Category: Press

The team of amedo smart tracking solutions GmbH is highly appreciating the investment of the High-Tech Gründerfonds and the ELS fund managed by enjoyventure.

“Now we can finally realize a technology platform which enables, similar to GPS, the wireless, sub-millimeter precise localisation and tracking for all types of minimally invasive surgical instruments,” stresses Volker Trösken, CEO of the young company with headquarters in Bochum Technology Centre.

Currently existing real time location systems usually provide a maximum accuracy in the meter range; under favourable conditions the accuracy is 30 cm. The team of amedo STS and its CTO Laszlo Hasenau are convinced to reach a sub-millimeter precise localisation – a quantum leap in wireless radio positioning.

amedo smart tracking solutions GmbH, founded in April 2008 being 2nd place winner of the Life Science Business Plan Competition “Startbahn Ruhr”, is developing a transponder-based tracking technology and a product family of trackable instruments & tools for image guided minimally invasive interventions. The market approvals are already obtained for Europe and the US for the first generation of trackable needles for biopsy, vertebroplasty and tumor therapy.

Currently, the main areas of application for medical tracking are in the hip or knee – endoprothetics, the spinal interventions, the craniofacial surgery or biopsy. The wireless cross-technology of amedo STS will revolutionize medical navigation and also will allow applications in areas for which existing tracking systems are not available today, as for example flexible instruments for cardiologic, neuroradiologic and other interventional procedures such as the soft tissue surgery.

“The cross-cutting tracking technology of amedo smart tracking solutions enables the penetration of new markets even outside the medical technology and leads to a very scalable business model. Convincing for us is that the implementation of the business concept lays in the responsibility of a complementary and well-experienced team in VC and exit” says Wolfgang Lubert, managing director of enjoyventure, commenting on the investment decision of his house.

Dr. Bernd Goergen, investment manager of the High-Tech Gründerfonds: “at amedo smart tracking solutions, everything just fits perfectly together: a technology which really could revolutionize navigated surgery, a competent and sector-experienced management team and well established relationships into the clinical community. I have great confidence in the future development of this investment. ”

Contact:
amedo smart tracking solutions GmbH
Dipl.-Ing. Volker Trösken
Dipl.-Betriebsw. Gunnar Mohnhaupt
Universitätsstr. 142
44799 Bochum
Germany
Tel.: +49-234-97072-0
Fax: +49–234-97072-670
E-Mail: info@amedo-gmbh.com
Web: www.amedo-gmbh.com

About enjoyventure:
enjoyventure is a privately held investment manager, focused on early stage investments in the seed and start-up phase, as well as further funding in the development phase. enjoyventure insvests in technology driven companies, especially in the fields of selected IT / software solutions, nano / micro-system technology, production & automatisation techniques, medical technology, and telecommunications. Enjoyventure has special expertise in the structuring and funding of spin-off‘s from corporations and technical-scientific institutions.

Active coaching, intensive contacts and network management, as well as monitoring belong to the self-understanding of enjoyventure as industrial adviser and investor. The partners of enjoyventure combine entrepreneurial, financial and industrial expertise as well and associated networks. Since its foundation in January 2000 enjoyventure has invested in in 16 companies. To date, enjoyventure manages three venture capital funds with a total volume of approx. € 40 million.

Contact:
enjoyventure Management GmbH
Mr. Wolfgang Lubert

Office Düsseldorf
GAP 15
(TCH)
Graf-Adolf-Platz 15
40213 Düsseldorf
Tel. +49 (0211) 239 551 70
Fax +49 (0211) 239 551 77

Main-Office Gelsenkirchen
Zeche Holland
Ückendorfer Strasse 237e
45886 Gelsenkirchen
Tel. +49 (0209) 957 185 00
Fax +49 (0209) 957 185 07

Office Hannover
Technologie-Centrum Hannover
Vahrenwalder Straße 7
30165 Hannover
Tel. +49 (0511) 300 333-22
Fax +49 (0511) 300 333-99

office@enjoyventure.de
www.enjoyventure.de

About ELS Fund:
ELS Fonds GmbH & Co. KG is a regional seed fund, initiated by the NRW.Bank and the local saving banks of Gelsenkirchen and Recklinghausen. Further institutional investors as well as a group of industrial entrepreneurs of the region have joined the fund as further investors. The total fund size is approximately € 12.5 millions.
ELS fund focuses on early-stage investments in technology driven companies in the fields of energy, health care, chemistry and associated system-, production-, IT- and surface technologies, which have a seat or principal place of business in the upper Ruhr or lower Rhein area.
The ELS fund is managed by enjoyventure.

