SHS acquires a stake in Betterguards Technology

Tübingen/Berlin, May 14, 2019 — With its fifth fund, the Tübin­­gen-based medi­cal tech­no­logy inves­tor SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment mbH is inves­t­ing a mid-single-digit million amount in Better­guards Tech­no­logy GmbH. The tech­no­logy of the Berlin-Bran­­den­­burg company is aimed prima­rily at manu­fac­tu­r­ers in the sports equip­ment, ortho­pe­dic tech­no­logy and occu­pa­tio­nal safety sectors. Based on an inno­va­tive combi­na­tion of mate­ri­als, Better­guards has deve­lo­ped a plat­form tech­no­logy that protects human joints, preven­ting liga­ment and tendon inju­ries in parti­cu­lar. In addi­tion to SHS, previous inves­tors BFB Bran­den­burg Kapi­tal, a subsi­diary of Brandenburg’s deve­lo­p­ment bank ILB, and Die Brücken­Köpfe also parti­ci­pa­ted in the finan­cing round. For SHS, it is the third invest­ment from the fifth fund. The fund will be used to build a diver­si­fied port­fo­lio of medi­cal tech­no­logy and life science compa­nies. Final closing of the fund is expec­ted shortly.

Better­guards Tech­no­logy GmbH, foun­ded in 2014 and based in Berlin with a produc­tion faci­lity in Bran­den­burg, deve­lops and produ­ces intel­li­gent compon­ents (so-called adap­tors) that can be inte­gra­ted, for exam­ple, into sports shoes, banda­ges or protec­tive work shoes. Equip­ped with this unique selling point, wearers can be protec­ted from joint inju­ries. Better­guards is alre­ady working with Juzo, a provi­der of sports medi­cal banda­ges and orthotics.

The under­ly­ing, broadly paten­ted tech­no­logy combi­nes free­dom of move­ment and protec­tion: Better­guards’ Adap­tor, which stret­ches during normal move­ments, stif­fens within a very short time only during very fast, criti­cal move­ments — such as when twis­ting an ankle — and thus protects the joint from over­ex­ten­sion; after­wards, imme­dia­tely after the criti­cal force has passed, it returns to its stretcha­ble initial state and allows a natu­ral move­ment pattern.

“We are very plea­sed to have another specia­list in the medi­cal tech­no­logy and health­care market on board with SHS. SHS’ indus­try exper­tise and know-how will further help us to posi­tion our company even better in the health­care market and to fully exploit the growth poten­tial of our plat­form tech­no­logy,” says Vinzenz Bich­ler, foun­der and CEO of Better­guards.

Corne­lius Maas, Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger at SHS, comm­ents: “What impres­sed us about Better­guards was the combi­na­tion of new-mate­­ri­als and engi­nee­ring exper­tise. For ankle protec­tion, the company has alre­ady ente­red into a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with a renow­ned ortho­pe­dic tech­no­logy manu­fac­tu­rer. We are convin­ced that we have iden­ti­fied a high-growth company in Better­guards, which we are happy to support in its further deve­lo­p­ment steps. We are very much looking forward to the cooperation.”

“With Better­guards, our team was able to realize the third tran­sac­tion for our SHS V fund from our strong deal pipe­line. Inves­tors looking for a private equity invest­ment in the high-growth medi­cal tech­no­logy and life science market can still parti­ci­pate in the sector fund for a few more weeks,” says Huber­tus Leon­hardt, Mana­ging Direc­tor and Part­ner at SHS

About SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment mbH
Tübin­­gen-based SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment invests in medi­cal tech­no­logy and life science compa­nies with a focus on expan­sion finan­cing, share­hol­der chan­ges and succes­sion situa­tions. In doing so, SHS enters into both mino­rity and majo­rity share­hol­dings. As an expe­ri­en­ced indus­try inves­tor, the company, which was foun­ded in 1993, supports the growth of its port­fo­lio compa­nies through a network of colla­bo­ra­ti­ons, for exam­ple in the intro­duc­tion of new products, regu­la­tory issues or entry into addi­tio­nal markets.

The German and inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors in SHS funds include profes­sio­nal pension funds, pension funds, stra­te­gic inves­tors, funds of funds, family offices, entre­pre­neurs and the SHS manage­ment team. The equity invest­ment of the AIFM-regis­­te­red company is up to € 30 million, volu­mes excee­ding this can be imple­men­ted with a network of co-inves­­tors. SHS is curr­ently laun­ching its fifth fund. The fund has alre­ady recei­ved capi­tal commit­ments of more than EUR 100 million and is still open to inves­tors until June 30, 2019. www.shs-capital.eu