Custom Cells Itzehoe GmbH (CCI) produces electrode foils, rechargeable accumulators and battery systems to operate on multifaceted and attractive niche markets. The company raises capital from ALTANA AG and Innovationsstarter Hamburg GmbH to support the further growth.

Custom Cells Itzehoe GmbH produces individual and perfect optimized energy storage solutions for customer specific application based on a proprietary lithium-battery technology-platform.

The special technology platform to assemble lithium battery cells enables new battery-performances for challenging applications like prostheses, autonomic weather stations, satellites, the use of drilling sensors, autonomous under water vehicles or concept cars.

CCI uses state-of-the-art coating and assembly lines to produce plug-in energy storage systems and intermediate goods like electrode foils or lithium-accumulators that become integrated by system integrators or customers in the field of research and development. Intermediate goods serve as raw material for high volume producers of battery cells and plug-in systems solve problems for special purpose machinery manufactures.

ALTANA AG  as a special chemical provider joins CCI with a cooperation to improve the CCI technology and to enhance performance of it’s accumulators.

In context to the entry of ALTANA and Hamburg Innovationsstarter Leopold König and Torge Thönnessen, CEOs of CCI announce that the capital increase will serve CCI for a better positioning in the market, to optimize production processes and company growth.

„Together with ALTANA and Innovationsstarter Hamburg, two partners join the company to strengthen its unique proposition and to create a wider foundation for the further development of Custom Cells Itzehoe.”, says Ron Winkler, Investment Manager at High-Tech Gruenderfonds.

“Our engagement in CCI is in line with our strategy to enlarge the core competencies of the ALTANA Group by selectively investing in technology start-up companies. In this case we aim at the expansion of our application technology know-how for the production of electrochemical energy storage devices as well as for the improvement of the properties of such devices’, explains Dr. Andreas Jerschensky, Head of Corporate Development / M&A at ALTANA AG.

Dörte Bunge, Investment Manager at the Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg adds: “We are very convinced of the highly innovative technology and the industrial applicability as well as the integration potential of the existing and planned products of CCI.”

About Custom Cells Itzehoe
Custom Cells Itzehoe GmbH (CCI) develops and produces electrode foils, rechargeable accumulators and battery system for individual customer requirements on niche markets. The Intended use of a unique technology platform is appropriate to customize chemistry, cell design and energy storage moduls to the customer requirements. Therefore CCI licenses know-how and patents of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft which are developed in over 13 years at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology.

Contact:
Mr Torge Thönnessen
Phone: +49 (0) 4821 17-4115
Fax: +49 (0) 160 90 90 21 00
kontakt@customcells.de

About ALTANA AG
ALTANA, a specialty chemicals group with headquarters in Wesel/Germany, is a genuine “global player” with about 85% of its sales generated by international activities. Its four divisions, BYK Additives & Instruments, ECKART Effect Pigments, ELANTAS Electrical Insulation, and ACTEGA Coatings & Sealants, occupy a leading position in their target markets with respect to quality, product solution expertise, innovation and service. At present, the ALTANA Group has 46 production facilities and more than 50 service and research laboratories worldwide. Throughout the group about 5,700 people work to ensure the success of ALTANA globally. In 2012, ALTANA achieved sales of more than 1.7 billion euros. Its impressive earning power and high growth rate make ALTANA one of the most successful chemical groups worldwide.

Contact:
Oliver Marx
Corporate Development / M&A
ALTANA AG
Abelstraße 43
46483 Wesel
Deutschland
Phone: +49 281 670-10405
Oliver.Marx@altana.com
www.altana.com

About Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg
The Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg invests risk capital into young and innovative enterprises in Hamburg in order to strengthen their research and development activities. The business model foresees open investments into capital companies up to a maximal amount of 1 Million EUR.
The fund is financed with equal shares by the “Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg” and the “Europäische Fonds für regionale Entwicklung (EFRE-Fonds)”. The total volume of the fund is 12 Million EUR. The management of the Fond is delegated to the Innovationsstarter Hamburg, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the “Hamburgischen Investitions- und Förderbank”.

Contact:
Dörte Bunge
Innovationsstarter Hamburg GmbH
c/ IFB Hamburg
Besenbinderhof 31
20097 Hamburg
Phone: +49 40 657980595
bunge@innovationsstarter.com
www.innovationsstarter.com

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
Ron Winkler
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Phone: +49 (228) 823 001-00
Fax: +49 (228) 823 000-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de