Düssel­dorf — ARQIS advi­sed SkyFive AG on its Series A finan­cing round. This was led by Safran Corpo­rate Ventures and STAR Capi­tal, a Euro­pean private equity fund mana­ger with exten­sive expe­ri­ence in deve­lo­ping emer­ging infra­struc­ture compa­nies. This is the first invest­ment in Germany by Safran Corpo­rate Ventures, the venture capi­tal arm of Safran, one of the world’s largest suppli­ers of aircraft systems.

SkyFive, based at the AIRBUS campus in Tauf­kir­chen near Munich, Germany, provi­des broad­band connec­ti­vity services and tech­no­logy to airlines and other aircraft opera­tors in key avia­tion markets world­wide, based on its paten­ted Air-To-Ground (A2G) solu­tion that uses stan­dard cellu­lar components.

“This successful first close of our Series A funding round — at the height of the COVID pande­mic — is a strong vali­da­tion of SkyFive’s tech­no­logy leader­ship and its signi­fi­cant oppor­tu­nity in the market. Toge­ther, we expect the digi­tiza­tion of avia­tion to acce­le­rate post-pande­­mic. In this context, in-flight broad­band connec­ti­vity will become a stra­te­gic corner­stone for the entire indus­try,” says Thors­ten Robrecht, CEO of SkyFive.

ARQIS advi­sed SkyFive at the very begin­ning when the company acqui­red the key assets of its Air-to-Ground (A2G) busi­ness from Nokia in an MBO in 2019. The Munich team led by Dr. Mauritz von Einem and Prof. Dr. Chris­toph von Einem subse­quently advi­sed on the follo­wing two finan­cing rounds and the conver­sion of SkyFive into a stock corpo­ra­tion in summer 2020. Prepa­ra­ti­ons are curr­ently under­way for the 2nd closing of the Series A as well as the expan­sion of SkyFive’s Chinese subsidiary.

Advi­sor SkyFive: ARQIS (Munich)
Dr. Mauritz von Einem (Lead; Venture Capital/Taxes), Prof. Dr. Chris­toph von Einem (Venture Capi­tal), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP/Commercial), Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier (Labor Law; Düssel­dorf); Coun­sel: Tanja Kurt­zer (Pensi­ons); Asso­cia­tes: Louisa Graf, Benja­min Bandur, Anselm Graf (all Venture Capi­tal), Rolf Tichy, Nora Meyer-Stra­t­­mann (both IP/Commercial)

About ARQIS
ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent busi­ness law firm opera­ting inter­na­tio­nally. The firm was foun­ded in 2006 in Düssel­dorf, Munich and Tokyo. Around 55 lawy­ers and legal specia­lists advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on German and Japa­nese busi­ness law. With the focus groups Tran­sac­tions, HR.Law, Japan, Data.Law and Risk, the firm is geared towards provi­ding holi­stic advice to its clients. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.arqis.com.