Paris / Montreal / Luxembourg / Freital – Weitnauer advised global growth-stage venture capital fund Circular Innovation Fund and venture capital impact fund European Circular Bioeconomy Fund on a €12 million Series B Financing Round of watttron, a leading company specializing in innovative digital #heating systems for the packaging industry, with a strong emphasis on sustainability. watttron raised €12 million from a consortium of Circular Innovation Fund and European Circular Bioeconomy Fund acting as lead investors as well as existing investors TGFS Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen, Constantia New Business GmbH (CNB), SKion GmbH, and business angel Mr. Rico Kleinhempel.
watttron, headquartered in Freital, Germany, is dedicated to driving positive change and reducing environmental impact in the packaging industry. Their groundbreaking solutions, including cera2seal and cera2heat, aim to revolutionize thermoforming and sealing applications, enabling the processing of sustainable materials without compromising productivity or quality while reducing energy consumption.
This investment will empower watttron to elevate its technological prowess in sustainable packaging and embark on a journey to expand into the American and Asian markets and develop its technological capabilities of sustainable packaging solutions.
The Weitnauer Team was led by Munich-based corporate partner Dr. Wolfgang Weitnauer, M.C.L. along with associate Marius Tauchmann. The team also included corporate/tax partner Benedikt Mahr and associate Christian Deutscher.
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The US market leader Comprehensive Care Services (CCS) has acquired a majority stake in German-based Life Systems and therefore become the world’s largest provider for clinical perfusion services.
This merger brings together two leading providers of perfusion treatments and expands global access to world-class patient services and promises unparalleled patient safety and improved outcomes.
CCS has been a recognized leader in the medical industry in the United States since 2002 for providing exceptional perfusion and autotransfusion services, extracorporeal life support (ECLS), and biologics to medical centers across America and now Europe. Since 1995, Life Systems has established itself as a leading provider of cardiological-technical services in the field of cardiac surgery in Germany. The acquisition will combine Life Systems' clinical perfusion services with CCS' extensive network of clinics in the US.
The Weitnauer team was led by Munich-based Corporate/M&A partner Dr. Wolfgang Weitnauer, M.C.L. along with associate Marius Tauchmann.
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A Weitnauer team led by Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne has comprehensively advised Altavo GmbH, Dresden, on its EUR 5 mio. Series A financing round with a European consortium. The financing round was led by OCCIDENT with the participation of bm-t beteiligungsmanagement thüringen GmbH, Novalis Biotech and TGFS Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen III as well as the existing investors High-Tech Gründerfonds III, TGFS Basic, TUDAG, Saxonia Systems Holding GmbH and various already invested business angels. The funds raised will be used for the further technical and clinical development of the artificial voice.
Berlin based corporate partner Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne has been advising Altvao GmbH since its seed round in 2021.
About Altavo:
Altavo GmbH is a medical technology startup founded in February 2021 and based in Dresden. Based on non-invasive radar sensor technology and artificial intelligence, Altavo develops prosthetics to improve the rehabilitation of voiceless and vocally impaired patients. Altavo currently employs 15 people at its Dresden and Jena sites with many years of experience in the fields of AI / data science, speech technology, high-frequency technology, medical technology and voice therapy.
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WEITNAUER advised Harris Computer Germany GmbH, a member of the publicly listed Canadian Constellation Software Inc. (TSX: CSU), on the acquisition of Alpha Computer GmbH.
Harris, a global provider and buyer of industry software, is expanding its portfolio in the D-A-CH region with the acquisition of the nursing software provider Alpha Computer GmbH (Alpha). For Harris, it is also the 200th acquisition in its history and underscores its goal to continue growing globally.
With its ACS product suite, Alpha covers the entire range of needs of outpatient and inpatient care facilities in Germany. The software helps more than 400 customers manage their entire daily workflow, including billing, duty scheduling and care documentation. Matthias Groß, selling owner of Alpha, says: "In Harris, Alpha has found a strong partner and a permanent home that will provide our team, our customers and the company with lasting stability and the necessary strength in a very dynamic market environment."
Jeff Bender, CEO Harris: "The acquisition of Alpha expands our Health IT offering in Germany and brings a dedicated and highly motivated team to the Harris family." Thomas Korte, Vice President Alpha Computer & iMDsoft GmbH, commented, "With this acquisition, Harris DACH gains another important foothold in the German healthcare sector alongside iMDsoft, which has its focus on the hospital segment."
Weitnauer
Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne, LL.M. (Lead, VC, Corporate/Berlin)
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The acquired business includes the product "PEC", the first broadly applicable peptide purification kit that uses catch-and-release methods, drastically reducing the need for organic solvents and improving the ecological impact. PEC enables parallel and automated purification of peptides for accelerated drug development and efficient production processes.
WEITNAUER advised the seller Belyntic under the lead of Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne, LL.M., Attorney-at-Law (New York), Berlin (M&A, corporate). Further team members were Benedikt Mahr, LL.M., Munich (tax) and Dr. Tobias Krätzschmar, J.D., Attorney-at-Law (Georgia und New York), Munich (IP).
WINHELLER advised Mesa under the lead of attorney Phillipp von Raven (M&A, corporate). Further team members were Dr. Eric Uftring and Lars Gerbe (employment law) as well as Olga Stepanova and Patricia Jechel (IP, patent law).
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Resolve Biosciences GmbH secures $71 million in a Series B financing to accelerate commercial expansion and meet global demand for its Molecular Cartography™ platform. The funding follows the launch of the technology delivering highest-resolution view of subcellular, single-molecule, spatial biology. The latest round of financing was led by Patient Square Capital and included participation from EDBI, PS Capital, Alafi Capital and NRW.BANK, as well as other existing investors. The company has now raised more than $100 million.
Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne, LL.M, and Andreas Michael, LL.M., provided comprehensive contractual advice to the investor NRW.BANK. The law firm Weitnauer regularly represents NRW.BANK in financing rounds.
About NRW.Venture.
NRW.Venture is the venture fund of NRW.BANK. With this fund, the development bank for North Rhine-Westphalia supports innovative and technology-driven start-ups with a concrete connection to NRW in the development and marketing as well as the rapid expansion of their business model. The fund invests up to ten million euros of equity over several financing rounds - together with private-sector investors - and has been active in the market for more than 15 years. The total volume of NRW.Venture is 250 million euros. www.nrwbank.de/venture
Advisor NRW.BANK
Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne, LL.M. (Lead, VC, Corporate/Berlin)
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The Horst Brandstätter Group, which also includes Playmobil and Lechuza, has invested in the Munich based Start-Up Kekz GmbH with a participation of approx. 25%.
Kekz GmbH produces innovative an award-winning headphones for children, which through their easy way of use allow them to listen to their favourite contents on the road. Amongst its investors is also the famous German musician Peter Maffay, who had already participated in the Company in the past.
The investment by Horst Brandstätter Group forms part of the engagement of its future-oriented development in the areas „Inspiring Value Creation“ and „Inspiring Play Experience“.
Legal Advisors Horst Brandstätter Group:
Weitnauer:
Legal Advisors Kekz GmbH:
Taylor Wessing:
Lichte Rechtsanwälte:
Grünecker:
André Nickel (Patent Law/Munich)
Further links relating to the transaction:
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Munich – PAF with headquarters in Darmstadt has made it its mission to revolutionize and democratize Process Mining. PAF's process mining software PAFnow, is fully integrated in Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft Office 365 for the analysis, visualization and optimization of almost any process. 97 percent of the Fortune 500, and over 260,000 companies globally, use Microsoft Power BI.
The acquisition will enable millions of Microsoft Power Platform users to utilize Celonis’ market leading Execution Management System (EMS) for process mining, automation, and collaboration and will enable users to reveal and fix process inefficiencies.
See also here: https://www.celonis.com/press/celonis-announces-acquisition-paf-enabling-execution-management-everywhere
Advisor PAF shareholders
Dr. Wolfgang Weitnauer, M.C.L.
Advisor Celonis
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Dr. Jan Bauer
Damian Simon
Julian Klose
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A Weitnauer team led by Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne has comprehensively advised Harris Computer Germany GmbH ("Harris") on the acquisition of school administration software provider AixConcept GmbH ("AixConcept").
With more than 19 years of experience, AixConcept offers with MNSpro an IT administration product suite that enables public and private schools and school administrations to set-up, control and manage their IT network, hardware devices, user profiles and rights as well as to organise their remote learning environment.
Jeff Bender, CEO Harris, comments: "The acquisition of AixConcept allows us to expand within a core vertical of Harris to offer additional solutions and enlarge our customer base in Europe, and we are excited to welcome an experienced and talented group of people to our organization."
Sebastian Kubsch, Director M&A, Harris D-A-CH, comments: "By adding AixConcept to our existing portfolio in the D-A-CH region, we are enlarging our presence to make ourselves even more visible and attractive for other software company owners who are looking to preserve their heritage and ensure their employees and customers are in good hands – forever."
Weitnauer advises Harris on an ongoing basis on M&A transactions in the German market.
Adviser:
Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne, LL.M. (Lead, Corporate/Venture Capital, Berlin)
Andreas Michael, LL.M. (Corporate/Venture Capital, Berlin)
Cornelius Wilke (Corporate/Venture Capital, Berlin)
Prof. Dr Frank Hammel (IP/IT, Berlin)
About Harris:
Harris acquires vertical market software businesses, manages them well, and builds them for the future. Through acquisitions, Harris has grown extensively from its roots in the utilities, local government, education, and healthcare verticals to operate over 180 businesses globally across more than 20 industries. We are a part of Constellation Software Inc. (TSX: CSU), one of the world’s most active acquirers of VMS businesses.
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Munich - The law firm has already advised reINVENT innovation GmbH in previous financing rounds. The shareholders, including well-known VC investors and the founding team, agreed to mandate Dr. Wolfgang Weitnauer with the negotiation and implementation of the sale transaction. This was successfully implemented at the end of May 2022.
Munich-based reINVENT innovation GmbH has developed software that allows architects, project developers and craftsmen to jointly plan and manage real estate. As a leading wholesaler in German-speaking countries, the GC Group covers the entire range of building services and is also represented in a further 16 countries. The merger gives the GC Group the opportunity to offer building services engineers more configuration options in project planning, while reINVENT innovation GmbH focuses on new impulses in sales and further development of the software.
Advisors:
Dr. Wolfgang Weitnauer, M.C.L.
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Berlin - A Weitnauer team co-led by Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne and Andreas Michael advised HiveMQ GmbH comprehensively on its Series A financing round. The EUR 40 million financing round was led by Molten Ventures, with participation from new investors Mubadala Capital and Illusian Oy, as well as existing investors Earlybird, Senovo and New Forge.
Weitnauer had already advised HiveMQ in its seed financing round in 2021. In addition, Weitnauer has been advising the company on IT law on an ongoing basis for many years.
About HiveMQ:
HiveMQ has developed a platform that enables bidirectional communication between IoT devices and the cloud. HiveMQ implements the open standard MQTT, which has become the de facto protocol for IoT connectivity. MQTT makes data transfer between connected devices and the cloud possible. By implementing MQTT in HiveMQ, enterprises can network MQTT-enabled devices that exchange data through a HiveMQ broker. Use cases exist across a wide range of industries, including automotive, pharmaceutical, food processing, renewable energy, transportation, logistics and telecommunications. Some global automotive manufacturers use HiveMQ's software for their connected car platforms.
