Venionaire is new member of the BVK

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We are proud to announce that Venionaire Investment recently became a member of the “Bundesverband Deutscher Kapitalbeteiligungsgesellschaften”, commonly known as BVK. The BVK is the association for private equity and venture capital companies operating in Germany. It cooperates closely with media, policymakers and universities and is actively promoting cooperations between different members.

Venionaire Investment is currently placing a SICAF-SIF Venture Capital Fund in Luxemburg, with an intended fund size of EUR 100 million. Our new BVK membership emphasizes once more our extensive approach to the German market. Quality connections in the SGA regions are ensured thanks to our managing partner Dan Choon, who lives and works in the tradition rich and technology-loving German university city Heidelberg. Dan and his team of experienced analysts are already actively screening German startups for us mainly in the fields of Robotics, Scientific Computing, Connectivity, Automation and Material Science. Furthermore, we are very proud to open soon two new offices in the beautiful cities of Munich and Frankfurt.

We plan to invest the vast majority of the fundraised capital in Germany, Austria as well as in Switzerland. Find out more about our strategy.

ChatGrape now in Public Beta

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Tuesday was a big day for our portfolio company ChatGrape. They announced the Public Beta for their smart communication solution, which means everyone can now use the service! You can read more about it in this great TechCrunch feature.

ChatGrape got even more sophisticated over the time. Just a short recap of what’s going on:

ChatGrape’s Open Beta includes: 

  • A new Android App
  • An updated iOS App
  • A faster and better Autocomplete
  • An indexAPI that allows companies to add their own data to our autocomplete
  • A new external search Feature (Search Giphy, YouTube and much more within the chat)
  • A Mac OS X App
  • Notification Settings and a logic that only triggers notifications on the device you are currently using
  • A Meta-View that allows you to browse your files within the Autocomplete

Stats

  •  Landing Page Conversion +78%
  • Onboarding: +350% more invites per company (right after signup)
  • More to come

 

Of course, the new Beta also includes a payment system. Check out ChatGrape now!

Martin Steininger ist neuer Partner bei Venionaire

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Mit dem Private Equity Experten Martin Steininger wechselt der ehemalige Vorstand der Mezzanin Finanzierungs AG (vormalige Mehrheitsbeteiligung der UniCredit Bank Austria) zum Beratungs- und Beteiligungsunternehmen Venionaire. Als Managing Partner ist der Wiener eine wichtige Stütze im Fundraising des entstehenden Venture Capital Fonds und verantwortet maßgeblich dessen Strukturierung. Im Tagesgeschäft bringt er zudem seine langjährige Erfahrung mit technologieorientierten Finanzierungsgeschäften sowie in der Restrukturierung, Sanierung und Veräußerung von Unternehmen ein.

 

Seit Anfang des Jahres ist Martin Steininger Senior Partner des Beratungs- und Beteiligungsunternehmens Venionaire Capital und Managing Partner der alternativen Investmentfondsgesellschaft Venionaire Investment. Er verantwortet maßgeblich das Fundraising des von Venionaire geplanten Venture Capital Fonds für deutsche und österreichische Unternehmen in der ersten und zweiten Wachstumsphase. Der 41-Jährige verfügt über ein exzellentes Netzwerk in der Finanzbranche und hat bereits zahlreiche Unternehmen erfolgreich restrukturiert, saniert und veräußert. Steininger war zuletzt rund dreizehn Jahre lang in verschiedenen Positionen bei der Mezzanin Finanzierungsgesellschaft tätig. Als Vorstandsmitglied der Mezzanin Finanzierungs AG wirkte er 2014 entscheidend beim erfolgreichen Verkauf der Gesellschaft an die Montana Tech Gruppe des Investors Michael Tojner mit. Als Geschäftsführer der Mezzanin Corporate Finance Unternehmensberatung verantwortete er zudem im Auftrag der UniCredit Bank Austria die Akquise und Umsetzung von Mezzanininvestments in Deutschland und Österreich. Davor erwarb er sich Know-how in Due Diligence, Steuerfragen und Sanierungskonzepten bei zwei Unternehmen in der Wirtschaftsprüfung und Unternehmensberatung.

