Humedics successfully closed its first VC-financing round with Charité Biomedical Fund, VC Fonds Technologie, KfW, HTGF and Ventegis Capital AG

Humedics GmbH, a specialist for rapid and mobile measurement of the individual liver function at the bedside of the patient, today announced the closing of its first equity financing round. The Charité Biomedical Fund (CBF) managed by Peppermint VenturePartners led this round which included VC Fonds Technologie managed by IBB-Beteiligungsgesellschaft, the ERP Startfonds of the KfW, Ventegis and current investor High-Tech Gründerfonds. The funding enables Humedics to complete the final development and early commercialization of its proprietary and CE-marked diagnostic system to determine the liver function of a patient in real time.

Humedics has developed a breath test (LiMAx™ test) based diagnostic system composed of the medical device FLIP™ and a new intravenous diagnostic drug preparation (¹³C-Methacetin).

More than 100 million people world-wide suffer from chronic liver diseases (i.e. cirrhosis, hepatitis, fatty liver, metabolic disorders and tumors). Evaluating current liver function correctly remains a major challenge for physicians, given that existing tests cannot directly measure liver function quantitatively.

The LiMAx™ test enables the clinician to quantitatively determine the individual liver function capacity within minutes. This allows for deciding on treatment strategies optimally adapted to the individual patients liver status. Current applications include diagnosis of the liver function before and after liver transplantation as well as planning of liver surgeries (for example: How much liver tissue can be extracted without risking post-operative liver failure) and different diseases of the liver such as liver cirrhosis.

The LiMAx™ test was developed at the Charité, Berlin by Dr. M. Stockmann at the Department of General, Visceral, and Transplantation Surgery of Prof. Neuhaus (Charité – University-Medicine, Berlin) and the FLIP™ device by Prof. K. Heyne (Department of Physics, Ultrafast Spectroscopy on Biologically Relevant Systems) at the Free University Berlin.

Up to date the LiMAx™ test has been validated in more than 1.000 patients involving over 5.000 tests and the results have been published in well recognized journals.

Wilfried Heyne; Managing Director of Humedics comments: “We are delighted to have been able to attract this group of experienced MedTech investors including the Charité Biomedical Fund given that Humedics is a “Spin-Off” from Charité and FU-Berlin. The proceeds of this financing will be used to further develop and finalize the FLIP™ / LiMAx™ test-system.”

Dr. Klaus Stöckemann, Chairman of Humedics’ board and Managing Director at Peppermint VenturePartners (the manager of the Charité Biomedical Fund) adds: “We have been following the technology for the last three years and are very happy to work with Humedics and the other co-investors to develop the company towards “the company for personalized medicine for the liver” and make the LiMAx™ test standard of care in liver diagnostics.”

Contact:
umedics GmbH
Wilfried Heyne
Managing Director
Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders Str. 1
10625 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 590083240
info@humedics.de
www.humedics.de

About Charité Biomedical Fund
The Charité Biomedical Fund (CBF) is an independent Venture Capital Fund launched in November 2010. Through its established collaboration with the Charité the CBF has a privileged access to the network and deal flow of one of the largest medical schools in Europe and to its international partners, while at the same time using this relationship also for the evaluation of all investment opportunities. The CBF will invest in young companies in the healthcare sector that have demonstrated first proof-of-concept for their technology, product or services. The CBF is managed by Peppermint VenturePartners (PVP), which has an established track record in venture capital financing within the healthcare sector nationally and internationally. PVP was established in 2008 by the experienced team of Ingeborg Neumann and Dr. Joachim Rautter from Peppermint together with Dr. Klaus Stöckemann, former General Partner at the international Venture Capital firm 3i.

Contact:
eppermint VenturePartners GmbH c/o Charité Biomedical Fund
Dr. Klaus Stöckemann
Managing Partner
Kürfürstendamm 21
10719 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 590064 400
ks@peppermint-vp.com
www.peppermint-vp.com

About IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH
IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft provides innovative Berlin-based companies with venture capital and has established itself in Berlin as a market leader in early-stage financing. The funds are used primarily for developing and launching innovative products or services and creative business concepts. Currently, two funds managed by IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft are in the investment phase: the VC Fonds Technologie Berlin, with assets of 52 million EUR, and the VC Fonds Kreativwirtschaft Berlin, with assets of 30 million EUR. Both VC funds are subsidized by the Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), managed by the State of Berlin. Since 1997, in consortiums with partners, IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft has provided more than 729 million EUR to Berlin-based creative and technology companies, with IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft investing approximately 93 million EUR as the lead-, co-lead- or co-investor.

Contact:
IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH
Ute Mercker
Bundesallee 171
10715 Berlin, Germany
Phone: +49 30 2125 3201
Fax: +49 30 2125 3202
venture@ibb-bet.de
www.ibb-bet.de

About ERP Start-up-Fund
KfW finances and supports, among other things, business start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) as well as investments in economic growth and employment projects in Germany.

The ERP Start-up-Fund, administered and co-financed by KfW, offers equity financing for innovative, technology-based enterprises with excellent growth prospects. The fund finances research and product development as well as the launching of new products, procedures and services. KfW always cooperates with a lead investor and exclusively adopts market conditions. Since 2004; the 730 Mio. Euro ERP Start-up-Fund has so far allocated over 300 Mio. Euro to emerging technology-based companies.

Contact:
fW Bankengruppe
Niederlassung Bonn
Ludwig-Erhard-Platz 1-3
53179 Bonn
Phone: 49 228 831 0
Fax: +49 228 831 9500
info@kfw.de
www.kfw-mittelstandbank.de

About Ventegis Capital AG
Since 1996, Berlin-based Ventegis Capital AG is an active and reliable partner in the venture capital business. With long-term, sustainable commitments, Ventegis positioned itself as lead, co-lead or co-investor in more than 35 transactions. In addition to numerous trade sales, eight exits via IPO could be realized in the past. With its first-class, pan-European contacts, Ventegis therefore belongs to one of the most experienced players on the German VC market. Ventegis’ fund currently focuses on innovative, fast-growing early stage and expansion companies in the fields of cleantech and medtech. The company‘s portfolio comprises ten cleantech, medtech and software companies as of today.

Ventegis is an integrated part of Berliner Effektengesellschaft AG (BEG AG) which operates as a financial holding for a number of companies in the financial sector. The companies under the roof of BEG – quirin bank, Tradegate and Ventegis – provide for great synergies in the area of innovative and flexible capital market-related services.

Contact:
Ventegis Capital AG
Philipp Butscher
Kurfürstendamm 119
10711 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 890 21 180
pbutscher@ventegis-capital.de
www.ventegis-capital.de

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests venture capital in promising technology companies that turn innovative concepts into viable businesses. Seed financing aims to help start-ups guide their innovation to the prototype or proof-of-concept stage or to market launch. High-Tech Gründerfonds provides seed financing of approximately €500,000. It supports high-tech companies by way of its investment managers and its highly-qualified network of coaches, investors and specialists. In individual cases it can invest up to a total of €2 m per company. The investors in this public private partnership are the German Federal Ministry for Business and Technology, the KfW Banking Group as well as the six industrial groups of BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gründerfonds has an investment volume totalling approx. €272 m.

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Bernd Goergen
Senior Investment Manager
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Phone:  +49 228 96568500
Fax:   +49 228 96568550
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de