Advisors:
Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne, LL.M. (Co-Lead, Corporate/Venture Capital, Berlin)
Andreas Michael, LL.M. (Co-Lead, Corporate/Venture Capital, Berlin)
Dr. Barbara Sommer (Datenschutz, Mannheim)
Jochen Morsbach (IT, Mannheim)
Cornelius Wilke (Corporate/Venture Capital, Berlin)
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Berlin – International investors Farallon Capital, Red River West and Bertelsmann Investments, the venture arm of Bertelsmann, have increased the May 2021 Series B investment of $90 million in Berlin-based digital health company Ada Health GmbH ("Ada Health") by an additional $30 million. The round was initially led by Leaps by Bayer, the impact arm of Bayer AG, with additional investors Vitruvian Partners, Inteligo Bank, F4 and Mutschler Ventures. In addition, Schroders Capital has now joined Ada Health as a larger investor in a secondary.
The investment will help advance Ada’s popular health assessment technology, enabling the digital health pioneer to accelerate its path towards becoming the world's leading personalized operating system for health, as well as to further grow the company’s leading position in the United States. In addition to today’s announcement, Bayer and Ada Health are in discussions about entering into a longer-term strategic partnership to support the company’s healthcare businesses.
Ada Health has developed a powerful AI-based health assessment and care navigation platform that helps users to understand their symptoms, to identify and differentiate conditions with a high degree of medical accuracy, and to navigate safely to the right care, at the right time. Ada’s consumer app has become the world’s most popular and highest-rated symptom assessment app, with over 26 million assessments completed since its global launch.
Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne has been associated with Ada Health since 2015 and, together with the venture capital team at the Berlin office, advised the shareholder BBPM GmbH and other shareholders in the financing round that has now been completed.
About Ada Health
Ada is a global health company founded by physicians, scientists and industry pioneers to create new opportunities for personal health. Its core system combines medical knowledge with smart technology to help everyone actively manage their health and enable healthcare professionals to deliver effective care, and the company partners with leading healthcare providers and organizations to make this vision a reality. The Ada platform has over 11 million users worldwide and has completed over 26 million assessments since its global launch in 2016. www.ada.com
Advisors:
Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne, LL.M. (Corporate/Venture Capital, Berlin)
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Haldensleben – Automotive supplier IFA Group announces the acquisition of IFA-Kardan GmbH by Walterscheid Powertrain Group (WPG). With the acquisition of IFA-Kardan GmbH in Irxleben, WPG is expanding its cardan shaft portfolio and will in particular strengthen its focus on services for small and medium-sized agricultural and construction machinery. The IFA Group is focusing on the expansion of its existing driveshaft portfolio with an emphasis on future-proof projects in the automotive sector, particularly in e-mobility.
The buyer WPG will integrate IFA-Kardan GmbH into its product portfolio and further expand the business in Irxleben.
IFA-Kardan GmbH is an established company with a track record of success, developing a wide range of cardan shafts and various types of joints for the agricultural, construction and special vehicle markets since 1959. Offering flexible solutions for small and large series for demanding applications, the company is one of the top 10 suppliers for off-road applications in Europe.
WPG is a global provider of intelligent and connected powertrain solutions and comprehensive service support to the world's leading off-highway and industrial equipment manufacturers. The company continuously develops new technologies and customer solutions that deliver greater efficiency in the agriculture, construction, mining and commercial vehicle, and industrial markets. In addition, WPG offers various services for all products and drive systems throughout the entire life cycle.
Weitnauer attorney Dr. Alice Niemann-Fritsch provided comprehensive legal advice to the IFA Group in connection with the sale. Dr. Alice Niemann-Fritsch advises national and international clients in the areas of private equity and venture capital, mergers & acquisitions, corporate law, compliance and tax law.
About IFA Group:
The IFA Group is an automotive supplier with eight development and production sites worldwide. With sales of half a billion euros, IFA is one of the top 50 companies in the German supplier industry. At its sites in Haldensleben, Stuttgart, Ujazd (Poland), Charleston/South Carolina (USA), Novi/Michigan (USA) and Shanghai (China), IFA employs 2,600 people and develops and produces drive shafts, joints and components for well-known automotive manufacturers. Customers include BMW, Ferrari, Ford, GM, Mercedes, Porsche and Volkswagen. In addition, the company provides development services in the areas of driveline technology and lightweight construction on behalf of the industry. Forward-looking research and sustainable development are among the success factors. IFA was privatized in 1992 by the entrepreneur Heinrich von Nathusius.
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Halle (Saale) - Vaccine specialist Verovaccines GmbH announces the completion of its Mid-Seven-Figure Series B financing round. Together with funding from the Federal Government's GO-Bio program, the funds will be used to further validate the innovative platform technology and to further develop its portfolio of animal vaccines.
Verovaccines is developing novel, pathogen-free vaccines based on the yeast Kluyveromyces lactis. The multivalent vaccines are used to develop combination vaccines, are widely applicable against various pathogens and are cost-effective to manu-facture.
The funds from the financing round will be used to scale the manufacturing process to industry scale. In addition to the process establishment, important data on process stability, as well as qualitative and quantitative process data will be generated. Furthermore, product development will be driven forward primarily in the field of combination vaccines. Verovaccines can already rely on a good validation basis of four vaccine programs with Proof-of-Concept in the target animal. The company collaborates in vaccine development with two international pharmaceutical partners, as well as several academic institutions. Prof. Dr. Sven-Erik Behrens (CSO): "The Series B funds allow us to generate Proof-of-Concept data to validate additional poultry, pig and bovine vaccines. Furthermore, we want to achieve regulatory development in two programs."
The financing round had a volume in the mid-seven-digit range and is supported by existing investors as well as by several new investors. The consortium consists of internationally experienced investors from Germany and Switzerland.
