Landshut/Munich — A globally unique smart­glass solu­tion that allows elec­tric wheel­chairs to be control­led by head move­ment — that’s the inno­va­tive medi­cal product that Munich-based start-up munevo laun­ched around four years ago. Since then, the young team has enab­led more and more people with severe limi­ta­ti­ons to their mobi­lity to lead a self-deter­­mi­­ned, mobile life. Follo­wing seed funding last year, munevo has now raised three million euros for expan­sion into the USA and other inter­na­tio­nal markets.

Bayern Kapi­tal, one of the most expe­ri­en­ced and active key play­ers in the German start-up finan­cing land­scape, which provi­des equity capi­tal in parti­cu­lar to inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies with a connec­tion to Bava­ria, parti­ci­pa­ted in this round toge­ther with BayBG, be10x Capi­tal and ROCA X. Part of the round with a total of over three million euros are also other exis­ting inves­tors from the busi­ness angel envi­ron­ment.

Dise­a­ses such as para­ple­gia, multi­ple scle­ro­sis or Parkinson’s dise­ase can sever­ely limit free­dom of move­ment and inde­pen­dence. As a result of their condi­tion, suffe­rers are often depen­dent on the help of other people or on expen­sive and uncom­for­ta­ble stee­ring systems. Thus, in the course of a univer­sity course at the Chair of Busi­ness Infor­ma­tics at the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich, the idea of a Google Glass app as a mobi­lity aid was born. In 2018, a clini­cal trial for “munevo DRIVE” was conduc­ted at Klini­kum rechts der Isar in Munich, follo­wed by appr­oval as a medi­cal device. Smart­glas­ses enable propor­tio­nal head control of elec­tric wheel­chairs, and many other devices can be opera­ted just by moving the head. Thus, munevo DRIVE also serves as a plat­form for soft­ware add-ons to control smart­phones, robo­tic arms that help people with daily acti­vi­ties, and smart home appli­ca­ti­ons. Demand is high and munevo, which is recei­ving a great deal of encou­ra­ge­ment from nume­rous users as well as medi­cal and scien­ti­fic profes­sio­nals and has ente­red into important coope­ra­tive agree­ments, such as with the globally active wheel­chair manu­fac­tu­rer Sunrise Medi­cal, is expanding.

The new round of finan­cing will enable munevo GmbH to meet the incre­asing demand for its control system, expand its distri­bu­tion network in the U.S. and extend its part­ner­ships in Europe.

“We are very proud that the new funding will allow munevo to grow and help many people,” said Clau­diu Leve­renz, CEO and co-foun­­der of munevo. “We are very plea­sed that the venture capi­ta­lists invol­ved have given us access to the funding we need to grow the company quickly.”

BayBG Invest­ment Mana­ger Dr. Peter Graf agrees: “We alre­ady inves­ted in munevo GmbH in 2020, at that time with mezza­nine capi­tal, which convin­ced us as a tech­no­logy leader with its ground­brea­king product and inno­va­tive deve­lo­p­ments. We are certain that with the current round of finan­cing, munevo has all the prere­qui­si­tes to successfully take off internationally.”

“The mission of munevo to provide affec­ted people with more free­dom and inde­pen­dence is impres­sive. We are convin­ced that the dedi­ca­ted team will now incre­asingly achieve this in the rest of Europe and in the USA, and we are happy to support them with all our expe­ri­ence,” explains Monika Steger, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapital.

