Growth capi­tal Lands­hut / Munich — The successful Bava­rian Growth Fund initia­ted by the Bava­rian Minis­try of Econo­mic Affairs is getting a capi­­tal-strong succes­sor. Endo­wed with 115 million euros, Wachs­tums­fonds Bayern 2 is again mana­ged by Bayern Kapi­tal, the wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern for venture capi­tal invest­ments. The resour­ces from the growth fund are inten­ded to support inno­va­tive and tech­­no­­logy-orien­­ted start-ups in the Free State of Bava­ria in conclu­ding large-volume finan­cing rounds in coope­ra­tion with private investors.

Bavaria’s Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs Hubert Aiwan­ger: “With the first Bava­rian Growth Fund, we have alre­ady supported many inno­va­tive compa­nies. Now, toge­ther with Bayern Kapi­tal, we are conti­nuing the successful concept with the Bava­rian Growth Fund 2: We support young compa­nies with growth finan­cing to successfully place their product on the market and deve­lop into successful, inter­na­tio­nally compe­ti­tive compa­nies in the long term.”

The track record of the Bava­rian Growth Fund speaks for itself: Over the past five years, Bayern Kapi­tal has inves­ted a total of 70 million euros in 23 start-ups from the fund, mobi­li­zing a further 300 million euros of private capi­tal for Bavaria’s foun­ders through coope­ra­tion with dome­stic and foreign inves­tors, such as private venture capi­ta­lists and family offices.

“Parti­cu­larly in the tech­no­logy sector, compa­nies not only need deve­lo­p­ment time for long-term success, but above all finan­cial support. Inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion stra­te­gies and the deve­lo­p­ment of new markets, but also appr­oval studies and the further deve­lo­p­ment or diver­si­fi­ca­tion of one’s own product range are capi­­tal-inten­­sive and often present young compa­nies with immense chal­lenges. We are ther­e­fore plea­sed to be able to conti­nue to relia­bly support the inno­va­tion leaders of the Free State in large-volume finan­cing rounds with the Bava­ria 2 Growth Fund,” says Roman Huber (photo), Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapi­tal.

“Whether it’s service robots from Robo­tise, high-reso­lu­­tion LiDAR sensors from Blick­feld, the smart ProGlove glove to opti­mize manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses, the mole­cu­lar diagno­stics company GNA Bioso­lu­ti­ons, which is curr­ently making great stri­des in the deve­lo­p­ment of a rapid corona test, or Regens­­burg-based Numa­res AG, which offers diagno­stic tests based on NMR tech­no­logy: With the Bava­rian Growth Fund, we have been able to support a wide range of viable compa­nies in recent years, inclu­ding larger finan­cing rounds with natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors,” sums up Dr. Georg Ried, also Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapital.

The second edition of the Bava­rian Growth Fund, with a capi­tal of 115 million euros and an addi­tio­nal 15 million euros, can provide the inno­va­tion leaders of the Free State with invest­ment volu­mes of between two and, in indi­vi­dual cases, up to ten million euros per inves­tee, depen­ding on the situa­tion. A gene­ral condi­tion for parti­ci­pa­tion by the Bava­rian Growth Fund 2 is that at least one other private inves­tor commits on the same terms. Thus, the start-ups not only have the pros­pect of larger capi­tal volu­mes, but also bene­fit from the exper­tise as well as the regio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal network of the invest­ment partners.

“Throug­hout the Free State, Bavaria’s foun­ders are produ­cing exci­ting and inno­va­tive busi­ness models — from Passau to Würz­burg, from Regens­burg to Augs­burg. Howe­ver, in order to succeed on the market, young compa­nies are often depen­dent on state finan­cing instru­ments. This is true both in times of econo­mic weak­ness and in growth phases. Without targe­ted support, promi­sing ideas would often fall by the wayside at crucial moments because the compa­nies lack money for larger invest­ments. The Bava­ria 2 Growth Fund is ther­e­fore an important tool for driving the long-term busi­ness success of Bavaria’s tech­no­logy leaders,” says Dr. Otto Beierl, Chair­man of the Board of LfA Förder­bank Bayern.

Growth finan­cing for high-tech compa­nies ulti­m­ately bene­fits Bava­ria as a busi­ness loca­tion as a whole: Around 1,700 highly quali­fied, new jobs and many inno­va­tive busi­ness models ‘Made in Bava­ria’ in various indus­tries of the future have been crea­ted thanks to the first growth fund in the Free State alone.

Bavaria’s Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs Hubert Aiwan­ger: “The Bava­ria 2 Growth Fund is an important compo­nent of our econo­mic policy course. We want to create many strong clus­ters for econo­mic growth in all admi­nis­tra­tive districts in the long term and at the same time provide targe­ted support for future indus­tries. In this way, we are secu­ring today’s jobs and at the same time crea­ting the career pros­pects for tomorrow.”

About Bayern Kapital
Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, based in Lands­hut, was foun­ded in 1995 as a wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern on the initia­tive of the Bava­rian state govern­ment. As the venture capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria, Bayern Kapi­tal provi­des equity capi­tal to the foun­ders of inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies and young, inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies in Bava­ria. Bayern Kapi­tal curr­ently mana­ges 13 invest­ment funds with an invest­ment volume of around 500 million euros. To date, Bayern Kapi­tal has inves­ted around 320 million euros of venture capi­tal in over 275 inno­va­tive tech­­no­­logy-orien­­ted compa­nies from a wide range of sectors, inclu­ding life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. As a result, more than 7,500 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable companies.
www.bayernkapital.de