A Weitnauer team led by Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne provided comprehensive legal advice to Verovaccines GmbH in the current financing round. Since the spin-off, Weitnauer has also been advising Verovaccines on the legal aspects of its operational business, in particular in the negotiation and drafting of technology-relevant cooperation and licensing agreements.
About Verovaccines
Verovaccines GmbH is a spin-off of professor Sven-Erik Behrens, Ph.D., Hanjo Hennemann, Ph.D. and Martina Behrens, DVM from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. In addition to the experienced founders, the company has a staff of scientists with expertise in the fields of virology, molecular biology, veterinary medicine and fermentation. Several proprietary vaccine development programs are funded by the "Start-up Offensive Biotechnology", GO-Bio for short, of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Verovaccines GmbH's vaccines are based on a proprietary and patented technology platform using the milk yeast Kluyveromyces lactis. Verovaccines is using its technology to develop a product pipeline of five vaccines against pathogens in pigs, cattle and poultry.
Team Weitnauer:
Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne, LL.M. (Lead, VC, Corporate/Berlin)
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Additional EUR 32.5 million will support clinical readiness and accelerate lead immuno-virotherapy candidates toward clinical proof-of-concept.
Düsseldorf – Abalos Therapeutics announces an extension to its Series A funding round bringing the total raised in this round to EUR 43 million (USD 50 million). The extension was led by Seventure Partners with support from Coparion, Ventura BioMed Investors and Hx Bio Ventures as well as contributions from existing investors from the initial Series A round including Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF), Gründerfonds Ruhr, NRW.BANK and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF). The financing underscores the potential of Abalos’ differentiated immuno-virotherapy approach to generate a maximal immune response specifically targeted against a patient’s cancer and its etastases. The proceeds will enable the company to advance its first product candidate into a Phase 1/2 trial in multiple solid tumors including the expansion cohorts to demonstrate early signs of clinical efficacy as well as fund further pipeline expansion.
“Since the closing of our initial Series A financing round, we have achieved significant progress in the development of our product candidates and built a leadership team of drug development and immuno-oncology experts that support our goal of bringing this unique therapeutic modality to cancer patients,” said Dr. Marcus Kostka, CEO of Abalos Therapeutics. “We value this commitment from our new and current investors that will enable our lead arenavirus-based program to enter clinical evaluation with the goal of establishing clinical proof of concept.”
Abalos was launched in October 2019 to advance a technology platform that harnesses the unique features of the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), which specifically targets tumor cells. Through its proprietary Fast Evolution Platform, Abalos is generating variants with optimized anti-tumoral properties to trigger a highly precise and directed immune response that can be utilized for distant metastases and enable long-term disease control.
In conjunction with the closing of the Series A financing round extension, Annegret de Baey from Seventure Partners and Sebastian Pünzeler from Coparion will join Abalos’ Supervisory Board.
A team led by Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne at the Berlin office provided comprehensive legal advice to Abalos Therapeutics. In the drafting and negotiation of the contract, the focus was on financing-related issues and, in particular, on further securing the rights to the technology. Since its foundation, the Weitnauer team has also advised Abalos Therapeutics on the legal aspects of its operating business, in particular on the negotiation and drafting of technology-relevant cooperation and licensing agreements, on labor law issues and on corporate housekeeping.
About Abalos Therapeutics
Abalos Therapeutics has harnessed the unique immune stimulation of the arenavirus to develop a novel anti-cancer approach that provides the full breadth of the immune system’s power specifically against cancer cells. Through viral replication within cancer cells, Abalos’ arenavirus-based drug candidates are designed to awake precise innate and adaptive immune responses and activate all relevant immune cell types against primary tumors and metastases. Led by experienced biotech entrepreneurs and immunology pioneers, Abalos’ goal is to achieve a quantum leap in immuno-oncology.
Weitnauer team:
Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne, LL.M. (Lead, VC, Corporate/Berlin)
Andreas Michael, LL.M. (VC, Corporate/Berlin)
Cornelius Wilke (VC, Corporate/Berlin)
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Munich – Swedish Sinch AB is acquiring Messenger People, a German software-as-a-service platform for conversational messaging. For this purpose, both companies reached an agreement in which a purchase price of 48 million euros was set.
Of this amount, 33.6 million will be paid in cash and a further 14.4 million in the form of new Sinch shares. The shares held by the previous shareholders have lapsed. The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021, the signing has taken place. With the purchase of Messenger People, the company aims to complement its own API-based offering for larger enterprises and channel partners. It is the third corporate acquisition this year for NASDAQ Stockholm-listed Sinch. After integrating Inteliquent and Message Media, Sinch is also currently negotiating with Pathwire, a cloud-based email platform valued at $1.9 billion.
Munich-based Messenger People was founded in 2015 and employs about 40 people. The company offers a cloud-based software suite that makes it easier for businesses to communicate with their customers via Messenger apps such as WhatsApp or Telegram. The software is used by more than 700 companies, around 80 percent of which are based in the DACH region. Pre-sales activities and customer support services account for around 85 percent of the volume. A majority of enterprise customers are in the e-commerce, automotive and media industries, but government agencies also use the software offerings. Current customers include tourism group Tui, e-commerce specialist Women's Best and the government of the Indian state of Telangana. For the current fiscal year, Messenger People expects revenues of 5.1 million euros and gross profits of 4.5 million euros.
Weitnauer M&A specialists Marc René Spitz and Dr. Tobias Schönhaar provided joint and comprehensive legal advice to Munich-based Messenger People. This time-critical transaction is based on a complex structure. The buyer Sinch handled the deal through a US subsidiary. This subsidiary, in turn, founded a non-operational subsidiary for this purpose, which in turn was merged with the target company. The transaction was therefore a share deal under US law.
