News-Kategorie: Venture Capital

Aachen — Aachen-based deep tech startup Elevear secu­res a seed invest­ment from Tech­Vi­sion Fonds, a leading early-stage venture capi­tal inves­tor in the Rhine­land. With the fresh capi­tal, the team plans to bring its inno­va­tive and paten­ted audio tech­no­lo­gies to market and acce­le­rate the company’s growth.

Elevear deve­lops, inte­gra­tes and licen­ses audio tech­no­lo­gies for heara­bles, wire­less head­pho­nes with intel­li­gent addi­tio­nal func­tions — one of the largest growth markets curr­ently. The goal is to improve comfort and natu­ral commu­ni­ca­tion to take the listening expe­ri­ence to the next level. Custo­mers are manu­fac­tu­r­ers of head­pho­nes and hearing aids.

“The market for heara­bles is growing steadily, and manu­fac­tu­r­ers are looking for compel­ling unique selling points,” says Dr. Ansgar Schlei­cher, mana­ging direc­tor of TVF. “Elevear’s tech­no­lo­gies help manu­fac­tu­r­ers rapidly inte­grate inno­va­tive features into their products without having to invest in years of deve­lo­p­ment within the company itself.”

Stefan Liebich, CEO of Elevear, under­lines the new colla­bo­ra­tion: “We are very plea­sed that TVF shares our vision for the tech­no­logy and its market poten­tial. We are now in an excel­lent posi­tion to support our ongo­ing custo­mer projects and their upco­ming product laun­ches, as well as expand our team and tech­no­logy portfolio.”

Inno­va­tion in a dyna­mic market environment
Elevear sells its tech­no­lo­gies and soft­ware algo­rithms to inter­na­tio­nal manu­fac­tu­r­ers of head­pho­nes and hearing aids through a licen­sing model. Manu­fac­tu­r­ers thus bene­fit from inno­va­tive diffe­ren­tia­tors with fast time to market and low inter­nal deve­lo­p­ment costs for new products.

The market entry is in the heara­bles segment, which shows dyna­mic growth of 36 percent p.a. with a market size of USD 35 billion in 2021. The term “heara­ble” descri­bes an intel­li­gent head­phone that combi­nes basic func­tions such as music play­back and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons with audio-based infor­ma­tion services and other inno­va­tive features.

In detail: Audio expe­ri­ence without distur­bing factors
Curr­ently, Elevear offers three products that can be used initi­ally in heara­bles and later in hearing aids. The products are inte­gra­ted as soft­ware directly onto the chips that manu­fac­tu­r­ers build into the headphones.

1. Occlear™ tech­no­logy compen­sa­tes for the so-called “occlu­sion effect”: this leads to a muffled percep­tion of one’s own voice and unplea­sant back­ground noise when wearing termi­na­ting head­pho­nes in or on the ears. Occlear™ solves this problem and increa­ses comfort and accep­tance when wearing hearables.
2. In quiet envi­ron­ments, there is often a stron­gly percep­ti­ble back­ground noise from the Heara­ble itself. Idle Noise Reduc­tion redu­ces the noise floor of minia­ture micro­pho­nes to the level of expen­sive studio micro­pho­nes, drama­ti­cally impro­ving audio quality while redu­cing hard­ware costs.
3. Steady­head tech­no­logy compen­sa­tes for head rota­tion for all audio regard­less of the audio source. This trans­forms the 3D audio expe­ri­ence in head­pho­nes and ensu­res that the user’s head move­ments are instantly compen­sa­ted for in the audio scene. The user has the feeling of immersion in the scene.

From rese­arch to product

Behind the DeepT­ech spin-off of RWTH Aachen Univer­sity, foun­ded in 2021, is a manage­ment team of expe­ri­en­ced deve­lo­pers and indus­try experts: foun­ders are Dr.-Ing. Stefan Liebich, Johan­nes Fabry and Raphael Bran­dis. They have been working toge­ther for many years at the Insti­tute for Commu­ni­ca­tion Systems (IKS) at RWTH Aachen Univer­sity and specia­lize in the field of audio signal proces­sing. The foun­ding team is comple­men­ted by indus­try expert Elfed Howells, who has more than 30 years of expe­ri­ence in the audio and consu­mer elec­tro­nics indus­try. Toge­ther, the team has alre­ady won nume­rous awards.

About TVF
The Tech­Vi­sion Fund (TVF) is the leading early-stage VC fund in the Rhine­land. TVF is the third venture fund mana­ged by the S‑UBG Group team and invests regio­nally in tech­no­logy start­ups with a fund volume of €55 million. As one of the most expe­ri­en­ced inves­tors, TVF supports foun­ding teams with proxi­mity, network and exper­tise, paving the way for them to become the next inter­na­tio­nal indus­try leader. In addi­tion, TVF offers unique access to the “old economy” through the S‑UBG Group, provi­ding young start­ups with access to their first poten­tial custo­mers in the crucial early stages. The network includes over 150 successful port­fo­lio compa­nies from 30 years of invest­ment experience.
TVF — Brain | Cash | Proximity

About Elevear

Elevear is an Aachen-based startup that deve­lops inno­va­tive audio tech­no­lo­gies for heara­bles and sells them to manu­fac­tu­r­ers via a licen­sing model. Occlear™ compen­sa­tes for the occlu­sion effect that makes one’s voice sound muffled and boomy — a common problem with closed-back head­pho­nes and hearing aids. Combi­ned with Elevear’s Idle Noise Reduc­tion, which elimi­na­tes the annoy­ing inher­ent noise of heara­ble micro­pho­nes, Occlear™ ensu­res that users perceive their own voice and their surroun­dings natu­rally — just as if they were not wearing head­pho­nes. As soft­ware-only solu­ti­ons, both tech­no­lo­gies are compa­ti­ble with common heara­bles and do not require specia­li­zed hard­ware. With Steady­head, Elevear has also been offe­ring a solu­tion for spatial audio with low-latency head track­ing since this year.
https://elevear-tech.com

Landshut/Munich — Munich-based elec­tric motor start-up Deep­Drive has successfully comple­ted a Series A finan­cing round of 15 million euros. In addi­tion to the exis­ting inves­tors Bayern Kapi­tal with its Bava­rian Growth Fund and UVC Part­ners, which came on board a year ago, BMW i Ventures and the Corpo­rate Venture Capi­tal Unit of Conti­nen­tal AG are also invol­ved. The company is also supported by the renow­ned auto­mo­tive mana­ger and former Audi board member for deve­lo­p­ment Dr. Peter Mertens. The addi­tio­nal funds are inten­ded to inten­sify the path taken to start large-scale produc­tion of the highly effi­ci­ent e‑motor and to be able to respond in terms of person­nel to the further increase in demand.

