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Category: News

  • payever makes commerce easier for everyone and closed a seed round with the leading early stage venture capital firm in Germany

    Over 3.000 businesses of all types and sizes use payever solutions to run and grow – in online shops, websites, facebook or local stores. Huge banks and payment service provider like PayPal, Stripe or Santander Consumer Bank cooperate with payever. After two years the team closed their first investment round with High-Tech Gruenderfonds.

    Europe´s small commerce businesses miss access to tools big businesses have in order to maximise their revenue. Especially payment is a critical factor. While merchants in the United States simply implement PayPal and Credit Card to satisfy their customers – European businesses spend thousands of Euros for integration and maintenance of many payment APIs -to keep customers from leaving their checkout.

    “And that´s just the tip of the iceberg for running and growing your business today. We are on a mission to change the unfair advantage of big retailers over our community. Our businesses will
    get access to the same world class tools Amazon or Zalando have”, says Artur Schlaht, CEO of payever GmbH.

    payever´s technology is modular and looks like a box full of commerce solutions. Everything works without coding: Businesses select payment options and selling channels per mouse tip and get started in minutes. In 2014 payever simplified installment payments in cooperation with Santander Consumer Bank. Today the company offers all payment options and enables
    merchants to get paid via mail, invoice, website, online shop, in their local retail store and even through facebook. Every month a new solution will be added.

    Michael Wieser, Investment Manager at HTGF: „The team created high-end technology and matches a real demand. payever has a great chance to become a relevant international player in the booming ecommerce market.

    payever is not a blind spot on the startup map. The team joined two accelerator programs, including Berlin based Microsoft Ventures Accelerator and won several awards.

    Remarkably, payever was self-financed for 2 years. “We monitor payever since they got started. The team established a loyal community of businesses and we are happy to go on an exciting journey with them.“ says Michael Wieser.

    About payever
    payever was founded in December 2013 by Artur Schlaht and Viktor Butsch to make commerce easier for businesses of all types and sizes. The company provides a modular SaaS solution to sell everywhere and accept all payments. The innovative technology works without coding, hosting or maintenance. payever enables businesses to accept PayPal, Sofort, Direct debit,
    Installment, Pay after delivery or Bitcoin payments in different channels like online shop, website, facebook, via invoice, mail or a local pos app. payever is a Microsoft Ventures Accelerator alumni and headquartered in Hamburg.

    Press contact
    payever GmbH
    Simon-von-Utrecht Strasse 1
    D-20359 Hamburg
    Tel.: +49 173 3726736
    presse@payever.de
    www.payever.de

    About High-Tech Gründerfonds
    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 Energy, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA,
    BASF, Bayer, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, 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 576 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II).

    Contact:
    High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
    Schlegelstraße 2
    53113 Bonn
    Michael Wieser
    Tel: +49 (228) 823 001-62
    Fax: +49 (228) 823 000-50
    m.wieser@htgf.de
    www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

     

  • Web 3.0 with the Semantic Product Search from SEMKNOX

    Who hasn’t had the problem of using an online shop’s search engine and just not finding the right products? Over the past three years, SEMKNOX has developed an unparalleled semantic product search engine that understands customers’ queries in everyday language. Search queries such as “long summer dress in red with sequins” or “affordable 4K TV with YouTube app and 50 inch screen” can be precisely understood and only fitting results shown. The High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and WestTech Ventures are financing SEMKNOX along with additional investors to support the establishment of this pioneering Web 3.0 product search in online shops.

    Only relevant products and no empty result lists—this is what the Dresden-based company SEMKNOX makes possible for their clients with their semantic product search engine. Existing product search engines often fail at answering even the simplest keyword queries, showing incorrect or incomplete results. The semantic product search from SEMKNOX can accurately determine the product category and detect the desired features in both simple and complex queries so that only matching products are displayed. To convey the unique abilities of this semantic product search to the end user, the autocomplete feature presents possible natural-language queries based on current search trends. The basis for all this is the SEMKNOX product ontology, a sort of “Google Knowledge Graph” on a smaller scale and exclusively for products, upon which SEMKNOX’s algorithms run. This knowledge graph contains thousands of features related to numerous product categories, which can be retrieved using a huge variety of synonyms and formulations. When this comprehensive ontology is applied to the client’s product data, the search domain is expanded considerably – to a size much larger than a conventional, index-based search could ever achieve.

