3.5 million euros capital for humangrid in 2010

The growth in investors and capital for humangrid GmbH is unabated. New partners have joined this successful internet business for what is the second time already in 2010. The new investor Finance Partners CFP & Founders Investments alone has provided the Company with a further capital injection of EUR 0.5 million.

As recently as March 2010, private investors Klaus Wecken as well as his children Ina and Ferry Wecken joined the Company as shareholders. Together with the existing shareholders, they had already provided the Company with three million euros in fresh capital. This therefore takes the 2010 total of new capital for humangrid to EUR 3.5 million.

“humangrid is a unique business model in Europe and is based on the ideas of “crowdsourcing” and “atomisation of work”. We see in this a long-term, mega trend that interacts very positively with many other business models on the internet and promises substantial growth,” Andreas Thümmler, CEO of CFP & Founders Investments, says about the investment in humangrid.

humangrid’s business model is based on the crowdsourcing principle.
A unique internet platform enables companies to outsource work on larger projects – for example text creation, product classification as well as data recording and search – to numerous freelance workers, also known as clickworkers. The benefits to the contracting company are obvious. The work is carried out very quickly, flexibly as well as economically and therefore most efficiently. Various quality assurance measures ensure high-quality results.
humangrid’s concept has already been commended on multiple occasions.

The business concept was created in 2006. The Company then entered the German market in mid 2009 and the US market in early 2010. The range of services offered has since been steadily expanded in line with the market’s requirements and specific customer requests. The number of clickworkers has also risen from a total of 10,000 to more than 40,000 within the past six months. The growth in the number of clickworkers in the United States is especially impressive.  More than 15,000 clickworkers registered here inside 2 months.

“The Company’s growth is still nowhere near coming to an end. The opportunities for using this internet platform are far from having been fully exploited. There will consequently be ongoing potential for gaining new customers and developing new markets. This latest capital increase underpins the further growth steps that the Company plans to take,” says humangrid’s CEO Wolfgang Kitza.

About humangrid
As an innovative service provider, humangrid GmbH utilises the know-how of qualified internet users to flexibly and efficiently execute business processes that cannot be automated or only poorly so. humangrid breaks complex tasks down into micro jobs, passes them on to the clickworkers and, following successful execution, collates them again based on strict quality control. The Company, established in 2006, has already been commended on multiple occasions.

Contact:
humangrid GmbH
Wolfgang Kitza
TechnologieZentrumDortmund
Emil-Figge-Str. 76-80
D-44227 Dortmund
Phone: +49 231 4499 640
Fax: +49 231 4499 6499
info-de@humangrid.de
ww.clickworker.com

About SeedCapital Dortmund
SeedCapital Dortmund GmbH & Co. KG, which is funded by NRW.BANK, Sparkasse Dortmund and private investors, invests in newly formed, innovative technology and growth-oriented businesses in the Dortmund area to support the structural change that is currently underway in this region. The objective behind the funding that SeedCapital Dortmund GmbH & Co. KG provides as early-stage finance therefore is to enable the investee company to run a development process on the basis of which the anticipated, above-average business growth can be realised primarily by involving more, larger-scale institutional investors.

Contact:
SeedCapital Dortmund GmbH & Co. KG
Steffen Gruber
Freistuhl 2
44137 Dortmund
Phone: +49 231 183-342 11
Fax: +49 231 183-342 99
www.seedcapital-dortmund.de

About KfW
Start-ups, technology-oriented businesses as well as established small and medium-sized enterprises will find coordinated and transparent equity finance on offer here. KfW raises private equity capital for new, innovative technology businesses with the support of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) and its own ERP start-up fund. In so doing, KfW normally invests without becoming involved in managing the business. Yet the precondition is that another investor (a lead investor) commits at least the same amount. An investment by KfW is subject to the same commercial terms as that from the lead investor.

Contact:
KfW Bankengruppe
Geschäftsbereich KfW Mittelstandsbank
Brigitte Reischl
Ludwig-Erhard-Platz 1-3
53179 Bonn
Phone:  +49 228 831-7698
Fax: +49 228 831-7493
www.kfw.de

About Corporate Finance Partners CFP & Founders Investments
CFP & Founders Investments is a co-investment vehicle of Frankfurt-based Corporate Finance Partners CFP Beratungs-GmbH (CFP), a corporate finance as well as mergers & acquisitions consultancy established in 1998. CFP & Founders Investments’ business normally has its origins in the deal flow of CFP Beratungs-GmbH or stems from the network of CFP & Founders Investments. The fund’s network comprises 130 investors from the telecommunications, internet, IT, software, clean tech, media and medical technology sectors. Numerous former CFP Beratungs-GmbH clients have invested in CFP & Founders Investments. The funds under management currently come to EUR 23.2 million. In addition to purely financial involvement, CFP can provide support during rounds of financing, acquisitions and possible exits. Furthermore, CFP’s portfolio companies have access to the network of CFP & Founders Investments and benefit from its commercial contacts, sector experts and management capacity.

Contact:
Corporate Finance Partners
CFP & Founders Investments GmbH & Co. KGaA
Andreas Thümmler
Geschäftsführer/Managing Director
Palais 22
Kennedyallee 70a
60596 Frankfurt/Main
Phone: +49 69 907476 12
Fax: +49 69 907476 70
www.cfpartners.com

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The High-Tech Grunderfonds invests risk capital in young, high-potential technology companies that convert promising research results in business success. By means of the seed financing the start-ups shall carry on with the R & D project until the provision of a prototype or a “proof of concept” or until the lancing on the market. The High-Tech Grunderfonds has a funds volume of about 272 million EUR. Investors of the Public Private Partnership are the German Federal Ministry for Economy and Technology, the KfW Banking Group and the six industrial company groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler, and Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
High-TechGründerfonds Management GmbH
Clemens von Bergmann
Investment Director / Procurist
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Phone: +49 228 – 96568500
Fax: +49 228 – 96568550
c.bergmann@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de