Foun­ded in 2021, Deep­Drive has deve­lo­ped a radial flux dual rotor motor inclu­ding power elec­tro­nics that can be instal­led in produc­tion vehic­les as a central drive as well as a wheel hub drive, setting enti­rely new stan­dards in e‑mobility. The paten­ted archi­tec­ture has a higher torque and power density compared to other drive tech­no­lo­gies and solves funda­men­tal problems of other e‑vehicle concepts. For exam­ple, a vehicle with Deep­Drive tech­no­logy can travel 20 percent further on a fully char­ged charge, or requi­res 20 percent smal­ler batte­ries than the compe­ti­tion for the same range, enab­ling the next gene­ra­tion of low-cost elec­tric vehic­les. Less rare earths are also used in produc­tion — a clear sustaina­bi­lity advan­tage. Deep­Drive is curr­ently alre­ady working with eight of the top ten auto­ma­kers on various deve­lo­p­ment projects and plans to bring the dual-rotor engine to market in large-scale produc­tion by 2026.

The Deep­Drive team is alre­ady working with eight of the top ten OEMs and is on track to bring its tech­no­logy into mass produc­tion by 2026. Deep­Drive co-foun­der and CEO Felix Pörn­ba­cher says: “The effi­ci­ency of e‑vehicles is one of the biggest chal­lenges facing almost all car manu­fac­tu­r­ers. With our double rotor drive, we have been able to deve­lop a key tech­no­logy that addres­ses precis­ely this problem and is thus attrac­ting extre­mely high inte­rest from indus­try. With our focus on disrup­tive inno­va­tion coupled with profes­sio­nal high-volume expe­ri­ence, we see oursel­ves as a pioneer of elec­tri­fi­ca­tion for mobi­lity. We look forward to working with our strong new part­ners and exis­ting support­ers to bring this tech­no­logy to the road and win initial volume projects.”

Bavaria’s Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs Hubert Aiwan­ger: “Deep Drive’s busi­ness model is an excel­lent fit for Bava­ria as an auto­mo­tive loca­tion. There is great econo­mic poten­tial in the plat­form for the deve­lo­p­ment of elec­tric vehic­les. That is why we are support­ing the start-up with the Bava­ria 2 Growth Fund.”

“The use of Deep­Drive motors can save considera­ble costs — another step towards making e‑mobility more attrac­tive and cost-effec­tive and driving forward the all-important market pene­tra­tion,” says Monika Steger, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapi­tal. “We are plea­sed that the goal of scaling up to large-scale produc­tion in the near future has become a good deal more tangi­ble as a result of this new round of financing.”

About Bayern Kapital

Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, based in Lands­hut, is the venture/growth capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria. It accom­pa­nies inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies in the Free State through various growth phases, from seed to later stage, with equity capi­tal in the amount of 0.25 to 25 million euros. Bayern Kapi­tal often fills gaps in the VC sector in proven consor­tium constel­la­ti­ons with private inves­tors (busi­ness angels, family offices and corpo­rate ventures).

Bayern Kapi­tal mana­ges specia­li­zed invest­ment funds with a volume of around 700 million euros. Since its foun­da­tion in 1995 on the initia­tive of the state govern­ment, the wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern has so far inves­ted around 400 million euros of its own equity capi­tal in around 300 start-ups and scale-ups in sectors such as life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. As a result, more than 8,000 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable compa­nies. The active port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 80 companies.
www.bayernkapital.de

About UVC

A tech team for tech teams. — We are rocket scien­tists, CS geeks, elec­tri­cal engi­neers, AI rese­ar­chers, mecha­ni­cal engi­neers, mate­ri­als scien­tists, and econo­mists. We value the entre­pre­neu­rial spirit, the pursuit of inno­va­tion and the pursuit of quality. Since 2011, we have built one of Europe’s leading B2B venture capi­tal funds inves­t­ing across Europe from our offices in Berlin and Munich. As a team, we have made over one hundred B2B invest­ments with over thirty exits, inclu­ding some of our own compa­nies. https://www.uvcpartners.com

About BMW i VENTURES

Venture capi­tal for sustainable future tech­no­lo­gies and game chan­gers in mobi­lity. — Venture capi­ta­list BMW i Ventures invests in inno­va­tive, rapidly scaling start-ups from the auto­mo­tive envi­ron­ment that are helping to shape the indi­vi­dual mobi­lity of tomor­row. The focus is on tech­no­lo­gi­cal solu­ti­ons for the trans­por­ta­tion, manu­fac­tu­ring and supply indus­tries, as well as on inter­di­sci­pli­nary, sustainable solu­ti­ons. Thanks to its inde­pen­dence, BMW i Ventures makes invest­ment decis­i­ons quickly and in a manner appro­priate to the indus­try. This auto­nomy makes it possi­ble to match the speed and quality of the best venture capi­ta­lists and attract top invest­ment part­ners. The proxi­mity to the BMW Group in turn streng­thens the tech exper­tise of BMW i Ventures. https://www.bmwgroup.com/de/innovation/unternehmen/venturing_into_new_tech.html

