gestigon closes a successful Series A financing

gestigon GmbH, a startup based in Lübeck, Germany, has announced that it closed a third financing round (Series A) in July 2015. The lead investor is nbr technology ventures GmbH, with additional investments from Vorwerk Direct Selling Ventures and High-Tech Gründerfonds. According to CEO Moritz v. Grotthuss, the amount raised in this round was “several million” USD. The company will use the funds to accelerate growth in its business, which is focused on licensing its gesture control and skeleton tracking middleware to key corporates in the automotive (where it has assumed global market leadership), consumer electronics, and augmented/virtual reality industries.

nbr technology ventures GmbH is a joint investment vehicle of Fabian v. Kuenheim (Kuenheim Familiaris GmbH), the Kuwaiti business man Ali M. T. Alghanim, and a number of well recognized business angels.

Fabian v. Kuenheim is quite enthusiastic about this investment, stating “I met gestigon only a few months ago but the experienced management team, their structured approach to the market, and the company’s state-of-the-art technology convinced me quickly. The negotiations were well prepared and we were able to seal the deal within a few weeks. I am now looking forward to supporting gestigon’s growth into a global market leader by sharing my experience and activating my wide network.” This enthusiasm is also confirmed by Moritz v. Grotthuss: “The new investors took a pragmatic and solution-oriented approach and negotiated in a fair manner. We are very happy to have gained the financial resources that now enable us to execute our ambitious strategy.”

Fabian v. Kuenheim will chair the newly established Advisory Board; gestigon is also pleased to announced that the second member of this board is the experienced entrepreneur and investor Holger G. Weiss.

Over the past several years, gestigon has established global market leadership for software solutions that enable touchless control of assistance- and information systems in automotive. It now has plans to expand this leadership position into in the rapidly growing field of augmented- and virtual reality solutions, including head mounted devices. Torsten Löffler, investment manager at the HTGF edits “gestigon is on the right path to success and has timed this financing round perfectly in order to further accelerate its growth.”

About gestigon:
gestigon develops middleware algorithms that work with 3D depth sensors to recognize human poses, gestures and biometrical features. The solution is recognized for its speed (low latency) and wide range of deployment, including embedded systems. The company is headed by Co-founders Moritz v. Grotthuss (CEO) and Sascha Klement (CTO) and has grown to 27 employees since its founding in 2011. The main office is located in Lübeck/Germany, with a project office in Sunnyvale/USA.

Contact:
Moritz v. Grotthuss (CEO)
gestigon GmbH
Maria-Goeppert Straße 9a
23562 Lübeck
Deutschland
Office   +49 (451) 879 291 31
Fax   +49 (451) 879 291 40
E-Mail: moritz.vongrotthuss@gestigon.com
Web: www.gestigon.com

About Kuenheim Familiaris
Kuenheim Familiars GmbH is the private investment company of the family of Fabian v. Kuenheim. Fabian v. Kuenheim was founder, biggest shareholder and head of the board of Magirus AG, which was successfully sold to Avnet Inc. He uses Kuenheim Familiaris GmbH for sole or syndicated investments into high-tech companies in the areas of IT infrastructure and cloud computing, photonics, med tech, mobility and integrated mobile systems as well as companies that address the interfaces of these technologies.

Contact:
Fabian v. Kuenheim
Kuenheim Familiaris GmbH
Eichwiesenring 9
70567 Stuttgart
Deutschland
Office  +49-(711)-720770-11
Fax  +49-(711)-720770-10
E-Mail: fabian@kuenheim.com

About Ali M. T. Alghanim
Ali M. T. Alghanim is Kuwaiti citizen, and holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering (Dipl. Ing.) from the Technical University of Hannover, Germany. He is a controlling shareholder in several companies in the Gulf States as well as in Germany, including Ali Mohammad Thunayan Alghanim & Sons General Trading Co., Kuwait, Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive Co., Kuwait and Michael Weinig AG, Germany. Mr. Alghanim is the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Kuwait and is widely acknowledged for forging close ties between the German and Kuwaiti governments. He represents most Kuwaiti investments in Germany, may they be done by public or private entities. In light of his merits in respect of the German-Kuwaiti friendship, Mr. Alghanim was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the German Federal President in 2005.

Contact:
Philomena Pinto
Chairman & Vice Chairman Office Manager
Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive Company
Post Box 21540, Safat 13076
Kuwait
Office  +965-(2)-2246105
Fax  +965-(2)-4830511
E-Mail: philo.pinto@aas.com.kw

About Vorwerk Direct Selling Ventures
Vorwerk Direct Selling Ventures is an investment entity within the Vorwerk Group. Its investment approach focuses on rapidly growing companies with direct-to-consumer business models. The corporate venture capital arm makes global investments and holds shares in companies in Germany, Austria and the US.

Contact:
Vorwerk Direct Selling Ventures GmbH
Dirk Meurer
Mühlenweg 17-37
42270 Wuppertal
Office   +49-(202)-564 1923
E-Mail: dirk.meurer@vorwerk.de
Web: www.vorwerk-ventures.de

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The High-Tech Gründerfonds is investing venue capital in young, promising technology companies which implement promising research results in an enterpreneurial manner. With the help of the seed financing the start-Upcompanies should manage the R&D project until making available a prototype or a “Proof of Concept” or until the market launch. The fonds initially contributed with 500,000 Euros; in total up to two million Euros are available for each company. Investors of the public-private-partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the KfW bank group as well as the 18 commercial enterprises ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. In total, the High-Tech Gründerfonds disposes of a fonds volume of about 576 million EUR (272 m. EUR fonds I and 304 m. EUR fonds II).

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Torsten Löffler
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Office   +49-(228)-823001-00
Fax   +49-(228)-823000-5
E-Mail: info@htgf.de
Web: www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de