German VC BMP reaps 268% IRR on MBR exit

Kim Richters
29 August 2013

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IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft and BMP Media Investors have sold a joint 79.1% stake in portfolio company MBR Targeting to Ströer Digital, with BMP reaping a 268% IRR in slightly more than a year.

BMP Media Investors, the venture capital arm of private equity house BMP Beteiligungsmanagement, sold its entire stake in MBR.

MBR continues to service third-party clients but will also merge its services with Ströer's, adding to the firm's product range. MBR co-founders Pablo Metz and Christoph Tavan still hold shares in the company.

IBB originally invested in MBR, an online marketing technology provider, in June 2012, together with BMP and a group of business angels. The capital was used to strengthen the company's international sales.

IBB's initial investment was made via its VC Fonds Technologie Berlin, which launched with a €52m target in November 2004. The fund is a joint initiative of IBB and the State of Berlin.

IBB typically invests in young technology, life sciences and factory automation firms based in Berlin. The venture capital house usually invests up to €1.5m in first financing rounds.

BMP contributed to a seven-figure round for TestObject, a German developer of mobile app optimisation solutions in January this year, investing via the €20m Frühphasenfonds Brandenburg fund. The firm typically acquires minority stakes in companies, investing €500,000-3m in each deal.

BMP Media Investors is listed on the Frankfurt and Warsaw stock exchanges. Oliver Borrmann holds a 17.94% stake, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants 8.18% and Carin Pepper 6.98%, while 66.9% of the firm's shares are in free float.

Ströer Digital was founded after the merging of Ströer Interactive and freeXmedia and the following acquisition of Ad2One. The firm is the digital media subsidiary of the Ströer Media Group, an international marketing company.

Company
MBR was founded in 2011 in Berlin. The firm recently increased its marketing focus on real-time bidding, a method of selling and buying online advertisements in real time. When a user enters a webpage, the publisher will instantly offer the free ad space to advertisement companies, which can then bid for it.

People
Marco Zeller is CEO at IBB. Clemens Kabel, director of IBB, and Jens Spyrka, CEO of BMP Media Investors, worked on the 2012 deal. Udo Müller is Ströer Media Group's CEO. Oliver Borrmann is BMP's CEO.