Category: Press

Seed investment of 500.000 € for the specialists for simple, innovative navigation for medicine

With its medical navigation systems, SP Solution Pool GmbH provides support for surgeons performing operations. These pioneering systems combine high precision and user-friendliness. SP Navigation provides a simple, integrated navigation concept that can be used in every operation and requires minimal preparation time. Thanks to its ergonomic design, system operation is intuitive and the system can be used flexibly. The first operations are already planned for this year.

Clinical studies show that the use of navigation systems reduces the incidence of complications during operations as well as the average operation time. According to an analysis by the Millennium Research Group (2007), the market for medical navigation in ENT and in oral and maxillofacial surgery will grow by 12% per annum over the next few years. SP Solution Pool GmbH’s pioneering innovations make clinical navigation simple, quick and safe to use. For this reason, this young company has a promising future in this growth market.

“The basis for the implementation of our ideas lies in the knowledge and experience gained during our scientific work at the Charité University Clinic in Berlin and the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology. The founding of SP Solution Pool GmbH is a prime example of successful technology transfer between scientific institutes and new, innovative companies,“ explains Dr. Dirk Mucha, one of the founders of the company.
Prof. Henning Bier, Chief Physician of the ENT Clinic at the university hospital associated with the Technical University of Munich, focuses on the clinical benefits: ”By using SP navigation systems, we will be able to carry out operations on patients more quickly and more safely, even under difficult anatomical conditions.“

Anke Bellmann, Managing Director of SP Solution Pool GmbH, emphasizes the marketing and sales opportunities that are now opening up: “The involvement of High-Tech Gründerfonds in our company will enable us to promote our market-ready technology using a professional sales team. I am very pleased that we will already be present in November at the Medica trade fair in Düsseldorf together with our first sales partner, MGB Berlin.“

“I am delighted to be able to add an innovative technology to our portfolio by combining our endoscopic systems with SP’s navigation system,“ adds Dr. Johannes Tschepe, Managing Director of MGB Endoskopische Geräte GmbH, Berlin.
“What we particularly like about Solution Pool GmbH is the company’s belief that technology should adapt to the application and not the other way around,“ adds Dr. Bernd Goergen, Senior Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds. “For this reason, we are optimistic that the highly skilled management team will, with the aid of our investment, quickly produce a range of innovative and extremely user-friendly navigation solutions that will significantly improve the productivity and safety of surgical procedures.“

Contact:
SP Solution Pool GmbH
Sonnenburger Straße 66
D 10437 Berlin
info@solution-pool.com
Tel.: +49 30 346 272 86
Fax: +49 30 346 272 85
www.solution-pool.com

About High-Tech Gründerfonds:
The High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young, up-and-coming technology companies, which implement promising research results in the industry. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concepts” or market launch by means of the seed financing of up to 500k EUR. The High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW bank group as well as the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Tel.: 0228 / 965685-00
Fax: 0228 / 965685-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

Development of a novel, repositionable biological heartvalve

The newly founded medical technologies company Transcatheter Technologies GmbH (Regensburg, Germany) announces the successful closing of a seed financing round of 600.000 € with High-Tech Gruenderfonds and Seedfonds Bayern. The funds will be used for the development of a novel biological heart valve up to the proof of concept. The patented design enables the repositioning of the valve and thereby decreases the number of complications during the implantation procedure. This allows for the therapy of high risk patients.

The technology of Transcatheter Technologies GmbH makes it possible to implant aortic valves without the need for traumatic open-heart surgery. The heart valve is mounted on a self-expanding stent and implanted through a small incision between the ribs and in a later stage through the femoral artery. Patients are expected to have shorter hospital stays and dramatically shorter recovery times.

Key features allow the physician to reposition the valve during implantation. At the same time the stent can safely be deployed without harming sensitive heart tissue.

“Compared to current products, this new device has many innovative features offering doctors better control over the implantation procedure and improved safety for the patient.” says Hou-Sen Lim, company founder.

The total annual patient pool for aortic valve replacement is expected to grow from 350,000 today to about 400,000 by 2012, of which approximately 80,000 potential procedures could be transcatheter based. That will translate into over US$ 1B market in the next decade. In addition, the catheter technology will open new markets. 5% of the people older than 75 years suffer from a symptomatic aortic stenosis that requires surgical aortic valve replacement. But one third will not get referred to a cardiac surgical therapy, because the patients have an intolerable high risk of lethal complications.

In the future these patients can receive a low risk catheter based heart valve.
“We are developing a new heart valve that will save the life of patients who are nowadays sent home by their doctors to die because there is no therapy available for them.” says Wolfgang Goetz MD, PhD, company founder and cardiac surgeon. “This innovative technology reduces the risks associated with early percutaneous valve systems. In case of complications, these new prostheses can be repositioned and removed without harm to the patient.”

„Transcatheter Technologies´ valve design can solve major problems of common prosthesis. Thereby, valve implantations become an option for currently untreatable patients. We are convinced that the medicinal as well as technological expertise of the team provide an ideal base for a successful development“, adds Dr. Michael Nettersheim from High-Tech Gruenderfonds.

Monika Steger, team leader at Bayern Kapital GmbH comments: “Transcatheter Technologies stands out for its extraordinary motivated founders. We believe that the team is capable of moving the already advanced valve design successfully from development to market stage.”

About Transcatheter Technologies GmbH:
Transcatheter Technologies GmbH was incorporated on January 2009 and is a privately held early stage start-up company based at BioPark in Regensburg, Germany. The company develops medical devices aimed at reducing the trauma of open-heart valve surgeries. Its re-positionable transcatheter aortic valve system is at the forefront of next generation valve implantation technology.

Contact:
Wolfgang Goetz, Tel: +49 170 6309920,
wolfgang.goetz@transcatheter-technologies.com
Hou-Sen Lim, Tel: +49 170 6309921
housen.lim@transcatheter-technologies.com

About High-Tech Gründerfonds:
The High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young, up-and-coming technology companies, which implement promising research results in the industry. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concepts” or market launch by means of the seed financing of up to 500k EUR. The High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW bank group as well as the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 253175 Bonn
Germany
Phone: +49 228 / 965685-00
Fax: +49 228 / 965685-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

About Seedfonds Bayern (SFB) from Bayern Kapital:
Seedfonds Bayern exists since 2003 and has a volume of 22 Mio. Euro to invest venture capital in young and innovative Bavarian technology-companies with high prospects that are transferring promising research results to business enterprises.The fund is managed by Bayern Kapital GmbH. Bayern Kapital GmbH is a Bavarian venture capital company and was founded as part of the “Bavarian Future Initiative” as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the LfA Foerderbank Bayern (Bavaria‘s development bank) at the end of 1995. Bayern Kapital and its funds have invested about 142 Mio. Euro in more than 180 companies and currently manages funds to the value of 190 Mio. Euro.

