­rate) Alex­an­der Tribess (Part­ner / IT & Data Protection)
Dr. Alex­an­der Raif (Part­ner / Employ­ment Law) Paul Harl­off (Asso­ciate / IT & Data Protection).

Advi­sor Spark Capi­tal: Good­win Procter
Silvio McMi­ken (Coun­sel), Tobias Schulz (Asso­ciate)

Advi­sor Unusual Ventures: Good­win Procter
Sebas­tian Walc­zak (Part­ner), Silvia Rava (Asso­ciate)

About 42CAP

42CAP is a pan-Euro­pean inves­tor team that invests in early-stage compa­nies with global ambi­ti­ons in the B2B tech­no­logy sector. Without excep­tion, the foun­ders and part­ners are them­sel­ves former successful foun­ders who have made compa­nies big, in some cases over deca­des. Foun­ding inves­tors Alex Meyer and Thomas Wilke built eCir­cle into one of Europe’s largest SaaS compa­nies and sold the profi­ta­ble company to Teradata (NYSE:TDC) in 2012. Moritz Zimmer­mann made the soft­ware company Hybris big before it was absor­bed into SAP. Under the “Credo Peers among Entre­pre­neurs”, they support indus­try and product-orien­ted foun­ders, extre­mely data-driven busi­ness models and sustainable corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment. This back­ground is appre­cia­ted by foun­ding perso­na­li­ties such as Nico­las Reboud (SHINE, Paris), Krist­jan Vilo­sius (Katana, Tallinn) and Alex­an­der Igels­böck (Adve­rity, Vienna).

About Spark Capital

Spark Capi­tal is a venture capi­tal firm in the United States that provi­des early-stage finan­cing to start-ups in the consu­mer, retail, FinTech, soft­ware, fron­tier markets and media sectors. It has offices in San Fran­cisco, Boston and New York City. www.sparkcapital.com

About Green­Gate Partners

With its corpo­rate team, Green­Gate Part­ners specia­li­zes in parti­cu­lar in the areas of M&A and venture capi­tal. Green­Gate Part­ners’ legal exper­tise in the venture capi­tal sector ranges from the foun­da­tion to the various finan­cing rounds to the exit. Green­Gate Part­ners regu­larly sets stan­dards in the German market and offers compre­hen­sive advi­sory services for dome­stic and foreign venture capi­tal funds, stra­te­gic inves­tors, busi­ness angels as well as foun­ders, start-ups and managers.

About YPOG

YPOG is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm opera­ting in the core areas of Funds, Tax, Banking & Finance and Tran­sac­tions. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. www.ypog.law

News

Berlin — Vidia Equity has raised a Vidia Climate Fund I of €415 million. The Vidia Climate Fund I aims for finan­cial profi­ta­bi­lity and sustainable climate impact by inves­t­ing in SME solu­ti­ons in three key climate action areas: indus­trial mate­ri­als, elec­tri­fi­ca­tion and circu­lar economy. Vidia focu­ses on redu­cing emis­si­ons in five of the most emis­sion-inten­sive sectors: energy, indus­try, trans­por­ta­tion, buil­dings, food and agriculture.

Vidia was foun­ded to iden­tify and scale indus­trial climate solu­ti­ons with an opera­tio­nal approach to address the urgent need for decar­bo­niza­tion in the DACH region and beyond. The part­ners of the company foun­ded by Johanna Struth­mann (photo © Vidia) and Dr. Stephan Rosa­rius have an exten­sive track record and more than ten years of expe­ri­ence with indus­trial invest­ments in the DACH region and the Nordic countries.

The fund is clas­si­fied as a fund under Article 9 of the Sustainable Finance Disclo­sure Regu­la­tion (SFDR). Vidia has deve­lo­ped a custo­mi­zed climate impact frame­work and score­card for its scree­ning and invest­ment process.

The Vidia Impact Method is based on a multi-laye­red approach to assess the stand-alone impact and long-term rele­vance of a climate protec­tion solu­tion as well as the addi­tio­nal impact for inves­tors. In addi­tion, the fund has been struc­tu­red in such a way that it is possi­ble to influence the port­fo­lio compa­nies in order to ensure the imple­men­ta­tion of the Vidia Impact method.

Fund I has alre­ady made two invest­ments: BPM — a leading German specia­list in mecha­ni­cal recy­cling — and the Wierig Group — a leading provi­der of large-scale indus­trial flat roof refur­bish­ment and solar installations.

