BDMI, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Project A Invest in Semasio

Seven-digit cash injection for Hamburg startup

Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI), the venture capital fund of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, Holtzbrinck Ventures and the incubator Project A have joined the High-Tech Gründerfonds in investing a seven-digit sum into Semasio GmbH. The Hamburg startup will use the funds to fuel its continued geographical expansion, and accelerate its product and technology development.

Semasio develops technology for tailoring online display advertising to specific audiences, thereby helping its customers to boost the effectiveness of their online marketing activities. The company uses a platform that allows media agencies and advertisers to build and evaluate a database containing the profiles of their users. Semasio’s customers include a number of publishers in Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia.

Kasper Skou, CEO and co-founder of Semasio, is delighted with the new round of financing: “All of our new investors are noted experts in online media and advertising. Their experience will greatly help us in the growth phase ahead. I am very pleased about the trust placed in Semasio – the investment by BDMI, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Project A is testimony to the success of our business model”.

Florian Heinemann, founding partner of Project A, explains the reasoning behind the investment: “Semasio definitely has the chance to become an integral part of the display eco system. We are committed in helping to achieve that goal”.
About Semasio
Semasio GmbH develops and markets a completely new approach to profiling and targeting of digital media users relying solely on statistical modeling and machine learning. This takes human interpretation and subjectivity out of digital marketing and makes it a completely quantitative exercise for the first time. Founded in 2010 the company is headquartered in Hamburg with development centers in Denmark and Ukraine. Its clients are mainly large media agencies, premium publishers and online advertising technology providers. www.semasio.com

Contact:
Semasio GmbH
Kasper Skou
CEO
Tel.: 0152 03 37 69 64
kasper@semasio.com

About Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI)
Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI) is Bertelsmann’s strategic venture capital fund focused on up-and-coming digital media companies in Europe and the U.S. BDMI is currently invested in companies in the mobile, online advertising, gaming, SaaS, payment services, content distribution and e-commerce sectors. BDMI also actively invests in European seed funds. As a strategic investor backed by Bertelsmann AG’s capital, BDMI can draw on a wide-ranging, worldwide network of companies. BDMI is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA. www.bdmifund.com

Contact:
Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA
Stephan Knüttel
Press spokesman
Tel.: +49 52 41 – 80 77 69
stephan.knuettel@bertelsmann.de

About Holtzbrinck Ventures
HV Holtzbrinck Ventures (www.holtzbrinck-ventures.com) has been investing in Internet
companies, mostly in the initial stages of development, for over a decade. During this time,
Holtzbrinck Ventures has financed over 100 companies and is one of the few venture capital
companies to have even founded international market leaders themselves. Today Holtzbrinck
Ventures is one of the most successful European early-stage investors in the Internet sector,
with investments in businesses such as Zalando, Wooga, Citydeal/Groupon, Westwing,
Experteer, Ozon, AdScale, Lieferheld and Brands4Friends.

About Project A
Project A Ventures develops exciting projects maintaining the highest level of competence and efficiency, and provides them with sufficient financial means to become international category leaders in the areas of internet, mobile and technology. Reliability, commitment and fairness towards all parties involved are our most important principles. We work in accordance with the latest standards and with cutting-edge technologies starting from the idea all the way to implementation. Our highly motivated team is made up of experienced specialists who, over the past five years, have played decisive roles in the international set-up of major companies such as Rocket Internet, Zalando, eDarling or Citydeal/Groupon. Project A combines the competences needed to implement concepts from a broad spectrum of the digital world – covering B2B, consumer internet and the implementation on mobile platforms.

About High-Tech Gruenderfonds
High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests EUR 500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the KfW Banking Group, as well as thirteen industrial groups of ALTANA, BASF, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE Color, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 563 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 291 million HTGF II).

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Andreas Quauke
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
phone: + 49 228 / 82 30 01-00
fax: + 49 228 / 82 30 00-50
email: info@htgf.de
web: www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de