Berlin-based Start-up RYDES Raises 3.5 Million to Bring Pioneering Corporate Mobility Platform from Europe to the US
Berlin 24.04.2023. Berlin based corporate mobility budget platform RYDES has announced a EUR 3.5 million seed round led by leading venture capitalists from the US and Europe with a specialized focus on mobility, Assembly Ventures and Rethink Ventures, in participation with Futury Capital and business angel Jens Krüger, Chief Product Architect at Workday. Existing investors include Lufthansa Group, Forward31, the company builder of Porsche Digital, and Arabella Venture Capital, as well as additional angel investors. RYDES will use the new funding to further develop its mobility platform and expand into international markets outside of Germany.
RYDES simplifies corporate mobility management, saving time, effort and cost for companies
The effects of the covid pandemic and heightened awareness of climate change implications are catalyzing a global shift in the way people get around. An increasing number of employees are opting for flexible, individual, and sustainable mobility budgets instead of traditional company cars. Europe is leading the way when it comes to multi-modal mobility for employees and European governments are helping to speed adoption through subsidizing rail and public transport for employees and their employers respectively. Berlin based startup RYDES is tackling this opportunity with the first all-in-one mobility budget platform for employees offering seamless access to any kind of transportation. With RYDES, companies provide their teams with a monthly budget they can use flexibly via the RYDES app instead of having to pay in advance and submit the costs for ride hailing, car subscriptions or public transport individually. Thanks to the fully automated integration into the company’s own HR, payroll and tax systems, firms save administrative effort, time and money. Employees, on the other hand, can choose at any time how they want to get to their destination: with shared mobility, public transport, rented bikes or cars, or with fuel or charge cards for their own cars. Additionally, RYDES is the only provider on the market that automatically offsets the resulting carbon footprint for companies via certified climate protection projects.
Europe is paving the way when it comes to multi-modal mobility for employees
"If you're seeking to attract and keep driven talent, you will need to offer attractive and flexible mobility solutions. RYDES is the first Corporate mobility budget platform to meet these requirements. We offer full-spectrum bandwidth of services, from shared mobility to renting or leasing bikes and cars, fuel and charge cards, and public transport. The completion of our seed funding round is a major step on our mission towards becoming the go-to destination for all employee mobility needs, and providing businesses with an attractive, straightforward platform solution," says René Braun, co-founder and CEO of RYDES.
“Across Europe, governments are taking steps to promote multi-modal mobility and incentivize its use, including providing subsidies for both employees and employers to utilize rail and public transport. The lessons learned here will be of great importance to other regions in the coming years,” said Jessica Robinson, Partner at Assembly Ventures. “RYDES is tackling this opportunity with an extremely smart approach that integrates different offerings for multi modal use cases via their integration with corporate HR systems. Their ability to capture detailed mobility, tax, and carbon footprint reporting data in real time, and provide optimized mobility options of individuals, is a game changer,” Robinson continued.
About RYDES
RYDES is the first mobility platform enabling companies to set up and manage their employees' entire mobility budget with only a few clicks. Fully automated integration with corporate HR, payroll and tax systems makes enrollments and payments fast and reports effortless. This saves paperwork, a lot of time and money. Startups, midsize companies, and corporates rely on RYDES for their employee mobility concepts. RYDES is backed by Lufthansa Group, Forward31, the company building arm of Porsche Digital, Assembly Ventures, Rethink Ventures, Futury Capital, Arabella Venture Capital as well as renowned business angels. RYDES was founded in the Lufthansa Innovation Hub. The corporate mobility platform provides access to all types of mobility worldwide: ride hailing, mobility sharing providers, all public transport providers, bike leasing and car subscriptions as well as fuel and charge cards.
Tvarit has closed its funding round, led by Momenta and Futury Capital, to enable AI-powered, waste-free, and energy-efficient metal manufacturing.
Tvarit raises €5m to drive net-zero metal manufacturing
Tvarit has closed its funding round, led by Momenta and Futury Capital, to enable AI-powered, waste-free, and energy-efficient metal manufacturing. The round also included a significant re-investment by existing investor Matterwave Ventures.
Frankfurt, 14.04.2023. Tvarit, a Frankfurt-based startup, is on a journey to enable zero-waste manufacturing. The World Economic Forum estimates that industrial waste accounts for half of all waste generated globally. Manufacturing is the largest and fastest-growing contributor to this waste stream, with an estimated 20% of every dollar spent on manufacturing producing waste. Tvarit estimates that the metals industry loses €160 billion annually.
Focusing on the metal manufacturing processes such as casting, hot forming, welding etc, Tvarit offers a hybrid AI solution, first of its kind, that combines deep metal processing domain knowledge with data-driven AI to provide continuous, accurate prescriptions and actionable insights to help the machine operators achieve higher productivity.
Founded in 2019 by Suhas Patel and Rahul Prajapat, Tvarit Industrial AI can reduce manufacturing quality defects (scrap) by 50% and reduce energy costs by up to 30%. These savings are very significant for the metal industry as their profit margins are only 5–8%, so with Tvarit’s help profit margins can be significantly increased. Furthermore, since metal manufacturing processes are quite energy-intensive, customers are not only able to improve their profit margins but also significantly reduce their carbon footprint.
Suhas Patel, Founder and CEO at Tvarit:
“Metal manufacturing shop floors are very complex." In state-of-the-art machines, there are 2.4 trillion possible combinations to optimise process parameters — no human can be sure of finding the optimum. "AI is the only way to eliminate waste on the shop floor.”
Ken Foster, Executive Director at lead investor Momenta:
“Manufacturers in Europe are dealing with the dual challenges of the energy transition and carbon neutral goals." Tvarit’s AI tools enable them to do both, driving precision manufacturing techniques to help maintain their global competitive advantage. Momenta is proud to lead the investment round in a company that is driving such "Industry 5.0" outcomes.
According to Tvarit’s founders, Momenta’s strategic network, value creation expertise, and deep experience gained over three decades of investing in rapidly growing digital industry companies will accelerate Tvarit's journey to make metal manufacturing zero-waste and more sustainable.
Benjamin Krahmer, Managing Partner at Futury Capital:
“We have been fortunate enough to invest with our early-stage fund in Tvarit`s early days. With Tvarit´s recent significant growth, its superior AI, and its deep industry know-how, we are excited to further invest with our Growth Fund, enabling Tvarit to accelerate even stronger.”
Robert Gallenberger, Partner at Matterwave Ventures:
“We are excited to welcome sector specialist Momenta and the growth fund of Futury Capital to the shareholder group. Our strong follow-on investment demonstrates our commitment to support Tvarit on its journey to build the future of metal manufacturing.”
This investment will accelerate Tvarit’s technology development and global presence.
Freiburg-based greentech Recyda receives €1.75 million investment to further develop its innovative software for the packaging industry
Freiburg-based greentech Recyda receives €1.75 million investment to further develop its innovative software for the packaging industry
Freiburg, 29 March 2023. Recyda has received €1.75 million from a recently closed new funding round to further develop its SaaS solution. The software assists multinational companies by offering an all-in-one solution to digitally manage their packaging portfolios and contribute to circular economy targets.
Recyda specialises in the software-supported evaluation of the recyclability of packaging and is now being strengthened with fresh capital. The new financing round of the startup, founded by Vivian Loftin, Anna Zießow and Christian Knobloch, is led by an investor consortium consisting of the lead investor Speedinvest, the existing investor Futury Capital from the pre-seed round 2021, the Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund and renowned business angels such as Dr Stephan Rohr (TWAICE), Benedikt Franke (Helpling Group) and Martin Weber (one • fıve). Recyda intends to use the capital to focus on expanding into international markets, acquiring new customers and product development.
"This funding round is a real milestone for us," says Vivian Loftin, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Recyda. "We are pleased that several investors from different sectors directly recognise the added innovative value of our software and want to bring our product and our vision forward with their investment."
New solution for current challenges
Recyda offers a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution with which companies can digitally manage packaging data and carry out evaluations. A core component of the solution is the digital assessment of the recyclability of packaging based on international regulations. The all-in-one solution enables companies to efficiently compare packaging solutions and make the best choice for their specific needs. Recyda's software enables detailed evaluations of, for example but not limited to, the prevailing recycling infrastructure, the applicable Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fees and related options for eco-modulation or the plastic tax. Through the long-term management and optimisation of packaging, Recyda offers companies from a wide range of sectors, like the Fast Moving Consumer Goods, the opportunity to pursue and achieve their Circular Economy goals in an innovative and efficient way.
Well-known customers are already convinced by Recyda's innovative solution, such as Beiersdorf, who have been working with the start-up since the beginning of 2022. Recyda's software supports the group in assessing the recyclability of packaging and optimising it internationally for all packaging types and brands. Eva Bredehorst, Global Packaging Sustainability Manager at Beiersdorf, explains: "Recyda's Software as a Service solution helps to identify the most recyclable solution as early as the packaging development stage, and also to map existing large packaging portfolios and output digital analyses and reports on their optimisation within seconds. This makes a significant contribution to remain competitive in a rapidly changing market environment with a multitude of different legal requirements."
