Aachen/Herzogenrath — S‑UBG AG parti­ci­pa­tes with its funds “Seed Fonds II für die Region Aachen” and “S‑VC” in the seven-digit growth finan­cing for Picavi GmbH. The funding round is led by Belgium-based Noma­In­vest and supple­men­ted by contri­bu­ti­ons from foun­ders, manage­ment and another busi­ness angel.

The aim of the finan­cing round is to acce­le­rate the inter­na­tio­nal growth of the high-tech company, which was foun­ded in 2013. “We have accom­pa­nied the deve­lo­p­ment of Picavi since its incep­tion and look forward to support­ing the inno­va­tive company as an inves­tor and part­ner in the next stage of its growth,” says Harald Heide­mann, CEO of the S‑UBG Group.

Effi­ci­ent picking using assis­ted reality data glasses
Picavi has revo­lu­tio­ni­zed the market for picking systems with Pick-by-Vision, a specia­li­zed, data glas­­ses-based soft­ware solu­tion for warehouse proces­ses. The modern tech­no­logy enables visual guidance (assis­ted reality) of warehouse employees during the picking process. The solu­tion is now used by inter­na­tio­nally active compa­nies such as FIEGE, DocMor­ris, Bertels­mann, Heine­mann and Neovia and increa­ses effi­ci­ency in logi­stics proces­ses by up to 20 percent compared to other systems.

As a long-stan­­ding Google Glass part­ner, Picavi is a global pioneer in the use of the second gene­ra­tion Glass Enter­prise Edition, newly laun­ched by Google in May 2019. Google’s new data glas­ses enable even more perfor­mance through the latest proces­sor tech­no­logy with Picavi’s soft­ware compon­ents tail­o­red to them. “With Glass Enter­prise 2, we offer our custo­mers state-of-the-art data glas­ses with increased perfor­mance for even more effi­ci­ency in order picking using our pick-by-vision solu­tion,” said Jens Harig, CEO of Picavi.

Finan­cing for inter­na­tio­nal growth
Picavi intends to use the fresh capi­tal to drive its sales growth and further inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion. The first refe­rence custo­mers in the USA were follo­wed by the foun­da­tion of Picavi Inc. in Chicago, Illi­nois in Febru­ary of this year. Through the estab­lish­ment of the wholly owned subsi­diary, the high-tech company is now plan­ning further market deve­lo­p­ment in the USA. But Picavi is also growing in Europe with many new projects.

About the S‑UBG Group
The S‑UBG Group, Aachen, is the leading part­ner in provi­ding equity capi­tal for estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies (S‑UBG AG) and young, tech­­no­­logy-orien­­ted start-ups (S‑VC GmbH) in the econo­mic regi­ons of Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchen­glad­bach. S‑UBG AG invests in growth sectors; high quality of corpo­rate manage­ment is a key invest­ment criter­ion for the invest­ment company. In 1997, the share­hol­der savings banks estab­lished an early-stage fund under S‑VC GmbH to finance start­ups. In 2007, the Seed Fonds I Aachen was added, expan­ding the range to include equity capi­tal for tech­­no­­logy-orien­­ted start-ups. After it was fully finan­ced, a new fund (Seed Fonds II Aachen) was set up in 2012. The third seed fund gene­ra­tion star­ted at the begin­ning of 2018. The S‑UBG Group curr­ently has invest­ments in over 40 compa­nies in the region and mana­ges appro­xi­m­ately €100 million. Further infor­ma­tion: www.s‑ubg.de

About Seed Fonds II Aachen
Seed Fonds II Aachen was estab­lished in March 2012 as the succes­sor to the fully finan­ced Seed Fonds I Aachen (invest­ment period: 2007–2011) as a follow-up fund from NRW.BANK’s Seed Fonds Initia­tive. In addi­tion to NRW.BANK, Seed Fonds II Aachen is finan­ced by Spar­kasse Aachen and DSA Invest GmbH, which is backed by Aachen-based DSA Daten- und System­tech­nik GmbH. The Seed Fund provi­des young compa­nies in the start-up phase with the neces­sary equity capi­tal and thus stimu­la­tes the deve­lo­p­ment of future-orien­­ted tech­no­lo­gies in the Aachen econo­mic region. In 2018, the seed fund was laun­ched for the third time and for the first time also includes the Mönchen­glad­bach region, as the circle of inves­tors has expan­ded to include Spar­kasse Mönchengladbach.

Behind the opera­tio­nal manage­ment of the fund (FM Fonds-Mana­ge­­ment für die Region Aachen Betei­­li­­gungs-GmbH) are the invest­ment experts of the S‑UBG Group. The invest­ment company of the savings banks in the Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchen­glad­bach area looks back on more than 30 years of expe­ri­ence in finan­cing medium-sized compa­nies and tech­­no­­logy-orien­­ted start-ups.
www.seedfonds-aachen.de; www.s‑ubg.de.