Contact:
Bayern Kapital GmbH
Ländgasse 135 a
84028 Landshut
Germany
Phone: +49 871 92325 0
Fax: +49 871 92325 55
info@bayernkapital.de
www.bayernkapital.de

Yatta Solutions GmbH, a specialist in model-driven software development has secured the High-Tech Günderfonds as an investor. Yatta Solutions develops and distributes UML Lab, a software development tool which offers a complete, automatic and error-free alignment of source code and models (or diagrams) for the first time ever. The model view remains the same throughout software implementation without the need for time-consuming manual maintenance of the software design. Thus the introduction of UML Lab, being facilitated by the investment of the High-Tech Günderfonds, closes the gap between the modeling and programming tools currently available on the market, thus making it possible to shorten development times by up to 40%.

“The innovative technical approach of round-trip engineering combined with the positive effect of quality enhancement and appreciable cost minimization in the growing market of software engineering was the major consideration for our decision to invest,” said Romy Schnelle, the investment manager responsible for Yatta Solutions at High-Tech Gründerfonds. With its investment, the Fund will be supporting the rapid development from the UML Lab prototype to a finished product. Moreover, it will assure the financing of the subsequent market entry. “The High-Tech Gründerfonds is the right investor for us because it places a wide network of follow-on investors and business partners at our disposal and finances high tech innovation – the expansion of our company will be speeded up through the High-Tech Gründerfonds’ investment greatly,” declared company director Dr. Christian Schneider.

With UML Lab software developers are given the possibility to take advantage of both worlds – the model view and the source code view. Yatta Solutions’ technology provides an elegant and reliable solution to the problem of media discontinuity between design and realization of software. The synchronization of code and model offers a better overview and simplifies team communication. Extended processing functions and model-based refactoring reduce development time for software implementation and maintenance by up to 40%, thus making software development projects simpler, quicker and more cost-effective. Yatta Solutions supplies UML Lab either as a standard software product via the internet or as a customized solution together with company or project specific services. In this way it provides optimum solutions for any target group, from freelancers up to development departments of large corporations. Yatta Solutions will be launching the official beta version for UML Lab in the middle of next year. Beta testers can now register on www.uml-lab.com.

Contact:
Dr. Christian Schneider, Johannes Jacop
Yatta Solutions GmbH
Ludwig-Erhard-Strasse 12
34131 Kassel
Tel.: +49 (0)561 – 574 32 77 – 0
info@yatta-solutions.com

About High-Tech Gründerfonds:
The High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young, up-and-coming technology companies, which implement promising research results in the industry. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concepts” or market launch by means of the seed financing of up to 500k EUR. The High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW bank group as well as the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Michael Nettersheim
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 253175 Bonn
Germany
Phone: +49 228 / 965685-00
Fax: +49 228 / 965685-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

Neuhaus Partners and High-Tech Gründerfonds have increased their shares in antispameurope. The inflow of additional capital is expected to further strengthen international growth of the Hannover based provider of managed e-mail security services.

Both companies are investors into antispameurope since its first financing round in the fall of 2007. A second financing round was conducted in April of 2008. Dr. Gottfried Neuhaus, Managing Partner of Neuhaus Partners, appears pleased with the development of his investment: “antispameurope is being outstandingly well-positioned in the market. This is confirmed not only by the increasing number of customers, but also by the apparent interest in the company antispameurope.”

Holger Heinen, Senior Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds, gives his reasons for the continued involvement: “We have high expectations for the continued development of antispameurope. The current financing round not only strengthens our position, but also promotes the company’s continued growth.”

antispameurope will use the additional funds mainly to push for additional expansion of their international activities. As managing director of antispameurope, Oliver Dehning is responsible for international development: “We have already achieved some first successes in Italy and Spain. We intend to convert the initial achievements into positive growth, similar to what we’ve done in Germany and at the same time use our experiences from Spain and Italy to expand our business into other countries and continue our growth path”.

About antispameurope:
antispameurope is leading provider of managed e-mail security services. Their premium services are compatible with all current e-mail systems without additional software, hardware or maintenance requirements – even for mobile phone users. The services offered include spam and virus filters, automatic e-mail signature and archiving solutions. All services are provided via several secure data centers and are accessible around the clock, every day of the year. Apart from corporate clients, the security specialist also offers its services to internet service and hosting providers as well as other sales partners for their clients.

For more details about antispameurope please visit www.antispameurope.de

About Neuhaus Partners:
Neuhaus Partners GmbH is based in Hamburg and is one of the leading venture capital companies in Europe, investing primarily in information technology companies. Since its founding in 1998, the company has completed 48 investments and in 44 of those Neuhaus Partners participated as lead investor. Track Record: Two IPO’s, sixteen trade sales, three buy backs and ten insolvencies. Neuhaus Partners is currently investing in its third fund generation.

For more information about Neuhaus Partners please visit www.NeuhausPartners.com

About High-Tech Gründerfonds:
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests in new, up-and-coming technology companies who are converting promising research results into entrepreneurial success. Using seed financing of up to 500,000 euros, the start-ups are set to implement R & D plans that will culminate in the final assembly of a prototype or a proof of concept or introduction onto the market. High-Tech Gründerfonds manages funds worth approximately 272 million euros. Investors of the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the KfW banking group, the six industrial concerns of BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

For more details about High-Tech Gründerfonds please visit www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

For further information regarding this press release please contact:

antispameurope GmbH
Oliver Dehning
Tel.: +49 (511) 260 905-0
Fax: +49 (511) 260 905-99
E-Mail: presse@antispameurope.de
Web: www.antispameurope.de

Neuhaus Partners GmbH
Thomas Golinski
Tel.: +49 (40) 355 282-0
Fax: +49 (40) 355 282-39
E-Mail: golinski@NeuhausPartners.com
Web: www.NeuhausPartners.com

High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Holger Heinen
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Tel.: +49 (228) 965 685-00
Fax: +49 (228) 965 685-50
E-Mail: info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
Web: www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

Biochemical profiling services for companies in life science industry

Based on its proprietary fluorescence cross correlation spectroscopy (FCCS) Intana offers highly-specific biochemical profiling services for companies in the pharmaceutical, chemical and life science industries. FCCS is an interaction analysis based on a single molecule sensitive spectroscopic approach. The technology is extremely well suited to characterize molecular interactions between active ingredients, targets and off targets in cellular lysates. So far, the technology has been successfully employed for customers from the pharmaceutical industry in their drug discovery and development efforts. FCCS can be employed as an efficient tool to determine dissociation- and rate constants. High-Tech Gruenderfonds (HTGF), Bayern Kapital (SFB) and BioM AG jointly invested a total of 650,000 € in the start-up company.

“Customers benefit from short assay development times, in depth interaction analysis and assay conditions that mimic the natural environment of a drug.” says Dr. Stefan Hannus, founder and managing director of Intana Bioscience GmbH. “Since we can work in cellular lysates our technology circumvents the need of protein purification. In addition, we do not need an activity assay, therefore enabling us to work with targets that cannot be efficiently addressed with current drug discovery technologies.”