About munevo

munevo GmbH was the first company to deve­lop a head control for elec­tric wheel­chairs based on smart­glas­ses, munevo DRIVE. This special control helps people with disa­bi­li­ties to achieve inde­pen­dent mobi­lity and more self-deter­­mi­na­­tion. The Munich-based company was foun­ded in 2018 and has been selling munevo DRIVE in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land since Janu­ary 2019.Diseases such as para­ple­gia, multi­ple scle­ro­sis or amyo­tro­phic late­ral scle­ro­sis can sever­ely rest­rict a person’s free­dom of move­ment and their asso­cia­ted inde­pen­dence. As a result of their condi­tion, affec­ted indi­vi­du­als are often depen­dent on the assis­tance of other people or on uncom­for­ta­ble stee­ring systems. The idea for munevo DRIVE arose in the course of a univer­sity course at the Chair of Busi­ness Infor­ma­tics at the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich. munevo DRIVE is appro­ved as a medi­cal device and CE certi­fied. The young inter­na­tio­nal team is constantly working on further deve­lo­p­ment to create an ever­y­day assistant. www.munevo.com

About Bayern Kapital
Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, based in Lands­hut, is the venture/growth capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria. It accom­pa­nies inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies in the Free State through various growth phases, from seed to later stage, with equity capi­tal in the amount of 0.25 to 25 million euros. Bayern Kapi­tal often fills gaps in the VC sector in proven consor­tium constel­la­ti­ons with private inves­tors (busi­ness angels, family offices and corpo­rate ventures).Bayern Kapi­tal mana­ges specia­li­zed invest­ment funds with a volume of around 700 million euros. Since its foun­da­tion in 1995 on the initia­tive of the state govern­ment, the wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern has so far inves­ted around 400 million euros of its own equity capi­tal in around 300 start-ups and scale-ups in sectors such as life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. As a result, more than 8,000 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in compa­nies with a promi­sing future. The active port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 80 companies.Examples of nume­rous ground­brea­king success stories that Bayern Kapi­tal has supported at an early stage include EOS (today the world’s leading tech­no­logy provi­der in indus­trial 3D prin­ting of metals and plas­tics), Proglove, Fazua, SimS­cale, Scom­pler, egym, Parcel­lab, Cobrai­ner, Quan­tum Systems, Casavi, Theva, Riskme­thods, Tubu­lis, Cata­lym, Immu­nic, Sirion and many more. www.bayernkapital.de

About BayBG
With its venture capi­tal team, BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH, Munich (BayBG), invests in Series A finan­cing rounds and later in tech start-ups. Curr­ently, the venture capi­tal port­fo­lio consists of over 35 tech­no­logy compa­nies. With an inves­ted volume of 340 million euros, BayBG is one of the largest invest­ment compa­nies in Germany. In addi­tion to venture capi­tal for start-ups, BayBG offers medium-sized compa­nies equity capi­tal (equity and/or mezza­nine) across all company phases and finan­cing occa­si­ons. BayBG thus enables the imple­men­ta­tion of inno­va­tion and growth projects, the opti­miza­tion of the capi­tal struc­ture or the regu­la­tion of corpo­rate succession.www.baybg-vc.de

About be10x Capital
be10x Capi­tal invests in promi­sing start­ups focu­sed on B2B, Smart Mobi­lity Solu­ti­ons, EV & Green-Energy, Soft­­ware-as-a-Service (SaaS) and other high-tech products and solu­ti­ons. The foun­ding perso­na­li­ties them­sel­ves and the poten­tial of the under­ly­ing busi­ness model for scalable expo­nen­tial growth, sustaina­bi­lity and an expan­da­ble inter­na­tio­na­lity of the startup are at the fore­front of the selec­tion process. The invest­ment company be10x Capi­tal was foun­ded by Thomas Schmidt at the begin­ning of 2021 in order to actively accom­pany and support the growing and, in Thomas’ view, very high-performing startup land­scape in Germany and Europe in these segments.www.be-exponential.com

About ROCA X
A venture capi­tal fund that invests in early-stage disrup­tive compa­nies: young entre­pre­neurs with revo­lu­tio­nary ideas in tech­no­logy, at the MVP or proto­type stage, with a vision to make an impact on society and a passion to turn that desire into action. ROCA X builds a solid and much-needed bridge for start­ups between busi­ness angel support, which nurtures early-stage ideas, and upper-stage VCs, which support the growth of the startup. ROCA X is part of the Impe­tum Group, toge­ther with CITR and ROCA Investments.www.rocax.ro