Blog
“HTGF plays a valuable role that goes beyond seed financing”
Professor Dieter Jahn, who spent many years heading up BASF Group’s Science Relations and Innovation Management competence centre, was one of the initiators and driving forces behind High-Tech Gründerfonds back in 2005. Since day one, Jahn has been at HTGF’s side as a member of its advisory board. In an interview, he talks about how it all began, underlines HTGF’s importance as a driver of innovation, and explains how HTGF can provide important stimulus both now and in the future.
Press
High investor density at the start-up pitch day hosted by IZB
Twelve project teams presented their top-class research to 19 investors, four pharmaceutical companies, one family office and one industry partner
The High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and the Innovation and Start-up Center Biotechnology (IZB) in Martinsried near Munich organized together with Bayer AG and Boehringer Ingelheim as strategic partners, the "5th Munich Life Science Pitch Day" held on July 11, 2019 at the Faculty Club of the IZB. 29 project teams applied for the Pitch Day and 12 select
Blog
Product-Market Fit: The Main Reason for Failure of Industrial Tech Startups within the HTGF Portfolio
A post-mortem Analysis of the HTGF Industrial Technologies Portfolio
By Gregor Haidl (Investment Manager), Fabian Hogrebe (Analyst), Ingo Fehr (Investment Manager), Yann Fiebig (Senior Investment Manager), Dr. Andreas Olmes (Partner)
Every year we read through hundreds of pitch decks or business plans at High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) created by technology startups in the industrial environment. In recent years, we have repeatedly experienced the reasons that determine the success or failure of
Press
€1.8 million seed funding for crypto investment start-up Coinpanion by High-Tech Gründerfonds, co-founders of Scalable Capital and CLARK
Vienna, 31 August 2021 – Coinpanion enables everyone, without any prior cryptocurrency experience, to benefit automatically from the cryptocurrency market. The fintech start-up provides a full end to end service, from entering the crypto market to automatic asset management. Within just a year, Coinpanion is already managing several million euros in cryptocurrency investments for its customers and is now receiving €1.8 million in seed investment from renowned investors in Germany and
Press
Upcoming MedTech Radar Live 2019 event organized by BVMed, Earlybird, High-Tech Gründerfonds and medtech zwo featured in the 12th MedTech Radar publication:
How can innovations reach hospitals? What is the potential of new digital solutions and which are the current challenges that start-ups have to overcome to facilitate adoption? At the event "MedTech Radar Live 2019" on June 5th in Berlin these questions will be among those discussed by experts from the medtech sector. A preview of the event is provided by the joint media service "MedTech Radar" of the German Medical Technology Association (BVMed), Earlybird Venture Capital, the High-Tech Gründe
Ludmila Heiderich – Senior Controller
As Senior Controller, Ludmila Heiderich is responsible for risk management and external accounting for fund companies. Before joining HTGF, the business economist held various positions at Sparkasse Bodensee.
Press
faCellitate, a BASF spin-off, closes a €3.7m seed round led by SARSTEDT and HTGF
Proprietary intelligent polymer surface coating platform enables development of first-in-class lab materials for modern cell culture applications
Closing of seed round completed raising €3.7 million from SARSTEDT, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), R3 Consulting, ARVE Capital, ROI Verwaltungsgesellschaft and Chemovator.faCellitate has developed an intelligent and ultra-low attachment polymer surface coating platform. The first launched product thereof is targeting 3D cell culture, enabling
Press
Drillisch AG invests in High-Tech Gründerfonds
Telecommunication service provider Drillisch AG is investing in the third fund of High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Germany's most active seed stage investor.
HTGF's third fund is to have a volume of roughly EUR 300 million. Drillisch AG joins an esteemed group of investors in the fund. The company owns a number of renowned brands including smartmobil.de, yourfone, simply, sim.de, McSIM, helloMobil, winSIM and discoTEL.
"The investment in HTGF provides Drillisch AG and its subsidiary compani
Press
Tech startup virtualQ receives seven-digit financing for customer services
The signs are set for growth. The startup virtualQ has raised growth financing. With its enterprise software solutions, the company following the vision of “a world without waiting” is one of the innovation drivers in the call center industry. Among its backers are well-known venture capital investors and experienced business angels.
Companies that focus on service quality do not waste their customers’ time by leading them through endless queues. virtualQ has recognized that and offers
Press
Big Data Makes Life Easier for Software Developers
Software systems not only pervade more and more industries, but they are also growing more and more complex. But regardless of whether software developers have to understand yesterday’s legacy systems or tomorrow’s hot technologies, one question is always the same: How do I tell the machine what to do? Using Big Data, the young company Codetrails GmbH answers this question for Java developers. High-Tech Gründerfonds funds the spin-off of TU Darmstadt to further Codetrails’ capabilities of
Ann-Katrin Sebald – Relationship Manager
Ann-Katrin has been part of the HTGF team since 2014. After gaining several years of professional experience as an office manager and successfully completing her part-time studies in business psychology (B. Sc.) at the FOM University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, she joined HTGF’s Relationship Management team. Among other projects, she organizes and manages the Private Investors Circle, a unique matching event for private investors who invest in start-ups.
In her free time, she enjoys cooking, yoga and going to concerts.
Stepan Kivshyk – Investment Manager
Stepan joined the HTGF team in June 2021 in the digital tech team. He studied business administration at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Chicago. During his studies, Stepan was able to gain practical experience as a working student in business development at a startup and as a working student in strategy at a medium-sized company, as well as an intern in consulting. Besides his studies, he was involved with START Berlin and organized numerous events for startups and VCs. Stepan is a big sports fan and likes to go climbing, swimming as well as practicing other sports in his free time.
Blog
Startups and corporate partners: a relationship of hope and challenge
Author: Dr Martin Pfister, Senior Investment Manager
According to a recently published study by Wayra, the accelerator programme set up by the Spanish telecommunications operator Telefónica, major corporations founded 264 new venture capital businesses in 2018. It is interesting to note that this type of support for innovative, non-corporate projects has experienced a new boom since the 2008 financial crisis. Moreover, more and more companies are setting up accelerators, which assist externa
Press
Berlin-based fintech start-up remind.me secures seed financing
High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and other business angels are investing almost EUR 1 million in total in remind me GmbH. The company, which provides a reminder and optimisation service for all types of contracts and insurance policies, is set to invest the money in refining its platform and expanding collaboration in Germany.
Berlin-based fintech start-up remind.me provides users with a convenient reminder and optimisation service for contracts and insurance policies. It has all bases covered, i
Press
FarmInsect raises oversubscribed €8m Series A to commercially scale its insect farming technology
Agritech start-up FarmInsect has successfully completed an oversubscribed Series A financing round, raising a total of € 8 million.
The round was led by Sandwater with participation from Bayern Kapital, Australia’s Minderoo Foundation, and the EIC fund, with additional participation from existing investors HTGF and UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators.
The Munich-based company has developed an end-to-end, modularized solution for decentralized production of inse
Press
Geospin: seven-figure sum in seed funding for Freiburg-based machine learning software startup
High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), together with Thüga AG, is investing a seven-figure sum in software startup Geospin. The University of Freiburg spin-off is developing a B2B software-as-a-service solution for the analysis of geodata using machine learning methods. The solution makes it possible to link up internal company data with external geodata to produce real time predictions of when and where clients' products or services are in demand. Geospin's clients include HTGF fund investors Thüga