“The funding will enable us to expand the application of our technology into additional fields, with the aim to establish and develop a stable business with a unique set of services for biotech- and pharmaceutical companies.” says Dr. Frank Becker, founder and managing director of Intana Bioscience GmbH. “The positive feedback from our customers convinced us, that the high quality data we generated indeed addresses the current needs of target based drug discovery.”

Dr. Michael Nettersheim, Investment Manager of the High-Tech Gruenderfonds Management GmbH comments: “It’s anything but new that drug developers demand for technologies which characterize novel compounds much quicker and more precisely. Intana’s FCCS-technology not only shortens development times but also makes any new target easily accessible under almost physiological conditions. Our investment accelerates the development of FCCS into additional and advanced applications.”

Andreas Huber, Investment Manager of Bayern Kapital GmbH, adds: “Intana`s innovative technology helps biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to determine interaction between novel compounds and targets independent of the nature of the molecules and their function. Since protein purification is not required anymore assay development times are shortened which also means to save costs during the expensive drug development process.”

Contact:
Intana Bioscience GmbH
Dr. Frank Becker
Lochhamer Str. 29a
82153 Planegg
Germany
Phone: +49 89 89557280
Fax: +49 89 89557281
info@intana.de
www.intana.de

About High-Tech Gründerfonds:
The High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young, up-and-coming technology companies, which implement promising research results in the industry. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concepts” or market launch by means of the seed financing of up to 500k EUR. The High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW bank group as well as the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Michael Nettersheim
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 253175 Bonn
Germany
Phone: +49 228 / 965685-00
Fax: +49 228 / 965685-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

About Seedfonds Bayern (SFB) from Bayern Kapital:
Seedfonds Bayern exists since 2003 and has a volume of 22 Mio. Euro to invest venture capital in young and innovative Bavarian technology-companies with high prospects that are transferring promising research results to business enterprises.The fund is managed by Bayern Kapital GmbH. Bayern Kapital GmbH is a Bavarian venture capital company and was founded as part of the “Bavarian Future Initiative” as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the LfA Foerderbank Bayern (Bavaria‘s development bank) at the end of 1995. Bayern Kapital and its funds have invested about 142 Mio. Euro in more than 180 companies and currently manages funds to the value of 190 Mio. Euro.

For more information please contact www.bayernkapital.de

Contact:
Bayern Kapital GmbH
Andreas Huber
Ländgasse 135 a
84028 Landshut
Germany
Phone: +49 871 92325 0
Fax: +49 871 92325 55
info@bayernkapital.de
www.bayernkapital.de

With its Global Sourcing Platform, pliXos GmbH offers a solution for the industrialisation of global sourcing projects. The platform allows for quality assurance and the control of third-party software and IT services, thus reducing the costs. The pliXos approach as Software-as-a-Service – beyond company boundaries – also reduces the customer’s entry-barriers and operational costs and offers unique synergy effects. The use of established open source components compared to proprietary systems offers benefits in respect to flexibility, cost structure and investment protection. High-Tech Gründerfonds and Bayern Kapital support the development of the company and the technology by assuming the seed financing.

The control of international third-party software and IT services (global sourcing) means companies are faced with significant challenges in ensuring the transparency and quality of the outsourced service as well as the corporate flexibility. This leads to a great number of the goals associated with global sourcing not being achievable. pliXos enables companies to implement global sourcing projects with a high level of quality and efficiency, while simultaneously ensuring complete control.

The Global Sourcing Platform provides the basis of the pliXos offer. A decisive advantage of the pliXos platform is the “top down approach”, the control of service provisions from the “CIO’s point of view”. Standardising and automating the service and control processes significantly optimises the globally allotted software and IT services.

The company as a Software-as-a-Service provides the flexible use beyond the boundaries of the organisation and offers unique synergies regarding costs, experiences gained, new developments or even external interfaces. Projects are entered into the platform as new clients. The time- and cost-intensive set-up and configuration of traditional client/server solutions is omitted. The integrative approach and the use of open source components accelerates the development of the platform, significantly lowers customers’ entry barriers and offers other significant advantages over proprietary systems.

pliXos relies on a growth market
The capacity of the platform as well as the size of the market addressed and the expected market growth convince investors. “We have met a powerful team of founders with unique competences and profound experience in the global sourcing market which further has an excellent network with relevant contacts at corporations. With services fees we see an overall lean sales approach which is neither monolithic nor expensive as with proprietary systems”, explains Markus Kreßmann, Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds. Rosi Keimerl, Senior Holding Manager at Bayern Kapital confirms that “with Global Sourcing Platform, pliXos enables every company to participate in the benefits of global sourcing without a need for long-term and complex learning cycles or purchasing very expensive consulting services”.

About pliXos GmbH:
pliXos offers solutions for optimising globally rendered software services. The core offer lies in the Global Sourcing Platform for executing and controlling global sourcing projects, which is provided as Software-as-a-Service. pliXos further offers customer-specific consultations and other services. This methodical and practical competence of pliXos is based on years of experience in the control of global sourcing projects as well as from the perspective of the customer and the service provider. Initial notable signings of contracts confirm the pliXos approach.

Contact:
pliXos GmbH
Robert Martignoni
Director Business Development & Research
Münchner Technologiezentrum (MTZ)
Agnes-Pockels-Bogen 1
80992 Munich, Germany
Tel.: +49 (0)89 / 89056957
Fax: +49 (0)89/ 381511379
Robert.Martignoni@plixos.com
www.plixos.com

About High-Tech Gründerfonds:
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young, high-opportunity technology companies implementing promising research results in an entrepreneurial manner. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concepts” or market launch by means of seed financing of up to 500k EUR. High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW bank group as well as the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Markus Kreßmann
Investment Manager
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn, Germany
Tel.: +49 (0)228 / 965685-32
Fax: +49 (0)228 / 965685-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

About Seedfonds Bayern from Bayern Kapital:
Seedfonds Bayern exists since 2003 and has a volume of 22 Mio. Euro to invest venture capital in young and innovative Bavarian technology-companies with high prospects that are transferring promising research results to business enterprises. The fund is managed by Bayern Kapital GmbH. Bayern Kapital GmbH is a Bavarian venture capital company and was founded as part of the “Bavarian Future Initiative” as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the LfA Foerderbank Bayern (Bavaria‘s development bank) at the end of 1995. Bayern Kapital and its funds have invested about 142 Mio. Euro in more than 180 companies and currently manages funds to the value of 190 Mio. Euro.
For more information please contact www.bayernkapital.de,

Contact:
Bayern Kapital GmbH
Rosi Keimerl
Senior-Investment Manager
Ländgasse 135 a
84028 Landshut, Germany
Tel.: +49 (0)871 / 92325 0
Fax: +49 (0)871 / 92325 55
info@bayernkapital.de
www.bayernkapital.de

wwg worldwidegames GmbH, the provider of the innovative browser game portal playnik.com, has received € 500,000 venture capital from the High-Tech Gründerfonds. This amount was co-financed by Oliver Jung, Torsten Oppermann and Holtzbrink Ventures. The financial resources are primarily intended for the development of new games and gaming concepts and form the expansion into core foreign markets. Agreements have already been made with a number of notable preliminary partners throughout Europe, including the Spil Group and the Scandinavian Sanoma Group. A partnership with a well-known international corporation is on the verge of being finalised and expansion into the American market is imminent.