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Berlin – Medical technology startup Smarterials Technology GmbH has successfully closed its second round of financing. Led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), pre-seed investors Think. Health Ventures and Emanet are investing a total of nearly €1 million in the Berlin-based company. The new funding will be used to complete final development steps and prepare production for the mass market.
Based on innovative materials, Smarterials Technology develops surgical gloves with a double barrier function and perforation indicator that help reduce the risk of injury and infection among healthcare workers. This helps to avoid follow-up costs due to contamination with potentially infectious foreign blood - an estimated 500,000 cases with follow-up costs of up to 1,600 euros per case in Germany alone. In addition, the innovative double-layer gloves speed up the donning process, thereby improving workflow in hospitals and care facilities.
The Smarterials team was also able to convince the EU Commission of their innovative product and will receive grants of 1.85 million euros as part of the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument (Phase II) funding program.
Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne and Andreas Michael provided comprehensive legal advice to Smarterials at the Berlin office in this financing round. The law firm Weitnauer regularly represents both investors and companies in financing rounds.
About Smarterials Technology GmbH
Smarterials Technology GmbH, located in the Berlin-Adlershof Technology Park, was founded in 2016. The company develops medical products based on innovative materials that help reduce the risk of injury and infection for employees in the medical and care sectors. Start-up financing for the company was provided by Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB).
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Robotics company coboworx raises €4.5 million in a seed funding round led by Picus Capital and Team Global, with participation from pre-seed investor Paua Ventures. A number of prominent business angels are also participating, including Florian Huber (united-domains.de, neubaukompass.de), Robert Maier (Ladenzeile.de), Rubin Ritter (Zalando), Florian Seubert (Zooplus.de, Zalando), Christian Vollmann (Nebenan.de) and Michael Wax (Forto.de). Coboworx plans to use this funding to develop process-ready robot solutions from standard modules for a wide range of applications. The most important target group is small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The coboworx founders share the vision of making robotics an attractive and profitable tool for all companies in their production. High prices, complex programming and long implementation times have so far prevented a wider spread of robots, especially in SMEs. coboworx revitalizes the market with process-ready robot cells as plug-and-play solutions for SMEs. The open system design with integrated robot ecosystem allows SMEs a fast start-of-production and short payback times, as there is no need to involve external system integrators or build prototypes. In addition to the hardware, the experienced team has also developed the software platform, which also leaves scope for external software developers and will result in an app store for modern robotics.
Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne, Andreas Michael, Dr. Sven Schilf und Dr. Jens Ginal provided comprehensive advice to coboworx at the Berlin office in this financing round, including corporate law, IP law and employment law. Weitnauer regularly represents both investors and companies in equity, venture debt and mezzanine financing rounds.
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Essen – Evonik is fully acquiring the German biotech company JeNaCell, thus adding biotechnologically derived cellulose to its own portfolio of biomaterials. The nature-identical material developed by JeNaCell is used in medical technology and dermatology to treat wounds and burns and to soothe the skin. JeNaCell employees will continue to work at the development and production site in Jena.
Evonik Operations GmbH has acquired all the existing investors' shares in JeNaCell GmbH and will also provide the company with strategic support in the future. A team of investors that had grown since 2012 was involved in JeNaCell: In addition to Evonik Venture Capital and HTGF, the investors included Sparkasse Jena-Saale-Holzland, Stiftung für Technologie, Innovation und Forschung Thüringen (STIFT), and Stiftung Thüringer Beteiligungskapital (ThüB).
Following the complete takeover, the JeNaCell portfolio will now be integrated into Evonik's health care business. The Group is consequently accelerating the further development of its high-growth Nutrition & Care Division into a systems solutions provider and the expansion of its division-wide technology platform for natural materials in medical technology.
Dr. Nikolaus Uhl and his venture capital team in Berlin advised Evonik and all existing investors on the structuring and contractual aspects of this acquisition. The law firm Weitnauer regularly represents both investors and companies in financing rounds.
About Evonik Venture Capital
With a fund volume of €250 million, Evonik Venture Capital (EVC) has made more than 30 investments in direct and fund investments since 2012. EVC has offices in Germany, the U.S. and China and invests in innovative technologies and disruptive business models in Nutrition & Care, Specialty Additives and Smart Materials, as well as in technologies that support digital transformation. The EVC team of experienced investment managers provides comprehensive support to the portfolio companies. The investment scope ranges from early to growth stage with an investment volume per portfolio company of up to €15 million.
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Munich – Wellster, the leading provider of telemedicine platform solutions in the EU, announced today that it closed a $40 million funding round. The round is led by Dermapharm with support from existing investors HV Capital, which previously invested in Zalando, FlixBus and Delivery Hero, and SevenVentures. Ferber & Co. advised and supported Wellster in its funding round.
Wellster is planning to use the funding to expand its offering with additional medical topics and thereby tap into new target groups. In addition further growth opportunities are now opening up for Wellster, such as direct acquisitions of peer companies in the market.
Weitnauer attorney Marc René Spitz provided comprehensive legal advice to Wellster HealthTech Group at the Munich office in this financing round. The in-house legal team for Wellster was led by Group General Counsel Christian Reinert. Weitnauer regularly represents both companies and investors in financing rounds.
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Berlin – Berlin-based cannabis startup Sanity Group announced that it has closed a $44.2 million (€35 million) Series A financing round. The round is led by Swiss venture capital firm Redalpine Venture Partners. Joining them were U.S. investors Navy Capital and SOJE Capital, as well as Germany's GMPVC. This represents the largest round of cannabis funding in Europe to date and brings total investment in Sanity Group to $73M USD.
Sanity Group aims to improve people's quality of life through the use of cannabinoids. In addition to pharmaceuticals, the focus is also on wellbeing and cosmetic products.