    Dr. Sebastian Suhr, Investment Manager at HTGF, has stated, “SEMKNOX’s technology has enormous potential in the field of product search as well as possible applications in online marketing.”

    Dr. David Urbansky, founder and CEO of SEMKNOX, is convinced their technology makes it easy for online shops to offer a high-quality search engine: “Clients do not have to worry about maintaining and updating their search; SEMKNOX takes care of everything.”

    In addition to HTGF, other investors have participated in the 6-figure funding round, including WestTech Ventures and LeROI Online Marketing GmbH, both located in Berlin, as well as seto GmbH and Philipp Katz in Dresden.

    About SEMKNOX GmbH
    SEMKNOX’s founders are Dr. David Urbansky, Sebastian Sprenger, and Simon Schabel, three computer scientists who, in 2012, came up with the idea of an all-knowing virtual salesman who can answer every search query a visitor enters. Through their studies at the TU Dresden and their work in the Department of Computer Networks, the team already had the knowledge needed to develop such a system. After a year and a half of development financed by Dresden exists and an SAB SEED grant, SEMKNOX GmbH was founded at the beginning of 2014 and its semantic product search first introduced to the public at CeBIT 2014. SEMKNOX has since been focusing on online shops and price comparison sites as potential clients.

    Press Contact
    SEMKNOX GmbH
    Simon Schabel
    Webergasse 1
    01067 Dresden
    Phone: (+49) 351 – 32 123 102
    simon.schabel@semknox.com
    www.semknox.com

     

    About the High-Tech Gründerfonds
    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 Energy, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, 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 576 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II).

    Contact
    High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
    Dr. Sebastian Suhr
    Schlegelstraße 2
    53113 Bonn
    Phone: +49 (228) 823 001-57
    Fax: +49 (228) 823 000-50
    s.suhr@htgf.de
    www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

  • coModule Raises €500,000 from High-Tech Gruenderfonds to Empower Electric Vehicle Revolution

    Estonian mobility company coModule has secured €500,000 in capital for its seed round from renowned German investor High-Tech Gruenderfonds (HTGF) to bring mobile connectivity, data analytics and Internet of Things to the world of electric vehicles.

    The “Android of light electric vehicles”

    coModule has developed a hardware and software platform for Light Electric Vehicles (LEVs). The hardware monitors vehicle and environmental metrics and sends the data directly to the end user’s smartphone. The mobile app then visualises the available range, helping to eliminate range anxiety. Data on the vehicle is also sent to the manufacturer of the LEV who can then make better product development decisions and utilize the direct communication with the end user.

    The platform kills all anxieties for end consumers by visualising range and battery health, tracking rides and vehicle location and allowing the user to directly communicate with the dealer or manufacturer. At the same time, the online service offers in-depth knowledge of the vehicles technical performance and user behaviour to the manufacturer. “coModule saves time and money on life cycle tests and warranty management” says Michael Wieser, investment manager at HTGF. “Most importantly it creates opportunities for better client engagement and loyalty to generate after-sales.”

    The era of the LEV
    There are more than 100 million LEVs on the streets today. According to IDTechEx the annual sales will reach 130 million vehicles before 2025, making it one of the world’s largest industries. At the same time there is still a lot of room for improvement.

    “Most e-bikes are just a dumb piece of metal – they are primitive and give very little information about battery status, available range or vehicle location,” says Welix Klaas, one of the co-founders of coModule. Even BMW’s E-Mobility manager Stephan Augustin has been quoted as saying: “The continuous upgrade of the bicycle product is a must. But this is a problem for the bicycle industry. They don’t have e-knowhow. They have to learn quickly. Otherwise the automotive industry will take over.”

    The HTGF seed financing will be used to fuel the growth, to implement the technology and begin the market entry. “The core technology has gone through several iterations and is now ready for industrialisation and mass production” says CEO and co-founder Kristjan Maruste. The software and hardware platform or “Android” for light electric vehicles will be publicly unveiled later this year together with key-partners at the World’s leading bicycle fair Eurobike.

    About coModule
    coModule was founded in 2014 by electric racing car development engineers from Tallinn University of Technology. The team has years of experience in automotive engineering as well as software development. The company has grown to more than 10 engineers with HQ in Berlin and development office in Tallinn, Estonia. Today coModule is making revenue and has several pilot customers from different European countries. First coModule-connected vehicles are on the streets, they are gathering data and streaming it live into the online data visualization platform.

    coModule believes that the electric vehicle revolution is now! The way to manage over-populated cities and increasing air pollution is to convert to clean forms of transport that require less space and maintenance – light electric vehicles (LEV). To empower the LEV revolution we need to address all issues keeping consumers from adoption. coModule believes in the need to take LEVs from dumb metal to the age of technology.