About the High-Tech Gründerfonds:
The High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young technology companies that transform promising scientific research into business enterprises. The seed financing of up to 500 T€ shall result in a technical prototype, a proof of concept or a proof of market. High-Tech Gründerfonds has access to a fund volume of around 272.0 million Euro. Investors in this public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economy and Technology, the KfW Banking Group as well as the six industry companies BASF, Robert Bosch, Carl Zeiss, Daimler, Deutsche Telekom and Siemens.

Contact:
Dr. Bernd Goergen
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

The Berlin-based company Qiro GmbH has, after its initial start-up phase, successfully completed the second financing round. A group of strong financial investors have acknowledged Qiro’s huge potential for future success in the fast growing market for mobile services. Since 2006 the company offers a unique combination between mobile community with the buddy finder service and the extensive range of event-listing and classified directories. With the help of the new funds, the application is to be further enhanced with interesting additional options for comprehensively attracting new users to the community.

In the second financing round of the Berlin-based start-up Qiro GmbH, a group of investors provided a 7-digit Euro amount for further developing the Qiro-mobile community. The financial backers are, among others, Michael W. Schwetje, the High-Tech Gründerfonds, VC Fonds Technologie Berlin and BBAF Business Angels Fondsgesellschaft mbH. All of the initial investors have, after their initial financial backing support of the start-up, provided additional funds due to the success of Qiro.

Convincing Level of Innovation and Positioning in a Growing Market
The investors were especially impressed with the attractive offering of the Qiro community. “I was immediately convinced by the level of innovation and the business model. The mobile communication market and mobile marketing have a great future ahead” explains Michael W. Schwetje his decision to invest in Qiro. And Holger Heinen, Senior Invest Manager of the High-Tech Gründerfonds adds that “we have invested again in Qiro as the start-up provides with its platform, its multiple services and the innovative and secure buddy finder concept an outstanding offering that is well positioned in this market environment”. For Clemens Kabel, Senior Invest Manager of the IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH (holding company), the know-how within Qiro is the essential part: „The young, culturally-diverse team with its high technology expertise was the pivotal factor for our investment decision.”

Ever Increasing Amount of Users and Features
With the capital backing from the second financing round, the Qiro-platform is to be further enriched with many attractive features. Mrs. Suk-Hyon Paek, General Manager of Qiro GmbH, looks optimistically to the future: “Our financing is very well secured with the current investors. We will further enhance our position as innovation leader and thus accelerate the growth of the mobile community. It is in any case our long-term goal to become market leader in Germany.”

About Qiro:
Qiro is a new mobile service that for the first time enables a mobile community with a localization- and buddy finder-function as well as providing event-listing and classified directories. Community users benefit from a range of localization- and chat-functions plus an extensive spectrum of service information. Qiro offers business partners via its location based services an extensive and innovative level of advertising that can be distributed to customers pending on where they are about at the time. The offer from Qiro ranges from MapAds via push- & pull-couponing up to mobile ticketing. Some of the individual modules of the Qiro-application can also be used as “white label”-solution. For further information please go to www.qiro.de.

Media contact Qiro GmbH:
for further enquiries and to obtain image material please contact:

lauffeuer Kommunikation GmbH
Frau Katharina Brune
Bernstorffstraße 120
22767 Hamburg
Tel.: +49.40 68 987 68 17
Fax: +49.40 68 987 68 11
kb@lauffeuer-kommunikation.de

Short Profile of the Investors from the 2nd Financing Round:

Michael W. Schwetje:
Michael W. Schwetje is the founding shareholder of the OnVista AG and led the business as a board member until he left on the 30th June 2008. Henceforth Mr. Schwetje is dedicating himself to the role of investor and entrepreneur to innovative business models in the digital media industry.

About the High-Tech Gründerfonds:
The High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young technology companies that transform promising scientific research into business enterprises. The seed financing of up to 500 T€ shall result in a technical prototype, a proof of concept or a proof of market. High-Tech Gründerfonds has access to a fund volume of around 272.0 million Euro. Investors in this public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economy and Technology, the KfW Banking Group as well as the six industry companies BASF, Robert Bosch, Carl Zeiss, Daimler, Deutsche Telekom and Siemens.