The new capital will be used primarily to further expand the Group's medical division in Europe. Funds will also be used for the build out of EU-GMP-compliant research and production facility new Frankfurt am Main for the entire Group, which will serve both the medical and the wellbeing areas of the Sanity Group in the future, and to expand Sanity Group's consumer goods business. Sanity Group currently employs 90 employees in Europe including cannabis experts, physicians, pharmacists and biologists.
Venture capital specialist René Spitz provided comprehensive legal advice to the main investor Redalpine in this financing round together with a cross-location team of experts. Weitnauer regularly represents both companies and investors in financing rounds.
About Redalpine
Redalpine is a leading European early stage venture capital investor focused on disruptive innovation and with a broad sector investment strategy from health-tech to ICT startups. Redalpine's diverse team supports the 70+ portfolio companies not only with financial investment but also with its in-house operational and subject matter expertise and extensive international network. Redalpine's ambition is to help talented entrepreneurs turn their visions into reality and scale their businesses into international success stories.
Weitnauer Team:
Marc René Spitz, LL.M. (Venture Capital/Munich)
Alexander Tribess (IT, Data Protection/Hamburg)
Andreas Michael, LL.M. (Venture Capital/Berlin)
Tim Kowalsky, LL.M. (Venture Capital/Berlin)
Dr. Alice Niemann-Fritsch (Venture Capital/Munich)
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Munich – OroraTech is the first NewSpace start-up to provide global wildfire detection and monitoring services. The platform is already used by government agencies, insurance companies, and commercial forestry operators around the globe, helping to mitigate the environmental and economic impacts of forest fires and other climate change related topics. The latest €5.8 million Series A funding round is led by Findus Venture and Ananda Impact Ventures, with contributions from APEX Ventures, BayernKapital, and experienced Business Angels including Clemens Kaiser, SpaceTec Capital and Ingo Baumann. It will be used for further advancement of technology and development of the international team.
Dr. Wolfgang Weitnauer and Alix Winterhalder provided comprehensive legal advice to OroraTech GmbH in this financing round at the Munich office. Weitnauer regularly represents both companies and investors in financing rounds.
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Berlin – Leaps by Bayer, the impact investment arm of Bayer AG, has led a USD 90 million Series B investment in Berlin-based digital health company Ada Health GmbH (“Ada”). Additional investors joined the round, including Samsung Catalyst Fund, Vitruvian Partners, Inteligo Bank, F4 and Mutschler Ventures.
The investment will help advance Ada’s popular health assessment technology, enabling the digital health pioneer to accelerate its path towards becoming the world's leading personalized operating system for health, as well as to further grow the company’s leading position in the United States. In addition to today’s announcement, Bayer and Ada Health are in discussions about entering into a longer-term strategic partnership to support the company’s healthcare businesses.
Ada Health has developed a powerful AI-based health assessment and care navigation platform that helps users to understand their symptoms, to identify and differentiate conditions with a high degree of medical accuracy, and to navigate safely to the right care, at the right time. Ada’s consumer app has become the world’s most popular and highest-rated symptom assessment app, with over 23 million assessments completed since its global launch.
Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne has been associated with Ada Health since 2015 and, together with the venture capital team at the Berlin office, advised the shareholder BBPM GmbH and other shareholders in the financing round that has now been completed.
Weitnauer Team
Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne, LL.M. (Handels- und Gesellschaftsrecht/Berlin)
Andreas Michael, LL.M. (Handels- und Gesellschaftsrecht/Berlin)
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Berlin – HiveMQ, a global leader of enterprise MQTT solutions, announced they have raised €9.3 million in a seed funding round. The funding round was led by Earlybird Venture Capital and Senovo Capital Management with participation from business angels Ali Kutay, Mirko Novakovic, Daniel Schellhoss and Charles Songhurst.
HiveMQ helps companies connect millions of IoT devices to the cloud in a reliable, scalable and secure manner. Its 130+ production customers include global brands such as BMW, Daimler, Deutsche Telekom, Liberty Global, Moen, Siemens, ZF and many more.
HiveMQ will leverage the new funding round to significantly expand sales and marketing efforts, capitalizing on the market demand for IoT solutions. HiveMQ will also increase R&D investment in their cloud-managed MQTT service and introduce new products into the market.
Dr. Nikolaus Uhl and his venture capital team at the Berlin office advised HiveMQ on the contractual structure of this financing round. The law firm Weitnauer regularly represents both investors and companies in financing rounds.
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Munich – As of 01 January 2021, Dr. Alice Niemann-Fritsch (43) has joined Weitnauer Partnerschaft mbB in Munich as a salary partner. Dr. Niemann-Fritsch comes from kapena GmbH, a consulting firm in the field of digital infrastructure, where she worked as in-house counsel and procurator.
Before moving to the client side, Dr. Niemann-Fritsch worked in tax law at Linklaters in Munich from 2004 to 2006 and in tax law and corporate law at Hengeler Mueller in Frankfurt from 2008 to 2011. As part of a secondment program, Dr. Niemann-Fritsch went to Goldman Sachs in London from 2010 and, from 2011, as Executive Director / Senior Counsel and authorized signatory, was in charge of the areas of asset management, private wealth management and compliance, first in Frankfurt and, from 2014, in Singapore. Dr. Niemann-Fritsch has also been a practicing attorney since 2018. Dr. Niemann-Fritsch received her doctorate from the Max Planck Institute in Munich and qualified as a tax lawyer in 2010.
Dr. Niemann-Fritsch will support Weitnauer in the areas of financing (private equity / venture capital / capital markets law), transactions (M&A, corporate law) and compliance, among others.
