Corporate | 12 June 2015 16:53
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German Startups Group Berlin GmbH & Co. KGaA / Key word(s): Investment
+++ Press Release +++
– German Startups Group is convinced that strategic majority stake in the digital agency Exozet will offer added value for its portfolio companies – Investment in online travel health insurance agent Covomo – Increased stake in SoundCloud Berlin, 12 June 2015: German Startups Group, Berlin-based investment company and Germany’s second most active venture capital investor in the technology sector in 2014 according to CB Insights, has acquired its first majority stake – in the digital agency Exozet. This development, which is expected to be recorded in the commercial register very soon, will see German Startups Group’s stake in Exozet increase to 50.48%. Exozet stands for “creative technologies” and serves customers such as Audi, the BBC, Red Bull, but also startups like Wooga, LaterPay, and Magine TV with its approximately 120 employees from its offices in Berlin as well as subsidiaries in Potsdam and Vienna. According to German Startups Group, the technology service provider Exozet has proven its expertise in utilizing new technologies in the areas of web, mobile, video, games, and online marketing since 1996. In the meantime, Exozet also offers consulting on digital transformation in the areas of business, brand strategy, and technology. Accordingly, German Startups Group believes that it offers its portfolio companies true added value: upon request, they can take advantage of Exozet’s extensive range of services on a spontaneous, flexible, and direct basis, particularly in the early stage of a company’s development. Exozet’s range of services extends from conceptualization, design, and programming of sophisticated web applications and iOS and Android apps and development and implementation of online marketing campaigns to strategic consulting on brand development, modifying business models, and selecting technology. Christoph Gerlinger, CEO and founder of German Startups Group, comments: “Acquiring the majority stake in Exozet will allow us to offer our portfolio companies even greater know-how and strengthen our position as a source of smart money for startups. We plan to acquire further majority stakes in the future – both in the form of initial share acquisitions and through expanding existing minority interests.” Exozet and German Startups Group share office space at Berlin Tempelhof Airport. German Startups Group also acquired a stake in Covomo, a travel health insurance brokerage platform. Covomo offers an online comparison calculator for travel insurance and covers a wide range of travel types. With its partner management, Covomo also helps brokers improve their service and processes and thus gain new and retain existing customers while they lowering their costs. German Startups Group has also increased its share in the music platform SoundCloud and is about to do so for its share in Mister Spex, both of them it considers to be some of the best-known and most successful German startups. German Startups Group realizes this through the acquisition of secondary shares, i.e. the purchase of existing shares from former shareholders. For further information on German Startups Group, please visit: www.german-startups.com . Press materials are available at : http://www.german-startups.com/index.php/press .
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German Startups Group – We Love Startups! German Startups Group is an investment company based in Berlin that focuses on young, fast-growing companies, so-called startups. The company acquires majority and minority shareholdings mainly by providing venture capital. The portfolio companies that German Startups Group holds also stand to benefit from German Startups Group’s expertise, experience and network with respect to strategy development, financing rounds, restructuring necessities, M&A transactions or selling the company, including a possible IPO. According to its own assessment, German Startups Group provides startups with so-called “smart money” by acquiring a shareholding. Its focus is on companies whose products or business models represent a disruptive innovation, allow for a high degree of scalability to be expected, and in which it has a great deal of trust in the entrepreneurial abilities of the founders to whom it feels that it obtains early access to due to its close relationships to relevant players in the German startup scene. The geographical focus is on the German-speaking region. Since it commenced with operations in 2012, German Startups Group has managed to assemble what it considers to be a diversified portfolio of shares in young companies and grown to become the second most active venture capital investor in the tech segment in Germany (CB Insights, The 2014 European Tech Report). As of 31 March 2015, the company held shares in 40 operationally active companies (including two solely as convertible loans). According to the group, its investment portfolio reflects a cross-section of extremely promising German startups of various maturity stages (“Seed,” “Early” and “Growth Stage,” by the company’s own definition) and includes some of the most successful and best-known German startups. More information: http://www.german-startups.com 2015-06-12 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP – a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Media archive at www.dgap-medientreff.de and www.dgap.de |
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