Capital to the point: German entrepreneurial team
secures 50 million euros and new investments
VC-Boutique 42CAP sets the benchmark for seed-investments in B2B technology from Europe with second fund
Munich, June 24, 2019: 42CAP closes its second fund at 50 million euros and positions itself as the leading seed investor in B2B software in Europe. In addition to the European Investment Fund (EIF) and the German Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the investors include Isomer Capital from London as well as close private investors and business angels. The team behind the venture capital investor consists of seven former founders who have built companies worth around 3 billion euros: In addition to the general partners Alex Meyer and Thomas Wilke (eCircle), these include Joseph Brunner (Relayr) and Moritz Zimmermann (Hybris/SAP). The fund’s investments focus is on B2B applications that enable organizations to become more agile and efficient, and it ranges from SMB to Enterprise customers. The second fund will build on the successful results of the initial one and comprise around 20 investments. Until today 42CAP has made eight of those investments, in technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and IoT.
Alex Meyer, General Partner of 42CAP: „We are very pleased with the closing. It gives us the opportunity to lead seed investments in B2B technology startups in Europe and be the critical reference for follow-on investors“.
Thomas Wilke, General Partner of 42CAP and experienced CTO: „We are on the threshold of an enormous technological leap, which changes the way corporations will work in the future – we want to leverage this potential. In Europe, we see top technology and visionary thinking that can compete internationally, especially in the field of AI“.
Fund I: Pre-Sense Marketing, Logistics Matching and the Bank for Freelancing
The first fund comprises thirteen investments, one of its most recent success stories being Adverity from Vienna, which closed its Series B financing round with 11 million euros in April. The goal of Adverity’s intelligent dashboard for campaign makers is to augment marketing analytics in order to uncover new insights and let marketing data speak for itself (“pre-sense”). Another success story is the start-up OnTruck from Madrid. OnTruck provides an on-demand and real-time marketplace to find the closest and cheapest truck for regional delivery of goods. Two years after their foundation, they secured another 25 million euros and increased their total funding to 41 million euros. Furthermore, there is the French company Shine, offering banking services for freelancers and professionals, has managed to raise 11 million euros. Among the renowned follow-on investors of the 42CAP investments are Accel Partners, headquartered in Palo Alto, Balderton Capital from London and Northzone from Oslo.
Fund II: Edge Computing and Procurement Genius
The most recent investment of 42CAP is the Swedish start-up Crosser, which makes industrial machine data usable at the Edge in an intelligent way. The portfolio start-up scoutbee from Würzburg is just as interesting: their proprietary AI ARTIMIS developed by the founding team provides support in procurement and sourcing for industrial players and already won well-known customers such as German hallmark manufacturers Audi and Bosch. Thomas Wilke: „It’s great to see the first great successes of founders in the market, but the path to solid growth is just as important to us, because we know how hard it can be“.
About 42CAP:
The 42CAP investors Alex Mayer and Thomas Wilke invest in seed stage companies with global ambitions. With eCircle they previously built one of Europe’s largest SaaS start-ups and sold the profitable company to Teradata (NYSE:TDC) in 2012. The 42CAP credo Peers amongst Entrepreneurs is reflected in their investment approach, with which they support data- and technology-driven business models, product-focused founders and sustainable venture development. This background is appreciated by founder personalities, such as Nicolas Reboud (SHINE, Paris), Inigo Ijuantegui (Ontruck, Madrid) and Alex Igelsböck (Adverity, Vienna). Find more: www.42cap.com sowie https://medium.com/42cap.
Horizon 2020, EFSI and 42CAP:
42CAP II GmbH & Co. KG is supported by InnovFin Equity with financial support from the European Union under the Horizon 2020 financial instruments and the European Strategic Investment Partnership (EFSI) established under the Investment Plan for Europe.
Press Contact:
Melanie Schehl
Venture and Founders Communications
Hamburg . Germany
+49 170 32 55 828
contact@melanieschehl.de
Company Contact:
42CAP
Seitzstraße 23
80538 München . Germany
+49 (0)40 60773050
info@42cap.com