Landshut/Munich — Bayern Kapi­tal, one of the most expe­ri­en­ced and active inves­tors in the high-tech finan­cing land­scape, is inves­t­ing in mbio­mics GmbH. The Munich-based company is a pioneer in the field of micro­biome biotech­no­logy and is deve­lo­ping the first gene­ra­tion of effec­tive micro­biome-based live thera­peu­tics (LBT). In addi­tion to Bayern Kapi­tal, MIG Capi­tal as lead inves­tor as well as High-Tech Grün­der­fonds and other private inves­tors parti­ci­pa­ted in the first closing of the Series A round with a total volume of EUR 13 million. The closing of the funding round puts mbio­mics at the fore­front of the emer­ging field of synthe­tic micro­bial consor­tia, which have the poten­tial to revo­lu­tio­nize the treat­ment of a wide range of dise­a­ses, from cancer to inflamm­a­tory bowel disease.

Foun­ded in Munich in 2020, mbio­mics GmbH focu­ses on the deve­lo­p­ment of the first gene­ra­tion of effec­tive bacte­rial living thera­peu­tics (LBT). The company is using its proprie­tary, custom profil­ing plat­form and compu­ta­tio­nal tech­no­lo­gies to gene­rate high-reso­lu­tion precis­ion data to modu­late the micro­biota, over­co­ming current bott­len­ecks in LBT deve­lo­p­ment. The tech­no­logy enables a better under­stan­ding of the inter­ac­tions between the gut micro­biome and the host, allo­wing mbio­mics to deve­lop more effec­tive micro­bial consor­tia that can be deli­vered to pati­ents as precis­ion thera­pies. In addi­tion, mbio­mics’ core tech­no­logy impro­ves pati­ent selec­tion and moni­to­ring for clini­cal trials, crea­ting a compe­ti­tive advantage.

“The micro­biome offers a rich source of new thera­peu­tic oppor­tu­ni­ties that have not yet been fully explo­red. Our goal is to harness the power of the micro­biome to treat dise­a­ses that are diffi­cult to treat with conven­tio­nal approa­ches,” explains Dr. Markus Rinecker, co-foun­der and CMO of mbio­mics. “Our outstan­ding R&D team has deli­vered a tech­no­lo­gi­cal proof-of-concept for our analy­sis plat­form in record time. With this tech­no­logy, mbio­mics is uniquely posi­tio­ned to under­stand the modu­la­tion of the micro­biome and deve­lop effec­tive thera­pies,” added Johan­nes B. Woehr­stein, Ph.D., co-foun­der and CTO.

“We are very plea­sed to have the support of such a pres­ti­gious group of inves­tors who share our vision of harnes­sing the power of the gut micro­biome to deve­lop targe­ted thera­pies,” said Laura Figulla, Ph.D., co-foun­der and CEO of mbio­mics. “This funding will allow us to build our plat­form, acce­le­rate the selec­tion of our first lead product candi­da­tes, and inten­sify rese­arch acti­vi­ties with an eye toward clini­cal validation.”

“The influence of the micro­biome on dise­a­ses is curr­ently being rese­ar­ched in many ways,” said Monika Steger (photo © Bayern Kapi­tal), mana­ging direc­tor of Bayern Kapi­tal. “mbio­mics shows great poten­tial in the deve­lo­p­ment of micro­biome-based thera­peu­tics for support­ive inter­ven­tion in various dise­a­ses and can thus take rese­arch a decisive step forward. We look forward to pursuing this path toge­ther with the company and an expe­ri­en­ced and finan­ci­ally strong inves­tor consortium.”

Dr. Matthias Kromayer, Mana­ging Part­ner of MIG Capi­talcommen­ted: “We are plea­sed to announce our invest­ment in mbio­mics and to support the company on its jour­ney to deve­lop a powerful, inno­va­tive thera­peu­tics plat­form. The company’s approach of combi­ning new tech­no­lo­gies with cutting-edge micro­biome rese­arch is ground­brea­king and has the poten­tial to signi­fi­cantly improve treat­ment outco­mes for pati­ents. We look forward to support­ing mbio­mics’ ongo­ing rese­arch towards clini­cal development.”

“In the deve­lo­p­ment of “Live Bacte­rial Products”, micro­biome profil­ing remains one of the major chal­lenges. Mbio­mics has deve­lo­ped a novel high-perfor­mance profil­ing plat­form that addres­ses key bott­len­ecks in the deve­lo­p­ment of micro­biome-based thera­peu­tic approa­ches using novel bacte­rial consor­tia. We are plea­sed to invest in an excel­lent team and an inno­va­tive tech­no­logy toge­ther with strong co-inves­tors,” adds Dr. Jan Engels, Invest­ment Mana­ger at High-Tech Grün­der­fonds.

About Bayern Kapital
Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, based in Lands­hut, is the venture/growth capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria. It accom­pa­nies inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies in the Free State through various growth phases, from seed to later stage, with equity capi­tal in the amount of 0.25 to 25 million euros. Bayern Kapi­tal often fills gaps in the VC sector in proven consor­tium constel­la­ti­ons with private inves­tors (busi­ness angels, family offices and corpo­rate ventures).

Bayern Kapi­tal mana­ges specia­li­zed invest­ment funds with a volume of around 700 million euros. Since its foun­da­tion in 1995 on the initia­tive of the state govern­ment, the wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern has so far inves­ted around 400 million euros of its own equity capi­tal in around 300 start-ups and scale-ups in sectors such as life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. As a result, more than 8,000 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable compa­nies. The active port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 80 companies.

