A Successful Financing Round: Creathor Venture and High Tech Gruenderfonds invest in Roombeats

Berlin startup is a supplier of Image-based Content and Affiliate Marketing

The team around the ex-CEO of Jamba, MyHammer and StudiVZ Markus Berger-de Léon will receive a first round of financing in the high six figures

Roombeats receives fresh capital: the well-known venture capitalists Creathor Venture and High Tech Gruenderfonds are placing approximately 500,000 Euros at the disposal of experienced Internet pioneer Markus Berger-de Léon and his partner Florian Beba for their startup. A further prominent investor in this enterprise is Digital Pioneers, an investment firm belonging to Heiko Hubertz, founder of Bigpoint. Roombeats’ long-term goal is to become the leading supplier of Image-based Content and Affiliate Marketing.

Creating Added Value for Publishers and End Users
Roombeats adds value to product images found on the Internet by supplementing these with brand and price information as well as direct links to the relevant online shops. “This is not only an innovative concept, but one which is tailored to the individual needs of target groups. That results in a substantive added value for owners of these images as well as online shops because it generates new business using existing online content,” states Ingo Franz, a Partner with Creathor Venture. HTGF is also convinced by the service-oriented nature of this model: “Roombeats’ concept creates real monetary value for manufacturers as well as publishers and this fits perfectly into our investment strategy,” offers Marvin Andrä, an Investment Manager with HTGF. Bigpoint founder Heiko Hubertz was convinced to invest by the forward-looking nature of Roombeats’ concept that looks to turn each image into a sort of interactive display window.

Monetization and Satisfaction Through Compelling Images
For Markus Berger-de Léon and Florian Beba the idea for Roombeats grew out of the recognition of the power which images have to inspire people: “We want to help users act on the spontaneous shopping impulse that images can create by making this quick and easy. Roombeats does this by offering the originators of these product images and messages, primarily manufacturers and online shops, the right tools to satisfy the needs of their target groups and save them long, frustrating searches,” explains Berger-de Léon. If things develop as the two founders hope, in the future every publisher will be able to earn money with product images: “Our vision for the future is one in which websites present images that offer users added value instead of annoying ad banners. We offer publishers the possibility to monetize their content and provide significant added value to their readers,” expands Beba, Co-founder of Roombeats.

This startup was founded in April 2012. For more information on the portfolio of services offered by Roombeats, visit the company homepage www.roombeats.com

About Roombeats
Roombeats turns every image into an interactive display window. For publishers and bloggers, it offers Affiliate Marketing with Pictures; readers who discover a product image are now able to learn more about this item and are given a link so that they can buy it. Roombeats provides manufacturers with a complete solution to Image Content Marketing by linking images to relevant product and brand information and then distributing this throughout the Web. This increases brand presence online and directs interested customers straight to an online shop. Manufacturers receive real time reporting on the performance of their product images online. This Berlin startup was founded in 2012 by Markus Berger-de Léon, formerly CEO of Jamba, MyHammer and StudiVZ, and Florian Beba, the onetime Head of User Experience with Zalando. More information at: www.roombeats.com and on Facebook.

Press Contact:
Nora Ebbinghaus
Griffel & Co. Kommunikation GmbH
Forsmannstr. 8b
22303 Hamburg
Tel: 040 – 609 45 86-06
E-Mail: ne@griffel-co.com

About Creathor Venture
Creathor Venture is one of Europe’s leading venture capital funds with an investment focus on technology-oriented companies and entrepreneurs with growth potential. Particular areas of interest include the fields of mobile, e-, m- and s-Commerce as well as media, cloud computing, life science, mobile health and diagnostics. The firm’s regional emphasis lies in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and Scandinavia. The company’s current portfolio of more than 30 companies is overseen by a team of 15 employees which assists in the building, growth and internationalization of these firms. The management team includes the founder of Technologieholding VC Gmbh Dr. Gert Köhler, as well as Ingo Franz, Cédric Köhler and Karlheinz Schmelig. The team has successfully built up over 200 technology companies, helped more than 20 firms become listed on international stock markets and, while doing so, has realized exceptional results for both these firms and the fund’s own investors. At present, Creathor Venture manages a fund volume of more than 180 million euros and has offices in Bad Homburg (Frankfurt), Zürich, Tützing (München) and Stockholm. Its investors include the European Investment Fund (EIF) through which the fund receives resources out of the ERP-EIF umbrella fund, the European Union’s “Multinational programme for enterprise and entrepreneurship (MAP)”, Fund of Funds, Family Offices and entrepreneurs. That Creathor’s largest investor is its management team underlines the firm’s entrepreneurial orientation.

About High-Tech Gruenderfonds
High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests EUR 500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE Color, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 573.5 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 301.5 million HTGF II).

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Marvin Andrä
Investment Manager
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Tel: +49 228 823001-00
Fax: +49 228 823000-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de