Cusp Capital leads € 4.5 million seed round for akeno

Hamburg — The B2B tech company akeno has successfully closed a seed finan­cing round of EUR 4.5 million. The round was led by Cusp Capi­tal Part­ners GmbH (“Cusp Capi­tal”), further inves­tors were TS Ventures and Another.vc.

akeno, based in Hamburg, was foun­ded in 2021 by Alex­an­der Ebbrecht, Dmit­rij Direk­tor and Stef­fen Ramm. The startup has deve­lo­ped AI-based soft­ware that analy­zes real-time data from ongo­ing produc­tion proces­ses and auto­ma­ti­cally adjusts plans. This soft­ware promi­ses higher plant utiliza­tion, redu­ced invent­ories and better deli­very relia­bi­lity. The solu­tion is aimed speci­fi­cally at indus­tries with complex and sensi­tive produc­tion proces­ses — inclu­ding the chemi­cal and phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­tries, the food and beverage sector and the metal­wor­king indus­try. With this soft­ware, akeno aims to solve problems that cannot be opti­mally solved with other common tools such as Excel spreadsheets or APS systems. 

Custo­mers alre­ady include BASF Coatings, SunChe­mi­cal and the Beckers Group. The company is alre­ady active in China and plans to use the fresh capi­tal to expand into other inter­na­tio­nal markets, such as North America and other Asian countries. 

Cusp Capi­tal is a venture capi­tal firm with a focus on Euro­pean soft­ware and tech­no­logy. The fund invests in fast-growing tech­no­logy compa­nies “on the cusp” that have the poten­tial to rede­fine their respec­tive markets. The Cusp Capi­tal team consists of long-stan­­ding members of the tech­no­logy ecosys­tem who have inves­ted more than EUR 600 million over the last 15 years in compa­nies such as Zalando, Deli­very Hero, Klarna, Scalable Capi­tal, data Artisans, Perso­nio and SoSafe. — www.cuspcapital.com

POELLATH advi­sed Cusp Capi­tal on the seed finan­cing round with the follo­wing team:

Chris­tian Tönies, LL.M. Eur. (Part­ner, Co-Lead, Venture Capi­tal, Munich)
Markus Döll­ner, LL.M. (London) (Coun­sel, Co-Lead, Venture Capi­tal, Munich)
Dr. Sebas­tian Gerlin­ger (Part­ner, Venture Capi­tal, Munich)
Chris­tine Funk, LL.M. (Coun­sel, IP/IT, Frankfurt)
Oliver Ferstl (Rese­arch Asso­ciate, Venture Capi­tal, Munich) 

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