High-Tech Gründerfonds and Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen are investing in innovative process measuring technology for electroplating technology

Somonic Solutions GmbH wraps up its seed financing with High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen (TGFS). The start-up company from Dresden launches a new type of measuring technology that will be used to measure the deposition rate under harsh industry conditions.

Themed „Safety within the process“, Somonic Solutions GmbH (www.somonic.com) will make coating processes in electroplating safer and more efficient with its newly designed measuring instrument dresor. This will be achieved by measuring the deposition rate. To that end, a rod sensor with a probe screwed to its tip will be dipped into the electrolyte. On the probe, metal separation takes place in parallel with the product. By measuring the vibrations, the deposition rate can be calculated in real time. The new process measuring instrument promises a variety of applications.

The CEO of Somonic Solutions GmbH, Dr.-Ing. Eckart Giebler, states: „Galvanic coaters are subject to increasing quality and cost pressure. Using  our measuring instrument raises process safety and ensures better plating quality.“ Furthermore, measuring can help increasing the throughput of electroplating plants and can avoid superfluous coating with expensive metals.

„After the successful introduction of the product at this year’s trade fair in Hannover, the joint investment of HTGF and TGFS will now allow us to prepare for serial production. We are looking forward to supporting the team of entrepreneurs in getting the first devices to the market as early as this year“, says Benjamin Erhart, Investment Manager at HTGF. “The investors were convinced by the industrial applicability and marketability of the Somonic products as well as by the competent team of founders“, explains Matthias Kalbus, Investment Manager at TGFS in Dresden. „The financing by HTGF and TGFS allows the company founded in November 2012 to set up a sustainable business concept that is fit for the future“, says CEO Giebler.

About Somonic Solutions GmbH
Somonic Solutions GmbH (www.somonic.com) was founded in November 2012 within the framework of the program EXIST Research Transfer at the TU Dresden. CEO Eckart Giebler and developer Andy Reich have extensive experience in process management (automation and process control engineering, measuring technology) as well as modeling and simulation in electroplating technology. Both have been working at the Institute for Automation Technology at the Technical University Dresden since the nineties in numerous research projects in the area of electroplating and wet chemical surface technology. The team of founders is supported by Ronny Silze, who is responsible for construction and manufacturing, and by Ronny Krönert, who manages the financial matters of the company. With the products dresor EP and dresor EL, Somonic Solutions GmbH is the first provider to offer a measuring technology to document the deposition rate of electroplating and electro less metal deposition that is suitable for industrial use. The company also regards itself as a specialist in the areas of automation and process management in electroplating and surface technology.

About Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen, TGFS
Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen (TGFS) is a Venture Capital fund with a volume of 60 million EUR. It invests in start-ups and young companies in the area of technology with headquarter or subsidiary in Saxony. TGFS acts as a minority shareholder of the target companies and uses its expertise and the network of its fund management to consult them in important questions. TGFS invests financial means of the Free State of Saxony, supported by the European Regional Development Fund (EFRE) and by the Sparkasse banks of Chemnitz, Leipzig, and Dresden as well as the LBBW. Since its foundation in 2008, TGFS has financed over 30 companies in highly diverse industries. For more information please visit: www.tgfs.de

Contact:
SIB Innovations- und Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH
(TGFS – Contact for Dresden region)
Dr. Matthias Kalbus
Leipziger Straße 116
01127 Dresden
Phone: +49 (351) 847 428-11
Fax: +49 (351) 847 428-29
matthias.kalbus@sib-dresden.de
www.sib-dresden.de

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds 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 Gründerfonds 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 Gründerfonds 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
Benjamin Erhart
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Phone: +49 (228) 823 001-00
Fax: +49 (228) 823 000-50
b.erhart@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

Press contact:
Somonic Solutions GmbH
Ronny Krönert
Phone: +49 (351) 871-8570
r.kroenert@somonic.com