About the IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH:
The financial aid for the investment of the IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH originates from the VC Fonds Technologie Berlin, which is partly funded via the “Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Wirtschaft, Technologie und Frauen“ (Berlin senate administration for economy, technology and women) with EU-money for securing investment spending for the technology hub Berlin in the coming years.
Since November 2004 the IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH (www.ibb-bet.de) administrates the VC Fonds Berlin and the VC Fonds Kreativwirtschaft Berlin. The three VC funds are financed by the Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) and the “Europäischer Fond für Regionale Entwicklung“ – EFRE (also known as “European Regional Development Fund“ – ERDF), administered by the federal state of Berlin. Since 1997 the IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH has made available approx. € 470 million for Berlin-based technology companies via consortia with partners, of which IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH has shouldered about € 66 million either as leading- or co-leading financier or as co-investor.

About BBAF Business Angels Fondgesellschaft mbH:
BBAF is an independent private equity firm founded by the Business Angels Club e.V. that is open for further investors and shareholders. The Business Angels Fonds take a holding in seed- and start-up periods as well as in the expansion phase of growth-orientated companies from the sectors bio-technology, micro-electronics, sensor technology, new materials, software, and IT- and communication technology.
The members of the Business Angel Club Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. are experienced and well-heeled entrepreneurs and managers from various business sectors and technology fields with international relationship networks.

Innovative wafer inspection system for the semiconductor industry
Largest Series B financing round to date of any company in the portfolio of the High-Tech Gruenderfonds

The „Deutsche Effecten- und Wechsel-Beteiligungsgesellschaft AG (DEWB)“ – Prime Standard, Securities No.: 804100 / ISIN: DE0008041005 – and Brains-To-Ventures AG (b-to-v), a business angel network, participated in the Series B financing round of Nanda Technologies. The lead investor DEWB jointly with the investors of the Swiss Business Angel network b-to-v led by Dr. Christian Reitberger is taking an active part in the further growth of Nanda. The financing round has a total volume of 8m USD (5m EUR). Other investors include the existing shareholders Ventegis Capital AG and Bayern Kapital as well as the business angel Alexander Bruehl. This transaction concludes the largest Series B financing round to-date of any company in the portfolio of the High-Tech Gruenderfonds.

Nanda was founded in 2006 to develop and manufacture optical, non-contacting inspection systems for the process control in semiconductor manufacturing. Semiconductor wafers are inspected for “macro defects” such as scratches, particles or other contaminants larger then 1 micron. Nanda uses a new optical design combined with innovative image processing to drastically increase the speed of inspection while maintaining high sensitivity. The result is a 10-fold decrease in inspection cost per wafer compared to existing tools. This and the compact design of Nanda’s inspection system make it attractive to integrate defect inspection directly into the production process. An industry first, Nanda enables the real-time, high sensitivity defect inspection of all wafers without reduction of the production throughput. Fast error-feedback permits accelerated process adjustments and thus increases process ramp-up speed, overall yield and process tool uptime significantly. Nanda’s first generation of inspection system is currently under evaluation with leading semiconductor manufacturers.

“Nanda’s revolutionary system design convinced us. The integration of its macro defect inspection directly into the semiconductor production process flow promises significant performance and cost improvements. Net savings for the manufacturers can be significant. We see excellent growth potential based on Nanda’s technological advantage and the experience of its management team. We expect good results from the evaluation process with leading semiconductor manufacturers and anticipate rapid market acceptance” comments Falk Nuber, member of the management board of DEWB.

„Nanda offers a large growth potential. With its innovative solution Nanda addresses the fastest-growing segment within the wafer inspection market. Our know-how and broad industry contacts will help Nanda develop into a sustainable success story”, says Dr. Christian Reitberger who invested in Nanda together with nine other co-investors of the b-to-v network and the b-to-v side fund.

“We are very pleased to have won DEWB, b-to-v and Alexander Bruehl as new investors in Nanda. They bring to the table their broad experience and important network within the semiconductor industry. The new investors join our existing shareholders Ventegis, Bayern Kapital and the High-Tech Gruenderfonds. We feel lucky to have a first-rate circle of European investors that will benefit the development of our company. Moreover, we feel reaffirmed in our conscious decision to build Nanda in Germany, despite our professional roots in the Silicon Valley” comments Dr. Lars Markwort, CEO. Johannes von Borries, CFO, adds: „The secured financial situation puts our market entry on solid grounds and provides us with an advantage in the search for talents. For the extension of our team we can offer potential candidates a very attractive package of an exciting work environment and excellent career opportunities. We are currently looking for experts in the area of optical and mechanical engineering as well as software development.”