Examp­les of nume­rous ground­brea­king success stories that Bayern Kapi­tal has been invol­ved in at an early stage include EOS (today the world’s leading tech­no­logy provi­der in indus­trial 3D prin­ting of metals and plas­tics), Proglove, Fazua, SimS­cale, Scom­pler, egym, Parcel­lab, Cobrai­ner, Quan­tum Systems, Casavi, Riskme­thods, Tubu­lis, Cata­lym, Immu­nic, Sirion, tado and many more.
www.bayernkapital.de

About mbio­mics
Foun­ded in 2020 and head­quar­te­red in Munich, Germany, mbio­mics GmbH is a priva­tely held biotech company focu­sed on the deve­lo­p­ment of first gene­ra­tion effec­tive live bacte­rial thera­peu­tics (LBT). The company is lever­aging its custom micro­biome diagno­stics plat­form to over­come current bott­len­ecks in LBT deve­lo­p­ment — gene­ra­ting accu­rate profil­ing data, selec­ting better consor­tia, and impro­ving pati­ent stra­ti­fi­ca­tion and moni­to­ring in clini­cal trials.
www.mbiomics.com

Aachen — The Tech­Vi­sion Fund I (TVF) will be increased by another 15 million euros. This means that the fund, which belongs to the S‑UBG Group, now has a total of 55 million euros in venture capi­tal available for start-up finan­cing in the Aachen region and the Lower Rhine area. TVF’s exis­ting inves­tors [1] are joined by Spar­kasse Neuss, Stadt­mar­ken GmbH and Moder­ner Baube­darf GmbH as finan­ci­ally strong private inves­tors from Aachen. “We are plea­sed to be able to support and further deve­lop inno­va­tive start-up teams from the western Rhine­land even more stron­gly through more capi­tal and new inves­tors,” says Bern­hard Kugel, CEO of S‑UBG AG and mana­ging direc­tor of the Tech­Vi­sion Fund.

Geogra­phi­cal expan­sion of finan­cing activities

“With Tech­Vi­sion Fund I, in addi­tion to seed invest­ments, we also aim to parti­ci­pate in subse­quent finan­cing rounds, Series A and B, of exis­ting and new port­fo­lio compa­nies,” Kugel empha­si­zed. The venture capi­tal fund specia­li­zes in finan­cing start-ups with a distinct opportunity/risk profile. “As a new inves­tor, we want to be a relia­ble finan­cial part­ner for start-ups in the grea­ter Neuss area as well. For all our down-to-earth­ness, we are very open to new products and tech­no­lo­gies,” says Marcus Longe­rich, Deputy Board Member of Spar­kasse Neuss. “Toge­ther with the other capi­tal provi­ders, we have made it our goal to further promote start-up acti­vi­ties in our region. We also want to support the struc­tu­ral change that is neces­sary because of the plan­ned energy turnaround.”

Norbert Hermanns, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Aache­ner Stadt­mar­ken GmbH, adds: “Thanks to the diverse rese­arch land­scape in the western Rhine­land, the region is predesti­ned to produce forward-looking ideas. Howe­ver, in order to make these marke­ta­ble, inno­va­tive young entre­pre­neurs need appro­priate finan­cial resour­ces.” Manuel Nadenau, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Moder­ner Baube­darf GmbH, also sees the poten­tial: “An exci­ting new task lies ahead of us and we are plea­sed to be able to bring a breath of fresh air to the start-up scene toge­ther with the other inves­tors by support­ing young and inno­va­tive foun­ders from the region.”

Success stories made in the Rhineland

To date, the Seed Fonds Aachen and the Tech­Vi­sion Fonds have supported over 20 start-ups with capi­tal, stra­te­gic know­ledge and S‑UBG’s exten­sive network — inclu­ding taxy.io GmbH, a start-up dedi­ca­ted to provi­ding the basis for auto­ma­ted B2B tax advice using arti­fi­ci­ally intel­li­gent soft­ware. In TVF’s port­fo­lio since 2019, the young company has alre­ady been able to grow rapidly through two rounds of finan­cing and further expand its offe­ring in terms of indus­try and geogra­phy. The Tech­Vi­sion Fund port­fo­lio also includes the Düssel­dorf-based soft­ware deve­lo­per talent::digital and the mobi­lity plat­form MOQO — these start-ups have also achie­ved entre­pre­neu­rial mile­sto­nes through indi­vi­dual finan­cing models. In the health and biosci­ence sector, the invest­ment enab­led the compa­nies PL BioSci­ence and Protem­bis to further deve­lop their products and bring them to market maturity.

Munich — Munich-based tech startup Metis­Mo­tion has closed its second round of finan­cing and recei­ved another €1.5 million in fresh capi­tal. As in the first finan­cing round in Decem­ber 2018, the High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF), BORN2GROW — a subsi­diary of the ZFHN Zukunfts­fonds Heil­bronn — and the SIEMENS Tech­no­logy Acce­le­ra­tor (STA) inves­ted. The fresh capi­tal will be used to prepare the market launch of the patent-protec­ted naXture actua­tor platform.

“MetisMotion’s core tech­no­logy is highly dyna­mic and light­weight, powerful actua­tors for auto­ma­tion appli­ca­ti­ons. Metis­Mo­tion has deve­lo­ped an actua­tor plat­form (compa­ra­ble to servo­mo­tors) that offers unpre­ce­den­ted, tech­ni­cal possi­bi­li­ties. — Imagine being able to replace pneu­ma­tic or hydrau­lic solu­ti­ons with great power poten­tial in exis­ting instal­la­tion spaces with highly effi­ci­ent elec­tri­cally opera­ted drives! This is usually not feasi­ble with conven­tio­nal elec­tric motors,” says Patrick Fröse, Mana­ging Direc­tor of MetisMotion

Based on the outstan­ding power density and effi­ci­ency of Metis­Mo­tion actua­tors, a network of renow­ned natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal pilot custo­mers has grown since the company was foun­ded in 2018, using Metis­Mo­tion solu­ti­ons to drive the sustainable elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of drive tasks.

With the capi­tal raised in the current finan­cing round, the tech­no­logy will now be made available to a broad custo­mer group. The launch of the naXture plat­form is plan­ned for late summer.naXture enables users to quickly and easily confi­gure indi­vi­dual actua­tors for the smal­lest instal­la­tion spaces. Actua­tor geome­try, available forces, speeds and travels, as well as the safety beha­vior are always based on the speci­fic requi­re­ments of the application.