Consul­tant VIDIA: YPOG

Dr. Fabian Euhus (Lead, Funds), Part­ner, Berlin Anto­nia von Treu­en­feld (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin Dr. Helder Schnitt­ker (Tax), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Dajo Sanning (Tax), Senior Asso­ciate, Hamburg

About Vidia Equity

Foun­ded by Johanna Struth­mann and Dr. Stephan Rosa­rius, Vidia was built with the goal of iden­ti­fy­ing and scaling indus­trial climate solu­ti­ons with an opera­tio­nal approach to address decar­bo­niza­tion needs in the DACH region and beyond. The company aims for high finan­cial profi­ta­bi­lity and a sustainable impact on the climate by inves­t­ing in medium-sized solu­ti­ons within three core themes in the most emis­sion-inten­sive sectors. The now 18-strong team has more than 50 years of expe­ri­ence in indus­trial invest­ments, combi­ning invest­ment, impact and opera­tio­nal excel­lence in the DACH region. Vidia’s head­quar­ters are loca­ted in Munich. Further infor­ma­tion can be found at www.vidiaequity.com.

About YPOG

YPOG is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm opera­ting in the core areas of Funds, Tax, Banking & Finance and Tran­sac­tions. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. Today, YPOG employs more than125 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax consul­tants, tax specia­lists and a notary in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Colo­gne. http://www.ypog.law

 

News

Milan/London/Paris/Munich — Ambi­enta SGR SpA (“Ambi­enta”), one of the largest and leading asset mana­gers in Europe focu­sing on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity, announ­ces the first closing of the “Ambi­enta Sustainable Credit Oppor­tu­ni­ties” fund (Ambi­enta Credit) with alre­ady around half of the target volume of EUR 500 million.

Ambi­enta Credit is a further deve­lo­p­ment of the corpo­rate stra­tegy and builds on Ambienta’s funda­men­tal concept of sustaina­bi­lity. This is based on the convic­tion that envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity is the biggest macro trend of all time and offers one of the grea­test invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties of this century. More importantly, with the estab­lish­ment of Ambi­enta Credit, Ambi­enta is adding a third invest­ment stra­tegy to its plat­form that focu­ses exclu­si­vely on envi­ron­men­tal cham­pi­ons. Like Ambienta’s private equity and public equity products, the credit products also fall under Article 9 of the Sustainable Finance Disclo­sure Regu­la­tion (SFDR).

Ambi­enta Credit will accom­pany Euro­pean medium-sized compa­nies as a part­ner and support their deve­lo­p­ment. The focus is exclu­si­vely on envi­ron­men­tal cham­pi­ons whose products or services contri­bute to impro­ving resource effi­ci­ency or redu­cing envi­ron­men­tal pollu­tion and which are charac­te­ri­zed by stable end markets and strong defen­sive busi­ness models. In addi­tion to the Credit team led by Ran Land­mann (Part­ner and Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer) and Nishan Srini­va­san (Part­ner and Head of Origi­na­tion), Ambi­enta Credit is supported by the broa­der plat­form and, in parti­cu­lar, the exper­tise of the Sustaina­bi­lity and Stra­tegy team — a team of engi­neers who examine the impact of envi­ron­men­tal issues on science and busi­ness opera­ti­ons across indus­tries and value chains.

The imple­men­ta­tion of the stra­tegy is based on the award-winning methods deve­lo­ped by the company itself, which account for the success of Ambi­enta Private Equity: the “Envi­ron­men­tal Impact Analy­sis” (EIA), which measu­res the posi­tive envi­ron­men­tal balance of a target company, and the “ESG in Action” program, which evalua­tes and impro­ves the ESG profile of the port­fo­lio companies.

Ran Land­mann, Part­ner and Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer, and Nishan Srini­va­san, Part­ner and Head of Origi­na­tion, said: “Sustaina­bi­lity is a long-term trend that will become even more important in the future. We are plea­sed to work with leading inves­tors who, like us, have reco­gni­zed that inves­t­ing in envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity crea­tes value. Ambi­enta Credit comple­ments our exis­ting plat­form and offers the oppor­tu­nity to work with even more sustaina­bi­lity cham­pi­ons who want to finance their growth and are looking for credit solu­ti­ons. We are parti­cu­larly plea­sed that we were able to close our first tran­sac­tion with the finan­cing of a leading water company in Decem­ber 2023.”

