Grüzi from Zurich: connecting Europe

Switzerland definitely has more to show than cheese and the famous World Economic Forum in Davos – there are extremely successful world market leaders, some of the best universities and of course some pretty awesome start-ups. It was about time to come back and meet some old and some new friends in good old Zürich.

We met a lot of Family Offices, Venture Capital Funds, Business Angels and other key players from this amazing start-up hub and exchanged ideas to collaborate even stronger across borders and how to unite European Startup Hubs through intelligent platforms and partnerships. It is all about combining our strength in terms of co-investments, joint efforts to support the best tech entrepreneurs in Europe and to build the next European champions, no matter where they have been founded. We have been working on a solution for this complex issue quite a while ago and finally came up with a flexible and competitive solution – the European Super Angel Club (ESAC). If you want to learn more about this initiative please visit www.superangels.club.

This platform has the power to connect startups and investors across Europe and enable co-investments with some of the best lead investors in the market. We believe in a stronger interlinkage and connection of startup hubs and investor communities – this was also our main motivation to enable Talent Garden Vienna, which will soon become reality.

On Jan. 19th we attended the AWS pitching days, where 12 Austrian Health-Tech startups pitched in front of very seasoned life science experts and investors. We were truly impressed by the quality of pitches, the organization by the local Advantage Austria team and as well as the feedback startups received on average. After a successful series of pitching-days which has been established internationally – AWS (Austria’s federal promotion bank) landed another great event.

Big congrats to all participants and a big thank you from us for the highly positive feedback on our recent projects! We will definitely be back in Zürich very soon. Grüzi.

Thomas Kühr joins the Advisory Board of Venionaire Investment

Thomas Kühr, a forerunner of german venture capital, has joined the Venionaire Investment team and will from now on accompany us as member of our advisory board.

Mr. Kühr is a VC expert, recognized business angel and coach for both startups and international investors. Furthermore he is the founder and CEO of the VC/PE consulting firm equity4ventures. He will assist and support us with his in-depth expertise in the startup and venture capital industry as well as with his extensive network.

 

Experienced Venture Capital Expert

Mr. Kühr began his career in 1976 as authorized officer of the “Deutsche Wagnisfinanzierungsgesellschaft (WFG)”, a joint venture of the German Ministry of Research and Science as well as 27 banks.

As managing partner and CFO of GENES, a startup and management consulting firm, he was co-founder of two venture capital funds. Mr. Kühr was also one of the initiators of the german venture capital association (DVCV), of which he was elected president in 1987. After the merger of DVCV and BVK (german venture capital and private equity association) he became vice chairman of BVK in 1989 (until 1993) and chairman in 2003 (until 2005). Before that, he was CEO of T-Venture Holding, the corporate VC subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG, which he developed to one of the leading corporate venturing firms in Europe.

Venionaire promotes Young Talents as Partners

Alexander Rapatz (29) and Sasan Haji Hashemi (23) – on the picture above from left – are new Partners of Venionaire Capital. The two new partners contributed greatly to help Venionaire shape its name within the Austrian Venture Capital scene. Sasan joined the company during its early growth phase. His trajectory within Venionaire is a true success story, going from Intern, to Analyst, Senior Analyst and now Partner. Sasan’s quick analytical thinking combined with his intrinsic social skills made him evolve very fast within the company. Furthermore, he was one of the initiators of Venionaire’s incubation project dealscreening.com. He studies Financial Mathematics at the Vienna University of Technology.

 

From Forum Alpach to Venionaire

Another key role at Venionaire is held by our legal expert Alexander Rapatz. Alexander first met our CEO Berthold Baurek-Karlic at the 2014 Forum Alpbach edition. He soon was convinced by the idea to establish a new Venture Capital fund for companies currently in their growth phase. Alex took the lead over establishing the necessary legal infrastructure for the Venionaire Investment Fund. The 29-year-old Carinthian was formerly employed by law firms Binder Grösswang and Cerha Hempel Spiegelfeld Hlawati (CHSH), in the fields of banking and corporate finance. He has also gained international experience while working at New York law firm Alston & Bird LLP. Alex graduated with a MBL from the Executive Academy Vienna University of Economics.

 

Recruiting the best

These nominations are an important and logical step for Venionaire Capital Managing Partners Berthold Baurek-Karlic and Martin Steininger: „One of the most crucial success factors for a startup is its ability to attract and retain top talents. If we wish to work with startups, we need the best of the best on our side. Working at Venionaire requires a lot of autonomy, creativity and brainpower, but we also know how to reward outstanding performance. Our top talents get responsibilities early on. If you’ve got what it takes to handle it right, you will also be part of the growing success of Venionaire.“

We are proud sponsor of the Rotary Charity Kart Race

It’s time to put your racing suite on and hit the gas pedal for the 6th Rotary Wien-Hietzing Charity Kart Race! This 22nd of June teams of entrepreneurs, managers and sports enthusiasts will race against each other in small but none of the less powerful go-carts. 😉

 

When & Where?

Location: Monza Karthalle, Hochwassergasse 12, 1230 Wien
Start: 22.06.2015 (Monday), 3:30pm
Modus: The race is a team competition. A Charity Racing Team has to consist of 4 drivers. Incomplete teams will not be accepted. If you have a lack of drivers, please contact us, we will be happy to assist.
Application: www.courseticket.com/de/u/rc-wien-hietzing (Please note that only a limited number of participants is possible – if all seats are already taken, we will fully reimburse your costs)
For journalists: If you interested to realize an event report, please contact Fabian Greiler, our PR & Marketing Manager.

 

Venionaire is proud sponsor of the Charity Race. The Rotary Club Wien-Hietzing donates every single Euro collected from the event to the charity organization “kinderhände”, which helps deaf childrens and their parents learn how to communication by sign language. Over the course of the last three years, the Rotary Club raised 36.000 Euros for kinderhände! For further informations check out the Facebook Page!

Venionaire is new member of the BVK

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

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

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

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

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

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.

 

 

 

WHERE TO FIND US

VIENNA, OFFICE (HQ)

Babenbergerstraße 9/12,
A-1010 Vienna, Austria (EU)
office@venionaire.com

SAN FRANCISCO, USA

1355 Market St. #488
San Francisco CA 94103
sfo@venionaire.com

NEW YORK CITY, USA

122 East 37th Street
First Floor
New York, NY 10016
nyc@venionaire.com

LONDON, UK

Gable House, 239 Regents Park Road
London N3 3LF
office@venionaire.com

Luxembourg, LUX

28, Boulevard F.W. Raiffeisen
2411 Luxembourg
office@venionaire.com

LOOKING FOR FUNDING?

FOR STARTUPS

Venionaire Capital exclusively invests through the European Super Angels Club, for more information and application please go to the website. We do not accept direct investment proposals via this website.