“Metis­Mo­tion was alre­ady very close to the market and active in many appli­ca­tion areas at the time of the spin-off. Parti­cu­larly in the Heil­bronn region, the region of world market leaders, Metis­Mo­tion has alre­ady been able to win promi­sing custo­mers in the pilot custo­mer phase. The open­ness for inno­va­tion is obvious here and we are ther­e­fore looking forward to the further roll out. We see great market oppor­tu­ni­ties — not only natio­nally,” explains Thomas Villin­ger, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Zukunfts­fonds Heil­bronn.

“The elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of today’s inef­fi­ci­ent pneu­ma­tic and hydrau­lic actua­tors, parti­cu­larly in indus­trial auto­ma­tion, is an exci­ting growth oppor­tu­nity. Metis­Mo­tion can define a new segment here with its tech­no­logy! Exci­ting for inves­tors who are looking for disrup­tive tech­no­lo­gies and want to parti­ci­pate in their success,” comm­ents Jens Baum­gärt­ner, Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger at High-Tech Grün­der­fonds.

“Metis­Mo­tion has proven with its launch custo­mers that it can design and manu­fac­ture high-perfor­mance actua­tors for the most deman­ding envi­ron­ments. We are ther­e­fore convin­ced of the company’s poten­tial and look forward to conti­nuing to contri­bute to its success as an inves­tor and through our network within Siemens and beyond,” says Dr. Rudolf Frey­tag, CEO of Siemens Tech­no­logy Acce­le­ra­tor GmbH.

About Metis­Mo­tion
Actua­ting Inno­va­tions — Follo­wing the Genius of Nature. Accor­ding to this guiding prin­ci­ple, Metis­Mo­tion GmbH has been deve­lo­ping bio-inspi­red actua­tor systems since 2018. The company is a spin-off from the Siemens Group and sets new stan­dards for the sustainable elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of drives with maxi­mum energy effi­ci­ency. Based on highly inte­gra­ted micro-hydrau­lic circuits, Metis­Mo­tion is able for the first time to combine a parti­cu­larly high force density with ultra-dyna­mic move­ments in the smal­lest instal­la­tion spaces. At the same time, Metis­Mo­tion actua­tors gene­rally require only a quar­ter of the energy compared to pneu­ma­tic solu­ti­ons, for exam­ple. Custo­mers include natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal manu­fac­tu­r­ers from the factory and process auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and mobi­lity sectors.
The Munich site is curr­ently home to in-house deve­lo­p­ment, manu­fac­tu­ring, marke­ting and sales.

About the ZFHN — Heil­bronn Future Fund

Since its foun­da­tion in 2005, ZFHN Zukunfts­fonds Heil­bronn has been one of the major venture capi­ta­lists in Germany. It prima­rily supports young, inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies that are loca­ted in the Heil­bronn area or are prepared to settle there in the short to medium term. The Future Fund is priva­tely finan­ced and has equity capi­tal in the hundreds of milli­ons. It supports compa­nies with capi­tal, know-how and cont­acts in the Heil­bronn econo­mic region. The goal is to further deve­lop Heil­bronn into a very successful tech­no­logy loca­tion. This also includes the estab­lish­ment and expan­sion of clus­ters (MedTech, BioTech, Clean­tech) locally.

Since its foun­ding in 2013, Heil­bronn-based BORN2GROW GmbH & Co. KG has been support­ing inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies in the seed and start-up phase. The seed fund supports young compa­nies by accom­pany­ing them from the proof-of-concept stage to market launch. This early-stage finan­cing enables fast-growing tech­no­logy-orien­ted start-up compa­nies to deve­lop their ideas and concepts. BORN2GROW, a subsi­diary of ZFHN Zukunfts­fonds Heil­bronn, coope­ra­tes with other venture capi­tal funds and busi­ness angels and makes fast and trans­pa­rent finan­cing decisions.Contact:
Zukunfts­fonds Heil­bronn GmbH & Co. KG. www.zf-hn.de

About the Siemens Tech­no­logy Accelerator
Siemens Tech­no­logy Acce­le­ra­tor GmbH is a subsi­diary of Siemens AG and has been successfully commer­cia­li­zing inno­va­tive Siemens tech­no­lo­gies in appli­ca­ti­ons outside the stra­te­gic focus of Siemens busi­ness units for more than 20 years. This is done either by foun­ding venture capi­tal funded start-ups or by selling or licen­sing to estab­lished companies.Contact:
Siemens Tech­no­logy Acce­le­ra­tor GmbH. www.siemens.com/sta

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start­ups with growth poten­tial. With a total volume of 892.5 million euros distri­bu­ted across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has alre­ady supported more than 500 start­ups since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and startup experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the hard­ware, soft­ware, life scien­ces and chemi­cals sectors. More than €1.9 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in around 1,400 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. In addi­tion, the fund has now successfully sold shares in 100 companies.
Inves­tors in the public-private part­ner­ship include the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Energy, KfW, the Fraun­ho­fer-Gesell­schaft and the busi­ness enter­pri­ses ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim, B.Braun, Robert Bosch, BÜFA, CEWE, Deut­sche Post DHL, Dräger, Dril­lisch AG, EVONIK, EWE AG, Haniel, Hettich, Knauf, Körber, LANXESS, media + more venture Betei­li­gungs GmbH & Co. KG, PHOENIX CONTACT, Post­bank, QIAGEN, RWE Gene­ra­tion SE, SAP, Schufa, Schwarz Gruppe, STIHL, Thüga, Vector Infor­ma­tik, WACKER and Wilh. Werhahn KG. www.htgf.de

Munich / Bonn / Vienna — Arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence for the textile indus­try: The robo­tics start-up sewts has closed a seed finan­cing round tota­ling seven figu­res. sewts is deve­lo­ping a soft­ware-as-a-service (SaaS) solu­tion that helps indus­trial compa­nies auto­mate proces­ses in which easily defor­ma­ble mate­ri­als are proces­sed, for exam­ple texti­les or films. Initi­ally, the tech­no­logy will be used in indus­trial laun­dry lines; in the long term, cross-sector appli­ca­ti­ons are plan­ned in the textile indus­try as well as in the high-tech sector. APEX Ventures, Bayern Kapi­tal and High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) parti­ci­pa­ted in the round. The exis­ting inves­tor Initia­tive for Indus­trial Inno­va­tors and a consor­tium of expe­ri­en­ced busi­ness angels have also confirmed their commitments.