 

Der begeisterte Bergsteiger schloss sein Studium an der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien mit der Diplomarbeit über „Mezzaninkapital im Handels- und Steuerrecht“ ab. Er hält zudem einen „Executive MBA“ von der IMADEC University. Für Venionaire CEO Berthold Baurek-Karlic ist der Neuzugang ein wichtiger strategischer Gewinn: „Martin Steininger hat einen herausragenden Track-Record bei Investments und Exits im Technologiesektor. Sein Name steht für Qualität und Expertise und gemeinsam werden wir in den nächsten Jahren massiv in disruptive Technologien aus Österreich und Deutschland investieren. Wir konzentrieren uns dabei auf die Wachstumsphase von Unternehmen in verschiedensten High-Tech-Bereichen wie Automation, Analytics und Big Data, Scientific Computing und Robotik. Österreich hat weit mehr zu bieten, als nur Web und Mobile Startups!“

Venionaire meets Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner

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Today our Managing Partner Berthold Baurek-Karlic and our Investment Manager Alexander Rapatz visited the management club. Mr. Reinhold Mitterlehner, Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister of Science, Research and Economy talked with Airport Vienna chairman Mr. Günther Ofner und Mr. Anton Ofner, owner of MBB BioLab GmbH and member of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce and Industry, about the economic future of Austria and European developments.

We were delighted that Mr. Mitterlehner stressed out the importance of Venture Capital for Austria and that he welcomed developments of this financing field in Austria, namely Pioneers Festivals and a rising number of early-stage investors. Venture Funding is still underdeveloped in Austria, improvements would have positive implications on market competitiveness – also in terms of international ratings. Baurek-Karlic and Rapatz used the opportunity to briefly talk afterwards with the minister about this issue.

Vice Chancellor Mitterlehner was very positive towards Angel Investing and Venture Capital as a chance to vitalize the Austrian market. We gained additional motivation and feel confident that it was the right choice to establish our Venture Capital Fund Management in Vienna, which is about to setup a very well stocked Venture Capital Fund for cross-industry, early-stage investments in Europe with focus on Germany and Austria!

New Venture: Chatgrape

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We are proud to announce a new early stage investment, with chatgrape.com (Vienna, Austria). Entering a highly competitive market is difficult, unless you offer an extremely useful technology and a mind-blowing innovation. ChatGrape built an enterprise and team messaging service with a unique deep service integration and a super smart autocomplete technology. This service cuts wasted time for switching between services and such in half. The set of technological innovations makes a wonderful product and simply provides your company data under your fingertips.

Check out this little video and you will understand the revolutionary approach of chatgrape:

“Our aim is to eliminate the ‘look-up factor’; the time you lose whenever you interrupt whatever you’re doing to look something up,” co-founder and COO Leo Fasbender explained TechCrunch in an interview a couple of days ago.

ChatGrape is in a closed beta phase at this moment, with 300+ companies registered and 1.000+ clients waiting to get in. The team is hacking like crazy to release new integrations, features and improvements based on the received feedback and communicated demand of potential clients.

We are looking forward to the future development and wish a very welcome to our portfolio!

 

Related Stories:

https://kurier.at/karrieren/berufsleben/wir-muessen-reden/101.585.165

https://techcrunch.com/2014/12/08/chatgrape/

https://futurezone.at/produkte/chatgrape-soll-firmeninterne-e-mails-obsolet-machen/74.131.993

 

New Release: Erfolgsgründer – Made in Austria

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Starting a business takes guts, and in most cases this decision will be live changing. Startups are often the culmination of many years preparatory work, the beginning of an not just an adventure story. For the good of our wealth we all hope for the best, but in the end it is an uncertain and challenging future a brave founder decided to go for. What is it that drives this people? Why do so many fail with their promising ideas? What are the drivers of donors, consultants and co-founders and do they all follow the same goal? Often single founder personalities are essential for sustained success.