High pressure on the packaging industry
It is not only the EU Commission's recent draft legislation for a new EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation that poses major challenges for the packaging industry. Other legal and financial requirements are also putting the packaging industry under increasing international pressure to design packaging in such a way that it is recyclable. Due to country-specific differences, however, this is very time-consuming. Currently, brand manufacturers, retail chains and packaging producers themselves must keep track of the situation and monitor changes.
"We know the current challenges of the packaging industry very well and the numerous difficulties that companies are currently facing. With this knowledge, we have developed a software solution that specifically supports the implementation of sustainable packaging solution requirements for different markets and significantly optimises reporting obligations. With our software, we want to contribute to a sustainable future in which resources are used sensibly and valuable materials are kept in the cycle," says Christian Knobloch, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Recyda.
Internationalisation and product development: the next phase is upon us
Recyda's solution is aimed at internationally positioned packaging manufacturers, brand owners as well as retailers and in particular supports them in the areas of packaging R&D, master data management and financial forecasting. With the seed investment, the start-up can rapidly expand its market presence and further develop the product.
"Behind our software are not only first-class investors, but also an incredible amount of know-how and drive in software development. With the new capital, we can bring more talent on board to implement new ideas and customer wishes," Anna Zießow, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Recyda, is pleased to say. "You shouldn't lose sight of Recyda, because we will be introducing exciting innovations to our software in the coming months."
Cashlink expands leading position of its FinTech infrastructure with seven-digit Series A
Cashlink expands leading position of its FinTech infrastructure with seven-digit Series A
Frankfurt, 16.03.2023. Cashlink, the Frankfurt-based FinTech behind the leading infrastructure for tokenized assets, has successfully closed a Series A funding round in the mid-seven-figure range.
New investors on board include Swiss venture capitalist TX Ventures, as well as Futury Capital, Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen and several business angels. In addition, existing investors Carsten Maschmeyer’s seed + speed, Panta Rhei, C3 Venture Capital and DEWB participated in the financing round. At the end of last year, w3.fund invested in Cashlink via security token issuance.
Cashlink provides the leading infrastructure for asset tokenization, enabling the fully digital issuance of securities. Numerous financial institutions, such as Bankhaus Scheich and the asset manager LAIQON, as well as FinTechs, like the sustainable investment platform WiWin, rely on the solutions of the Frankfurt-based pioneer. In addition to the technical infrastructure, Cashlink also covers all necessary regulatory requirements. In November 2021, Cashlink was one of the first companies to receive provisional permission to register crypto securities from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
Cashlink plans to use the investment to strengthen its growth. In particular, the fresh capital will be used to expand the product suite related to the registry management of crypto securities.
Michael Duttlinger, co-founder and CEO of Cashlink, says: “The introduction of crypto securities in Germany is a major growth driver for Cashlink. In particular, the extension of the Electronic Securities Act to equities, which is planned for this year, will provide further momentum. I am pleased that the investment has provided us with a solid financial foundation for our continued growth in this area.”
Krzysztof Bialkowski, Managing Partner of TX Ventures, says: “We strongly believe that asset tokenization will revolutionize the securities market as it offers clear benefits such as higher liquidity, faster settlement, lower costs and can appeal to a broader audience. Cashlink, with its highly professional team and impressive regulatory expertise, is very well positioned to address this market and become a leader in tokenization in Europe. We are very much looking forward to working together and supporting the team on its growth path.”
Benjamin Krahmer, Managing Director at Futury Capital adds, “We were impressed by Cashlink’s technological positioning in the fast-growing digital securities market, its existing client relationships and its close cooperation with relevant authorities in a highly regulated market. We look forward to working with the experienced Cashlink team.”
The Rainforest Company raises €36m
The Rainforest Company raises €36 million in funding to grow into Europe’s leading foodtech company
Berlin, 16.12.2022. The Rainforest Company (TRC), one of Europe's fastest, profitable growing food tech companies pioneering in sustainable and healthy foods, has successfully raised €36 million in its last fundraising round. It is one of this year’s largest funding rounds in the foodtech sector in Germany and the largest round for a female founded and led foodtech company in Europe. The round was led by UK-based family office Kaltroco, and included further investments from Futury Capital, Corecam, Green Generation Fund and other renowned investors.
Since its inception in 2016 and the involvement of Katjes Greenfood in 2018, TRC has grown rapidly. The company's vegan products based on the açai berry are now available in seven countries and in over 12,000 POS. Through a cooperation with local farmers, the focus is on the preservation of the rainforest and the development of sustainable, resource- and environmentally-friendly agriculture.
Following this rapid growth, the company is focusing now on internationalization and product expansion, investing in its global reach and product portfolio with even more emphasis on the health use of its vegan and nutritious ingredients from the Amazon region. The funds allow TRC to invest into its operations, people, product, marketing and finance infrastructure, helping the company to scale the business internationally.
"The new capital will allow us to continue to scale internationally and invest in our product offerings. We have great investors, a growing and equally great team. Our entrepreneurial understanding is to contribute - in dialogue with politics, society and business - to align our framework more closely with the guiding principle of sustainability," says CEO and founder, Albana Rama.
"It is with great pleasure that we invest in The Rainforest Company because we believe in entrepreneurial success with the approach of "innovation through science". We are proud to support The Rainforest Company in the next step of its growth phase," says Cornou Rykaart of Kaltroco.
Wingcopter raises another $42m
Futury Capital keeps backing Wingcopter in latest $42M funding round
Weiterstadt, Germany, 21 June 2022 – Wingcopter, the German delivery drone manufacturer and service provider, today announced that it has raised $42 million from renowned financial and strategic investors. The new funding is part of a Series A extension round, tripling the company’s total equity raise to more than $60 million to date. Leading German retailer REWE Group as well as German investors Salvia and XAI technologies came on board as new shareholders. They were joined by Japanese conglomerate ITOCHU and previous backers Futury Capital from Germany and Silicon Valley-based Xplorer Capital.
REWE Group as one of Germany’s largest grocery retailers with 12,000 stores across Europe is an ideal addition to Wingcopter’s investor base and a clear sign that Wingcopter’s future will expand beyond medical drone delivery services. Salvia, with an investment focus on disruptive technologies, is known for its early investment in German biotech champion BioNTech and will actively support Wingcopter’s growth path with its longstanding company building expertise. XAI technologies, founded by machine vision pioneer Enis Ersü, will add additional value thanks to the team’s deep knowledge and experience in the fields of sensor technology and industrial automation. Listed in the Fortune Global 500 index, ITOCHU is one of Japan’s largest trading companies and will open new doors to the promising Japanese market.
With the fresh funding, Wingcopter will be able to further expand its drone delivery services globally and ramp up production of the world’s most efficient eVTOL delivery drone, the Wingcopter 198. Wingcopter has been experiencing a continuously growing demand for its new unmanned aircraft system and has already sold most production slots for this and next year. Wingcopter’s production facility in Germany is designed to manufacture thousands of Wingcopter drones per year and will soon start with partly automated production work, significantly speeding up the production process.
Moreover, Wingcopter plans to use the capital injection to accelerate the firm’s R&D efforts with regards to new product features and to hire 80 new employees across all departments within the next months. The new capital raise comes shortly after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had approved the Airworthiness Criteria for the Wingcopter 198, which marked a critical milestone in the U.S. Type Certification Process of the company’s flagship aircraft.
“At Wingcopter, we create efficient and sustainable drone solutions to save and improve lives. For this, we are hiring passionate pioneers with whom we build what has not existed before,” said Tom Plümmer, Co-founder and CEO of Wingcopter. “The new funding, combined with growing revenues, puts us in an excellent position to establish our industry-leading drone delivery solution with our customers around the globe to optimize supply chains.”
Christoph Eltze, Executive Board member Digital, Customer & Analytics and IT at REWE Group, adds: "REWE Group is one of the most innovative companies in German retail. For years, we have relied on strong partnerships with innovation leaders, especially in emerging trends. With Wingcopter, we have found such a new partner."
"With its disruptive technology and highly motivated team, Wingcopter has the potential to become a frontrunner in the drone delivery space. In the face of global challenges such as climate change, innovative companies such as Wingcopter are needed to lead an industry like logistics into a sustainable, more efficient future. We are pleased to accompany this success story from now on as an investor and sparring partner," adds Helmut Jeggle, Founder & Managing Partner of Salvia.
„We are excited to join the Wingcopter team on their way to the next growth milestones as a leader in drone delivery logistics,” explains Enis Ersü, Managing Owner of XAI technologies and former CEO of ISRA VISION. “Being an investor and a technology partner at the same time our team at XAI technologies is very much looking forward to generating further business potential by integrating advanced key technologies and operational excellence together with the management.”