Founding partner Dr. Wolfgang Weitnauer comments on the addition: "I am looking forward to the reinforcement in the core competencies of our firm by a very experienced colleague. Within the framework of our cooperation, we also aim to expand our range of services for investment companies, for example in the area of compliance."
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Dresden – Weitnauer has advised the industrial tech startup Ferroelectric Memory GmbH (FMC) in its latest financing round. FMC raises $20 Million to accelerate memory technology for AI, IoT, Edge Computing, and Data Center Applications. The round of financing was led by the new investors M Ventures and imec.xpand, with participation of SK hynix, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, and TEL Venture Capital. The Series A investor, eCapital also participated in this round. According to FMC, the capital raised will be used to accelerate commercialization of its ferroelectric memory technology for a broad set of memory and compute applications. The company plans to expand its team in Dresden, as well as to start international expansion, including into the US and Asian markets.
“In the end, a successful deal was reached with a number of renowned international partners” says Dr. Wolfgang Weitnauer “We are delighted that we had the opportunity to accompany FMC in this process as legal advisors.”
About Ferroelectric Memory GmbH (FMC)
FMC has developed the most advanced ferroelectric hafnium oxide memory technology to deliver leading-edge non-volatile memory for future electronics and computing innovation. The company emerged from stealth mode in July 2018 and is currently working with major semiconductor companies for its embedded and stand-alone memory solution. Its ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FeFET) and capacitor (FeCAP) technology is simple to integrate, fast, low-power, and scalable, and has high endurance with decades of data retention, suitable for a broad range of AI, IoT, edge, data center, and embedded applications.
Legal Advisor FMC:
Dr. Wolfgang Weitnauer, M.C.L. (Venture Capital, M&A/Munich)
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With the acquisition of German cloud service provider myLoc is expanding its business outside of Italy. Weitnauer has advised WIIT S.p.A. jointly with its long standing legal advisors, Pedersoli Studio Legale, on the acquisition of all shares of myLoc managed IT AG, a group company of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE. The acquisition price amounts to c. Euro 50 million. myLoc is WIIT’s first international acquisition. Beginning with Germany WIIT is pursuing its growth strategy to develop international markets in order to extend the range of IT services provided, in particular the private and hybrid cloud services for business. The transaction is not subject to any conditions and closing is expected to occur on 30 September 2020.
A Weitnauer team led by Dr. Wolfgang Weitnauer advised WIIT S.p.A. comprehensively on all transaction related legal issues, in particular corporate, IT, IP, data protection, anti-trust and labor law. Dr. Wolfgang Weitnauer comments the successful completion of the transaction as follows: “It had been a challenge to perform all the due diligence work as well as the negotiations on the share purchase agreement and the W&I insurance within the targeted short time frame of six weeks. We owe this success to the close cooperation with our Italian colleagues and are proud that we were able to contribute as part of a great legal team to this success.”
About WIIT S.p.A.
WIIT S.p.A. is a leading Italian Cloud Computing market player, focused particularly on the Hybrid Cloud and Hosted Private Cloud for enterprises market. The company specialises in Cloud services for enterprises requiring critical application management and business continuity and manages all the main international platforms (SAP, Oracle and Microsoft), providing an end-to-end approach. WIIT manages its own data centres, with the main centre “Tier IV” certified by the Uptime Institute LLC of Seattle (United States) - the highest level of reliability possible - and is among the SAP’s best certified partners.
About myLoc
myLoc, specialised in the cloud business and with a proprietary data centre located in Düsseldorf, operates on the German market, providing colocation, managed hosting, private and public cloud and server hosting services.
The company’s share capital is fully-owned by Virtual Minds AG, a subsidiary of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE. Its business model and expertise make myLoc a benchmark for colocation and hosting provider services in Germany and, for this reason, it is expected that the transaction will enable WIIT to immediately benefit from the significant development potential of the German market.
Legal Advisors WIIT S.p.A.
Weitnauer:
Dr. Wolfgang Weitnauer, M.C.L. (Lead, M&A/Munich)
Dr. Oliver Zander (Commercial/Munich)
Andreas Michael, LL.M. (Corporate/Berlin)
Dr. Alexander Raif (Labor Law/Berlin)
Dr. Jens Ginal (Labor Law/Berlin)
Tilman Mueller-Stöfen, LL.M. (IT, Commercial/Hamburg)
Alexander Tribess (IP, Data Protection/Hamburg)
Nazik Grigorian (IT, Commercial/Hamburg)
Pedersoli Studio Legale:
Marcello Magro (Lead, M&A/Turin, Milan)
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The Berlin-based sharing platform for campervans and caravans received further growth capital from international investors in a financing round. The round is led by existing investor Russmedia Equity Partners, a Liechtenstein-based investor in and operator of online marketplaces, aggregators and SaaS solutions with a portfolio of 19 digital platform businesses across six countries in Europe. Further investors included J Ventures, an early stage technology fund founded by Joshua Jacobson and John Nordin, based in New York City, as well as Adevinta Ventures, a Norway-based investor in marketplace startups and marketplace specialist operating in 16 countries worldwide.
Weitnauer advises PaulCamper in financing matters since 2017 and most recently advised PaulCamper in the Series A financing round in mid-2019, when the startup raised an aggregate amount of EUR 7 million. In the financing round closed in late August 2020, the law firm, which specializes primarily in venture capital, further strengthened its relationship with PaulCamper.
About PaulCamper GmbH
PaulCamper, founded in 2013 by managing director Dirk Fehse, according to its own publications, has so far arranged a total of more than 500,000 rental nights via the platform, and more than 6,900 campervans and caravans are currently listed. This makes PaulCamper the largest platform for camper sharing in Germany. The company is currently also active in Austria and the Netherlands. The new funding will be invested in the further growth of the business.
