Diamond Specialist Yorxs Successfully Concludes Financing Round

Yorxs.de, the online portal for diamonds and diamond jewelry (www.yorxs.de) founded in Munich in March 2012, concluded its seed financing at the end of 2012 with a seven-figure sum. Within the present financing round, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) based in Bonn and K5 Ventures are also now investing in the dynamically growing diamond portal along with further business angels. The diamond specialist intends to use the newly raised equity capital to become Europe’s leading online portal for bulk diamonds and diamond jewelry.

The founders of Yorxs AG, Dr. Joachim Giehl, CEO, and Casimir Graf Maltzan, CPO, welcome the entry of HTGF and K5 Ventures as an important milestone for the young company. “We see our future collaboration as a great opportunity to achieve our market goals even more quickly. We’re going to continue to emphasize our high standards that benefit our customers.”

Yorxs follows a strict philosophy in its online portal. This includes not only the certified, traceable quality of their cut diamonds and individually crafted diamond jewelry, but also their excellent consulting, professional service and sales under German law, and not least, their transparent prices. These lie up to 70% below normal retail levels. The online portal currently offers over 170,000 white and over 5,000 colored diamonds in hundreds of different settings for rings, pendants, and earrings.

The quality standards of Yorxs are among the highest in the world. The company offers exclusively diamonds that have been pre-selected according to demanding quality criteria and certified by internationally recognized laboratories such as the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and the Hooge Raad voor Diamant (HRD). Yorxs also strictly adheres to the Kimberley process established in 2000 by the UN, governments, the diamond industry, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This is to ensure that only those diamonds are sold whose path all the way from the mine to the end customer is traceable without fault.

“We find the business model of Yorxs convincing. Selected properly, diamonds are not only pieces of jewelry but rather also a stable investment over generations. This is a market with high opportunity for growth,” say Dr. Björn Momsen (Senior Investment Manager at HTGF) and Dr. Julius Neuberger (Investment Manager at K5 Ventures) about their investment in Yorxs.

Yorxs AG
Yorxs AG, founded in Munich in 2012, offers bulk diamonds and diamond jewelry via its online portal. The company’s quality standards are among the highest in the world of jewelers. The company offers exclusively diamonds that have been pre-selected and certified by internationally recognized laboratories such as the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and the Hooge Raad voor Diamant (HRD). Yorxs also adheres to the Kimberley process officially in effect since 2003. This complex international monitoring system ensures that only diamonds with an official certificate of origin are sold. Yorxs is distinguished by traceable product quality, excellent consulting, and a high degree of security for the customer. Service and sales are under German law.

Company Contact:
Yorxs AG
Casimir Graf Maltzan
Board/CPO
Truderinger Straße 9
81677 Munich
Germany
Telephone: +49 (0)89 413 1280-15
Fax: +49 (0)89 413 1280-11
cmaltzan@yorxs.com
www.yorxs.com

Press Contact:
Benson GmbH
Agency for Applied Communication
Gisela Benson
Brucker Straße 4
82266 Inning am Ammersee
Germany
Telephone: +49 (0)8143 44 4473
Fax: +49 (0)8143 44 4761
info@agentur-benson.de
www.agentur-benson.de

K5 Ventures
The venture capital firm K5 Ventures assists young, committed companies in realizing their business ideas in new markets with the goal of assuming a leading role there. The strategic support includes determining and optimizing business processes, establishing professional customer relationship management, and influencing optimized service and sales structures within a motivated team. Even before setting the strategy and positioning the companies in their markets, K5 Ventures works closely with their respective managers. The investment firm sees itself as a sparring partner for young companies and also accompanies the planning and execution of the later exit processes. K5 Ventures acts through its offices in Germany and Hong Kong and possesses a network of managers positioned internationally.

Contact:
K5 Ventures
Munich Office
Dr. Julius Neuberger
Waltherstraße 23
80337 Munich
Telephone: +49 (0)89 5139 9057
projects@k5ventures.net
www.k5ventures.eu

High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests EUR 500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE Color, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 573,5 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 301,5 million HTGF II).

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Björn Momsen
Senior Investment Manager
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Germany
Telephone: + 49 228 823 00 100
Fax: + 49 228 823 00 050
info@htgf.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de