Drone Delivery has gained enormous momentum in the last years, with more and more enterprises and administrations understanding the potential of fast and environmentally friendly on-demand deliveries through autonomous cargo drones. This is perfectly underscored by Wingcopter’s recent partnership agreement with Continental Drones that aims to deploy 12,000 Wingcopter drones over the next years to deliver much-needed goods throughout sub-Saharan Africa by building a new layer of infrastructure in the sky. Other Authorized Partners that act as strong local operators or distributors in their respective geographies include ITOCHU in Japan and Synerjet in Latin America, which both became investors in Wingcopter in addition to signing the partnership agreements.
In Malawi, where the company has been active since 2019, Wingcopter will expand its network operations with new Wingcopter 198 drones and more hubs, transporting various medical goods -- including emergency medicines and COVID vaccines -- to remote health centers, in line with the company’s goal to save and improve the lives of people all over the world.
Futury Capital doubles down on TVARIT
Deep Tech startup TVARIT successfully raised €2.8 million funding
Frankfurt, May 24, 2022 - The Frankfurt-based AI startup TVARIT, successfully closed a €2.8 million funding round. Last week TVARIT was awarded at #1 place with the DIGITAL FUTUREcongress Start-Up-Award 2022. Futury Capital had already identified TVARIT in 2019 at an early stage and accompanied its remarkable development. With the entry of the btov Industrial Technologies Fund (led by Matterwave Ventures, the former btov Industrial Technologies team) and BM H from Wiesbadan, TVARIT is positioning itself for future growth on a global scale.
TVARIT has developed one of the most advanced Industrial AI technologies for sustainable and zero-waste manufacturing. With the Deep Tech products and prescriptive AI, manufacturing companies not only receive preemptive signals, but also recommended actions to optimize production processes. This leads to a significant reduction in direct costs such as scrap and indirect costs such as resource-wastage and CO2 emissions.
TVARIT’s unique prescriptive engine has patented "Hybrid AI" technology, which combines shopfloor physics with state-of-the-art Deep Learning technology. Hybrid AI significantly reduces implementation time to 4 weeks with almost 100% prediction accuracy. It’s like having automatic cruise control in a car, because you now have radar with human like intelligence, it prevents the avoidable crashes.
In recent months, TVARIT has constantly achieved great results in reducing scrap and energy for its manufacturing clients, which has further fueled TVARIT’s organic revenue growth. Among others, the company succeeded in winning MAXION, one of the largest automotive wheel manufacturers in the world, as a customer and became its sole AI partner for their world-wide implementation, due to its outstanding performance in reducing production scrap and optimizing energy.
Founders Suhas Patel and Rahul Prajapat have already raised capital in various investment rounds since its inception in 2019. In addition to Futury Capital, who is again participating in the recent funding round, various business angels had already invested in TVARIT. To meet the increasing demand, TVARIT has already hired a chief growth officer, product developers, data scientists, and additional business development and sales staff.
In addition to expanding the technology, the new capital will primarily be used to expand the technical and sales team to meet the high customer demand and further scale the company. Apart from metal processing, other process industries such as the food industry are to be developed in the future.
Quotes
Suhas Patel - TVARIT
"TVARIT's vision is to drive the world towards sustainable and zero-waste manufacturing. To fulfil the vision, a company requires experienced external guidance. During our 2.5 years of journey with Futury, we received excellent support not only in connecting to the clients but also guiding us in contractual matters. The call-me-anytime help from Benjamin Krahmer and Michael Singer helped us accelerate our decisions in critical situations. Matterwave Ventures leverages vast industrial software experience from a large number of previous investments in the space . Robert Gallenberger and Victor Szabo have been very genuine in approach during the financing round. I’m also very grateful for the valuable support of Sebastian Schnell from BM H, especially during the COVID-19 crisis, before investing in TVARIT. With the diverse background from investors and highly qualified internal team, Tvarit is well prepared to disrupt the metal processing industry towards zero-waste"
Robert Gallenberger - Matterwave Ventures, the former btov Industrial Technologies team
"We have been looking for and analyzing young technology companies in the field of process optimization through advanced AI approaches to conserve resources and reduce industrial CO2 emissions for several years. Among numerous providers, the team of Tvarit convinced us very quickly. The company differentiates itself with significantly more commercial traction, deeper process understanding, and an overall far superior value proposition for industrial customers."
Benjamin Krahmer - Futury Capital:
"TVARIT's team and technology impressed us from the start; the completed global roll-out of the product to various industrial customers, is a tremendous milestone and illustrates the growth potential. We look forward to working with Matterwave Ventures and BM H as the company continues to grow."
Sebastian Schnell - BM H:
"Cost reduction and environmental protection will and must rapidly gain importance in almost all industries. We see significant growth potential and are happy to continue supporting TVARIT as it scales."
About TVARIT
TVARIT is a Deep Tech SaaS company specialized in the creation of digital assistants based on its "TVARIT Industrial Artificial Intelligence" (TiA). TiA provides prescriptive analytics to shopfloor engineers to reduce wastage of resources (4M - Man, Machine, Material and Money).
The team consists of over 40+ highly qualified engineers and experienced data scientists. We combine extensive industry experience with academic research and development - driven by a passion for technology & innovation.
TVARIT's customers include world-renowned manufacturing companies in the metal industry such as Maxion Wheels, Kamax, KSM, and Schunk Group. What they particularly appreciate about working with us is our high level of flexibility and personal commitment, our unique innovativeness, and the really quick ROI.
For more information, visit https://www.tvarit.com
About Matterwave Ventures,
btov Industrial Technologies is a VC fund managed by the former btov Industrial Technologies – now Matterwave Ventures – team, and is focused on European early-stage industrial hardware and software companies, empowering them to become global leaders. The focus lies on solutions that shape the future of industrial value creation, driven by software and hardware innovation – from materials to components to systems to software. The team supports portfolio companies with a genuine interest in their products, deep market knowledge, strong industry connections, and unparalleled investment experience in the sector.
With a fund size of EUR 100m btov Industrial Technologies typically participates in Seed and Series A investment rounds across Europe with initial investments between EUR 1-3m. Including follow-on financing rounds, up to EUR 10m per portfolio company can be invested.
For further information please visit https://matterwave.vc/
About BM H
Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen mbH ("BMH"), headquartered in Wiesbaden, was founded in 2001 and is an entirely owned subsidiary of Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale (Helaba). Through Wirtschafts- und Infrastrukturbank Hessen (WIBank), BMH Hessen is actively involved in the economic development activities of the State of Hesse. As a medium-sized investment and venture capital company, BMH bundles public investment interests and financing instruments for early-stage, growth, and medium-sized companies in Hesse.
Aaron.ai secures Series A funding
Aaron.ai receives €3.5 million for digital practice assistant of the future
Berlin, May 16th 2022 – Berlin-based Aaron.ai has successfully closed a €3.5 million financing round. Munich-based impact investor BonVenture, IBB Ventures from Berlin and Futury Capital's venture fund from Frankfurt participated in the round.
The AI health-tech company has developed the digital practice assistant "Aaron". It takes calls from patients when the practice team is unavailable and handles them automatically. Using artificial intelligence, the technology bridges the gap between the growing medical staff shortage and the aging society. As a solution that can be booked online in a few clicks, Aaron.ai addresses this staff shortage by making artificial intelligence easily accessible.
More than 2.000 physicians already use the AI-powered employee "Aaron" to automatically take calls, prioritize them and therefore relieve staff in the medical field. Recently, the AI employee also relieved Germany’s health offices by answering inquiries regarding Covid-19 in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry of Health and the Institute for Public Health at the Charité University in Berlin.
In addition to advancing the product, the capital will primarily be invested in employees: "If you want to work on a more sustainable healthcare system for the next decades, you've come to the right place," says co-founder Richard von Schaewen. "Many positions in sales, research & development and customer support are waiting to be filled with inspiring people who want to contribute to a better healthcare system for everyone”.
Quotes
Paul Garte, Investment Manager at BonVenture, the first impact investor in Germany, emphasizes: "We are convinced that Aaron makes a very important contribution to better patient care - on the one hand by improving the accessibility of doctors and on the other hand by relieving medical staff."
Christian Seegers, Investment Director at IBB Ventures, explains, "Aaron.ai's smart telephone assistant improves doctor-patient communication, relieves the burden on medical staff and saves patients unnecessary waiting time in a telephone loop. We were immediately impressed by the product's scope of services and are convinced that Aaron, with its experienced team of founders, is ideally positioned to benefit from the ongoing digitalization in the healthcare market."
Benjamin Krahmer, Managing Director of Futury Capital, added: "We consider AI-based business models to be very attractive, as AI is increasingly finding its way into everyday life. Aaron has succeeded in developing a scalable solution that is already simplifying the lives of doctors and patients and making them more efficient. We look forward to working with the founding team as they continue to grow."
About Aaron.ai
Aaron.ai provides an AI-powered practice assistant called Aaron that takes the burden off medical practices and helps patients handle their concerns via the phone 24/7. More than 2.000 physicians already use the technology daily to avoid missing calls and emergencies, quickly prioritizing inquiries and reducing the burden on the practice team. The AI health tech company was founded in 2015 by Tobias Wagenführer, Richard von Schaewen and Iwan Lappo-Danilewski and is based in Berlin.
