The renaissance of German Venture Capital

The ERP-EIF Dachfonds team continues to see outstanding opportunities in German Venture Capital. Full or partial exits achieved in its portfolio funds such as for Xing (formerly OpenBC, now traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange with a ~EUR 190m market cap), Eyesquad (sold to Tessera Technologies) and DocMorris (recently acquired by Celesio) support this positive assessment.

The German VC's bright outlook is further substantiated by a number of promising developments at existing portfolio companies of the funds in which EIF has invested. Examples include IDEA AG (that recently signed a licensing agreement with Alpharma) and Wazap that launched its services very successfully in Germany, China and most recently in the US.

Currently, Germany provides for lucrative opportunities to invest in young tech companies at reasonable valuations. As the biggest European economy and most populated EU country, Germany has a competitive advantage and offers the critical size, notably for companies with internet-based business models addressing consumer and B2B markets. These market conditions are considered to be unmatched in Europe.

There are also sound prospects in the Life Sciences and other segments of the venture space. This is particularly so for VC fund investors with the necessary experience, ability and funding who enable their companies to enter the market. By supporting such investors, either established or as emerging teams, the ERP-EIF Dachfonds participates in promising, innovative technologies ranging from OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes, a technology, that is just now commercialised in the first TV sets) to novel Stent Materials. It is in this context that the ERP-EIF Dachfonds has recently committed as cornerstone investor to both Wellington Partners Ventures III Life Science and Wellington Partners Ventures IV Technology.

To be fully able to address the current and future investment opportunities and to ensure its active investor approach pre- and post signature, the Dachfonds team at EIF has recently been reinforced with the recruitment of Dr. Markus Schillo as Principal. With his Life Science and VC experience, he further enhances the knowledge base of the team and adds significant execution resources.

Prior to joining EIF, Markus Schillo spent three years as CEO of BioFutura Equity-Partners, where he was in charge of a VC sub-portfolio of a renowned Private Equity company, advised the corporate finance unit of an investment bank (M&A, capital market transactions) and was mandated by several medium-sized pharma companies to support their business development and licensing activities. Before this, he was investment manager at BdW (Private-Equity branch of Dresdner Bank AG) responsible for VC and early stage fund-of-funds investments of BdW. Markus Schillo graduated from the University of Karlsruhe with a Diploma in Biology and received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the Institute for Molecular Cell and Neurobiology.