In the manu­fac­tu­ring and proces­sing indus­tries, there are many robo­tics and AI-based solu­ti­ons for hand­ling solid, dimen­sio­nally stable raw mate­ri­als such as metals. The auto­ma­tion of manu­fac­tu­ring or assem­bly proces­ses in which, on the other hand, easily defor­ma­ble mate­ri­als are proces­sed still poses enorm­ous problems for compu­ters and image proces­sing programs today, because the demands on the requi­red compu­ting power are too great. Curr­ently available robots and grip­ping systems can ther­e­fore only inade­qua­tely perform such simple opera­ti­ons for humans, such as grip­ping a towel or piece of clot­hing. Foun­ded in 2019, Munich-based sewts GmbH and its appro­xi­m­ately 20 employees have ther­e­fore deve­lo­ped inno­va­tive control and image proces­sing soft­ware that enables robots to predict the beha­vior of shape-unsta­ble mate­ri­als during grip­ping in real time based on intel­li­gent algo­rithms deve­lo­ped in-house. At the core of the tech­no­logy is a unique approach to gene­ra­ting arti­fi­cial trai­ning data for AI, which is based on high-precis­ion, so-called finite element method (FEM) simu­la­ti­ons. With the help of this novel approach, sewts can auto­mate a wide range of indus­trial proces­ses that were previously tech­ni­cally unfe­a­si­ble — such as the hand­ling of texti­les or carbon fiber and semi-finis­hed products.

Wide range of applications

Indus­trial laun­d­ries, for exam­ple, bene­fit from this tech­no­logy: indi­vi­dual steps, such as sort­ing dirty texti­les or placing laun­dry in folding machi­nes, still have to be carried out there by hand. Many laun­d­ries can hardly find employees for this stre­nuous work. With sewts, this step can be auto­ma­ted by robots. In the long term, this should increase the produc­ti­vity of a textile washing line by up to 100 percent, while allo­wing the laun­dry to use its person­nel capa­ci­ties more effectively.

The areas of appli­ca­tion for this inno­va­tive tech­no­logy are constantly expan­ding and are alre­ady opening up comple­tely new produc­tion possi­bi­li­ties in the textile indus­try, for exam­ple in the manu­fac­ture of clot­hing. In the long term, the ambi­ti­ons of the three foun­ders Alex­an­der Bley, Tim Doerks and Till Rickert also include opening up other manu­fac­tu­ring sectors, for exam­ple in the proces­sing of films and foams. They plan to invest the new finan­cial resour­ces in the further deve­lo­p­ment of their soft­ware into a series product, the expan­sion of the deve­lo­p­ment team and the acqui­si­tion of medium and long-term inte­gra­tion and sales partners.

“We are very plea­sed to have convin­ced capi­tal-strong and tech­no­lo­gi­cally savvy inves­tors of our disrup­tive tech­no­logy. Their cross-indus­try market exper­tise will be of great help to us on our way to series produc­tion,” says sewts co-foun­der and co-mana­ging direc­tor Alex­an­der Bley.

Dr. Wolf­gang Neubert, part­ner at APEX Ventures, says: “We were parti­cu­larly impres­sed in the team by the combi­na­tion of high profes­sio­nal exper­tise, tech­ni­cal crea­ti­vity and the ability to think quickly into indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons of the sewts tech­no­logy and derive their econo­mic impact.”

Dr. Georg Ried, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapi­tal, says: “sewts has the poten­tial to signi­fi­cantly simplify proces­ses in a wide range of indus­tries that could not previously be auto­ma­ted — a scalable tech­no­logy from which many compa­nies could bene­fit, parti­cu­larly in the indus­trial nation of Germany, but also beyond. An exci­ting inno­va­tion project in the field of robo­tics that we are happy to support in its upco­ming growth steps.”

Johan­nes Weber, invest­ment mana­ger at High-Tech Grün­der­fonds, says: “With deep lear­ning algo­rithms, sewts enables the sophisti­ca­ted hand­ling of texti­les with indus­trial robots for the first time. Through the scalable SaaS busi­ness model, we see high poten­tial to address broad user groups and look forward to support­ing the start-up on this path.”

About sewts
Foun­ded in 2019, Munich-based sewts GmbH is a provi­der of inno­va­tive control and image proces­sing soft­ware that pushes the boun­da­ries of robo­tics in the proces­sing of easily defor­ma­ble mate­ri­als. sewts has deve­lo­ped a unique tech­no­logy that uses high-precis­ion finite element method (FEM) simu­la­ti­ons to effi­ci­ently train machine lear­ning algo­rithms. The intel­li­gent soft­ware solu­tion enables count­less appli­ca­ti­ons in indus­trial auto­ma­tion, such as the proces­sing of texti­les in indus­trial laun­d­ries or the produc­tion of clot­hing. The company is backed by APEX Ventures, Bayern Kapi­tal, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds, Initia­tive for Indus­trial Inno­va­tors and a number of highly expe­ri­en­ced busi­ness angels. www.sewts.de

