High-Tech Gruenderfonds, venturecapital.de and Business Angels Invest in zuuka group GmbH

zuuka group GmbH, publishers of the iTalk entertainment apps, zuuka Comics and iStoryTime, the largest library of mobile children’s book apps, announced a financing round from High-Tech Gruenderfonds and Business Angels. This new round of funding allows zuuka to continue to expand its ongoing development and expansion within children’s mobile entertainment. The lead investors are venturecapital.de and HTGF.

zuuka is a full-service provider for mobile kids’ entertainment, developing and publishing products that combine various media assets, thus creating an interactive media experience that delight and engage today’s children.“The funding round’s timing is perfect”, Dirk Busshart, founder of zuuka, said, “allowing zuuka to further extend its partnerships worldwide. So much is happening around our mobile world – we are extremely happy to welcome HTGF on board!”

“zuuka stands for a strong and experienced team as well as for sophisticated products, which kids enjoy to play and learn with. We are very much looking forward to the next steps in company development”, says Björn Momsen, Senior-Investment Manager at HTGF and responsible for the engagement at zuuka.

Jens Munk, Managing Director at venturecapital.de added: “With a strong growth potential and its innovative force, zuuka is a promising candidate to engage in young markets just like mobile entertainment and even propel them forward. We are proud to see how far the company has gone already.”

In the past year, zuuka has seen significant growth in domestic and international markets due to their language localization in English, German, Spanish, French, Korean, Chinese and Russian, which has positioned them as a global leader within
the industry. This has significantly accelerated the company’s growth and productivity. Next to their children’s publishing brand iStoryTime®, two additional brands now accompany the current portfolio – iTalk and zuuka Comics.

The company’s applications and eBooks are available for the iPad and iPhone as well a variety of Android devices and are being marketed on several stores worldwide including Apple’s App Store, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com. International partnerships and licensing deals secure zuuka top rankings throughout the year with both movie and publishing titles. zuuka develops titles for several major digital mobile licensing partners, including Harper Collins, Nickelodeon, Random House, Cartoon Network, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Reader’s Digest Children’s Books(R) and many more strategic partners.

About zuuka
zuuka publishes interactive storytelling experiences delivered to the convenience of your mobile device. Their series of illustrated and narrated books created by parents for kids is decorated with Publisher’s Innovation Award, PTPA Media’s Parent Tested Parent Approved Seal of Approval, the Children’s Technology Review’s Editor’s Choice Award and Reader’s Choice for Best Apps for Kids. With over 200 titles to choose from and available in over 80 countries, the library offers excellent tools for both educating and entertaining children ages two years and up. For additional information, visit www.zuuka.com.

About venturecapital.de
venturecapital.de was founded in 2007 in Frankfurt/Germany and is a leading growth equity investment firm with a clear focus on technology companies in the field of software, the internet, mobile telecommunications and IT business services. By partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams venturecapital.de delivers true value beyond financing and pro-actively works with portfolio companies to accelerate growth. venturecapital.de is funded and managed by the leading European Internet M&A Firm “Corporate Finance Partners” (CFP) and 160 European tech entrepreneurs, founders and industry veterans. It constitutes one of the strongest and most value adding business networks in Europe with an excellent platform for an exchange of expertise and know-how between investors, the fund and its portfolio companies.

About High-Tech Gruenderfonds
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 thirteen industrial groups of ALTANA, BASF, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE Color, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 563 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 291 million HTGF II).

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Björn Momsen
Senior Investmentmanager
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Tel: +49 228 823001-00
Fax: +49 228 823000-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de