About BonVenture
BonVenture was founded in 2003 to provide social venture capital to companies that have a social or environmental business purpose and thus deliver a measurable social impact. As a partner to social entrepreneurs, BonVenture supports them with capital, know-how and a broad network, provides guidance in the establishment and growth of the organization and thus promotes the development and dissemination of innovative approaches in the social and ecological field. BonVenture was the first to adopt this approach in German-speaking countries, is the first officially registered manager for European Social Funds (EuSEF) in Europe, currently manages capital of around 83 million euros and has supported more than 50 social enterprises to date.
About Futury Capital
Futury Capital is an early-stage and growth investor focused on tech startups in Germany and globally. The investment universe covers multiple industries such as technology, software, consumer internet, artificial intelligence, fintech and more, helping companies accelerate their growth on their way to becoming global market leaders. Through its LP structure of the State of Hesse, family offices, German SMEs and multinational corporations, Futury Capital supports its portfolio companies both strategically and operationally in building them into exceptional companies.
About IBB Ventures
IBB Ventures has been providing venture capital to innovative Berlin-based companies since 1997 and has established itself as the market leader in early-stage financing in Berlin. The funds are primarily used for the development and market launch of innovative products or services as well as for business concepts in the creative industries. Currently, two funds with a total volume of 122 million euros are in the investment phase. Both VC funds are financed by funds from Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), administered by the State of Berlin. IBB Ventures has already invested in more than 260 Berlin-based creative and technology companies; in consortia with partners, the startups received more than €1.7 billion, of which IBB Ventures invested more than €250 million as lead, co-lead or co-investor. IBB Ventures is the umbrella brand for the VC activities of IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft.
U23 European decathlon champion secures pre-seed funding
U23 European decathlon champion secures pre-seed funding:
Frankfurt am Main, 04. April 2022 –Tech start-up Preventio, developer of the first software solution to reliably predict building damages, receives €1.35 million in a pre-seed funding round. Preventio's predictive maintenance platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) to forecast the risk of building damages.
The round is led by Futury Capital, an early-stage and growth investor focusing on tech start-ups. In addition, Andreas Haug, founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Headline, BMH Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen and prominent angel investors such as Christoph Benner, Marcus Laube and Alexander Jörger participated in the round.
Building damages, in particular tap water damages, leading to billions in damage costs and considerable water loss annually. These damages are one of the main cost drivers for the building sector and are expected to increase as many properties age. Preventio's solution supports insurance companies, housing associations and pipe manufacturers in identifying risks and reducing damages. The capital raised will be used to expand the research and development team and further enhance the predictive maintenance platform to transform the AI-based prototype into a scalable software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application.
From a university research project into a tech start-up
Founded by three fellow students, Andreas Bechmann, Bledion Vladi and Frederic Büdel, Preventiostarted in 2021 as a research project at accadis University of Applied Sciences Bad Homburg incollaboration with companies from across the industry. At the beginning of 2022, Peter Yves Rulandjoined the team as Co-Founder and CTO, who brings 20 years of experience from Microsoft and hasalready accompanied several tech start-ups in their development.
Sensorless approach makes Preventio’s solution unique
Unlike other providers, which rely predominantly on expensive sensors, Preventio's AI solution can predict the probability of tap water damages by analysing various data points from historical damages. This eliminates the need to install sensors, allowing market participants to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively.
Preventio has already established a large data pool from various recognized industry partners, including Viega and Vonovia, continuously expanding and enriching with further relevant data. This data pool is the basis for more accurate and reliable damage predictions and allows better recommendations for the respective market players.
Industry insiders support Preventio’s approach
The Preventio innovation is already receiving considerable support in the real estate industry: „The approach contributes to the sustainable maintenance and value preservation of the building and the well-being of the residents. We are pleased to be a pilot partner of Preventio and support the start-up in this phase", explains Konstantina Kanellopoulos, Co-CEO of Deutsche Wohnen and Executive Vice President Value-Add at Vonovia.
„Water damages are among the highest repair claims in residential and commercial buildings. So far, there hasn’t been an opportunity to predict a potential failure in a piping system; only an actual failure could be registered. The data-driven solution allows us to analyze water use in buildings, forecast potential pipe failures, and work together with our contractors to create new revenue streams andavoid loss of rental income/usage and high repair costs for building owners”, says Christian Geisthof, VP Corporate Development at Viega LLC, the leading pipe manufacturer worldwide.
Preventio is „Sporthilfe Start-up of the Year 2021“
In 2021, Preventio was named "Sporthilfe Startup of the Year" by Deutsche Sporthilfe, Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB) and the Werte-Stiftung. One of the founders, Andreas Bechmann, is the U23 European decathlon champion and a track and field athlete for Eintracht Frankfurt. „We congratulate our scholarship holder Andreas Bechmann and his team on the successful financing round. The fact that and how he manages to implement his sports successes in business is highly impressive and the ideal example for Sporthilfe support," says Christian Seifert, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Sporthilfe and long-time Managing Director of the DFL German Football League.
„This pre-seed round is a strong vote of confidence from investors for the potential of our solution. We share the vision, to empower industries by redefining predictive maintenance through creating intelligent systems based on understanding, analysing, and presenting data,” share Andreas Bechmann and Peter Yves Ruland, Managing Directors of Preventio.
„Water damages due to pipe leaks cost insurance and other companies billions of euros annually. Preventio is the only predictive maintenance player on the market who is tackling the problem of residential water damage with a purely data-driven approach. Within just one year, the team has developed from a university project into a tech start-up with a clear strategy and major names fromthe industry as pilot customers”, says Shahin Dashti, Investment Manager at Futury Capital.
„Preventio pursues an innovative approach with the developed predictive maintenance technology to manage a complex problem such as building damages. I am convinced that the team’s strategic approach to cooperate with established companies from the real estate ecosystem is forward-looking and mutually beneficial. This way, Preventio's partners can realize significant cost reductions and optimize existing business processes", says Headline founder Andreas Haug, who is also a personal mentor of the founder and CEO of Preventio, Andreas Bechmann.
Barbara Spitzenberg, the responsible investment manager at BMH, says: „Preventio addresses an enormously large target market in the area of damage prediction with its AI-based technology developed in Hesse. The founding team is entrepreneurially experienced, has an extensive network, and fully convinced us with a solid business plan. We see enormous potential here, so BMH is happy to support Preventio in its planned growth steps with capital and know-how".
Preventio plans to expand its core team and create additional jobs in Frankfurt. Data scientists and software developers are particularly sought for this purpose.
About Preventio
Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Frankfurt, Preventio develops AI-based software solutions to predict and prevent building damages. With the vision: Predicting the World. Together, Preventio believes that the risk of building damages can be reduced drastically with the technologies available. As a fellow of the Impact Factory, a private grant supporting social and sustainable start-ups, Preventio pursues the UN Sustainable Development Goals 3, 9 and 11 by contributing to sustainable solutions for cities and industry and reducing waste of resources, especially water.
About Futury Capital
Futury Capital is an early- and growth-stage investor focusing on tech start-ups in Germany and worldwide. The investment universe covers multiple industries such as technology, software,consumer internet, artificial intelligence, adtech, fintech and more, supporting companies to accelerate their growth and entrepreneurs to become global leaders. Through the LP structure fromthe state of Hesse, Family Offices, German SMEs, and multinational corporates, Futury Capital supports its portfolio companies both strategically and operationally to build exceptional companies.
About BMH Hessen
BMH Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen mbH ("BMH"), based in Wiesbaden, was foundedin 2001 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale (Helaba).Through Wirtschafts- und Infrastrukturbank Hessen (WIBank), BMH is actively involved in the economic development of the State of Hesse. As a medium-sized investment and venture capital company, BMH bundles public investment interests and financing instruments for early-stage, growth, and medium-sized companies in Hesse. BMH currently manages seven investment funds with around 125 million euros invested investment volume. Since its foundation, BMH has invested over 250 million euros in a total of more than 500 companies. Investment focuses include the software & IT, life sciences, mechanical and plant engineering, industrial goods, professional services, and e-commerce sectors. More information about BMH and its funds: www.bmh-hessen.de
Job Post: Intern - Venture Capital
Through our two funds, we invest in German and international tech companies in seed and growth stage and help to accelerate their (inter-)national growth. Together with our LPs, consisting of the state of Hesse, family offices, German medium-sized companies, and multi-national corporations, we support our portfolio companies both strategically and operationally.
