Zimory Secures $20 Million in Funding

Zimory, the Berlin-based experts for cloud management software, announced today that it has secured $20 million in funding. This round of funding is led by Zimory’s newest investor Deutsche Boerse, in addition to its long-standing investors Creathor Venture; High-Tech Gruenderfonds (HTGF); IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft (IBB); KFW; and T-Venture.

“We’re delighted with Deutsche Boerse’s involvement as an investor, and as a business partner for Zimory,” said Dr. Hagen Hultzsch, Zimory´s chairman. “Zimory’s technology is a world-leading cloud product. The capital received from this financing will continue driving forward its international expansion, and building the vendor-neutral management platform for the cloud services marketplace.”

The recently announced cloud services marketplace, called Deutsche Boerse Cloud Exchange, is the world’s first vendor-independent exchange for cloud computing capacities. It will enable IT resources to be traded like securities and energy, electronically, and within seconds. Together, Zimory and marketplace partner, Deutsche Boerse, are set to revolutionize the market for cloud computing resources.

The newly appointed CTO of the Deutsche Boerse Cloud Exchange, Maximilian Ahrens said “Zimory´s neutral trading IaaS orchestration software is enabling the Deutsche Boerse Cloud Exchange to change the way cloud computing infrastructure resources are sold and used. The global distribution of virtual datacenter services will become much easier with standards. Deutsche Boerse Cloud Exchange will set standards for the whole industry, and Zimory will become integral part of these standards.”

Zimory’s open and intuitive Cloud Brokerage interface, which has been aligned to the TM Forum’s Information Framework, will be used by global purchasers of cloud compute and storage services. Zimory’s commitment to advancing open and standardized cloud management software will help to drive their sales and marketing activities within enterprises, service providers, and cloud broker customers, and to further expand Zimory’s global footprint.

“In the last year, we quadrupled revenues, created a US subsidiary and made significant enhancements to our product suite,” said Ruediger Baumann, CEO of Zimory. “The funding will enable us to address the strong demand for Zimory’s cloud management software by continuing to expand our resources and accelerate our sales, marketing and product development initiatives. Together with Deutsche Boerse Cloud Exchange and our investors, Zimory will become one of the world’s cloud leaders for business.

To get further insight into Deutsche Boerse Cloud Exchange and its technological implementation attend the Zimory webinar hosted by TMC.net on Tuesday, July 9th 2013 from 5pm CET/ 10am EST. For more information and to register, click here.

About Zimory
Founded in 2007, Zimory provides carrier-grade cloud infrastructure management software that allows service providers, enterprises and cloud brokers to fully leverage the power and elasticity of cloud computing. Zimory’s intelligent Cloud Suite simplifies, automates and expedites the creation, launch and management of all types of cloud environments – whether public, private, virtual private or hybrid. Zimory software is also a key enabler of cloud marketplaces for enterprise services, applications and infrastructure. Headquartered in Berlin, Zimory has development centers in Erfurt, Germany and Minsk, Belarus, a subsidiary office in New York City and is expanding its expertise and presence globally.

About Deutsche Boerse

Deutsche Börse Group is one of the world’s leading service providers for the financial industry with a product and service offering for issuers, investors, intermediaries and data vendors. The Group covers the entire process chain from trading, through clearing, to settlement and securities custody. Furthermore, Deutsche Börse offers market data, indices and analyses and is a service provider for the development and operation of IT systems. The key markets within the Group are the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Xetra), one of Europe’s largest stock exchanges, and Eurex Exchange, one of the largest derivatives exchanges in the world.
Deutsche Börse Group includes Deutsche Börse AG, a DAX company, and its wholly-owned subsidiaries Clearstream International S.A. and Eurex Zürich AG. Eurex’s portfolio of markets includes International Securities Exchange (ISE), a leading U.S. options exchange, the European Energy Exchange (EEX) as well as the ECNs Eurex Repo and Eurex Bonds, which round out Eurex’s offering for repo and bond trading. Further information: www.deutsche-boerse.com.

About Creathor Venture:

Creathor Venture manages funds of more than EUR 180 million and invests in technology-oriented companies and entrepreneurs in the mobile, social e-commerce, e-commerce, media, cloud, cleantech, life science and medtech industry.  The management team of Creathor Venture consists of the founder of the former Technologieholding VC GmbH, Dr. Gert Köhler as well as Ingo Franz, Cédric Köhler and Karlheinz Schmelig. The team has been investing successfully in the early-stage venture capital business for more than 20 years. During that time, more than 200 technology companies have been funded, more than 20 international IPOs conducted and many companies were successfully sold. Creathor has achieved exceptional fund returns in the past.

The investors of the current fund include the European Union, through which the fund receives funding from the “Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme” (CIP), and the “ERP EIF fund of funds” and the LfA – Gesellschaft für Vermögensverwaltung mbH, both facilities of the European Investment Fund (“EIF”), fund of funds, family offices and entrepreneurs. As the largest investor in Creathor (over EUR 50 million) the management underlines its entrepreneurial orientation.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds

High-Tech Gruenderfonds 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 Gruenderfonds 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 Gruenderfonds has about EUR 573.5 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 301.5 million HTGF II). www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de.

About IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft GmbH:

IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft provides equity financing to innovative Berlin-based companies. The firm is the regional market leader in venture capital in Berlin. IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft was founded in 1997 as a fully owned subsidiary of Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB). The funds provided are to be used for the development and launch of innovative products and services or creative business concepts. IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft manages the “VC Fonds Technologie Berlin” fund (€ 52m) and the “VC Fonds Kreativwirtschaft Berlin” fund (€ 30m). Both funds were started as joint initiatives of IBB and the State of Berlin. They are cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The track record of IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft includes successful IPOs and a large number of trade sales to strategic partners.

About KfW:

KfW group gives impetus to economic, social and ecological development worldwide. As a promotional bank under the ownership of the German federal government and the Länder (federal states), it offers support to small and medium-sized enterprises, environmental protection, housing, infrastructure, it provides project and export finance, and provides soft loans and grants as part of Germany’s development cooperation.

About T–Venture:

T-Venture Holding GmbH was founded in 1997 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG. It has since then invested in young companies that demonstrate economic and technological synergies with the Deutsche Telekom business units as well as above-average growth potential. Its head office is in Bonn. It is supported and complemented in its activities by T-Venture of America, Inc. in San Francisco and in Seattle. Investment activities focus on Europe, the United States and Israel.