Laurent Donin de Rosière, Part­ner and Head of Inves­tor Rela­ti­ons and Stra­te­gic Part­ner­ships, empha­si­zed: “We conti­nue to have a very strong base of limi­ted part­ners and are grateful for the strong support and trust of Ambienta’s exis­ting and new inves­tors. In the current market envi­ron­ment, the importance of private loans is undis­pu­ted. Coupled with the incre­asing role that inves­tors are placing on iden­ti­fy­ing authen­tic, sustainable invest­ment solu­ti­ons, Ambi­enta Credit is a unique offe­ring and an excep­tio­nally well-posi­tio­ned product that opens up both part­ner­ships for corpo­ra­tes and invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for LPs.”

About Ambi­enta

Ambi­enta is a Euro­pean envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity inves­tor specia­li­zing in private equity, public markets and private credit. From Milan, London, Paris and Munich, Ambi­enta mana­ges assets of more than 3 billion euros. The focus is on inves­t­ing in private and publicly traded compa­nies that are driven by envi­ron­men­tal mega­trends and whose products or services improve resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion. Ambi­enta has made 68 private equity invest­ments to date. In the public equity sector, Ambi­enta has laun­ched one of the world’s largest abso­lute return funds fully focu­sed on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity and mana­ges a whole range of other sustainable invest­ment products from low-risk multi-asset funds to long-only equity funds. Ambi­enta has also recently laun­ched a private credit stra­tegy, which — as with the other asset clas­ses — focu­ses on envi­ron­men­tal sustainability.

News

Colo­gne — Food­Tech company Infi­nite Roots has raised $58 million in a Series B finan­cing round. The round was led by Dr. Hans Riegel Holding (HRH), one of the two share­hol­der holding compa­nies of the Haribo Group, with the support of the EIC Fund, an initia­tive of the Euro­pean Commis­sion to make direct equity invest­ments in highly inno­va­tive start-ups and SMEs in Europe, and the REWE Group. — Beta­gro Ventures (Thai­land) and exis­ting inves­tors such as Clay Capi­tal, FoodLabs, Redal­pine, Simon Capi­tal and Happi­ness Capi­tal also parti­ci­pa­ted in the round.

The food tech company was foun­ded in 2018 by Dr. Mazen Rizk under the name Mushlabs. At the end of 2023, the company chan­ged its name to Infi­nite Roots. The start-up culti­va­tes mush­room roots, known as myce­lia, by feeding them with agri­cul­tu­ral waste. The aim is to use fermen­ta­tion to produce a protein-rich substrate, which will then be proces­sed into meat substi­tute products, such as sausa­ges or patties, in a next step.

Infi­nite Roots, which curr­ently employs 67 people from 25 count­ries, will use the new capi­tal injec­tion to further deve­lop the myce­lium tech­no­logy. The fungal myce­lium multi­plies by fermen­ta­tion in biore­ac­tors, regard­less of loca­tion and in a climate-friendly manner. Fungi are omni­vo­res that can also obtain their nutri­ents from waste mate­ri­als. “Rethin­king the produc­tion and consump­tion of food has never been as urgent as it is today,” empha­si­zes foun­der Dr. Mazen Rizk. The 38-year-old biotech­no­lo­gist came to TU Hamburg from Leba­non in 2010 to do his doctorate.

Infi­nite Roots plans to use the funds raised to further deve­lop its paten­ted myce­lium tech­no­lo­gies, expand capa­city and launch its first products. This step follows the conclu­sion of one of the largest invest­ment rounds in the field of myce­lium tech­no­logy in Europe. The company’s long-term vision is to play a key role in trans­forming the global food system by utili­zing the diverse appli­ca­ti­ons of mush­room myce­lium. The Hamburg-based food tech has raised a total of 73 million dollars in capi­tal since it was foun­ded in 2018.

Advi­sor EIC Fund: Oppenhoff 

Jointly led by Dr. Peter Etzbach and Dr. Caro­lin Roßko­then (both Corpo­rate / M&A), the team compri­sed Dr. Maike Mestmä­cker (Corpo­rate), Dr. Patric Mau (IP), Dr. Johan­nes Kaes­bach, Fato­u­mata Kaba (both Employ­ment), Marvin Roch­ner (Real Estate), Jan Tobias Kolla­kow­ski, Dr. Axel Grätz (both IT&C) and Dr. Cars­ten Bormann (Regu­la­tory).