“We expect fast growth in the browser gaming market and are confident that Playnik will be able to position itself successfully within this market. People who play browser games are principally interested in interacting with other players, both teammates and opponents. The portal’s innovative community features address precisely this need – this is a concept that has convinced us” said investment manager Björn Momsen, explaining why High-Tech Gründerfonds decided to invest in the Hamburg-based company.

Gaming portal playnik.com has been making waves in the browser gaming market for around a year now and offers innovative gaming features alongside numerous social networking functions. These include top lists covering several games, comprehensive feeds and unique awards for activities successfully completed.

“With our award system and the interactivity of our games on the one hand and the portal on the other, users are offered additional benefits that are truly unique in the field of browser games. In playnik.com we have created a level of depth in the games and experience that has never before existed in this way on the market. The skyrocketing number of users shows us that we have chosen the right strategy”, said managing director Malte Paul, commenting on the functionality of the portal.
The additional integration of games from third-party providers allows playnik.com to offer its users a comprehensive and varied range of titles and enables developers to be involved in the long-term success of their games. “Playnik is positioning itself as a perfect symbiosis between innovative gaming features and state-of-the-art social community functionality. We are the one-stop shop for fans of browser games”, added managing director Malte Paul.

About playnik.com:
Playnik.com is the first next-generation browser gaming platform in the world, offering the advantages of both a focussed community and of a gaming portal. Playnik.com is the very first platform to offer innovative gaming features such as the cross-game Nik score, a comprehensive award system and has many more innovative social gaming features. Playnik is currently operating twelve games, with top titles including Mission Cobra (the first mission-based secret agent game), Kiez King (probably the most popular game set in Germany’s “sinful mile”) and Desert Blitz (the current military strategy game).

Contact:
wwg worldwidegames GmbH
Paul Malte
Richardstrasse 45
22081 Hamburg
+49 40 25330280
info@playnik.com
https://playnik.com

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young, high-opportunity technology companies implementing promising research results in an entrepreneurial manner. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concepts” or market launch by means of seed financing of up to 500k EUR. High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW bank group as well as the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Björn Momsen
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Tel.: +49 228 – 965685-00
Fax: +49 228 – 965685-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

maxment GmbH supports companies in increasing the return on their investments in human resource development, and in numerically proving their benefit. maxment® is a very user-friendly online software (SaaS), which via the internet is ready to use. A security server ensures a confidential treatment of the data, in line with works council requirements. Thanks to standardisation and extensive automation, the effort for training participants and personnel development managers is really low. Companies like Dürr AG and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG already use the maxment® software.

27 billion euro are spent every year just in Germany on the training of employees. Yet, studies show that on average, only 10-40% of classroom learnings are actually applied on the job afterwards. Thus, companies face the challenge to find ways to increase the transfer of learnings to the workplace. In addition, the benefit of the human resource development investments is to be proven numerically. maxment® offers an efficient solution for both challenges.

Dr. Christoph Mehl, human resource development manager at Dürr AG, appreciates what maxment® offers: “maxment® convinced us with a functionality that fits the requirements of sustainable human resource development processes in all regards. Hence, we obtain key indicators of transfer success, which for us constitute an important component of a human resource development focused on value creation. High return rates, positive feedback from participants, trainers and managers – we are very satisfied!“

Christoph Rappe, founder and managing director of maxment GmbH, considers an important milestone for the next growth phase reached: “With the investment of the High-Tech Gründerfonds, we can now substantially enhance our software. We are going to present the new version in autumn at the industry’s biggest fair in Europe, the “Zukunft Personal” in Cologne on September 22nd to 24th, 2009.“
Dr. Björn Momsen, investment manager at the High-Tech Gründerfonds, states: “The satisfaction of the existing customers with the maxment® software has convinced us. We see a big opportunity of maxment® setting a new standard in personnel development.“

Dr. Rolf-Christian Wentz, who as a business angel invests in maxment GmbH along with the High-Tech Gründerfonds, adds: ”From my industry experience, I know that maxment® solves a real problem of the personnel development practice. If maxment® had been available years ago, I definitely would have used it.“

Contact
maxment GmbH
Christoph Rappe
Handschuhsheimer Landstr. 44 / 1
D-69121 Heidelberg
Tel.: + 49 6221 65024-10
Fax: + 49 6221 65024-11
info@maxment.net
www.maxment.net

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young, high-opportunity technology companies implementing promising research results in an entrepreneurial manner. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concepts” or market launch by means of seed financing of up to 500k EUR. High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW bank group as well as the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Björn Momsen
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Tel.: +49 228 – 965685-00
Fax: +49 228 – 965685-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

Novel platform technology for Targeted Drug Delivery set to enable successful treatment of various infectious diseases and cancers. Rodos BioTarget GmbH [RBT] successfully closed a start-up financing round with High-Tech Gruenderfonds and hannover innovation fonds [hif].

In order to address various chronic infectious diseases and incurable cancers, RBT has developed an innovative and patented nanocarrier technology [the“TargoSphere”] that enables targeted delivery of active agents to the antigen-presenting cells of the immune system.

Antigen-presenting cells are known to be responsible for coordinating critical immune defense responses to infectious pathogens as well as to cancer cells. Certain disease entities, as for example chronic infections with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Hepatitis C Virus, maintain persistent infectious reservoirs within antigen-presenting cells that cannot be eliminated by any known state-of-the-art treatments. Additionally, malignant neoplastic cells are capable of employing various biologic mechanisms which lead to a failure of the antigen-presenting cells to initiate recognition and destruction of the cancers.

RBT’s research and development mission is to re-establish an effective immune response against various infectious agents and cancer cells. To this end, the company’s “TargoSphere” selectively recognizes specific cellular surface structures on the antigen-presenting cells and delivers active agents intracellularly to these crucial immune cells. RBT’s principal development objective at this time is to destroy intracellular reservoirs of HIV and Hepatitis C infections, as well as to provoke an effective immune response to various malignancies, such as hepatocellular carcinoma and colorectal adenocarcinoma.

In parallel to these activities, RBT has engaged in a germinal cooperative project with a long-established pharmaceutical company to develop applications of its nanotargeting technology in other areas of disease.

Dr. Marcus Furch, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, states: “As an emerging biotech company, we are very pleased to have reached a financing round with outstanding partners in these economically turbulent times. We believe this has placed us in a position to validate our platform technology on the preclinical level, as well as to achieve additional value-increasing steps for RBT.”