Are you enthusiastic about tech startups and enjoy working independently in a highly motivated and dedicated team? Do you represent the values of the Futury Capital Family? Then you are exactly right with us! Starting in June 2022 for four to six months, we are looking for:
Intern (m/f/d) in “Venture Capital”
We offer:
• Flat hierarchies with room for your own ideas in a dynamic, committed, and motivated work environment
• Active participation in the investment process and portfolio management
• Direct involvement in operational tasks
• Working in a unique environment consisting of Futury, Werte-Stiftung and FUTURE Institute for Sustainable Transformation, among others
Your Tasks:
• Supporting the investment team in the research and analysis of startups as well as preparation of documents for investment reviews based on business plans
• Analysis of relevant markets and support in the technology review process
• Assisting in managing of our deal flow
• Participation in meetings with founders
• Support in the creation of reportings and presentations for our limited partners
Your Requirements:
• Fluent in English and German
• Empathic and down-to-earth behavior in line with our core values
• Team player while being ambitious as well as a quick learner
• Strong level of self-motivation and high willingness to learn
• Strong conceptual skills paired with creativity
• Very good analytical and communication skills
• Attention to detail while managing multiple tasks simultaneously
• Student in at least the 5th semester of business/economics with exceptional academic achievements
• Ideally first experience at a startup, VC, strategy consulting or investment banking
• Excellent knowledge of MS-Office (Power Point & Excel)
Please apply with your CV and motivation letter at info@futurycapital.vc
www.futurycapital.vc
Futury Capital führt die Finanzierungsrunde von THING TECHNOLOGIES an
Thing Technologies sammelt 7,5 Millionen Euro Wachstumskapital ein
Das Technologieunternehmen THING TECHNOLOGIES hat eine Finanzierungsrunde in Höhe von 7,5 Millionen Euro abgeschlossen. Mit der Software Thing-it stellt das Unternehmen eine Smart Real Estate Operations Platform für ein ganzheitliches Gebäude- und Quartiersmanagement. Fünf Jahre nach Gründung des Unternehmens setzen bereits 12,5 Prozent der DAX-Konzerne die Software ein. Insgesamt läuft die Software in 20 Ländern über den Globus verteilt.
Mit dem eingesammelten Wachstumskapital wird das Unternehmen die Verbreitung der Smart Real Estate Platform im Markt weiter vorantreiben. „Wir bauen unsere Marktführerschaft konsequent aus. Dazu führen wir 2022 weitere Features ein, mit denen Asset Manager, Corporate Real Estate Manager und Facility Manager die mit dem Gebäude assoziierten ESG-Parameter sehen, überwachen und steuern können“, erklärt Gründer und CEO Dr. Marc Gille. Zusätzlich soll das Teamkräftig wachsen. Das Unternehmen will 2022 über 30 neue Arbeitsplätze schaffen.
Futury Capital führt die Finanzierungsrunde an
Als Leadinvestor engagiert sich Futury Capital aus Frankfurt am Main. Der auf Tech-Unternehmen spezialisierte Investor wird den Wachstumskurs von THING TECHNOLOGIES über Netzwerk und Know-How unterstützen.
Mit rund einem Drittel der Summe beteiligen sich die Bestandsinvestoren PropTech1 Ventures aus Berlin und Anyon aus Eschborn. Beide Investoren fungieren als langfristig engagierte Ankerinvestoren und begleiten das junge Unternehmen bereits seit 2019 und 2017.
Erstmalig steigt die Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen (BMH) als Investor ein. Die landeseigene Investmentgesellschaft des Landes Hessens agiert so als Wirtschaftsförderer des Landes und unterstützt innovative Unternehmen aus Hessen.
Die Investoren, allen voran Futury Capital, sind von dem Produkt überzeugt. Shahin Dashti, Investment Manager bei Futury Capital betont, dass die Technologie von Thing-it weiter über den Standard aktueller Buchungs-Apps hinausgeht: „Das starke, integrative, skalierbare, Enterprise-Grade Backend: die Thing-it Plattform, ist in ihrer technischen Tiefe einmalig. Wir freuen uns, das THING TECHNOLOGIES Team in Zukunft auf ihrer Mission, Gebäude intelligenter und effizienter zu gestalten, zu unterstützen“, sagt Shahin Dashti.
Jürgen Zabel, Managing Director bei Futury Capital ergänzt: „Das sehr erfahrene Management-Team und die Nutzung der Thing-it Lösung durch internationale Blue-Chip Konzerne haben uns überzeugt."
Pionier mit großem Potenzial
Auf eine Premiere ist CEO und Gründer von THING TECHNOLOGIES Dr. Marc Gille besonders stolz. Das Unternehmen hat den Mitarbeitern die Möglichkeit angeboten, sich im Rahmen der Finanzierungsrunde zu beteiligen. „Wir haben das Angebot völlig unverbindlich unterbreitet, wohlwissend, dass auch niemand hätte investieren wollen“, sagt Dr. Marc Gille und führt fort, „dass jetzt rund 60 Prozent der Mitarbeiter die Möglichkeit genutzt haben, ist überwältigend!“ Dr. Marc Gille und sein Co-Founder Klaus Berberich werten das hohe Engagement ihrer Mitarbeiter als einen sehr starken Vertrauensbeweis in das Produkt, das Team und das Potential von THING TECHNOLOGIES.
Benjamin Krahmer, Managing Director bei Futury Capital schließt ab: „Wir heißen das Thing-it Team herzlichen willkommen bei uns und freuen uns auf die gemeinsame Reise."
The Germany-based startup Recyda raises its first institutional funding with Futury Capital
Recyda secures seed funding from Futury Capital
The Germany-based startup Recyda raises its first institutional funding with Futury Capital to accelerate its business. With the entire Futury Ecosystem behind them, the team developed their idea, prototyped their solution and now calls multiple big players in the consumer goods industry their clients.
The environmental impact of waste is significant with massive volumes being produced around the world and only a vanishingly small share that is (or can be) recycled. To fight the flood of packaging waste, Recyda developed a RECYclability DAtabase that centralizes information on the most important parameters for packaging recyclability at an international level.
THE FIRST ADVANCED RECYCLABILITY ASSESSMENT TOOL
Recyda helps companies along the packaging value chain assessing the recyclability of consumer goods packaging solutions. Specifically, the software tool consolidates research on country-specific recyclability to embed it into a web application with a comprehensive database and advanced packaging management features. By visualizing how changes in the packaging specifications affect recyclability, the tool allows brand owners, retailers, and packaging producers to align with country-specific requirements and optimize their impact to contribute to the circular economy.
THE STARTING POINT HAS BEEN ‘THE MISSION’
The three minds behind Recyda came together in September 2019 at ‘The Mission’, a large-scale initiative that was launched by Futury, Deutsche Bank, Bain & Company, Handelsblatt Media Group and PreZero to connect entrepreneurial talents and corporate partners to innovate together. The first Mission ‘Waste – Be Circular!’ brought together 11 leading companies from the entire food industry value chain as well as 20 young talents from around the globe to jointly fight plastic waste. For the three-month innovation program, Christian Knobloch, Anna Zießow and Vivian Loftin had been matched as a team to develop a world map for recycling envisioned by Huhtamaki as one of the program partners. Coming from different backgrounds in technology, business, environmental sciences and international communication, the team members complemented each other and built a high-performing team with the shared vision to reduce waste: “With this amazing team, we can achieve anything”, says Christian Knobloch.
At Futury, the team benefited from an extensive network with market leaders and experts from the field to decisively build a solution and found their own business. After ‘The Mission’, the team spun off and managed to become self-funded through successful pilot projects and the validation of their first MVP together with Schwarz Group, Huhtamaki, and Schur Flexibles. “We still feel the spirit and drive that the Futury Team gave us, and we continue bringing the same energy into our team. This journey will help us to take the next steps and achieve even greater things together”, reflects Vivian Loftin. In the end of 2020, the team launched their MVP – their customer base is growing, and the team constantly works on developing their SaaS tool further while recruiting their first working students and full-time employee directly from the Futury network.
RECYDA IS PART OF THE FUTURY ECOSYSTEM
With Futury Capital, Recyda raised its first external capital after frequent exchanges over the last two years. “We have known Recyda from the beginning, and it has been great to see the team’s progress after ‘The Mission’ as well as corporate partners from the pilot phase turning into their first paying customers. As first institutional investor, we are excited to now support the team even closer and grow their business together”, says Benjamin Krahmer, Managing Director at Futury Capital. “At Futury, we can support young entrepreneurs all along their way, from forming an idea to accelerating a business. We are proud to see Recyda’s development during the last two years, enforcing their business and becoming an active part of our network by mentoring and inspiring our new teams“, adds Charlie Müller, Founder and Managing Director at Futury.
The story of Recyda accentuates the importance of a strong team, an innovation-driven mindset, cross-sector solutions and the continuous support of an ecosystem. “I am happy to carry on growing and turning ambitious ideas into reality. Now, we can make the next important step to achieve the world’s circular economy goals”, concludes Anna Zießow.
Tech startup seedtrace launches a digital platform to turn supply chain transparency into the norm
Tech startup seedtrace launches a digitalplatform to turn supply chain transparency into the norm
Led by CEOs Katharina Elisa Davids and Ana Selina Haberbosch, the Berlin based startup seedtrace aims at turning supply chain transparency into the norm by providing a platform that makes the social and ecological impact of consumer products both provable and visible to consumers. The Software as a Service (SaaS) company allows businesses to show the journey of their products from origin to point of sale by mapping all steps along the supply chain.