About EIC Fund

The EIC Fund is the special fund of the Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil and thus the central invest­ment vehicle of the Euro­pean Commis­sion. It serves to imple­ment the Euro­pean Commission’s EIC Acce­le­ra­tor program, which supports inno­va­tive and sustainable Euro­pean growth compa­nies. The EIC (Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil) was foun­ded in the context of the pilot project “Hori­zon 2020 — the Frame­work Programme for Rese­arch and Inno­va­tion” and was successfully contin­ued in 2021 with the launch of the “Hori­zon Europe Programme”. With a term from 2021 to 2027 and a total budget of up to 95.5 billion euros, it is one of the largest funding programs for rese­arch and inno­va­tion world­wide. In 2022, the EIC Fund was the largest Euro­pean deept­ech VC fund with 71 invest­ments. Oppen­hoff has regu­larly advi­sed the EIC Fund on its invest­ments in German start-ups since 2021.

Advi­sor REWE Group: YPOG 

Dr. Johan­nes Janning (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Colo­gne Nina Ahlert (Tran­sac­tion), Senior Asso­ciate, Cologne
Laura Franke (Tran­sac­tion), Senior Project Lawyer, Colo­gne Fabian Lüns­mann (Tran­sac­tion), Asso­ciate, Cologne
Dr. Bene­dikt Flöter (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin Dr. Chris­toph Cordes (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin.

About REWE Group

The coope­ra­tively orga­ni­zed REWE Group is one of the leading trading and tourism groups in Germany and Europe. In 2022, the company gene­ra­ted total exter­nal sales of around € 85 billion. Foun­ded in 1927, REWE Group has 380,000 employees and opera­tes in 21 Euro­pean countries.

About YPOG
YPOG is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm opera­ting in the core areas of Funds, Tax, Banking & Finance and Tran­sac­tions. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners are ranked natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, Cham­bers and Part­ners and Leaders League. Today, YPOG employs more than 125 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax consul­tants, tax specia­lists and a notary in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne.

News

Berlin/ Munich — EQT Ventures has led a Series A finan­cing round of EUR 15 million in the Berlin-based startup Pack­ma­tic, a leading digi­tal purcha­sing plat­form for pack­a­ging in Europe. Other inves­tors included HV Capi­tal and xDeck as well as the foun­ders of Zalando as busi­ness angels. A large part of the invest­ment will be used to further expand the supplier network and the company’s presence in Europe.

More than 100 medium-sized compa­nies and fast-growing digi­tal compa­nies use Pack­ma­tic to achieve sustainable savings poten­tial and opti­mize their pack­a­ging in line with current sustaina­bi­lity stan­dards. With more than 300 pack­a­ging suppli­ers, Pack­ma­tic has access to the largest supplier network in Europe and can access suppli­ers’ machine fleets in just a few clicks with its speci­ally deve­lo­ped Smart Matching technology.

About EQT Ventures

EQT Ventures is the venture capi­tal fund of EQT, a global invest­ment orga­niza­tion. EQT Ventures invests in fast-growing, inno­va­tive and tech­no­logy-driven compa­nies in all sectors world­wide, with a focus on Europe and the US.

Advi­sor to EQT Ventures: DLA PIPER

The DLA Piper team was led by Frank­furt Part­ner Andreas Füch­sel and Senior Asso­ciate Phil­ipp Meyer, toge­ther with Part­ner Mikael Moreira, Senior Asso­ciate Erik Rosberg and Asso­ciate Joacim Kanstedt (all Private Equity/M&A) from Stockholm.

Also invol­ved were part­ners Verena Grent­zen­berg (data protec­tion, Hamburg), Dr. Thilo von Bodun­gen (commer­cial, Munich), senior asso­ciate Eike Bodo Matthes (IP, Frank­furt), asso­cia­tes Monika Marin­cic (commer­cial, Munich), Hannah Modi (employ­ment law), Phil­ipp Schme­chel (data protec­tion, both Hamburg), Damian Merks (private equity/M&A) and trai­nee lawyer Alex­an­der Zwil­ling (corpo­rate, both Frankfurt).