Dr. Robert Gieseler, Chief Scientific Officer, points to future directions: “With regard to the ‘TargoSphere’ technology, we anticipate a clear benefit for science collaborators and partners in the pharmaceutical industries. Developing novel approaches for addressing unresolved problems in the battles against infectious diseases and certain cancers is now within reach. In addition, we expect the ‘TargoSphere’ to let us improve the efficacy of delivery and clinical response to a host of pharmaceutical agents and compounds currently available for a wide range of clinical entities.“

“We want to contribute to further evaluate this promising technology and hereby to prepare the ground for new and much-needed therapy options. In doing so, we are happy to have a highly experienced and complementary team of founders and managers.“, Dr. Caroline Fichtner, Investment Manager with High-Tech Gruenderfonds, and Dr. Bert Brinkhaus, Managing Director of EnjoyVenture in charge of hannover innovation fonds, comment on their reasons to invest into RBT.

RBT’s patented technology and Proof of Concept was originally developed under the direction of the Let There Be Hope Medical Research Institute in the USA. In 2008, this technology and responsibility for its clinical development and marketing was transferred to the Founders of Rodos BioTarget, GmbH: Drs. Michael Scolaro, M.D., Robert Gieseler, Ph.D., Jörg Ruppert, Ph.D., and Marcus Furch. Ph.D. The team of founders and its prestigious Board of Scientific Consultants combines many years of international experience in medicine, science, R&D, management, industry, and venture-capital financing.

RBT will devote the start-up investments of its founders, the High-Tech Gruenderfonds, and hannover innovation fonds to bring its technology to completion of pre-clinical animal trials in its first year, and early clinical trials in humans in its second year.

Contact:
Rodos BioTarget GmbH
Medical Park Hannover
Feodor-Lynen-Str. 23
D-30625 Hannover
Germany
www.biotargeting.eu

Dr. Marcus Furch (CEO)
Dr. Robert Gieseler (CSO)
T +49 (511) 1054-0339
F +49 (511) 214-7076
info@biotargeting.eu

About Rodos BioTarget GmbH
Rodos BioTarget GmbH has developed and patented a novel pathway towards immune reconstitution and disease control.

By employing a cell-targeted nanocarrier – the “TargoSphere” – potent bioactive agents are channeled into intracellular pathways of cells that are known to be the principal directors of the antigen-specific immune response, thus enabling a restoration of immune competence in a variety of disease states and interventions aimed against various infectious diseases and cancers. RBT’s initial development milestones are directed at achieving preclinical proof of concept in animals and early human clinical trials in infections with the human immunodeficiency and hepatitis C viruses as well as hepatocellular carcinoma and colorectal adenocarcinoma.

Additionally, as a result of having developed an effective nanocarrier targeting technology directed at antigen-presenting cells, RBT will collaborate with partners in the pharmaceutical industry to achieve improved vaccine responses to various other cancers and infections.

Finally, in partnering with established pharmaceutical enterprises, RBT’s broad application platform shall be applied to life-cycle management as well as to improving the efficacy of existing treatments for a variety of disease entities, thereby broadening its overall marketing potential.

For additional information, please see our website: www.biotargeting.eu

About hannover innovation fonds / EnjoyVenture
The hannover innovation fonds is a regional seed fund, initiated by the Department of Business Development of the City and Region of Hannover. The fund invests into promising early-stage technology ventures in the fields of automotive/optical technologies, ICT, life science/healthcare, and energy. The hif is managed by EnjoyVenture.

EnjoyVenture is a fund manager led by entrepreneurs, which offers seed and start-up funding for innovative technology ventures. Its investments focus on areas of selected IT/software solutions, nano-/microsystems technologies, production- and automation technology, medical technology, as well as telecommunications. EnjoyVenture has particular expertise in structuring and funding spin-offs from companies and scientific-technical institutions.

Active coaching, intensive networking, and management support are part of EnjoyVenture‘s self-image as an industrial advisor and investor. EnjoyVenture‘s partners provide many years of expertise in management, financing, and industry as well as their corresponding networks. Since its foundation in January 2000, EnjoyVenture participated in 21 ventures. Currently, EnjoyVenture manages four venture capital funds with a total volume of approx. 40 million EUR.

Contact:
EnjoyVenture Management GmbH
Office Dusseldorf:
GAP 15
Graf-Adolf-Platz 15
D-40213 Düsseldorf
T +49 (0211) 239-551 70
F +49 (0211) 239-551 77

Office Gelsenkirchen (main address):
Zeche Holland
Ückendorfer Strasse 237e
D-45886 Gelsenkirchen
T +49 (0209) 95-185 00
F +49 (0209) 957-185 07

Office Hannover
Technologie-Centrum Hannover (TCH)
Vahrenwalder Straße 7
D-30165 Hannover
T +49 (0511) 300 333-22
F +49 (0511) 300 333-99
office@EnjoyVenture.de
www.EnjoyVenture.de

About High-Tech Gruenderfonds
High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests venture capital in young, high-opportunity technology companies implementing promising research results in an entrepreneurial manner. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concept” or market launch by means of seed financing of up to 500k EUR. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW Bank Group as well as six industrial groups, i.e., BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
Dr. Caroline Fichtner
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
D-53175 Bonn
Germany
T +49 (228) 965-68500
F +49 (228) 965-68550
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

RapidRabb.it, expert in software prototyping, gains the High-Tech Gründerfonds as first round investor. The RapidRabb.it GmbH develops and offers Software as a Service for the real-time collaborative visualization and optimization of web- and software user interfaces through prototyping and testing. „With the High-Tech Gründerfonds we were able to convince the ideal investor for our current situation“, says CEO Philipp Huy after finalizing the investment. „The 500,000 Euro risk capital are planned for research and development work of the web-based graphics technology and enable a fast expansion of our sales activities.“

With its investment, the High-Tech Gründerfonds supports the efficient further development of the innovative vector graphics technology and the extension of the product portfolio. The products unleash basic synergies within the software development process and enable a more efficient collaboration and communication among all process participants. „The forward-looking technology facilitates especially to software developers with offshore projects a far more efficient prototyping. In particular, these customers benefit a lot from RapidRabb.it. Furthermore having a web-based, collaborative approach, RapidRabb.it has been a clear decision to us,“ explains investment manager Dr. Björn Momsen.

With its software solution, RapidRabb.it offers to all participants of the software development process a powerful communication platform for prototyping and testing of web and software applica-tions. The principal, developers, designers, and consultants can communicate more efficient and, at the same time, improve the usability of their products. The web-based and real-time collaborative application allows for a fast and easy creation and modification of graphical user interface pro-totypes. These prototypes can immediately be tested with test users in order to discover problems as early as possible and to fix them even before any line of code is written. This not only saves money and time but also improves the management and the chance of success of development projects. Latest trends in web-based graphics editing (SVG) make RapidRabb.it a very performant solution for visualizing, testing, and optimizing software user interfaces online. A test version can be used at www.rapidrabb.it

About RapidRabb.it:
RapidRabb.it is an innovative software as a service provider from Berlin, who offers a web-based platform for prototyping and testing of web and software user interfaces. In contrast to traditional applications, RapidRabb.it uses latest SVG-techonology and enables through its software the real-time collaborative work on prototypes within a browser window. The company was founded in 2008 and is specialised to B2B.

