Successful Exit for HTGF: DocuWare Announces Acquisition of natif.ai 

April 19, 2024

• With AI at the forefront of DocuWare’s product strategy, natif.ai’s technology further increases the competitive edge of the DocuWare platform.
• High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) led the pre-seed round in 2020 as the first institutional investor of natif.ai and has actively supported the start-up on its path to becoming a leading provider in the field of intelligent document processing.
• Christian Arndt, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF: “The team of natif.ai has shown a great performance since our investment and has proven that leading AI applications can be developed and commercialized in Germany. We wish both the team and the buyer a successful future together.”

Bonn, Germany, April 19, 2024 – DocuWare, a leading provider of document management and workflow automation solutions announced its acquisition of natif.ai, a pioneer in intelligent document processing. As part of the strategic acquisition, HTGF, one of Europe’s leading seed investors, will sell its shares.

This is a highly significant and strategic acquisition for us. It allows us to provide our customers around the world with cutting edge AI technology, which is vital to business growth and progress. Combining the expertise of the natif.ai team with ours will take DocuWare to the next level as an ECM leader.

Dr. Michael Berger, DocuWare President

With highly compatible corporate cultures, DocuWare welcomes the new energy that a startup will bring to its organization. natif.ai is wholly owned by DocuWare and will operate as an independent legal entity within the company. Its executives and employees will become part of the DocuWare Group. Post acquisition, DocuWare plans that natif.ai and its expert team will remain in the AI hotspot of Saarbrücken, Germany.

We are excited to take this giant leap forward and become a part of the DocuWare Group. Our core driver has always been to accelerate and sustain growth through technology. The expertise of our combined teams will take DocuWare to another level as an ECM provider. These are exciting times, and we are excited to be a part of the change.

Johannes Korves and Manuel Zapp, both Co-CEOs of natif.ai

It has been a pleasure for us to accompany natif.ai since its pre-seed round through its successful journey to becoming one of the leading providers in the field of intelligent document processing. The team has proven that leading AI applications can be developed and commercialized in Germany. We wish both the team and the buyer a successful future together.

Christian Arndt, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF

About DocuWare
DocuWare is a leading provider of document management and workflow automation solutions. Together with its 800+ strong partner network, DocuWare has helped approximately 19,000 customers across 100+ countries simplify their work through digitizing, automating and transforming key processes. DocuWare’s corporate headquarters are in Germering, Germany. The US office is based in New York. The company maintains office locations in Saarbrücken, Germany Paris, France; Barcelona, Spain; Sofia, Bulgaria; Reading, UK and Brisbane, Australia.

About Natif.ai
natif.ai is a pioneer in intelligent document processing (IDP) by integrating innovative AI with machine learning for automated document processing. The company, known for its collaborations and white label technology, offers versatile solutions for all industries. It was founded in 2019 by Manuel Zapp, Johannes Korves, Christophe Hocquet and Berenger Laurent, with Matthias Hoefler joining the founding team in 2023. The last financing round was led by redalpine with High-Tech Gründerfonds, 468 Capital, F-LOG Ventures, Premius GmbH and Bold Ventures contributing. Natif.ai was advised on the transaction by Clipperton Finance.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) finances tech start-ups with growth potential and has supported more than 750 start-ups since 2005. With the launch of its fourth fund, HTGF now has about 1.4 billion euros under management. Its team of experienced investment managers and start-up experts support young companies with expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and passion. HTGF’s focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digital tech, industrial tech, life sciences, chemistry and related business areas. To date, external investors have injected about 5 billion euros of capital into the HTGF portfolio via more than 2,000 follow-on financing rounds. In addition, HTGF has already successfully sold shares in more than 180 companies.
Fund investors in this public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, KfW Capital and 45 companies from a wide range of industries. 

Media contact
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH  
Tobias Jacob, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager   
T.: +49 228 – 82300 – 121 
t.jacob@htgf.de