Dear Companists,
The renowned High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF; high-tech start-up fund) was one of the first investors of EBS, and we would now like to provide you with some details on this fund.
The High-Tech Gründerfonds is the largest and most active early-stage investor in Germany, and it invests in innovative technology start-ups headquartered in Germany. The fund provides these start-ups with the necessary seed capital and helps founders make the right decisions in company development by suggesting strategies and providing impetus.
The High-Tech Gründerfonds was founded in 2005 on the initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi). In addition to the BMWi and the KfW (a German public-sector development bank), major companies such as BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Daimler, Robert Bosch, and Carl Zeiss are shareholders of the fund.
The public-private partnership fund has a volume of €576m and invests in the promising future industries of "automation & electronics," "clean tech," "information and communication technology," "life sciences," and in chemical, physical, and optical technologies.
EBS is one of the flagship companies of the HTGF, and the company received an award as the fund's flagship project from former German Federal Minister of Economics and Technology Rainer Brüderle in 2010.
As early as in 2008, the HTGF added EBS to its portfolio. The decision to choose EBS Technologies for the flagship award from the 220 portfolio companies of the High-Tech Gründerfonds was based on three factors:
Best regards,
The EBS Technologies team
Note
Investments in startups and growth companies offer great opportunities, but they are risk investments. In the worst case, the entire investment amount may be lost. Consequently, investments in startups or growth companies are unsuitable for retirement plans. However, there is no obligation to make further contributions. Investors can minimize their risk by diversifying the amount they invest in startups and growth companies and not investing the entire amount in one startup or growth company. Professional investors often follow this strategy because it causes the risk to be distributed among several investments. In this way, successful investments can balance other less successful investments.
The shares of the investors on Companisto are subordinated profit-participating loans (partiarische Nachrangdarlehen). Such loans are shares in a business with similar characteristics as equity. If the company becomes insolvent or is liquidated, the claims of the investors (Companists) – just like those of all other shareholders of the company – will be satisfied from the assets in the insolvency or the assets in liquidation only after the claims of all other external creditors have been satisfied. Thus, Companists are treated like any other shareholder of the company during insolvency or liquidation proceedings.
The company information published on the Companisto website is provided solely by the companies. The projections made by the companies do not guarantee successful development of the company in the future. Consequently, investments in startups and growth companies are suitable only for those investors who can cope with the risk of a total loss of the capital invested. Investors make their own independent investment decisions and bear all risks themselves.
The investments are provided and issued by the individual companies. Companisto is neither the provider nor the issuer of the investments, but solely the internet service platform.