The book “Erfolgsgründer – Made in Austria” (Available for Kindle and in print – Language: German) looks behind the scene of 25 successful Austrian Startups, through interviews with inspiring personalities, who have led or are leading a startup at the moment.

The Authors: Helmut Pöllinger brought his over 25 years of experience in managing a fast-growing tech startup (Brainloop), start-up and exit experience, Berthold Baurek-Karlic his experience in Corporate Finance, Venture Capital, establishment and management of startups and Fabian Greiler his journalistic experience, see his blog post about the presentation of the book.

 

 

 

Alexander Rapatz

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Alexander Rapatz is Partner at Venionaire Capital and Compliance Officer at Venionaire Investment. This article consists of

  • a short description of his career in English
  • and pictures of Alexander Rapatz

 

Curriculum Vitae

ENGLISCH

The legal and financial expert is responsible for structuring and execution of private equity, venture capital and debt capital transactions at Venionaire Capital. He carries out due diligences, negotiates participation agreements and monitors investments. Furthermore he consults our clients on financially-critical transactions, such as exits, restructurings or mergers & acquisitions.

As Compliance Officer at Venionaire Investment, Alexander is responsible for the compliance with legal regulations (in particular the AIFM-Direction and EuVECA regulations), the legal documentation and the reporting to the respective Financial Market Authorities.

Alexander is also a board member of the European Super Angels Club and lecturer at the Business Angel Institute. Furthermore, he is an independent expert for “Horizon 2020” of the European Commission.

Prior to joining Venionaire in November 2014, Alexander worked as political advisor in the parliamentary club of NEOS, consulting on business law, national security policy, the European Stability Mechanism and financial matters in the course of the negotiations of the parliamentary budget board. Alexander gained his financial law expertise while working as Senior Associate for the Vienna based law firms Binder Grösswang and CHSH in the areas of Banking & Corporate Finance, Structured Finance, Project Finance, Acquisition Financing, PPP-Financing, Mergers & Acquisitions and Corporate Law.

Alexander gained international experience while working for the Austrian Trade Commission in Singapore and two top tier law-firms in New York and Kiev. Furthermore he reprocessed the role of rating agency’s in the financial crises 2008 and their (civil) liability under Austrian law in his thesis for the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

He holds degrees in law and business. His Curriculum Vitae is available on Xing and LinkedIn.

 

DEUTSCH

Der Rechts- und Finanzexperte ist verantwortlich für die Strukturierung und Durchführung von Private Equity-, Venture Capital- und Fremdkapitalgeschäften bei Venionaire Capital. Er führt Due Diligences durch, verhandelt Partnerschaftsvereinbarungen und überwacht Investitionen. Darüber hinaus berät er unsere Mandanten bei finanzkritischen Transaktionen wie Exits, Restrukturierungen oder Fusionen und Übernahmen.

Als Compliance Officer bei Venionaire Investment ist Alexander für die Einhaltung gesetzlicher Vorschriften (insbesondere die AIFM-Direction und EuVECA Vorschriften), die rechtliche Dokumentation und die Berichterstattung an die jeweiligen Finanzmarktaufsicht verantwortlich.

Alexander ist auch Vorstandsmitglied des European Super Angels Club und Dozent am Business Angel Institute. Darüber hinaus ist er ein unabhängiger Experte für “Horizon 2020” der Europäischen Kommission.

Vor seinem Eintritt bei Venionaire im November 2014 arbeitete Alexander als Berater in Politik und Wirtschaft im parlamentarischen Verein der NEOS. Er arbeitete für die Wiener Anwaltskanzleien Binder Grösswang und CHSH als Senior Associate und erwarb dabei Wissen in den Bereichen Banking & Corporate Finance, Strukturierte Finanzierung, Projektfinanzierung, Akquisitionsfinanzierung, PPP-Finanzierung, Mergers & Acquisitions und Gesellschaftsrecht.

