HTGF et al. back fos4x for second time

Kim Richters
27 August 2013

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High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Bayern Kapital and UnternehmerTUM have invested in fos4x, a technology provider for wind turbines, for the second time in little more than a year.

The capital injection, which also saw a contribution from business angel Gisbert Schulze as incoming investor, was led by UnternehmerTUM.

In May last year, HTGF, Bayern Kapital and UnternehmerTUM backed the company in a seed financing round. fos4x is reported to have grown significantly since the venture capital firms' previous investment and the fresh capital will be used to grow the company and expand its portfolio.

UnternehmerTUM currently holds four start-ups in its portfolio. It focuses on the cleantech, medical technology and communication technology sectors. The firm usually invests up to €500,000 in first-round investments and up to €3m in each company overall.

HTGF focuses on seed and early-stage investments. It usually invests between €500,000-2m in German companies within the technology sector that have turnovers of up to €10m. According to unquote" data, the firm tends to hold onto portfolio companies for around seven years. HTGF's latest investment was an early-stage funding round for siOptica, a manufacturer and provider of special optics.

Bayern Kapital is a Bavarian venture capital firm that typically invests €250,000-600,000 in companies. It can invest up to €2m in co-investments. The firm currently manages eight funds with an overall capital of around €200m. Bayern Kapital was founded in 1995 as the venture capital arm of LfA Förderbank Bayern, the independent bank of the Bavarian state. Its latest investment was an expansion deal for software company Altruja.

Company
fos4x provides fiber-optic technology to measure bending moments of wind turbine rotor blades. Monitoring the technical structures of the turbines is said to enhance wind turbines' efficiency.

fos4x is based in Munich. It is a spin-off from the university Technische Universität München (TUM).

People
Ingo Potthof is CEO and managing partner at UnternehmerTUM Fund. Guillem Sague is investment manager at HTGF. Wolfgang Härtl is managing partner at Bayern Kapital. Lars Hoffmann is fos4x's CEO. Gisbert Schulze is the former CEO of SSB Wind Systems.