Fresh capital for web store windeln.de

windeln.de, Germany’s largest online web store for baby products, successfully completed its Series A financing. Led by the British venture capital company DN Capital, the High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and a consortium of existing shareholders invested again in the company’s growth. The Munich-based growth equity investor Acton Capital Partners could be gained as a new investor in this round.

windeln.de was founded in 2010 by Konstantin Urban, Alexander Brand and Dagmar Mahnel and has been online since October last year. The company is currently growing at about 30 percent per month. With the current investment the company can continue its rapid growth. The fresh funds will primarily be used to expand the product range and to increase marketing activities. Currently, windeln.de is offering about 4,400 products of more than 100 brands. By the end of the year there will be about 6,000 products. The company’s customer base to date consists of about 30,000 mothers and fathers.

“With Acton we have secured a new partner who is very experienced in the e-commerce industry,” says Konstantin Urban, founder and managing director of windeln.de. Acton’s portfolio includes, for example, online shopping mall Yatego and mytheresa.com, a high-end fashion web store.

“The previous development of windeln.de has been very impressive,“ says Nenad Marovac, Managing Partner of DN Capital. „The management is excellent, and we see great potential. Therefore we have gladly taken the lead in this new financing round.”

New investor Acton Capital Partners is also convinced of the young company’s business model. “windeln.de is showing exceptional growth in an attractive market, and thus fits very well into our portfolio,” states Christoph Braun, Managing Partner of Acton.

Christoph Braun and Nenad Marovac belong to the newly formed three-member Advisory Board of windeln.de. Jochen Gutbrod, private investor and former vice chairman of the publishing group Georg von Holtzbrinck, completes the board.

About DN Capital
DN Capital is a leading global investor in digital media and software companies at both the early and growth stage with offices in London and Palo Alto. DN Capital’s objective is to identify, invest in and actively support digital media and software companies with the potential to be global leaders. Portfolio companies include Shazam Entertainment, Endeca Technologies, Datanomic, Mister Spex, OLX, Digital Chocolate, Tbricks and windeln.de. The professionals at DN Capital bring over 50 years of private equity experience to their investments, and actively work with portfolio companies to steward their growth through the various stages of development.

Contact:
DN Capital
Nenad Marovac
Phone: +44 (0)20 7340 1600
nenad@dncapital.com

About Acton
Acton Capital Partners is an independent, partner-led growth equity investor in the internet and mobile communications sector. The investment focus of Acton’s Heureka Growth Fund, established in 2008, is consumer-oriented business models in media, e-commerce and online marketplaces.The Acton team has also managed the corporate venture capital company of Hubert Burda Media, one of the leading German media groups. Investment success stories include AbeBooks, Alando, ciao.com, Elitepartner, HolidayCheck, OnVista and zooplus.

Press contact Acton:
Seipp Kommunikationsberatung
Anja Seipp
Phone:+49 89 2421887-22
press@actoncapital.de
www.actoncapital.de

About windeln.de
windeln.de is Germany’s largest web store for baby products of daily need. The internet retailer offers more than 4,400 products of over 100 brands, that young parents can comfortably order from home. The offer ranges from diapers and wipes to baby care products and baby food. Organic products and items for pregnancy and lactation are also part of the range. windeln.de was initiated by Konstantin Urban, Alexander and Dagmar Mahnel in October 2010. The Munich based company currently employs twelve staff members.

Press contact:
HOSCHKE & CONSORTEN Public Relations GmbH
Saskia Schauer
Phone: +49 040 369050-57
saskia.schauer@hoschke.de
www.windeln.de

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests risk capital in young, high-potential technology companies that convert promising research results in business success. The seed finance provided aims to enable start-ups to take their R&D project through to the creation of a prototype, a proof of concept or to market launch. The Fund normally invests EUR 500,000; in total, up to two million euros are available per technology company. Investors in this public/private partnership are the German Federal Ministry for Business and Technology, the KfW Banking Group as well as the six industrial groups of BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of about 272 million euros.

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Björn Momsen
Investment Manager
Phone: +49 228 823001-00
Fax: +49 228 823000-50
b.momsen@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de