About APEX Ventures
APEX Ventures is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal inves­tor focu­sing on deep-tech start-ups with unique IP and extra­or­di­nary market poten­tial. APEX Ventures has comple­ted nume­rous invest­ments with its funds in Europe as well as in the U.S., inclu­ding in the areas of AI for medi­cal appli­ca­ti­ons, quan­tum and laser tech­no­logy, auto­no­mous mobi­lity, compu­ter-based vision, and digi­tal foren­sics. APEX Ventures is in close colla­bo­ra­tion with the foun­ding teams to work toge­ther on go-to-market stra­te­gies and acce­le­rate inter­na­tio­nal growth. For an effec­tive selec­tion of talen­ted teams and their best possi­ble support, APEX Ventures is in close exch­ange with acade­mic insti­tu­ti­ons, entre­pre­neur­ship programs and other inter­na­tio­nal VC part­ners. www.apex.ventures

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with growth poten­tial. With a volume of around EUR 900 million spread across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has supported more than 600 start-ups since 2005. His 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, chemis­try and rela­ted busi­ness areas. Almost EUR 3 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 1,700 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. In addi­tion, the fund has alre­ady successfully sold shares in more than 120 compa­nies. www.htgf.de

Aachen — The “Seed Fonds II für die Region Aachen GmbH & Co. KG” (Seed Fonds Aachen), toge­ther with KfW Banken­gruppe, Qiagen co-foun­der Dr. Jürgen Schu­ma­cher and Dr. Robert Huber, Profes­sor of Biopro­cess Engi­nee­ring, have sold their shares in the Aachen-based start-up aquila biolabs GmbH to Scien­ti­fic Biopro­ces­sing, Inc. (SBI), subsi­diary of Scien­ti­fic Indus­tries, Inc. and deve­lo­per of opti­cal sensors for non-inva­sive real-time moni­to­ring of cell culture systems, was divested.

This ends a six-year invest­ment part­ner­ship that began in 2015 with the entry of Seed Fund II, the prede­ces­sor of Tech­Vi­sion Fund I, with a seven-figure invest­ment in the biotech­no­logy company. “It is grati­fy­ing that we can accom­pany such a great foun­ding team to a successful exit with our early-stage funds. I look forward to seeing the success story of aquila biolabs conti­nue along this path,” says Dr. Ansgar Schlei­cher, CEO of the S‑UBG Group.

Expan­ding the platform’s reach worldwide

Foun­ded in Aachen at the end of 2014, aquila biolabs GmbH deve­lops a plat­form of intel­li­gent sensors and soft­ware for the non-inva­sive moni­to­ring and analy­sis of biopro­ces­ses in the labo­ra­tory. With the help of the paten­ted measu­re­ment methods, rese­ar­chers can auto­ma­ti­cally moni­tor process para­me­ters and observe the cells as they grow, without having to take samples. This signi­fi­cantly redu­ces deve­lo­p­ment times and costs and sustain­ably impro­ves biopro­ces­ses in acade­mic and indus­trial rese­arch. The products of aquila biolabs GmbH are now used by custo­mers in the phar­maceu­ti­cal, biotech­no­lo­gi­cal and chemi­cal indus­tries in over 25 countries.

“We are exci­ted to join SBI and expand the reach of our unique plat­form to biopro­cess scien­tists around the world,” says Daniel Grünes, co-foun­der of aquila biolabs, who will assume the role of Vice Presi­dent of R&D and Opera­ti­ons at SBI. Jens Bayer, co-foun­der of aquila biolabs, adds: “We would like to thank our inves­tor consor­tium once again for the very good and harmo­nious coope­ra­tion over the past years. Espe­ci­ally the enorm­ous wealth of expe­ri­ence of inves­tors like Mr. Schu­ma­cher and the Seed Fonds Aachen, who have frequently accom­pa­nied tech­no­logy compa­nies from the start-up phase to the exit, was very helpful for us.” aquila biolabs will conti­nue to offer its products and services around the globe from its head­quar­ters in Baes­wei­ler, where the company curr­ently employs 16 people.

SBI expands presence in Europe

“When SBI was explo­ring the available tech­no­lo­gies that could drive digi­tally simpli­fied biopro­ces­sing, aquila’s approach stood out as the most impres­sive,” said Rein­hard Vogt, chair­man of SBI and former vice presi­dent and member of the Sarto­rius AG Execu­tive Board. “In addi­tion to offe­ring a broad range of advan­ced sensors and data analy­tics tools, this stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion also adds new talent to our strong team and streng­thens our presence in Europe.”

About the S‑UBG Group

The S‑UBG Group, Aachen, has been the leading part­ner in the provi­sion of equity capi­tal for estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies (S‑UBG AG) and young, tech­no­logy-orien­ted start-ups (Tech­Vi­sion Fonds I) in the econo­mic regi­ons of Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchen­glad­bach for over 30 years. S‑UBG AG invests in growth sectors; high quality of corpo­rate manage­ment is a key invest­ment criter­ion for the invest­ment company.

2020, Tech­Vi­sion Fonds I für die Region Aachen, Krefeld & Mönchen­glad­bach GmbH & Co. KG was laun­ched toge­ther with NRW.BANK, the savings banks of Aachen, Krefeld and Düren, Kreis­spar­kasse Heins­berg, Stadt­spar­kasse Mönchen­glad­bach, Noma­in­vest, DSA Invest GmbH, inves­tors from the Dr. Babor Group and other private inves­tors. It provi­des around 40 million euros in seed capi­tal for the start-up scene in the region. Tech­Vi­sion Fonds I emer­ged from Seed Fonds III for the Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchen­glad­bach region. As an exten­sion of Seed Fund III, Tech­Vi­sion Fund I now seeks to parti­ci­pate in subse­quent finan­cing rounds (Series A/B) of exis­ting port­fo­lio compa­nies in addi­tion to seed invest­ments. The S‑UBG Group curr­ently holds stakes in just under 40 compa­nies in the region, giving it a leading posi­tion in the Spar­kas­sen-Finanz­gruppe. www.s‑ubg.de; www.techvision-fonds.de

Copen­ha­gen, Denmark — London-based SME growth inves­tor Magenta Part­ners today announ­ced that it has led a major Series A funding round for Moto­sumo, a fast-growing at-home indoor cycling plat­form that offers live inter­ac­tive clas­ses from any bike. Magenta led the finan­cing round with parti­ci­pa­tion from exis­ting investors.