Legal Advice
Weitnauer (Berlin):
Prof. Dr. Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne, LL.M. (Venture Capital)
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Munich The project developer and EPC service provider MaxSolar concludes third PPA within one year. This power purchase agreement is considered a new marketing instrument and regulates the sale of electricity between the generator and the consumer. The new solar park in Burhafe with 8.1 MW, whose electricity will be sold with the power purchase agreement, will be commissioned at the end of September 2020.
Weitnauer partner Dirk Voges comprehensively advised Maxsolar during the negotiations on the contractual design of the PPA with EWE Trading, the financing bank and the investor. The contract is an electricity supply agreement between EWE Trading GmbH, a local energy supplier in the north-west of Lower Saxony, and SPV PV Burhafe GmbH, the plant operator founded by MaxSolar for this purpose.
MaxSolar GmbH
The engineering service provider MaxSolar from Traunstein in Upper Bavaria is one of the few pioneers in the market testing of power purchase agreements in Germany. MaxSolar has already implemented the third PV system with a power purchase agreement. PPAs are a way to sell electricity from new or existing PV systems and are becoming increasingly important for project developers in Germany who want to operate in the market independently of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). The power purchase agreements with a term of at least 5 years are the instrument for selling the generated electricity and serve primarily as security for financing the PV system. An awareness of ecological and social responsibility as well as long-term planning horizons also characterize the PPA contracting parties.
Advisor MaxSolar GmbH:
Weitnauer (München):
Dirk Voges, LL.M. (Renewable Energy Law and Energy Industry Law), Partner
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Weitnauer attorneys Hans-Eric Rasmussen-Bonne and Tim Kowalsky served as counsel to Advanced BioInformatics GmbH (ABI) on the conclusion and implementation of a share purchase agreement and an exclusive licensing agreement with the University of Utah intending to develop novel cardiac rhythm management solutions based on proprietary low-energy pacing technology.
ABI is an international medical technology company working to develop next-generation cardiac management solutions for patients with significantly fewer complications and side effects than current standards of care.
“We look forward to efficiently advancing our pre-clinical work and initiating formal clinical studies as expeditiously as possible while in parallel exploring partnering opportunities with leading implantable cardiac defibrillator manufacturers around the world,” said J. Todd Derbin, Managing Director and Co-Founder of ABI.
“We believe an unmet medical need exists with these patients who desire a better therapeutic option, and we plan to work diligently toward that goal,” added ABI Managing Director and Co-Founder Volker Brand.
Weitnauer has already advised the company on the foundation, on an employee participation program and on IP issues.
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Munich - The energy supplier EWS Elektrizitätswerke Schönau eG (EWS) and the Energy Cooperative InnSalzach eG (EGIS) have agreed to the direct supply of solar power via a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). The contract was signed on March 3, 2020 during the Federal Congress of the Cooperative Energy System in Berlin. This Power Purchase Agreement between EWS eG and EGIS eG is considered a new marketing instrument and regulates the sale of electricity directly between producer and buyer.
This is the first time that two cooperatives have signed a solar PPA. Besides EWS and EGIS, MaxSolar GmbH was also involved in the negotiations. MaxSolar built the solar park, whose solar power will be sold with the PPA, negotiated the PPA until it was ready to be signed and handed over the project as a package to EGIS. Weitnauer Partner Dirk Voges advised Maxsolar during the negotiations with the energy supplier EWS on all contractual aspects.
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The law firm Weitnauer advised the shareholders of Bressner Technology GmbH on the sale of their shares to the US-American One Stop Systemy Inc.
Bressner Technology GmbH provides standard and customized servers, panel PCs, and PCIe expansion systems. Founded in 1994, the company has a manufacturing, test and sales office in Germany.
One Stop Systems, Inc. (OSS) designs and manufactures specialized high-performance compute accelerators, flash storage arrays and customized servers for deep learning, AI, defence, finance and entertainment applications. OSS utilizes the power of PCI Express, the latest GPU accelerators and NVMe flash cards to build award-winning systems, including many industry firsts, for OEMs and government customers.
A Weitnauer team led by partner Diethelm Baumann advised Bressner on this transaction. The team included Oliver Zander and René Spitz (both corporate law).
OSS was also advised by their US counsel Procopio Cory Hargreaves and Savitch LLP as well as Osborne Clarke led by corporate partner Björn Hürten.
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Weitnauer advised Berlin-based Ada Health GmbH in a financing round with a total volume of approx. EUR 40 million. Ada Health GmbH is one of the leading providers of medical smartphone apps. Lead investor is Access Industries, the global investment fund of US-based entrepreneur Len Blavatnik. It is the company’s first institutional round of investment.
Click here for more information:
www.businessinsider.com/investors-have-backed-an-ai-doctor-app-called-ada-with-47-million-2017-10
https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/31/berlins-ada-health-raises-47m-to-become-the-alexa-of-healthcare/
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The law firm Weitnauer has advised the Digital Growth Fund of Digital+ Partners on its Series B investment to riskmethods GmbH, Munich, one of the leading providers of SAAS-solutions to identify global supply chain risk using artificial intelligence, machine learning algorithms and Big Data.
Sources:
http://www.gruenderszene.de/allgemein/riskmethods-finanzierung-investment-digital-growth-fund
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Weitnauer has advised the shareholders of gestigon GmbH, Lübeck, a German IT start-up in the area of Artificial Intelligence and Human Machine Interface, on the sale of its shares to Valeo, one of the world’s leading automotive suppliers.
Sources:
http://www.valeo.com/en/valeo-acquires-gestigon-a-developer-of-cabin-3d-image-processing-software/
http://www.gestigon.com/newsreader/gestigon-joins-the-valeo-group.html
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Weitnauer launches its blog Techlaw Germany – focusing on legal issues related to Technology, Finance and Transactions: http://techlawgermany.net/en/.
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