Alexander hat bei der österreichischen Handelskommission in Singapur und zwei hochkarätigen Anwaltskanzleien in New York und Kiew internationale Erfahrungen gesammelt. Darüber hinaus hat er sich in seiner Diplomarbeit für die Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, mit der Rolle der Rating-Agentur in der Finanzkrise 2008 und ihre (zivilrechtliche) Haftung nach österreichischem Recht, beschäftigt.

Er hat Abschlüsse in Rechtswissenschaften und Betriebswirtschaftslehre. Sein Curriculum Vitae ist auf Xing und LinkedIn verfügbar.

 

Pictures are permitted solely for editorial purposes
Alexander Rapatz, MBL

Mag. Alexander Rapatz, MBL – © Foto Wilke

 

2016-02-02_Alexander.Rapatz_1_medium © Fabian Greiler

 

2016-02-02_Alexander.Rapatz_2_medium © Fabian Greiler

Martin Steininger

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Martin Steininger is Senior Partner at Venionaire Capital and Managing Partner at Venionaire Investment. This blog post consists of a

  • short description of his career in German and English
  • his CV in German and English
  • media reports
  • and pictures of Martin Steininger.

 

ENGLISH

Martin Steininger is Senior Partner at Venionaire Capital and Managing Partner at Venionaire Investment. As a private equity expert, Martin has developed an excellent network within the financial sector. He has already restructured and divested a vast number of companies.

Prior to joining Venionaire in January 2015, Martin was part of the managing board of the Mezzanin Finanzierungs AG, Austria’s first specialized Bank for equity near mezzanine capital. In this position, he managed a 100 Million Euro Mezzanine Fund on behalf of the UniCredit Bank Austria (as cornerstone investor) and other institutional investors. Additionally, he served as CEO of the Mezzanin Corporate Finance Unternehmensberatung GmbH, where he analysed, structured and negotiated complex mezzanine projects for UniCredit Bank Austria. Previously, he gained in depth know-how in the fields of due diligence, tax law and company restructuring while working for two consulting and auditing firms.

Martin holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and an Executive MBA from IMADEC University Vienna.

His Curriculum Vitae is available on Xing and LinkedIn.

 

DEUTSCH
Martin Steininger ist Senior Partner bei Venionaire Capital und Managing Partner bei Venionaire Investment. Der Private Equity Experte verfügt über ein exzellentes Netzwerk in der Finanzbranche und hat bereits zahlreiche Unternehmen erfolgreich restrukturiert und veräußert.

Bevor er im Jänner 2015 zu Venionaire wechselte, war Martin als Vorstand der Mezzanin Finanzierungs AG tätig, der ersten Spezialbank Österreichs für individuelles Mezzaninkapital. In dieser Funktion managte er einen 100 Millionen Euro Mezzanine Fund im Auftrag der UniCredit Bank Austria (als Hauptinvestor) und weiteren institutionellen Investoren. Zudem analysierte, strukturierte und verhandelte er als Geschäftsführer der Mezzanin Corporate Finance Unternehmensberatung GmbH zahlreiche komplexe Finanzierungsprojekte für die UniCredit Bank Austria. Davor erwarb er sich umfangreiches Know-how in Due Diligence, Steuerrecht und Restrukturierungen bei zwei Unternehmen in der Wirtschaftsprüfung und Unternehmensberatung.

Er absolvierte das BWL-Studium an der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien und hält den Titel „Executive MBA“ der IMADEC University Vienna.

Der vollständige Lebenslauf ist auf Xing und LinkedIn abrufbar.

 

FOTOMATERIAL FÜR REDAKTIONELLE ZWECKE

Martin Steininger. © Foto Wilke

Martin Steininger. © Foto Wilke

 

Martin Steininger. © Fabian Greiler

Martin Steininger. © Fabian Greiler

 

For further questions please contact our Communications Manager Fabian Greiler.

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