The startup recently closed its seed funding round, led by Futury VC along with angel investor Antoine Welter, SaaS Sales Expert Julius Göllner and 6 other investors including blockchain specialists and industry experts. The new funds will be used for the expansion of seedtrace’s ecosystem and the implementation of project-based supply chain tracing through blockchain technology.
“Purchasing behavior of end consumers for products within the food, cosmetics and fashion industry is increasingly driven by socio-ecological factors. The seedtrace platform offers the user transparency throughout the whole value chain of each listed product in terms of sustainability standards” says Shahin Dashti, Investment Manager of Futury VC.
A digital platform that makes supply chain transparencyunderstandable, provable and visible
“When I worked with farms across Africa to build fair andvdirect trade opportunities, I realized how complex and yet unique everyproduct’s value chain is. From wild-growing practices to outgrower schemes and cooperatives at a large scale, the locals I met are doing an incredible job in uplifting communities and creating quality products. Although consumers increasingly care, we usually know little to nothing about the social and ecological impact of our consumer choices.” says seedtrace CEO Katharina Elisa Davids.
Through the seedtrace platform, businesses can make specific impact claims about themselves, individual products or certain steps along the supply chain. These include claims like “fair payments'', “100% recycled packaging” or “carbon neutral" which can then be confirmed either through a global network of NGOs and certifiers or by processes and financial transactions stored on the blockchain. Businesses can use the seedtrace platform to track their impact internally and simultaneously tell a compelling story to their customers with a QR code on their packaging, using a webshop integration and on social media. The platform also collects product-specific feedback and generates valuable consumer insights.
Supply chain transparency increasingly dominates consumer demand
According to a recent KPMG study, 72% of consumers in Germany buy more sustainable products in the supermarket compared to a few years ago, and 69% would pay up to 10% morefor these products. However, 55% of consumers are unsure which option is the most sustainable one.* At the same time, the pressure on businesses is increasing; poor working conditions in developing countries, child labor, exploitation, low wages and enormous environmental pollution along complex global supply chains remain a major issue that sparked recent discussions on the Supply Chain Act.
“The only way to bridge the gap between product origin and consumers, is to turn supply chain transparency into a unique selling proposition. Building both trust and an emotional connection on product level enables brands to increase customer loyalty and willingness to pay. At seedtrace, we believe in a reality where all actors along the chain work and scale together.” says seedtrace CEO Ana Selina Haberbosch
Proving impact from seed to shelf through Blockchain Technology
Putting the verification of fair payments into practise, seedtrace engages in a long-term partnership with Koa, an impact-focused international cocoa pulp supplier. Koa and seedtrace prove fair payments to every single smallholder on their cocoa farms in Ghana, many of whom live in remote areas with no internet or electricity. Every transaction is approved through a three-leveled process and irrevocably stored on an open blockchain. That way, proven impact becomes visible both for collaborators along the chainas well as consumers.
“We are pleased to be leading the financing round of seedtrace to shape together the world of value chain transparency”, says Benjamin Krahmer, Managing Director of Futury VC.
The seedtrace GmbH was founded in June 2020 in Berlin by Katharina Elisa Davids, Ana Selina Haberbosch, Jonathan Mandt and Florian Fischer.
DEMECAN is about to establish a subsidiary in Hesse
DEMECAN, Germany’s only independent producer of medical cannabis, has closed another multi-million Euro financing round. The investment will be used for further growth as well as the expansion of the production facility, located near Dresden, into Europe's most modern facility for the cultivation and processing of medicinal cannabis.
The investment in the upper single-digit million range comes from private and institutional investors, among whom is new investor Futury Fund as well as existing shareholders, including the btov Private Investor Network.
"It is DEMECAN’s mission to guarantee the nationwide supply of high-quality medical cannabis for the benefit of patients in Germany. Therefore, we not only focus on the cultivation of medical cannabis but are also active in the field of R&D to develop new and innovative dosage forms," explains Dr. Adrian Fischer, physician, co-founder, and CEO of DEMECAN.
This financing round is an important step for DEMECAN in its rapid growth trajectory since being selected as a supplier of medical cannabis for the Federal Republic of Germany in 2019. In addition to product development and distribution, strategic objectives include collaborations with research-based pharmaceutical companies and the coordination and strengthening of operational pharmaceutical distribution.
To implement the corporate strategy, the DEMECAN Group intends to establish a subsidiary in the state of Hessen. The immediate proximity to pharmaceutical companies is critical as is cooperation with smaller cannabis companies in the region. The aim is to establish a dedicated medical cannabis research cluster, where knowledge of medical cannabis is combined with experience from large-scale pharmaceutical production. This will further enable DEMECAN to grow and conduct research more rapidly.
"DEMECAN has been able to establish itself early on as a leader in the medical cannabis market and we are convinced that it is positioned to take a leading role in Europe as well," said Benjamin Krahmer, Managing Director of Futury.
FRGF supports Apiax with their expansion to Germany
FRGF invests in cooperation with the partner VC e.ventures, XAnge and other business angels into Apiax, a Swiss RegTech company that provides its customers from the financial industry with a regulatory cockpit that legal and compliance teams can use to manage, review and apply new regulations.
The technology is based on machine learning and, as a cloud application, is independent of any infrastructure. The financing round will be used to drive forward the expansion of activities in Germany and here in particular in Hesse, the opening of a branch in Frankfurt am Main and the financing of ongoing operations.
"Banks, insurance companies and generally any kind of financial institution are facing ever increasing compliance and regulatory requirements. Requirements are becoming more complex, rules are changing, global networking is leading to mandatory compliance with different country regulations. As a result, significant cost positions within compliance and regulatory departments have been built up in recent years, with an upward trend. Apiax offers with its SaaS solution a comprehensive software for various regulatory processes and obligations thus enables a faster, more cost-effective and efficient handling of compliance issues“, said Benjamin Krahmer, Managing Director at FRGF.
Das Land Hessen sowie führende Unternehmen und Investoren gründen Wachstumsfonds für stark wachsende technologieorientierte Unternehmen
Das Land Hessen gründet in Kooperation mit renommierten Unternehmen aus Hessen und Deutschland sowie weiteren Investoren den Futury Regio Growth Fonds. Mit dem Fonds möchten die Beteiligten vor allem technologieorientierte Unternehmen in späteren Phasen unterstützen und zugleich Hessen als Innovations- und Entwicklungsstandort fördern. Den Fonds hatten die Regierungspartner im Hessischen Koalitionsvertrag verankert. Bereits Ende 2020 haben die Fondsaktivitäten begonnen.
Mit den Investments in einer Größenordnung von zwei bis acht Millionen Euro sollen Unternehmen und Geschäftsmodelle unterstützt werden, die innovative Lösungen und Produkte in zukunftsweisenden Technologiebereichen bieten und zugleich global orientiert sind. Dazu gehören u.a. die Bereiche Künstliche Intelligenz, Fin-Tech, Internet, Software sowie Mobilität und Logistik.
Bereits 2018 hatte das Land Hessen gemeinsam mit privaten Investoren den Futury Venture Fonds aufgelegt, der in Wachstumsunternehmen aus Hessen und Deutschland in der frühen Phase investiert. Aus Sicht des Landes ist die erneute Zusammenarbeit von öffentlicher Hand und Privatwirtschaft bei diesem größeren und weiter gefassten Fonds der natürliche nächste Schritt, wie Hessens Finanzminister Michael Boddenberg heute bei der Vorstellung in Frankfurt erläuterte: „Die Bedingungen für Gründer werden in Deutschland immer besser. Doch gerade technologieorientierte Innovationen fordern von Unternehmen große finanzielle Investitionen, für die hier zu Lande oftmals die nötigen Finanzierungsoptionen fehlen. Mit dem Futury Regio Growth Fonds zeigen wir, dass wir moderne Technologien in unserem Land etablieren wollen und deshalb auch das erforderliche Kapital bereitstellen, das für solche Entwicklungen benötigt wird. Land und Private setzen ein starkes, gemeinsames Zeichen und zusammen auf neue Ideen für die Zukunft - made in Hessen. Das ist inmitten der Corona-Krise wichtiger denn je.“
Neben dem Land Hessen haben sich zahlreiche global tätige Unternehmen und private Investoren an dem Fonds beteiligt, viele mit Sitz in Hessen wie die Deutsche Börse, Fresenius, Merck, die Deutsche Bank, ODDO BHF, WISAG und Mainova, aber auch Goldbeck, Dussmann und die ND Group. „Diese enge Kooperation von Politik, Unternehmen und privaten Investoren ist in Deutschland einzigartig“, sagte Wirtschaftsminister Tarek Al-Wazir. „Sie zeigt, dass Hessen ein Standort ist, in den investiert wird und der in- und ausländischen Unternehmen ein attraktives Umfeld für Ansiedlungen bietet. So holen wir nicht nur Kapital, sondern auch internationales Know-how nach Hessen.“
„Als in Hessen angesiedelter, global tätiger Gesundheitskonzern wollen wir immer mehr Menschen auf der ganzen Welt mit immer besserer Medizin versorgen. Unsere Beteiligung an dieser gemeinsamen Initiative passt sehr gut zu diesem Anspruch. Denn Investitionen in Zukunftstechnologien verbessern die Lebensqualität und sind damit auch Grundlage für nachhaltigen wirtschaftlichen Erfolg“, sagte Stephan Sturm, Vorstandsvorsitzender von Fresenius.
