ERP-EIF Dachfonds – Capital increase to EUR 1bn

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) signed additional commitments of EUR 500m to the ERP-EIF Dachfonds (the "Fund"). With this capital increase the Fund totals now commitments of EUR 1bn and will continue its active investment period for another 5 years.

The ERP-EIF Dachfonds was established in 2004 by BMWi and EIF. Since then, the Fund which EIF manages on behalf of BMWi, has invested in 16 venture capital funds focusing on high-tech and innovative companies in Germany in their early and development stages. Over 90% of the EUR 500m of capital commitments have now been committed and the remaining are approved for further fund investments and expected to be signed in the near future.

Besides investing into funds managed by established GPs, the ERP-EIF Dachfonds also acts as cornerstone investor in funds managed by emerging teams. Since inception it has invested and actively supported 5 emerging managers.

As such it played a key role in developing and professionalising Germany's Venture Capital infrastructure during the last 6 years.

With the additional EUR 500m, the ERP-EIF Dachfonds is well equipped to continue to work towards the establishment of a sustainable VC infrastructure through its standard setting and renowned investment selection, diligence and active fund monitoring approach.

The ERP-EIF Dachfond has also proven to be highly catalytic: the investments of the Fund leveraged commitments of about EUR 1,6bn of mainly private investors in the 16 funds. As such, the ERP-EIF Dachfonds has contributed to further enhance the environment for early stage technology SMEs and in particular their access to equity and advice from VC managers.

Matthias Ummenhofer, Head of the ERP team commented: "We very much appreciate the continued support of BMWi. Besides being a sign of trust and recognition of the work of the last 6 years the additional commitment will allow us to continue to deploy our investment strategy with full strength in a time where the German VC sector faces a very challenging fundraising environment but which also bears tremendous investment opportunities."