Seven-figure funding for sovity: Unlocking efficiency gains and digital business models through Data Spaces

Dortmund, February 15, 2023 – Dortmund-based start-up sovity has secured seven-figure seed funding to boost the efficiency and innovative potential of companies by providing fast and easy access to Data Spaces. sovity is backed by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), one of Europe’s leading seed investors, and Fraunhofer Technologie-Transfer Fonds (FTTF), which has supported sovity from the beginning. The fresh capital will be used for product development and the expansion of the company’s market presence.

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We are thrilled that we attracted another renowned investor in addition to FTTF. HTGF shares both our vision of the market and our product’s mission on Data Space technology.

Sebastian Kleff, CEO and Co-Founder of sovity

The market for Data Spaces is gaining momentum: companies are actively looking for solutions to share data with partners in a simple way and without major technical hurdles, while keeping control over their data.

Dr. Sebastian Opriel, CTO and Co-Founder of sovity

Data Spaces enable companies to exchange and use data, for example, to measure the carbon footprint of products or to obtain transparency within their entire supply chain. Data Spaces embrace the principles of data sovereignty – companies always retain full control over their data. sovity’s software – the Connector-as-a-Service – offers companies the right solution for this. It allows companies of any size to connect to a Date Spaces within minutes, which is a significant speed advantage: if companies were to implement individual solutions to connect to a Data Space, it could take them around six to eight months.

Since its launch in 2021, sovity has built a strong team of technology and business experts and currently employs more than ten people. With the funding, the team will focus on the further development of the product. Moreover, the sales and marketing team will be strengthened to expand the market presence and attract new customers. sovity offers access to a trial version of its software on its website.

sovity has a clear vision to make Data Spaces widely available to all companies. We see the technology as an important lever to enable companies to share data with each other to optimize processes and improve products and services.

Johannes Dierkes, Investment Manager at HTGF

sovity enables data sharing while giving data owners full control. Since its founding, the team made outstanding technical progress and attracted important customers as well as renowned partners.

Tobias Schwind, Managing Partner at FTTF

Last but not least, existing partnerships with initiatives in the field of Data Spaces, such as Catena-X, Mobility Data Space and Gaia-X, as well as with the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) will be further expanded. Besides these initiatives, sovity is already working with many industrial companies on pilot or technology projects.

About sovity
Founded in October 2021 as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering ISST in Dortmund, sovity offers data sovereignty as a service. The start-up provides technology for Data Spaces based on standards such as International Data Spaces (IDS), Gaia-X or Eclipse Foundation. Thus, sovity allows companies the easiest and fastest access to Data Spaces. Using Data Spaces, companies exchange a wide range of information to optimize processes or products and develop new business models. The managing directors of sovity, Sebastian Kleff (Co-Founder, CEO) and Dr. Sebastian Opriel (Co-Founder, CTO), have several years of expertise in the field of data exchange and related use cases, e.g. from Fraunhofer research and IDS, as well as several years of experience in management consulting at BCG Platinion.

Contact
Sebastian Kleff, CEO
sebastian.kleff@sovity.de
www.sovity.de

About FTTF – Fraunhofer Technologie-Transfer Fonds (FTTF) GmbH
FTTF finances start-ups that use Fraunhofer technology. As a strong entrepreneurial partner, up to 250 TEUR are invested in the pre-seed phase and up to 5 MEUR in further financing rounds. In addition, the fund supports with extensive start-up experience and a broad investor network. The fund has a volume of 60 MEUR, already more than 30 portfolio companies and is supported by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the European Investment Fund (EIF).

Contact
Fraunhofer Technologie-Transfer Fonds (FTTF) GmbH
www.fttf.eu
tobias.schwind@fttf.eu

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) finances tech start-ups with growth potential and has supported over 690 start-ups since 2005. With the launch of its fourth fund, HTGF now has over 1.3 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 more than 4.5 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 160 companies.
Fund investors in this public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, KfW Capital and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft along with over 40 companies from a wide range of industries.

Media contact
Stefanie Grüter, Partner Communications & Relations
s.grueter@htgf.de
T.: +49 228 – 82300 – 188