High-Tech Gründerfonds realizes successful partial exit – strategic investors strengthen natural product lead-discovery company InterMed Discovery

At the same time, High-Tech Gründerfonds sold a significant part of its interest and achieved a high single-digit multiple.

End of 2008, the natural product lead-discovery company InterMed Discovery GmbH (IMD) located in Dortmund, Germany, was able to take another strategic investor on board. With its investment in IMD the Malaysian Life Science company “Biotropics Malaysia Berhad” underlines the long-term cooperation between the two companies, initiated in September 2008 with the conclusion of a strategic cooperation agreement. Following the strategic investment of the specialty chemical supplier Cognis in February 2008 this new funding strengthens IMD´s financial position and paves the way for further expansion. The equity will especially be invested in the discovery and development of additional compounds and will also be used to co-fund IMD´s pharmaceutical pipeline. In return, Biotropics will be granted access to IMD´s natural product data base and technology to identify, develop and market suitable active natural ingredients.

IMD received a seed investment of High-Tech Gründerfonds in October 2006. With this most recent round of funding High-Tech Gründerfonds realized a partial exit and significantly reduced its share in the company “After an impressive development in the last two years we feel that the seed phase of IMD is now completed and we are happy to pass on the lead to the strategic investors.”, elaborates Dr. Caroline Fichtner, investment manager at the High-Tech Gründerfonds, on the partial exit of this portfolio company. “We are glad to show significant increases in net asset value in this economically challenging times”, Dr. Alex von Frankenberg, managing director of the High-Tech Gründerfonds, comments. “Furthermore, with this partial exit at a high single-digit multiple we delivered first significant returns to our investors.”

About High-Tech Gründerfonds:
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in young, high-opportunity technological companies implementing promising research results in an entrepreneurial manner. The start-up companies are planned to lead their R&D projects to the production of a prototype or a “proof of concepts” or market launch by means of the seed financing of up to 500k EUR. The High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of around 272m EUR. Investors of the public-private partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW bank group as well as the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Contact:
Dr. Caroline Fichtner
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn, Germany
Tel: +49 228 – 965685-00
Fax: +49 228 – 965685-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de