Tom Matthews, mana­ging part­ner of Magenta, says their exten­sive evalua­tion iden­ti­fied Moto­sumo as a unique offe­ring in a crow­ded market. “Our team of experts has reviewed nume­rous soft­ware and hard­ware plat­forms in the Connec­ted Fitness space over the past 18 months. We believe Moto­sumo is an outstan­ding offe­ring capa­ble of leading the evolu­tion in the home fitness market. It is the only plat­form of its kind that is hard­ware agno­stic, which opens up signi­fi­cant growth oppor­tu­ni­ties across geogra­phies,” said Matthews, whose team at Magenta has an exten­sive back­ground in fitness, inclu­ding previous invest­ments in LA Fitness, The Gym Group, Pure Gym and Viva Gym.

Moto­sumo, a Danish fit-tech company foun­ded in 2015, offers a global program of live indoor cycling clas­ses with world-class instruc­tors. Motosumo’s inno­va­tive tech­no­logy means users can join the plat­form from home, with any bike and a cell phone or tablet. Even the simp­lest setup can be connec­ted to enjoy a fully inter­ac­tive class.

With subscrip­ti­ons start­ing at just $12.99 per month, Moto­sumo offers an afforda­ble alter­na­tive to the many expen­sive play­ers in the market that require consu­mers to purchase equip­ment and wait weeks for deli­very to get started.

“Imme­diate access, an inter­ac­tive expe­ri­ence and global reach are important factors for growth, and Moto­sumo has all three,” says Moto­sumo co-foun­der and CEO Kres­ten Juel Jensen. “Our plat­form works with any bike, so users don’t have to invest in new equip­ment and can access a work­out imme­dia­tely. Moto­sumo cour­ses include inter­ac­tive games with live fitness metrics, and our trai­ners inter­act with parti­ci­pants in real time. We are exci­ted about the part­ner­ship with Magenta. Their invest­ment and stra­te­gic vision and support will help drive our expe­ri­ence and expansion.”

“Even before the COVID pande­mic, consu­mer demand for home exer­cise opti­ons was growing. The past year has drasti­cally chan­ged the land­scape of the fitness indus­try. Connec­ted fitness at home has become a major bene­fi­ci­ary, and Moto­sumo was alre­ady ahead of the curve and uniquely posi­tio­ned to drive rapid adop­tion of our home exer­cise solu­tion,” said Juel Jensen.

This round of Series A funding will allow Moto­sumo to double the number of its trai­ners on four conti­nents (Europe, North America, Asia and Austra­lia), expand its tech­ni­cal team and signi­fi­cantly increase its marke­ting efforts. Magenta typi­cally invests between GBP5 million and GBP20 million in each oppor­tu­nity. Your invest­ment in Moto­sumo is the first step in a possi­ble long-term, working partnership.

Magenta Mana­ging Part­ner Chase Emson alre­ady makes Moto­sumo clas­ses part of his daily work­out at home, “Moto­sumo is a fanta­stic expe­ri­ence. It is the only real live and inter­ac­tive offer for those who have an indoor bike at home. Having taken some of the clas­ses, I can say from perso­nal expe­ri­ence that Moto­sumo is fun and enter­tai­ning — and I’m most exci­ted about the results I’m getting from my trai­ning,” Emson said.

Inves­tors in Moto­sumo from previous rounds include Danish venture capi­tal fund Prom­en­tum Equity Part­ners and PreSeed Ventures, one of Denmark’s largest inno­va­tion incubators.

About Moto­sumo

Moto­sumo is a live inter­ac­tive plat­form for home cycling cour­ses that works with any statio­nary bike. The company was foun­ded by a Danish team of engi­neers and astro­phy­si­cists who harnes­sed the power of smart­phone motion sensors to gene­rate live fitness metrics, such as cadence, on each bike. They deve­lo­ped an app to make a fun, inter­ac­tive work­out and commu­nity expe­ri­ence acces­si­ble to almost anyone. Early on, Moto­sumo became a popu­lar main­stay in gyms and fitness centers. In response to the growing demand for at-home work­out opti­ons, Moto­sumo has evol­ved the plat­form for indi­vi­dual users and part­ne­red with a network of world-class trai­ners to create a global offe­ring of daily live clas­ses. For just $12.99 per month, anyone can enjoy the same intense, inter­ac­tive fitness expe­ri­ence at home. To turn any bike into a world-class work­out expe­ri­ence, visit www.motosumo.com.

About Magenta Partners

Magenta Part­ners LLP is a UK-based private equity advi­sory firm foun­ded in 2008, specia­li­zing in entre­pre­neur-led growth invest­ments. Since its incep­tion, Magenta has inves­ted in consu­mer-focu­sed compa­nies such as Pure Gym, JoJo Maman Bebe, Maker&Son and North Ameri­can Guitar Company. A criti­cal element of Magenta’s invest­ment style is the ability to work with manage­ment teams to achieve alignment around a common goal. Magenta funds are backed by successful entre­pre­neurs, and the manage­ment team itself brings expe­ri­ence in running and growing successful venture-backed compa­nies. www.magentapartners.com

Prom­en­tum Equity Partners

Prom­en­tum Equity Part­ners is a Danish private equity fund estab­lished in 2016 as a colla­bo­ra­tion between Prom­en­tum Capi­tal and Alter­na­tive Equity Part­ners. www.promentumequity.dk

PreSeed Ventures

For more than two deca­des, PreSeed Ventures has scou­ted, mento­red and funded Danish success stories such as Vivino, Trust­pi­lot and Lunar. www.preseedventures.dk