Contact:
Tino Truppel
RapidRabb.it GmbH
Kirchhofstr 43
12055 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0) 30 – 6920 3773
Fax: +49 (0) 3221 – 1280 703
presse@rapidrabb.it
https://rapidrabb.it/en

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young, high-opportunity technology companies implementing promising research results in an entrepreneurial manner. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concepts” or market launch by means of seed financing of up to 500k EUR. High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW bank group as well as the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
Dr. Björn Momsen
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Tel: +49 228 96568500
Fax: +49 228 96568550
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

Biotech start up pluriSelect GmbH has closed a financing round totalling 600.000 Euro with the High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and the Technologie Gründerfonds Sachsen (TGFS). With pluriBead®, the Leipzig based biotech company introduces a unique and innovative technology platform for the rapid and gentle separation of bio molecules and cells. For the first time scientists can simultaneously isolate different types of cells and proteins in a simple one-step protocol (simultaneous multi-target isolation).

PluriSelect develops a particularly user-friendly separation technology for a wide variety of cell or protein based research sectors such as cancer, rheumatism, arteriosclerosis or allergies to just mention a few. The basic principle of the separation technology is based on the physical separation of different sized beads employing a proprietary separation technology. As a result the user obtains a purified target population isolated from a heterogeneous mixture. The newly introduced product, pluriBead® allows for the fast separation of various targets (cells, bacteria, proteins, viruses, etc.) from whole blood, cord blood, cell culture and other heterogeneous solutions in a reliable and gentle fashion.

‘In practice, the new technology is simple and flexible to use. Now, researchers have the opportunity to isolate targets fast and reliably without the use of expensive lab equipment’, explains Dr. Jan-Michael Heinrich, founder and CEO of pluriSelect. ‘We are currently developing a diagnostic system to monitor the immune status of HIV patients in the developing countries, supporting their antiviral therapy treatment,´ Dr. Heinrich adds, ‘As our system does not require any infrastructure, it can be used practically anywhere and at very low costs’.

The technology platform is best explained by an artificial enlargement of the target cells or molecules that are subsequently separated with a cascade sieving device. ‘No sample preparation is necessary, no centrifugation, nor any removal or lysis of erythrocytes. In addition to that, our separation method offers another advantage: now, scientists can isolate several targets from a single sample in one isolation experiment! This is a new feature and adds value for our customers’ summarises Dr. Christian Schmitz, responsible for marketing and sales. Sales will commence in the beginning of 2009.

‘With the support of the TGFS the pluriSelect GmbH will further strengthen the innovation cluster in Saxony and particularly the life science sector in the area of Leipzig,` says Daniel Huebner, authorized officer of S-Beteiligungen Leipzig. ‘The TGFS financing partnership for young and technology focused companies supports the biotechnology development strategy of the Free State of Saxony,’ explains Thomas Tettenborn, investment director at the venture capital firm CFH, specifying the TGFS’ financing commitment.

‘It’s hard to find young biotech enterprises, which are so customer-focussed and at the same time so close to market’ explains Dr. Bernd Goergen, Senior Investment Manager of the High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH, the commitment of the fund. ‘pluriSelect’s proprietary cell separation technology is simpler, faster and more flexible than conventional methods and may therefore be positioned sustainably not only in the research tool market, but also within diagnostic applications’.

‘As a trained molecular biologist, spending a fair amount of time on target separation, I would have liked to use pluriBead from pluriSelect during my times as a researcher in the lab. Now, I am happy that this innovative technology and a strong management team has partnered up with the HTGF and the TGFS to drive forward the successful internationalisation of this biotech company’, emphasizes the technology- and VC-Expert Dr. Merle Fuchs of TechnologieContor Gera, Thuringia.

About TGFS, Leipzig, Germany:
The Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen (TGFS) invests in young companies from the technology area. As a venture capital fund the TGFS becomes minority shareholder of the companies and supports these with experience of its management and with advisory capacity. The TGFS is fed from means of the free state Saxony, supported by means of European Regional Development Fund (EFRE), the savings banks of Chemnitz, Leipzig and Dresden and LBBW.

About Corporate Financing Holding, Leipzig, Germany:
CFH Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, a subsidiary of Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg (LBBW), supports medium-size enterprises with equity and mezzanine capital. CFH is managing several funds with a total volume of approx. EUR 250 million and is currently accompanying 33 enterprises.

S-Beteiligungen, Leipzig, Germany:
S-Beteiligungen, a subsidiary of Sparkasse Leipzig, supports medium-sized enterprises and start-up companies with equity and mezzanine capital. Typical are financing for growth or for first step into market. S-Beteiligungen is premium partner for TGFS investments in economical area Leipzig.

About TechnologieContor, Gera, Germany:
Since 2000 TechnologieContor Gera supports technology oriented start ups and innovative entrepreneurs in successful business development and financing.

Contact:
info@pluriselect.de
www.pluriSelect.de

About High-Tech Gründerfonds:
Der High-Tech Gründerfonds investiert Risikokapital in junge, chancenreiche Technologie-Unternehmen, die viel versprechende Forschungsergebnisse unternehmerisch umsetzen. Mit Hilfe der Seedfinanzierung von bis zu 500.000 EUR sollen die Start-Ups das F&E-Vorhaben bis zur Bereitstellung eines Prototypen bzw. eines „Proof of Concept“ oder zur Markteinführung führen. Der High-Tech Gründerfonds verfügt über ein Fondsvolumen von rund 272 Mio. EUR. Investoren der Public Private Partnership sind das Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie, die KfW Bankengruppe sowie die sechs Industriekonzerne BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler und Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
Dr. Bernd Goergen
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Tel: +49 228 96568500
Fax: +49 228 96568550
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

AVIDAL Vascular GmbH, a medical device company which is focused on the development and commercialization of drug eluting balloons (DEB) today announced the closing of the seed financing round. The round was led by the High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Bonn.

AVIDAL is developing a DEB technology for the intraluminal drug application in coronary arteries and peripheral vessels to treat In-Stent-Restenosis (ISR), bifurcations, small vessels, and long lesions.

Torsten Heilmann, founder and CEO explained: “unlike conventional coated DEB the unique AVIDAL Drug Covers can be optimized for various substances and applications. Due to its special surface modification drug application with the AVIDAL DEB will be more homogeneous and efficient than with other DEB’s, whereas at the same time the drug is perfectly protected to minimize the wash-off effect into the bloodstream.”

Prof. Dr. Hans-Reiner Figulla, University Hospital Jena, Director of the Department for Internal Medicine, comments on the innovation: “Drug Eluting Balloons offer great advantages for local drug application and mark a milestone for interventional cardiology/radiology. AVIDAL’s Drug Eluting Balloon technology offers great advantages as compared to other balloon technologies and holds the potential to become a promising alternative therapy for the treatment of restenosis without the disadvantages of stents.”
“We were convinced by the high competence of the founders team as well as the innovative technology. AVIDAL’s products have the potential to soon enter into attractive markets”, said Klaus Lehmann, High-Tech Gründerfonds Senior Investment Manger.

