Neuhaus and T-Ventures exit apprupt in trade sale

The Silicon Valley-based buyer was introduced to apprupt by corporate finance company Autika. Opera stated that the mobile advertising market in Germany would reach $1.8bn by 2017.

Following the deal, apprupt's existing client base will have access to additional capabilities, from rich-media ad formats to programmatic tools for German-speaking markets.

Previous funding
Neuhaus committed seed funding to apprupt's predecessor Jupidi, an SMS and mobile flirt service, in summer 2008.

In May 2010, the start-up and GP jointly decided to alter the business model of the company, according to Neuhaus managing partner Matthias Grychta. 

The relaunched company then attracted additional series-A funding from Deutsche Telekom's venture arm T-Ventures. Frankfurt-based KfW also invested in the round.

September 2011 saw all three investors commit to a series-B round, reported to be in the region of €5-10m.

Neuhaus used its third fund to invest in apprupt. The vehicle has a 50/50 split of German and international investors, including the European Investment Fund. The fund was announced in November 2005 and closed in early 2007 on its target of €100m.

Company
Headquartered in Hamburg, apprupt is a mobile advertising company with a publisher portfolio of more than 250 mobile websites and apps. The company enables brands and advertising partners to engage with premium audiences on mobile devices through innovative rich media campaigns as well as performance advertising solutions. Clients include Bauer, Tomorrow Focus Media and Lovoo.

Founded in 2008 by Kjell Fischer, Jascha Samadi and Benny Schilling, the 40-strong company reaches more than 22 million mobile users.

People
Matthias Grychta is managing partner at Neuhaus. Mahi de Silva is CEO of Opera. Jascha Samadi is CEO of apprupt.

Advisers
Equity – Autika (Corporate finance); Gleisslutz (Legal).

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• Topics
• DACH
• Technology
• Exits
• Germany
• Trade sale
• T-Venture