TechVision Fund II: Final closing with over € 50 million

Aachen — Follo­wing a successful final closing, the Tech­Vi­sion Fund (TVF) II now has a fund volume of more than € 50 million. TVF II is the fourth gene­ra­tion of venture capi­tal funds1 mana­ged by the TVF Manage­ment GmbH team. The fund invests in the most promi­sing tech start-ups in various verti­cals from the pre-seed and seed phase onwards. The focus is on teams from the Rhineland/NRW and Eure­gio Meuse-Rhine (Netherlands/Belgium) regions. 

Public and private inves­tors back high-growth tech start-ups

The TVF relies on a strong inves­tor ecosys­tem. In addi­tion to NRW.BANK, Spar­kasse Aachen and other regio­nal savings banks, this also includes nume­rous entre­pre­neu­rial private inves­tors from the fund’s network. — New inves­tors include Helaba (Landes­bank Hessen-Thürin­­gen) and entre­pre­neurs such as Erich Borsch (Co-Foun­­der Aixigo), Jürgen and Leo May (JM Holding), Alex­an­der Stoff­ers (next audit, Co-Foun­­der Modell Aachen) as well as Dr. Reik Winkel and Dr. Chris­tian Augus­tin (foun­ders of indu­rad GmbH). 

Focus on early-stage companies

Since 2007, the expe­ri­en­ced TVF team has finan­ced and deve­lo­ped over 40 inno­va­tive start-ups in the fields of biotech, soft­ware, semi­con­duc­tors, mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, deep tech, medtech and new mate­ri­als. Since the launch of TVF II in 2023, five start-ups have alre­ady been financed: 

membion GmbH: The company from Roet­gen (near Aachen) has deve­lo­ped an inno­va­tive tech­no­logy for waste­wa­ter treat­ment. This can save up to 75 percent instal­la­tion space and over 90 percent energy compared to the current stan­dard. In Decem­ber 2023, TVF II inves­ted five million euros toge­ther with the DeepT­ech & Climate Fund (DTCF).

Viva­lyx GmbH: Viva­lyx has crea­ted the liquid “Omni­sol” — a type of synthe­tic blood — to better preserve organs that are remo­ved for trans­plan­ta­tion. In combi­na­tion with its own “Flow­s­tore” trans­port system, it is possi­ble to trans­port organs over much longer distances and peri­ods of time without dama­ging them. In April 2024, TVF II inves­ted around EUR 7 million with co-inves­­tors to tackle the appr­oval proces­ses in the USA (FDA) and Europe (CE).

Black Semi­con­duc­tor GmbH: The semi­con­duc­tor start-up from Aachen has deve­lo­ped an important tech­no­logy for connec­ting micro­chips based on graphene. This makes data trans­mis­sion more powerful and energy-effi­ci­ent, which is beco­ming incre­asingly important for data centers, espe­ci­ally in view of the growing compu­ting requi­re­ments of AI. Toge­ther with leading inter­na­tio­nal venture capi­tal funds and IPCEI funding from the state of North Rhine-West­­pha­­lia and the Fede­ral Repu­blic of Germany, the DeepT­ech company recei­ved around 250 million euros. 

IonKraft GmbH: A spin-off from the Insti­tute of Plas­tics Proces­sing (IKV) at RWTH Aachen Univer­sity, IonKraft has deve­lo­ped a coating process for plas­tic contai­ners that inhi­bits diffu­sion into, out of and through them, makes them resistant to chemi­cals and protects the contents. This elimi­na­tes the need for multi-layer solu­ti­ons, replaces PFAS-contai­­ning layers and ensu­res recy­cla­bi­lity. To acce­le­rate the company’s growth, TVF II inves­ted EUR 3.5 million toge­ther with co-inves­­tors in Novem­ber 2024. 

Plan­ted GmbH: Plan­ted offers a SaaS plat­form for CSRD report­ing and ESG moni­to­ring to support service compa­nies in achie­ving their sustaina­bi­lity goals. Custo­mers are also able to auto­ma­ti­cally offset their emis­si­ons through their own climate protec­tion projects (refo­re­sta­tion). In Decem­ber last year, TVF II and co-inves­­tors inves­ted a total of EUR 3.8 million in the Colo­­gne-based company. 

From foun­da­tion to startup to inde­pen­dent company

TVF focu­ses on the early finan­cing phases of start­ups and is often the first insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tor. It sees itself as a go-to VC in the incre­asingly successful startup ecosys­tem in the Rhine­land and the border region in Belgium and the Nether­lands. The pool of inno­va­tions in this focus region is large: a start-up ecosys­tem has deve­lo­ped around inter­na­tio­nally renow­ned rese­arch insti­tu­ti­ons and univer­si­ties as well as with an estab­lished consul­ting and invest­ment network, which, with the NRW start-up capi­tal Aachen, is one of the leading ones in Germany. As a part­ner of the Gate­way Factory, which has just recei­ved milli­ons of euros in funding, the TVF is actively invol­ved in the further expan­sion and success of the Aachen-Düssel­­dorf-Colo­­gne start-up region. 

The fund will run until 2035. “We have the stay­ing power to support compa­nies until they are strong enough for inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors,” says Dr. Ansgar Schlei­cher, Mana­ging Part­ner of the Tech­Vi­sion Fund. “With our current resour­ces, we are excel­lently posi­tio­ned to enable further deep tech teams to become successful compa­nies. We are always at the side of the start-ups, not only as finan­ciers, but also as entre­pre­neu­rial spar­ring part­ners and strategists.” 

1 The prede­ces­sor funds were the Seed Fonds Aachen I + II and the still active Tech­Vi­sion Fonds I.