AVIDAL’s founders team has many years of professional experience in which they have already successfully developed, launched, and marketed a wide range of products. The founders team was extensively advised on the transaction by Hennig Consulting. Ralf Hennig, who calls on many years of experience in establishing, expanding and funding technology ventures, particularly in the life science field, will provide his support also during the next years as a coach and external CFO.
AVIDAL obtains seed financing from the HTGF and has already commitments of further investors, who assure the funding up to CE-approval.

About AVIDAL Vascular GmbH:
AVIDAL has designed a specialized platform for drug application (drug covers), which allows for the controlled release of different and even multiple substances. Based on this platform, AVIDAL is developing the most efficacious and safest Drug Eluting Balloon for the treatment of coronary and peripheral artery disease. In doing so, AVIDAL makes a substantial contribution to improve the therapeutical options for more than 4 Million patients per year who undergo interventional treatment of coronary or peripheral artery disease.

Contact:
AVIDAL Vascular GmbH
Torsten Heilmann, Geschäftsführer
Argoallee 3
12527 Berlin – Deutschland
Tel.: +49 30 67 89 69 84
Fax: +49 30 67 89 69 85
contact@avidal.net
www.avidal.net

About Hennig Consulting
Hennig Consulting is maintaining an extensive network and facilitates access to reputable investors. Ralf Henning, who worked in the company management of Early Stage VC Funds for many years, advises founders already in the early stage on the optimization of the business concept and in all corporate and strategic issues. By request, Ralf Henning also provides external operational services (e.g. external CFO) for ventures as well as for investors. Asset allocation and acquisition of internal and external finance are part of Hennig Consulting’s service portfolio as well as the coaching of M&A projects. Hennig Consulting is located in the Berlin area and operates nationwide

Contact:
Hennig Consulting
Ralf Hennig
Rheingoldallee 52
15834 Rangsdorf – Germany
Phone: +49 33708 90 718
Fax: +49 33708 90 698
rh@hennig-consulting.net
www.hennig-consulting.net

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young, high-opportunity technology companies implementing promising research results in an entrepreneurial manner. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concepts” or market launch by means of seed financing of up to 500k EUR. High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW bank group as well as the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Klaus Lehmann
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn – Germany
Phone: +49 228 96568500
Fax: +49 228 96568550
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

EBS Technologies is proud to announce that seed financing has been obtained from two sources – the High-Tech Gründerfonds, a prominent German public-private investment fund for start-up companies, as well as the Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg, an investment bank in the German state of Brandenburg. This funding will enable EBS Technologies to complete a randomized, placebo-controlled double-blind study as well as to conduct a second single-center phase-II study of its innovative new treatment method.

In Germany alone, over 200,000 people suffer a stroke each year. Two-thirds of stroke victims experience speech and visual impairments that often persist for months or even years. Due to demographic trends, experts fear that the number of first-time stroke patients will rise dramatically in coming years. Current treatment methods for speech and visual impairments are time-consuming, expensive, complicated, and often not very effective.

EBS Technologies is developing a medical device and associated treatment technique to address these shortcomings: Weak AC pulses are applied to patients via electrodes placed on the scalp. Like an external metronome, the pulses encourage the brain to recover its natural electrical synchronization. The treatment promotes considerable and verifiable recovery in patients suffering from speech and visual-field impairments associated with neurological damage. The therapy rests upon the natural neuroplasticity of the brain and its incredible ability to recover lost function – even after serious injury.

The therapy offers considerable advantages for patients over existing treatment options: A complete treatment cycle takes just 10–20 days and is not physically demanding.

The inventors of the device and therapy principle – Prof. Bernhard Sabel and Dr. Anton Federov – have already conducted over 15 years of initial research and observational studies on over 1,000 patients. In this way, EBS Technologies is a significant step ahead of the research institutions and companies who have been devoting increasing attention to the topic of non-invasive electro stimulation over the past three years. EBS Technologies now aims to expand this lead over the competition.

“The therapy technique helps patients who have suffered a stroke or other brain trauma to recover functional deficits in speech and sight in a faster and more efficient manner. An additional benefit is that therapy is both pain-free and without side effects,” said Prof. Sabel, founder and chair of the company’s Medical Advisory Board, with regard to the therapy’s advantages.

“We were impressed by the therapy’s already extensive proof of concept. The single-center study will allow the company to achieve key growth milestones in the seed phase, which we hope will attract additional investors,” said Dr. Caroline Fichtner, an investment manager with the High-Tech Gründerfonds.

Contact:
EBS Technologies GmbH
Albert-Einstein-Ring 7
D 14532 Kleinmachnow
Fon +49 33203 50 383
Fax +49 33203 50 389
kornelia.sabel@ebstech.de
www.ebstech.de

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young, high-opportunity technology companies implementing promising research results in an entrepreneurial manner. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concepts” or market launch by means of seed financing of up to 500k EUR. High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW bank group as well as the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
Dr. Caroline Fichtner
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Germany
Tel: +49 228 96568500
Fax: +49 228 96568550
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

Sim4tec GmbH is a spin-off from the Technical University of Dresden and CreaPhys GmbH and is active in the area of organic electronics. Sim4tec develops and distributes software for simulation of physical processes in organic devices. The bases of the sim4tec technology were developed in the framework of successful research projects between physicians involved in the semiconductor technology at the Institute for Applied Photophysics at the Technical University of Dresden, namely Dr. Robert Nitsche, Matthias Kurpiers-Günther, Jens Drechsel and Prof. Karl Leo. Thus, the team of founders of sim4tec comprises renowned physicians, who have already gained experience in the establishment of new enterprises such as Novaled AG and Heliatek GmbH.

Sim4tec’s special focus is on the simulation of organic light emitting devices (OLEDs). OLEDs have been identified already for a long time as excellent candidates for future displays and lighting applications. This new material class is foreseen to not only lead to more brilliant display pictures and highly efficient, energy-saving light sources, but in particular to low-cost and environment-friendly products.

But why can’t we still buy OLED-TV’s off the shelf, although OLED-development has been carried out for more than 20 years by now? Dr. Robert Nitsche, co-founder and managing director of sim4tec, explains: “The key to low-cost OLEDs is, besides the production process itself, mainly a high OLED efficiency and a deep knowledge of the physical processes taking place within the device. Using our software, customers can calculate OLED key figures like brightness, colour and efficiency already at the computer at minimal computation times and before even entering the production environment! This leads to accelerated OLED development cycles and a significant reduction of R&D costs.”

The High-Tech Gründerfonds has identified the potential of this new simulation technology and closes with its investment into sim4tec another gap in the value chain of OLEDs: the simulation of processes. Nicolas Kirschner, investment manager of the High-Tech Gründerfonds, elaborates on the chances: “We know about the importance of a professional simulation environment from the classical semiconductor market, especially with respect to a reduction of costs. While classical EDA-software is practically indispensable, the simulation technology for organic devices is still at its infancy. We believe that the OLED technology will soon make the breakthrough and that an OLED simulation environment is then a must-have for any producer of OLEDs. The existing know-how of sim4tec combined with the strong partners in the “Organic Valley Dresden” are ideal prerequisites for our investment into sim4tec.”

