Bonn — High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) closes its fourth fund gene­ra­tion with a total volume of 493.8 million euros. This makes HTGF IV HTGF’s largest fund to date. The seed inves­tor, which invests in tech­no­logy start­ups in the digi­tal tech, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces and chemi­cals sectors, has backed more than 690 start­ups since it was foun­ded. The volume of the third fund gene­ra­tion of 319.5 million euros was excee­ded by more than 50 percent in the fourth fund generation.

HTGF has also once again been able to signi­fi­cantly increase the number of private inves­tors compared to fund gene­ra­tion three: 45 private inves­tors are parti­ci­pa­ting in HTGF IV along­side the German Fede­ral Minis­try of Econo­mics and Climate Protec­tion (BMWK) and KfW Capi­tal. The majo­rity of the private inves­tors are market-leading SMEs or hidden cham­pi­ons. Nume­rous large compa­nies and family offices are also among the investors.

The repre­sen­ta­tive of private inves­tors in the new fund is Alexa Gorman (photo © SAP.io). Gorman leads all SAP SE startup acti­vi­ties world­wide as senior vice presi­dent of SAP.iO; she is conside­red a proven expert in corpo­rate venture capi­tal and will serve as vice chair of the Inves­tor Advi­sory Board.

Initial invest­ments have alre­ady been made, inclu­ding in Reflex Aero­space (custom and high-perfor­­mance satel­li­tes), Phia­lo­gics (biolo­gics that balance the immune response in acute and chro­nic inflamm­a­tion), and Visio­Lab (AI-based check-out solutions).

With the new gene­ra­tion of funds, HTGF can invest even more flexi­bly and quickly, while simpli­fy­ing the invest­ment crite­ria. Start-ups need only be less than three years old and must be head­quar­te­red in Germany or have a German perma­nent estab­lish­ment if the company is based in another Euro­pean country.

In addi­tion, the fund can provide more capi­tal per start-up in the future: Up to one million euros is possi­ble in the seed round. HTGF can thus invest a total of up to four million euros in a start-up across all finan­cing rounds.

“We are proud to have signi­fi­cantly expan­ded the number of private inves­tors at HTGF IV despite an envi­ron­ment that has been extre­mely diffi­cult in some cases. In addi­tion to the very good econo­mic perfor­mance of the first three funds, the diverse added values for private inves­tors are decisive. The inves­tor base of HTGF IV reflects the strengths of the German economy: In addi­tion to mostly hidden cham­pi­ons, selec­ted large corpo­ra­ti­ons, the Fraun­ho­­fer-Gesel­l­­schaft and, for the first time, five family offices are inves­tors in HTGF IV,” says Dr. Alex von Fran­ken­berg, Mana­ging Direc­tor of HTGF.

“The very successful fund­rai­sing conti­nues to enable us to finance start-ups with pionee­ring inno­va­tions in large numbers. At the same time, we are able to deploy more capi­tal per invest­ment thanks to our fund inves­tors. This is a signi­fi­cant change in this market phase,” Guido Schlit­zer, Mana­ging Direc­tor of HTGF

About High-Tech Gründerfonds

The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with growth poten­tial and has supported almost 700 start-ups since 2005. With the launch of the fourth fund, HTGF has around 1.4 billion euros under manage­ment. The team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and start-up experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digi­tal tech, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces, chemis­try and rela­ted busi­ness areas. More than €4.5 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 2,000 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. In addi­tion, the fund has alre­ady successfully sold shares in more than 160 companies.

Fund inves­tors in the public-private part­ner­ship include the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Climate Protec­tion, KfW Capi­tal, and 45 compa­nies from a wide range of industries.
www.htgf.de