HTGF et al. in €3.5m series-B for evocatal

Ellie Pullen
25 June 2013

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High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and Sirius Venture Partners have invested €3.5m in German chemical company evocatal alongside HTGF fund investor Lanxess and NRW.Bank.

The fresh funding will be used to employ additional staff, as well as expand the evocatal's portfolio and technology platform.

The company has stated that it will receive an additional €1.4m in funding over the next five years, which will be earmarked for developing enzyme-based solutions for polymer modification. The company has announced, in coordination with the closing of its series-B funding round, the launch of its "Innovation Alliance for the Development of Biocatalysts for the Functionalisation of Polymers" project. The project is sponsored by Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research. It is unclear who will provide the additional funding at this time.

Lanxess, a new direct backer of evocatal, has been an investor in HTGF's Gründerfond II vehicle since 2012. The €301.5m fund, which was announced in October 2011 and closed in January this year, focuses its investments on German start-ups operating in the healthcare and technology sectors. Lanxess has taken a minority stake in evocatal as part of this funding round.

NRW.Bank is believed to be an investor of Sirius's Seedfonds Düsseldorf vehicle, which was announced in January 2007 and manages approximately €12.5m in equity, according to unquote" data.

Previous funding
Evocatal first received seed funding in 2007. Following this, HTGF and Sirius backed the company with a €2m investment in a series-A funding round, according to unquote" data.

Company
Founded in 2006, evocatal is a spinout of the University of Düsseldorf's Institute for Molecular Enzyme Technology. The company is headquartered in Düsseldorf and employs 23 staff.

Evocatal develops and provides chemicals and enzymes for the pharmaceutical and chemical sectors in the form of custom biocatalytic solutions. The company's biocatalysts are used in the synthesis process of pharmaceutical compounds, as well as the production of consumer goods such as adhesives, detergents and cosmetics.

People
Dr Thorsten Eggert is the CEO of evocatal. Investment manager Ron Winkler worked on the deal for HTGF. Winkler was previously an investment manager with Sirius until 2012.