Contact:
sim4tec GmbH
Arnoldstr. 18b
01307 Dresden
Germany
Phone: +49 351 4466499
info@sim4tec.com
www.sim4tec.com

About High-Tech Gründerfonds:
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young, high-opportunity technology companies implementing promising research results in an entrepreneurial manner. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concepts” or market launch by means of seed financing of up to 500k EUR. High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW bank group as well as the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Nicolas Kirschner
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Germany
Tel: +49 228 96568500
Fax: +49 228 96568550
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

Liquiverse, software experts in visual data processing, today announced that the company has received EUR 500,000 venture capital from Bonn-based investor High-Tech Gründerfonds. The financial resources are designed to expand research and product development of visualization and interaction technologies while successfully introducing Liquiverse’s product portfolio to the market. Liquiverse develops and distributes software solutions based on Liquid Browsing®, a patented technology leveraging the concise, efficient and compact display of charts and information lists.

High-Tech Gründerfonds‘ investment enables the speedy, product-specific expansion of Liquiverse’s visualization technology. “From the beginning, we have been very much impressed with the customer-friendly, future-oriented design and data display of Liquid Browsing applications”, says Dr. Björn Momsen, Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds. “As indicated by the first customer projects on the way, there is huge demand for Liquid Browsing.”

Mainly targeting business customers, such as providers of standard software, Internet portals, or system vendors, Liquiverse also markets a visual browser tool for private customers — LiquiFile. Current market studies reveal that the use of conventional technologies results in more than half of company employees wasting at least one workday per week when searching for valuable information, unnecessary costs amounting to millions of US dollars every year. This is where the patented Liquid Browsing® technology offers relief by avoiding lists and charts characteristic for conventional user interfaces. Sample applications range from business intelligence and ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Planning) to Customer Relationship Management, file management systems, and other standard software solutions. Accelerating search requests, Liquid Browsing® simplifies the analysis of complex information.

“In addition to the classic display of information based on lists, we introduce a matrix, or scatter space, which is capable of restructuring the name, size, and date of any given file in a concise format, allowing users to recognize correlations between them,” explains Carsten Waldeck, CEO of Liquiverse GmbH. “Consequently, users are able to confidently deal with even large amounts of data in a fast and efficient way. The term Liquid Browsing is derived from the context and focus technology’s unique feature of harmonizing information architectures, providing a general overview, and enabling fluent work processes in return.”

“Liquid Browsing can be used in search engines and e-mail applications. This next generation technology for web and software solutions is also deployable in music libraries and spreadsheet solutions,” adds Christoph Herr, COO at Liquiverse. “List and tree structures are the classic form of displaying information, but experts promise a bright future to powerful applications visually unifying complex data in real time.”

About Liquiverse
Liquiverse is a young software company editing complex data lists in diagrams in order to accelerate searches and simplify the handling of large information architectures. Located in Weiterstadt, Germany, the company develops and distributes software solutions based on Liquid Browsing®, a patented technology leveraging the concise, efficient and compact display of charts and information lists. Thanks to the visualization and interaction technology Liquid Browsing®, companies of all sizes are able to centuplicate information density and benefit from efficiency and cost advantages, a powerful feature which is increasingly becoming essential for mobile handheld devices with limited screen sizes. Founded in 2007, the company’s list of customers includes Deutsche Messe AG, telegate Media AG (klickTel) in Essen, Wetzlar-based news agency idea, and Bechtle GmbH.

Contact:
Liquiverse GmbH
Robert-Koch-Straße 9
64331 Weiterstadt
Germany
Tel.: +49 6451 715105
Fax: +49 6451 715106
presse@liquiverse.com
www.liquiverse.de

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young, high-opportunity technology companies implementing promising research results in an entrepreneurial manner. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concepts” or market launch by means of seed financing of up to 500k EUR. High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW bank group as well as the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
Dr. Björn Momsen
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Germany
Tel: +49 228 96568500
Fax: +49 228 96568550
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

The integration of data from intelligent devices such as RFID readers, industrial scales, GPS receivers, smart meters, cameras, and others into enterprise software revolutionizes business processes. Ubigrate offers software to simplify setting up such connections. The company now receives an investment from High-Tech Gründerfonds.

Most processes in logistics, production and facility management happen in the physical world. However, they are only rarely integrated into enterprise software used for planning and control of these processes. The emergence of intelligent devices such as RFID readers, industrial scales, smart meters, cameras, GPS receivers create new possibilities to automatically capture identity, position or condition of physical objects. Real-time availability of data about goods movement, quality inspections, and energy consumption in enterprise software improves transparency in processes. This enables businesses to react quicker in cases of deviations and therefore reduce nonconformity costs. The challenge for this integration is to master the huge variety of different communication protocols, data formats and standards of devices.

The ubigrate GmbH is specialized in this task and offers software for simplified device integration. It helps system integrators, manufacturers of intelligent devices and software producers to solve device integration tasks without having to know the details of device communication. „Our goal is that our customers can concentrate on their respective business problem by providing easy access to relevant data from intelligent devices. Device integration has been a difficult task before, which is why a lot of resources had to be spent on programming device communication manually. “, says Jürgen Anke, managing director of ubigrate.

The software is based on a highly-productive modular platform, which employs modern concepts like model-driven software development and product lines. Therefore, ubigrate can build software products for various integration tasks by quickly assembling reusable modules. Adapters for unsupported devices are created efficiently using code generation. The software’s unique characteristic is the combination of advantages of manual programming like high adoption to the customer problem and low hardware requirements with the advantages of standardized integration tools like short delivery time and maximum investment protection.

The company’s business concept and the management team consisting of Dr. Jürgen Anke, Dr. Mario Neugebauer, Falk Hartmann and Sven Jänchen also convinced High-Tech Gründerfonds. „The standardized solutions of ubigrate accelerate project cycles, minimize costs and reduce errors and hereby creates clear benefits in the growing market for integration of intelligent devices into business processes. “, says Analyst Romy Schnelle of High-Tech Gründerfonds.
Currently, the company works in various pilot projects, for example with DHL. Existing cooperation with partners like T-Systems and SAP Research will be further strengthened in this year.

Contact:
ubigrate GmbH
Herkulesstr. 1
01277 Dresden
Germany
Tel: +49 351 – 2118729
Fax: +49 351 – 2118728
info@ubigrate.com
www.ubigrate.com

About High-Tech Gründerfonds:
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young, high-opportunity technological companies implementing promising research results in an entrepreneurial manner. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concepts” or market launch by means of the seed financing of up to 500k EUR. The High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW bank group as well as the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
Romy Schnelle
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Germany
Tel: +49 228 – 965685-00
Fax: +49 228 – 965685-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de