„Vor dem Hintergrund des Strukturwandels in der Energiebranche sowie der digitalen Transformation versprechen wir uns als Partner des Fonds wichtige Impulse für neue Geschäftsfelder sowie innovative Lösungen und Produkte für unsere Kunden. Zudem bietet uns der Fonds eine sehr gute Möglichkeit, einen weiteren Beitrag zur Förderung von jungen Unternehmen in Hessen und der regionalen Wirtschaft zu leisten“, erklärt Dr. Constantin H. Alsheimer, Vorstandsvorsitzender von Mainova.
„Bereits seit einigen Jahren unterstützen wir die Start-up-Initiativen der Hessischen Landesregierung und verfolgen eigene Venture-Aktivitäten. Dabei entwickeln wir gezielt junge Unternehmen, die wie wir selbst als Technologieunternehmen im Finanzbereich tätig sind. Beim Futury Fonds engagieren wir uns, weil es sinnvoll ist, in diesem Bereich die Kräfte zu bündeln und den Innovationsstandort nachhaltig zu unterstützen“, sagte der Vorstandsvorsitzende der Deutschen Börse, Dr. Theodor Weimer.
Der Fonds mit Sitz in Frankfurt am Main hat ein Fondsvolumen von 60 Millionen Euro, das zur Hälfte vom Land Hessen finanziert wird, und kooperiert mit dem international tätigen Venture Capital Investor e.ventures.
„Durch die aktive Einbindung unserer Erfahrungen und unseres Netzwerkes in den Futury Regio Growth Fonds können Investments zielgerichtet gebündelt und gemeinsam größere Beteiligungssummen bereitgestellt werden“, erklärt Andreas Haug, Mitgründer und General Partner bei e.ventures. Darüber hinaus ergibt sich durch die globalen Beteiligungen von e.ventures in den Märkten Deutschland, EU, USA und Asien international eine starke Positionierung des Standortes Hessen und der finanzierten Unternehmen. Ziel ist es, durch die unterschiedlichen Wirkrichtungen der Fonds Synergien zu schaffen und damit weiteres Kapital für die Region anzuziehen sowie internationale Firmen für den Standort Hessen zu begeistern.
Der Futury Regio Growth Fonds hat bereits in den ersten Wochen erfolgreich zwei Beteiligungen getätigt. Zum einen wurde die Wingcopter GmbH, ein Entwickler, Hersteller und Betreiber von unbemannten leistungsfähigen Lieferdrohnen, finanziert – ein global wachsendes Unternehmen aus Weiterstadt in Südhessen. Mit den Mitteln wird Wingcopter seine führende Position in dem stark wachsenden internationalen Markt der drohnenbasierten Logistik ausbauen können. Tom Plümmer, Mitgründer und CEO von Wingcopter, kommentiert: „Wir sind stolz, als eines der ersten Start-ups vom Futury Regio Growth Fonds eine Finanzierung erhalten zu haben. Das Futury-Team ist zudem exzellent vernetzt und kann uns sowohl in Politik als auch Wirtschaft diverse Türen öffnen.“
Das zweite Investment wurde an der Apiax AG, Zürich, getätigt. Apiax ist ein Softwareunternehmen, das im Umfeld Regulatorik und Compliance tätig ist. Apiax bietet Firmen ein digitales regulatorisches Cockpit, mit dem Legal- und Compliance-Teams neue Vorschriften agil verwalten, überprüfen und anwenden können. Geplant ist, in der ersten Stufe eine Niederlassung in Frankfurt am Main zu eröffnen und hier mit dem Aufbau der deutschen Vertriebsorganisation zu starten. Gerade der Standort Frankfurt als das größte europäische Finanzzentrum neben London bietet ausgezeichnete Möglichkeiten zur Skalierung des digitalen Geschäftsmodells.
Auf www.frgf.vc sind alle weiteren Details zum Wachstumsfonds zu finden.
Über e.ventures:
e.ventures ist ein globaler VC-Fonds mit dem Investment Fokus auf Internet- und Softwareunternehmen in der Früh- und Wachstumsphase. Seit 1998 investiert das Investmentteam aus seinen Fonds in den USA, Europa, Asien und Südamerika. e.ventures' Portfolio umfasst diverse Global Category Creators wie Acorns, Deposit Solutions, Blinkist, Farfetch, NGINX, Segment und Sonos.
Über Futury Regio Growth Fonds:
Der Futury Regio Growth Fonds unterstützt außergewöhnliche Gründer außergewöhnlicher Unternehmen, indem er in deren zukünftiges Wachstum investiert. Wir investieren in vielversprechende, schnell wachsende Technologieunternehmen in fortgeschrittenen Phasen mit dem Ziel, Weltmarktführer zu schaffen. Wir investieren in internationale Unternehmen, die nach Deutschland expandieren wollen und helfen ihnen, ihr globales Wachstum von Hessen aus zu beschleunigen. Darüber hinaus helfen wir deutschen Unternehmen mit einem Bezug zu Hessen, nationale und internationale Wachstumsstrategien zu entwickeln. Wir unterstützen sie mit Kapital, Know-how und unserem Netzwerk und sind aktive Gesellschafter. Gemeinsam mit den Gründern verfolgen wir ein Ziel: die Entwicklung von globalen Spitzenunternehmen. www.frgf.vc
Wingcopter raises $22M to advance technology leadership in drone delivery
The German developer, manufacturer and operator of unmanned delivery drones for commercial and humanitarian applications has secured $22 million in Series A funding. The financing round was led by Futury Regio Growth Fund and by Silicon Valley-based Xplorer Capital. In addition, Futury Ventures and Hessen Kapital III participated in this financing round.
Holger Follmann, initiator and Managing Director at FRGF, joins the board of Wingcopter. “The Wingcopter team combines entrepreneurial spirit with superior technology know-how and looks back on an impressive number of worldwide drone projects. This is what it takes to conquer a rapidly growing market such as the international drone market. We are excited to support Wingcopter on its flight towards becoming a global leader in the international drone business and look forward to working together with the team and founders”, says Benjamin Krahmer, Managing Director of Futury Regio Growth Fund and Futury Ventures.
A portion of the new capital is allocated to setting up a partially automated serial production at Wingcopter’s new headquarters in Weiterstadt, Germany. Wingcopter will use the funds to strengthen its leadership in drone-based logistics. At the same time, Wingcopter is well-positioned and ready to establish more partnerships worldwide centering around other fully automated delivery applications.
Tom Plümmer, CEO of Wingcopter, summarizes: “Our team is driven by tackling the world’s challenges through scalable innovations. This chapter of our journey is dedicated to setting up logistical highways in the sky that leapfrog traditional means of transportation. Poor infrastructure has always been a barrier, especially for healthcare provision, impacting billions of lives - a situation further exacerbated by COVID-19. With the support and powerful networks of our investors we are taking a huge step closer to fulfilling our vision of creating efficient and sustainable drone solutions that improve and save lives everywhere.”
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Futury Venture as well as the Liechtenstein venture fund SeedX and existing investors Berliner Volksbank Ventures and IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft are investing millions in the youg Berlin startup remind.me, a reminder and optimization service for contracts and insurance (focus: electricity and gas exchange service). The tariff watchdog was founded in 2018 by Daniel Engelbarts and Christian Lang, who had previously built and sold Sparwelt.de successfully to European media company RTL. “We are delighted to be become part of this success story and look forward to work closely with the highly experienced founders”, said Benjamin Krahmer, Manager of Futury.
Das international tätige Fintech-Unternehmen BITA erhält Kapital von der Futury Venture Beteiligungen Deutschland-Hessen GmbH
Das international tätige Fintech-Unternehmen BITA aus Frankfurt am Main erhält im Rahmen einer Wachstumsfinanzierung Kapital von der Futury Venture Beteiligungen Deutschland-Hessen GmbH. Der Venture Capital Fonds Futury ist eine Investment-Gesellschaft die von privaten Unternehmern, Family Offices und dem Land Hessen gegründet wurde.
Der hessische Wirtschaftsminister Tarek Al-Wazir kommentiert die erste Beteiligung des mit Hilfe des Landes aufgelegten Fonds: „Mit dem Futury Venture Fonds haben wir eine einmalige Kombination aus öffentlichen und privaten Investitionsmitteln geschaffen. Wir wollen damit Gründungsvorhaben und Unternehmen in einer frühen Phase finanzieren, damit junge Talente ihre Ideen undGeschäftsmodelle möglichst hier in Hessen verwirklichen. Ich freue mich sehr, dass der Fonds nun mit dem ersten Investment genau das unterstützt.