About Nanda Technologies
Nanda Technologies offers its customers in the semiconductor industry a high throughput, high sensitivity defect inspection technology that can be directly integrated into process equipment. This makes it possible to inspect every wafer at full surface instead of just conducting statistical tests. The feedback cycle for process faults is reduced significantly and process equipment malfunctions are caught and identified at an early stage. Nanda Technologies was founded in Munich by seasoned executives of the capital metrology equipment industry and supplies to semiconductor manufacturers worldwide.

Contact
Johannes von Borries
Lise-Meitner-Str. 3
85716 Unterschleissheim
Tel: +49 89 4523558-21
Fax: +49 89 4523558-70
borries@nanda-tech.com
www.nanda-tech.com
About DEWB
Deutsche Effecten- und Wechsel-Beteiligungsgesellschaft AG (DEWB AG, Prime Standard, Securities No.: 804100 / ISIN: DE0008041005) is an investment company that specialises in young and established medium-sized companies. The focus of our investments is on strong growth companies from the areas of photonics and sensor systems for which we provide support through shareholders‘ equity, expertise in corporate development and our sector network. Our regional focus lies in the German speaking countries (D, A, CH). Since 1997 we have invested more than 300 million Euros in 55 companies and realized more than 400 million Euros through 35 exits, eight of which were in the form of IPOs. The company is located in Jena, one of the most successful technology and science regions in Germany, with a long tradition in the field of optical technologies and one of the most important European centres for photonics.

Contact:
Marco Scheidler
DEWB AG
Leutragraben 1
07743 Jena
Tel: +49 (0) 3641 573 3600
Fax: +49 (0) 3641 573 3610
E-Mail: ir@dewb-vc.com
www.dewb-vc.com

About b-to-v:
BrainsToVentures AG (b-to-v) is headquartered in St. Gallen, Switzerland. The company serves entrepreneurial private investors who invest their capital, network and expertise in fast-growing companies. By making this pool of capital, contacts and expertise available to portfolio companies, b-to-v has established a new business model in the venture capital and private equity industry. With over 50 members, the b-to-v Investors Circle is the most active club of entrepreneurial private investors in German-speaking Europe. Based on the members’ expertise, b-to-v’s scope of investment comprises more than 30 different industries. It is the goal of the Investors Circle to create value for its portfolio companies and generate significant profits from its investments. b-to-v’s Investors Circle invests about EUR 20m per year in early and expansion stage companies as well as buyout cases. At present, b-to-v is invested in about forty companies. Investments vary between EUR 500k and 3m per deal. www.b-to-v.com

About Ventegis Capital AG
Ventegis Capital AG is a listed venture capital company which invests nationally in high-growth companies from the early to the expansion stage. The focus of its investments lies in the areas of information and communication technology (ICT), industrial technologies and life science. Ventegis also provides advisory services in corporate finance. The main shareholder of the company with ca. 94.3 % is the Berliner Effektengesellschaft AG, which is listed on the official market (ISIN DE0005221303). www.ventegis-capital.de

About Seedfonds Bayern managed by Bayern Kapital:
The Seedfonds Bayern was started in 2003. With a fund size of 22m EUR it is focused on investments in early stage technology companies in Bavaria. The fund is managed by Bayern Kapital which was founded in 1995 by the Bavarian Government as part of the campaign „Initiative Bavarian Future“ and to provide young and innovated Bavarian companies with venture capital. Up to date Bayern Kapital has invested in over 160 innovative high-tech companies with a total investment volume of about 130m EUR. More information under: www.bayernkapital.de

About High-Tech Gruenderfonds
The High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests venture capital in young technology companies with high prospects that are transferring promising scientific research to business enterprises. The seed financing shall result in a technical prototype, a proof of concept or a market launch. High-Tech Gründerfonds has access to a fund volume of around 272,0 million Euro. Investors in this public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economy and Technology, the KfW Banking Group as well as the six industry companies BASF, Robert Bosch, Carl Zeiss, Daimler, Deutsche Telekom and Siemens. www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de