    Contact:
    COMODULE GmbH
    Welix Klaas
    Charlottenstraße 2
    10969 Berlin
    Phone: +49 174 670 55 77
    founders@comodule.com
    www.comodule.com

    About High-Tech Gruenderfonds (HTGF)
    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 Energy, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, 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 576 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II).

    Contact:
    High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
    Michael Wieser
    Schlegelstraße 2
    D-53113 Bonn
    Phone: +49 228 / 823001-00
    Fax: +49 228 / 823000-50
    m.wieser@htgf.de
    www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

  • A consortium led by High-Tech Gründerfonds and Innovationsstarter invests in Sonormed: E-health solution Tinnitracks can alleviate tinnitus

    In a series-A financing round, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg, Quotas Beteiligungs GmbH and Heiko Hubertz, the Bigpoint founder, have invested jointly in Hamburg-based medical technology company Sonormed GmbH.

    With its Tinnitracks solution, the young company offers a therapeutic option for people affected by tinnitus. In Germany alone, three million people suffer from the bothersome ear sound. The classified medical product treats the causes of subjective, tonal tinnitus in the auditory cortex by individually filtering the affected person’s favorite music. Its scientific basis is so-called tailor-made notched music training (TMNMT), whose efficacy has been confirmed in independent clinical studies.

    “With Tinnitracks, the Sonormed team has developed a trendsetting technology in digital audiology. Within a very short time, academic research results were translated into a practical form of therapy accessible to patients. Dr. Martin Pfister, Senior Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds, explains the Sonormed investment: “With this technological know-how, Sonormed has the potential to decisively influence the growing e-health sector.”

    “The support of the consortium led by HTGF and Innovationsstarter means that we have reliable and experienced partners at our side. For us, it is an ideal combination of a strong network and experienced entrepreneurs that support us and set the course for additional growth”, says Jörg Land, co-founder and CEO of Sonormed. The company will use the money for product development and further corporate expansion. It has created an integrated solution and collaborates with ENT physicians, hearing aid audiologists and renowned audio specialist Sennheiser.

    Sonormed has already won numerous awards and start-up competitions, the most recent being the internationally renowned American SXSW Accelerator Award in the category “Digital Health and Life Sciences Technologies”. Before that, the company had won first place in the EU competition of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology in Eindhoven (EIT) and the “IKT Innovativ” prize of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

    About Sonormed
    Sonormed GmbH, founded in 2012 in Hamburg, is a medical technology company specializing in digital audiology that developed the medical product Tinnitracks with an interdisciplinary team of sound engineers, computer scientists and neurobiologists. Sonormed has already received a lot of domestic and international financial support and prizes for developing and introducing Tinnitracks into the market. For more information, visit: www.tinnitracks.de//

    Press contact:
    HOSCHKE & CONSORTEN Public Relations GmbH
    Marta Iza de la Torre, Christina Siebels
    Heimhuder Str. 56
    20148 Hamburg
    Phone: +49 (40) 36 90 50-45, -58
    E-mail: m.iza@hoschke.de; c.siebels@hoschke.de

    Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg
    Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg invests risk capital for young, innovative Hamburg-based companies in order to strengthen their R&D activities. Envisaged are active partnerships in joint-stock companies up to a maximum amount of 1 million euros. Fund investors are the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The fund volume amounts to 12 million euros. IFB Innovationsstarter GmbH is a 100% owned subsidiary of Hamburg-based Investment and Business Development Bank. For more information, visit: www.innovationsstarter.com//

    Contact:
    IFB Innovationsstarter GmbH
    Doreen Huhle
    Besenbinderhof 31
    20097 Hamburg
    Phone: +49 (40) 657980592
    E-mail: huhle@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 Energy, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, 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 576 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II).

    Further information can be found on www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

    Contact:
    High-Tech Gründerfonds
    Dr. Martin Pfister
    Schlegelstraße 2
    53113 Bonn
    Phone: +49 (228) 823 001-00
    Fax: +49 (228) 823 000-50
    E-mail: info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
    www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de