“BITA, das von Victor Hugo Gomez geführt wird, ist ein Technologieunternehmen welches durch den Einsatz von Software Effizienz- und Kostenprobleme bei der Erstellung und der Berechnung von Börsenindizes behebt. So verwenden z.B. passive Investmentfonds Indizes, um die Entwicklung der Märkte im Fonds nachzuziehen. BITAs Technologie erlaubt eine Auswertung von relevanten Daten in „real-time“ und ermöglicht zudem eine individuelle und kundenspezifische Erstellung von unterschiedlichen Indizes über eine Vielzahl von Finanzprodukten.
„Wir freuen uns, mit dem Futury Venture Fonds in ein hochgradig attraktives Unternehmen wie BITA investieren zu können. Der Standort Hessen wird nachhaltig von solchen zukunftsweisenden Unternehmen und Investitionen profitieren – genau das unterstützen wir vom Land Hessen gemeinsam mit den privaten Investoren von Futury“ so Jürgen Zabel und Michael Singer, Geschäftsführer Futury Venture.
Victor Gomez, der zuvor jahrelang bei der Deutschen Börse gearbeitet hat, sagt: „Mit dem Einstieg von Futury werden wir unsere Technologien noch schneller ausbauen und unseren internationalen Vertrieb ausbauen. Wir haben uns bewusst für Futury als Partner entschieden – das erfahrene Team, die hohe Expertise sowie das Netzwerk hat uns dazu bewogen, Futury als Partner mit an Bord zu holen“. Benjamin Krahmer, Manager von Futury ergänzt: „BITA hat unser internationales Netzwerk nachhaltig beeindruckt. Die Technologien und Anwendungen von BITA treffen weltweit auf ein enormes Kundenpotential – wir freuen uns auf die Zusammenarbeit mit dem hervorragenden Team“.
BITA mit Sitz in Frankfurt verfügt über ein Entwicklerteam in Argentinien und Venezuela. Mit Kunden aus dem globalen Finanzsektor ist BITA weltweit aktiv. Mit der Wachstumsfinanzierung werden nun Investitionen in Technologien und der Aufbau des Teams ermöglicht. Darüber hinaus wird BITA den Vertrieb ausweiten und in die Bereiche Datengenerierung und Datenanalyse investieren.
Kontakt
Michael Singer
michael.singer@futuryvc.de
Geschäftsführer
Futury Venture Beteiligungen Deutschland-Hessen GmbH
Paul-Ehrlich-Str. 51
60596 Frankfurt am Main
Büro: +49 69 247 427 351, Mobil: +49 175 5606 756
Das Land Hessen und private Investoren aus ganz Deutschland, vor allem aber aus Hessen, gründen gemeinsam einen Start-Up-Fonds, den „Futury Venture Fonds Deutschland-Hessen“.
Das Land Hessen und private Investoren aus ganz Deutschland, vor allem aber aus Hessen, gründen gemeinsam einen Start-Up-Fonds, den „Futury Venture Fonds Deutschland-Hessen“. Ziel des Fonds ist es, Gründungsvorhaben und Unternehmen in einer frühen Phase zu finanzieren, um vielversprechenden Geschäftsideen zur Verwirklichung zu verhelfen. Das Konzept dahinter ist in Deutschland einzigartig, erläuterte Finanzminister Dr. Thomas Schäfer heute bei der Vorstellung im TechQuartier in Frankfurt: „Die Bündelung von öffentlichem und rein privatem Kapitalermöglicht, deutschlandweit und insbesondere in Hessen in eine Vielzahl junger Unternehmen zu investieren. Öffentliche und private Hand stärken so gemeinschaftlich Deutschland und Hessen als Gründerstandort.“ Das starke Bündnis unterstützt junge Unternehmen mit bis zu 20 Millionen Euro. Dabei stellt das Land einen Beitrag in gleicher Höhe zur Verfügung wie die privaten Investoren; der Maximalbetrag beider Seiten beträgt 10 Millionen Euro. Maximal die Hälfte der in den Fonds eingezahlten Mittel können außerhalb Hessens investiert werden. Das Land Hessen und eine von privaten Investoren gehaltene Gesellschaft werden jeweils zu 50% Gesellschafter des Futury Venture Fonds.
Wirtschaftsminister Tarek Al-Wazir betonte die Bedeutung von Start-Ups und innovativen Geschäftsideen für die hessische Wirtschaft: „Neue Geschäftsmodelle modernisieren die Wirtschaftsstruktur, sie schaffen Arbeitsplätze und bieten den Verbraucherinnen und Verbrauchern neue Produkte und Dienstleistungen.“ Hessen habe alle Voraussetzungen für ein gutes Start-up-Ökosystem: Hervorragende Hochschulen und Forschungseinrichtungen, perfekte Erreichbarkeit und Highspeed Internet-Verbindungen. „Mit dem Futury Venture Fonds wollen wir auch die Finanzierungsmöglichkeiten weiter verbessern, damit junge Talente ihre Ideen und Geschäftsmodelle möglichst hier in Hessen verwirklichen.“ Für das Vorhaben konnten strategisch wichtige Kooperationspartner mit ins Boot geholt werden: Die in Frankfurt ansässige Werte-Stiftung, der Ideengeber des Fonds, festigt durch die Verknüpfung von Wertebildung und Innovationsförderung den Wertekodex von Unternehmerpersönlichkeiten. Die zugehörige Gründer- und Innovationsplattform Futury, die Studierende und Unternehmen zusammenbringt, um nachhaltige Innovationen und Geschäftsmodelle zu kreieren, ermöglicht den direkten Kontakt zu jungen Gründern. Die Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen (BMH), die das öffentliche Beteiligungsgeschäft des Landes Hessen verwaltet, bietet Futury Venture Fonds Zugang zu einem breit gefächerten Netzwerk, darunter die hessischen Hochschulen und Universitäten sowie die Unternehmen in Hessen. Und auch e.ventures, ein global agierender Venture Capital-Fonds, steht dem Futury Venture Fonds in Person des Mitbegründers Andreas Haug mit seinem großen Erfahrungsschatz zur Seite.
Die privaten Investoren, darunter Dr. Jürgen Heraeus, Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrates und Vorsitzender des Gesellschafterausschusses der Heraeus Holding GmbH, Hanau, schätzen das breit gefächerte Netzwerk des Futury Venture Fonds: „Wir brauchen in Hessen noch bessere Startbedingungen für junge Unternehmen, und da setzt der Futury Venture Fonds an – nicht nur finanziell, sondern auch durch die Vermittlung von Wissen und Erfahrung. So können nachhaltige Ideen verwirklicht werden.“ Auch Prof. Dr. Kurt Lauk, Unternehmer aus Baden-Württemberg, ist von der Attraktivität des Fonds wegen dessen Strahlkraft über die hessischen Landesgrenzen hinaus überzeugt und gehört daher wie Jürgen Heraeus zu den Persönlichkeiten, die sich finanziell bei dem Fonds einbringen werden: „Investitionen in gute Ideen und motivierte junge Menschen sind für mich als Unternehmer entscheidend, um die Brücke zwischen der etablierten Wirtschaft und den Unternehmern von morgen zu bauen. Der Fonds bietet eine hervorragende Möglichkeit, in werteorientierte Start-Ups in ganz Deutschland einzusteigen.“
Die Laufzeit des Futury Venture Fonds wird zehn Jahre betragen. Nach den hessischen Schulferien wird der Fonds seinen Betrieb aufnehmen. Schon jetzt sind bereits rund 8 Millionen von privaten Investoren zugesagt worden, aus privater Handkönnen also noch etwa weitere 2 Millionen zugesteuert werden, um die 10 Mio.-Euro Beteiligung des Landes vollständig auszulösen. Die Unternehmensbeteiligungen des Futury Venture Fonds werden mit 100.000 bis 500.000 EUR festgesetzt, in der Regel mit einer Laufzeit von fünf bis sieben Jahren. Über die Beteiligungen entscheidet der Investitionsausschuss des Futury Venture Fonds, den beide Partner – öffentlich und privat – gleichberechtigt bilden. Mit der Geschäftsführung werden Unternehmensberater Michael Singer und BM H-Geschäftsführer Jürgen Zabel betraut.
Mehr Informationen im Internet: www.futuryvc.de
Pressesprecher: Ralph-Nicolas Pietzonka
E-Mail: presse@hmdf.hessen.de
65185 Wiesbaden, Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 8
Pressemitteilungen im Internet: www.finanzen.hessen.de
Telefon: (0611) 32- 2457
Telefax: (0611) 32- 2433
Folgen Sie uns auf Twitter: @FinanzenHessen
Paul-Ehrlich-Str. 51
60596 Frankfurt am Main
Deutschland
In Dankbarkeit und Gedenken an Thomas Schäfer, Mit-Ideengeber des Futury Regio Growth Fonds und ehemaliger hessischer Finanzminister
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