About DLA Piper

DLA Piper is one of the world’s leading commer­cial law firms, with offices in more than 40 count­ries in Africa, Asia, Austra­lia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. In Germany, DLA Piper is repre­sen­ted by more than 290 lawy­ers in Frank­furt, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich.

News

Kalten­kir­chen — The BOETTGER GROUP, which also includes the well-known tradi­tio­nal brand Caven­dish & Harvey, is taking over Jahnke Süßwa­ren GmbH from Ragolds Invest GmbH. The take­over adds the Jahnke brand of lico­rice special­ties to the hard candy port­fo­lio. In addi­tion, produc­tion capa­city at the Kalten­kir­chen site is being signi­fi­cantly expanded.

With the take­over of Jahnke Süßwa­ren GmbH, which is known nati­on­wide for its lico­rice sweets, the medium-sized BOETTGER Group is setting the course for its inter­na­tio­nally orien­ted subsi­diary Caven­dish & Harvey Confec­tion­ery GmbH to conti­nue its successful growth. The global market leader for premium fruit sweets is thus not only expan­ding its brand and product port­fo­lio to include lico­rice special­ties, but is also gaining a second produc­tion faci­lity in the imme­diate vici­nity of its own site in Kaltenkirchen.

The role of Proven­tis Partners

Proven­tis Part­ners acted as exclu­sive M&A advi­sor to BOETTGER GRUPPE and Caven­dish & Harvey Confec­tion­ery GmbH. In addi­tion to evalua­ting the target company, Proven­tis Part­ners supported the due dili­gence proces­ses and accom­pa­nied the nego­tia­ti­ons through to their successful conclusion.
The Proven­tis Part­ners tran­sac­tion team consis­ted of Torben Gott­schau (Mana­ging Part­ner, Hamburg) and Leon Holt­mann (Asso­ciate, Hamburg).

About Jahnke Süßwa­ren GmbH

Jahnke Süßwa­ren GmbH is a supra-regio­nal produ­cer of confec­tion­ery. After being foun­ded in Hamburg Altona in the 1970s, Jahnke expan­ded to its current loca­tion in Kalten­kir­chen in 1989. The product port­fo­lio includes hard cara­mels and the natio­nally renow­ned liquo­rice specialties.

About Caven­dish & Harvey Confec­tion­ery GmbH / BOETTGER GRUPPE

Caven­dish & Harvey Confec­tion­ery GmbH is a produ­cer and supplier of high-quality confec­tion­ery “Made in Germany”. At its head­quar­ters in Kalten­kir­chen (Schles­wig-Holstein), the company has 160 employees and produ­ces hard cara­mels, prima­rily for the premium house brand “Caven­dish & Harvey”, which is successfully sold in over 100 count­ries. Purcha­sed specialty products comple­ment the brand port­fo­lio. Caven­dish & Harvey Confec­tion­ery GmbH has been a member of the family-owned BOETTGER GROUP since 2002. The medium-sized group of compa­nies opera­tes in various busi­ness areas in the German and Euro­pean markets. This includes Berlin-based Boett­ger Food Ingre­di­ents GmbH, a high-profile supplier of granu­la­ted and liquid sugar as well as nuts and dried fruit and a close part­ner to the confec­tion­ery, beverage and food industries.

About Proven­tis Partners

Proven­tis Part­ners is a part­ner-led M&A advi­sory firm whose clients are predo­mi­nantly medium-sized family busi­nesses, corpo­rate groups and private equity funds. With 30 M&A advi­sors, Proven­tis Part­ners is one of the leading inde­pen­dent M&A consul­tancies in the German-spea­king region and can look back on more than 20 years of M&A expe­ri­ence and over 430 comple­ted tran­sac­tions. The M&A consul­tants with offices in Frank­furt, Hamburg and Zurich are active in the indus­trial, chemi­cals & mate­ri­als, services, tech­no­logy & media, consu­mer goods & retail and health­care sectors. The exclu­sive member­ship in the Mergers Alli­ance — an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner­ship of leading M&A specia­lists — enables Proven­tis Part­ners to support clients in 30 count­ries in the most important markets world­wide. The members of the Mergers Alli­ance, with more than 250 M&A profes­sio­nals, offer Proven­tis Part­ners and its clients unique access to local markets in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa. www.proventis.com

Advi­sor to Ragolds Invest GmbH: SZA Schil­ling, Zutt & Anschütz

Dr. Thomas Nägele and Dr. Chris­toph Allmen­din­ger (both partners)

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