Cologne-based start-up enterprise unveils its innovative technology for the first re-closable lid, marking the 75th anniversary of the drinks can

A new start-up business in Cologne has developed a technology for the drinks can to go, rendering it possible to make small and handy beverage packaging tightly re-closable with what is described as a “CanCap” lid. The start-up finance jointly concluded at the end of 2009 with High-Tech-Gründerfonds and Rheinland Venture Capital provided the necessary foundation to drive the project forward from the idea through to market launch.

The Cologne-based cliqloc company is taking big strides forward: the first near-production closures have come off the line in the past few weeks. This is the merited outcome of numerous development cycles that have led to success in the past two years.

“We are very pleased to have found, in High-Tech Gründerfonds and Rheinland Venture Capital, two partners who see the potential of our patented closure systems just as we do. On the way towards the first samples of production quality, our many years of experience as product developers in other sectors have – alongside the crucial support from our partners – no doubt also paid off.  We can now look forward and establish cliqloc as an innovative partner to beverage producers and marketing agencies,” Alexander Christ, cliqloc’s managing director, emphasized.

Benjamin Erhart, analyst at High-Tech Gründerfonds, summarised the reason for High-Tech Gründerfonds’ investment as follows: “cliqloc has developed a portfolio of products that are as simple as they are ingenious. The cliqloc closure makes it possible for the first time to close beverage cans with one hand and, thanks to an integrated valve, also to reopen it with control even with increasing pressure inside. Beverage containers that are becoming larger, such as half-litre energy drinks and Makrolon cups at events, are among the market trends in beverage packaging, especially internationally. We expect the cliqloc products to make the leap into these demanding markets, initially as a marketing tool. Other promising products, such as lids as primary closures, are in the development pipeline. We are also pleased especially about the fact that cliqloc is another joint investment of Rheinland Venture Capital and High-Tech Gründerfonds.”

“The founders of cliqloc inspired us with their professionalism and their impressive track record in other sectors,” added Dr Andreas Tietmann, managing director of the Rheinland Venture Capital Fund. “We expect cliqloc to establish itself very quickly on the market. Thanks to the conceptual design as an add-on product, there is for the first time no need for intervening in the process of making the cans in order to turn a can into a customised event cup. The task now is to successfully market this impressive development of the founders internationally.”

About cliqloc GmbH
The objective of cliqloc is to establish itself as one of the leading providers of innovative closure technology for a wide variety of different containers based on its patent-protected technology. In this context, cliqloc regards itself as a developer of technology and products for sector players in the classic B2B trade. The market will be tapped in joint ventures with sector-specific marketing partners.

Contact:
cliqloc GmbH
Schmidhofweg 1
50769 Köln
Phone:  +49 221 91395878
Fax:  +49 221 94999988
christ@cliqloc.com
www.cliqloc.com

About Rheinland Venture Capital
Rheinland Venture Capital GmbH & Co KG (RVC) is a seed fund set up by Kreissparkasse Köln, Sparkasse KölnBonn, NRW Bank, Georgieff Capital as well as private investors from the Rhineland region. RVC’s investments are focussed on companies in the areas of life science, and here especially medical technology, information and communication technology, new materials as well as micro and nanotechnology, which are based in the Rhineland. In the first round of funding RVC normally invests up to € 500,000. RVC was established in December 2006 with a fund volume of € 10 million, and is managed by its directors Dr Andreas Tietmann and Wilfried Frohnhofen.

Contact:
Rheinland Venture Capital GmbH & Co. KG
Nattermannallee 1
50829 Köln
Phone: +49 221 50065937
Fax: +49 221 50065938
info@rheinlandvc.de
www.rheinlandvc.de

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:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Benjamin Erhart
Analyst
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Phone: +49 228 96568500
Fax: +49 228 96568550
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de