CONDA expands to Germany and Switzerland

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Great news from our partner! Yesterday CONDA launched its newly improved crowdinvesting platform www.CONDA.eu, where from now on, investors will find projects from Austria as well as Germany and Switzerland. Beside of the new and modern design, there are quite a few advantages for investors such as the improved transparency and comparablility of the projects or the possibility to discuss open questions with other investors, directly on the platform.

CONDA is a crowdinvesting platform and aims to connect investors with entrepreneurs by offering startups and SMEs an alternative to tradtitional roots of financing. By supporting projects with their consulting expertise, the broad business know-how of its mentors and the wide network of partners CONDA guarantees the success of local innovations. Investors from Austria, Germany and Switzerland participate – starting with an amount of 100 Euros – in the company’s profit and growth. Since 2013 the platform has closed 13 crowdinvesting projects that raised over 1.5 million euros from 1,500 crowd investors in total.

We concratulate our partner to the successful expansion and wish the best for the future!

Top 10 Tech Blogs

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The world is changing! Disruptive technology is popping out of garages and aiming to shake industries every day. Innovative first-timers are challenged with copy-cats around the globe. Almost every week there are news about companies being bought by leading market players for unbelievable valuations and you did not even know them?

Broken down to a simple definition, successful innovation depends on brains, money and awareness! Sometimes it is a “winner takes it all” and in other cases there is room for small set of players. It is very hard to figure out what happens next in the venture market, hence – if you want to be an extraordinary entrepreneur or a really successful early stage investor – it’s essential to develop a feeling for this.

It is not always the first product or the one which provides the most features, in most cases there is a product which fits the customer best. There is no DNA for success!

Following the most influential tech blogs will help you to understand, which technologies, business models and products are trending and which transactions happened. Most young entrepreneurs will follow their industry, peer competitors and market movements. The best investors are very well prepared to challenge founders on their home turf. Information is key. Investors need a good understanding of risks, competitors and premises of success.

Top 10 Tech Blogs (ranked by our team):

  1. TechCrunch
  2. Venture Beat
  3. Wired
  4. Mashable
  5. Huffington Post (TECH)
  6. TECHSPOT
  7. Gizmodo
  8. GIGAOM
  9. Bloomberg (TECH)
  10. The Next Web (TNW)

Working as a professional in such an environment, eventually leads to a lot of reading and research. We recommend to concentrate on international tech blogs to keep a good macro overview, but when it comes to a potential transaction it may be smart to challenge your ideas and thoughts with a professional advisor. Venionaire Capital has access to a number of professional databases, which provide deep insight in deal data, benchmarks and multiples. All these information are the foundation for a qualitative and quantitative company analyses, which is the key for an objective market valuation.

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.

 

 

 

TV Celebrity Christian Clerici invests in courseticket.com

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The founders of courseticket.com proudly announced a first closing of a new funding round with a well-known celebrity in German speaking countries. Most people know Christian Clerici as a journalist, speaker, extreme sports athlete, hot-rod enthusiast and some do know him as a Business Angel. “Christian is active as an Angel since around 2 years and has digged himself into his role, as a supporter, connector, motivator – talking to him about changing the world together makes him smile – I really think being an Angel is a passion for him.” Alexander Schmid (CEO, courseticket.com).

courseticket.com offers a SaaS solution for vendors in the education industry and a transparent marketplace for potential clients, who look for the right training and would like to compare prices and quality. Courseticket is the leading marketplace for education and training in Austria, with more than 250,000 users visiting the platform monthly, a two digit-growth rate and more than 10,000 active deals offered at the marketplace. The company aims to go international within the next two years.

Christian Clerici underlines his decision to support coureticket, with a brief comment:  “The market for this kind of business is breath taking, with more than EUR 45 billion only in Germany, EUR 85 billion in UK and over 1,3 trillion in the US. On the other hand it is very fragmented, has some entry barriers and is very competitive. Courseticket is not my first tech investment, therefore I know we have some challenging and exiting years coming up! I am looking forward to change the world of education with this ambitions team!”

The investment took place shortly after, courseticket was awarded to be one of the most promising startups in London, at a pitch-event of the Austrian Trade Commission, where UK based Investors spend an inspiring evening with more than twenty startups of Austria.

Related stories / Media coverage:

https://www.deutsche-startups.de/2014/11/05/tv-moderator-clerici-investiert-courseticket-und-mehr/

https://diepresse.com/home/wirtschaft/economist/3893659/Auf-Investorenjagd-in-London

 

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

Advantage Austria Pitch Days in London: Austrian Startups meet UK Investors (16. – 17.10.2014)

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Around 50 guests followed the invitation of the Austrian Trade Commission (AWO) on Thursday 16, October in the London, near Hyde Park for the first “Austrian Pitch Days” in Britan. 20 carefully selected companies, have been invited to present their business models and products to top-tier UK Business Angels.

“Our startups did well,” said Bernd Litzka of the i2 business angels, right after the competitive Pitch Event. Jenny Tooth (Managing Director of UK Business Angels) announced two winning startups, which got the best feedback from the crowd. zizooboats.com and www.courseticket.com convinced most of the attending investors at the venue to have a promising business case. Blitab – a project idea for an iPad for visually handicapped people – received the social award of this event.

Markus Kainz of courseticket stressed that his team was ready to expand his business into UK, if investors are willing to support this step. “The energy in London is simply fantastic” the young entrepreneur said with a big smile. The UK market is the most exciting in Europe for courseticket.com – the #1 marketplace for Education in Austria with more than 10.000 listed courses.

Events, like this one – supported by the Austrian Trade Commission – are very important to build trust and a strong network, both crucial to enter a new market. “Startups need international stakeholders to support them in the process of growth and new market entries”, Berthold Baurek-Karlic (Managing Partner, Venionaire Capital) explained to the press.

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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