Watch out for Lukasz Gadowski and Katharina! Both got me on the spot at the DLD last week (which was actually a great event with many top media, entertainment and Web 2.0 people there) with their “running camera” for a brief interview on their gründerszene blog. Lukasz and Katharina are running a series of interviews these days. So be prepared when you see him. You could be the next! Right on the spot! ;-))
According to Spiegel Online, StudiVZ was sold to Holtzbrink Group for about €100M. After OpenBC/Xing’s IPO last month, this is another amazing exit of a Web 2.0 company here in Germany!
Takeaway: Despite all the past issues around the founding team of StudiVZ etc., the community has grown nicely over the last few months, reaching over 1 Mio registered users before in December. The acquisition by Holtzbrinck confirms, that Web 2.0 companies made in Germany do offer great investment opportunities. There is money to be made with Web 2.0! What a great start for 2007!
Recommendations: Time is ripe for the next successful Web 2.0 company/exit made in Germany! Any bets who this will be?
As the year approaches its well deserved finishing line, I would like to wish all people who have been reading my blog or have given me suggestions and feedback along the last year a very happy holiday season and all the best for the upcoming year!
2006 was exciting for the VC and start-up business! I am extremly positive that this trend will continue into 2007!
I look forward to working with you all!
Best wishes
Jürgen
Cellulosic ethanol, the production of ethanol from a number of biomass products i.e. paper sludge, wood chips, switch grass and corn stover, is taking off in the US! Often referred to as the “holy grail” in biomass-to-ethanol, this new approach would allow to use various input sources, not just expensive corn or crops.
One of our Cleantech portfolio companies, Mascoma, operates in this exciting new market. The company (I have written about this new Atlas investment in the past) recently got a contract for $15m from the New York State to build and operate a demonstration facility. Thumbs up on this amazing achievement!
Takeaway: I am confident that European start-ups, entrepreneurs as well as venture capitalists will also embrace the huge opportunity around cellulosic ethanol!
Recommendation: If you are interested in the biomass market in general, you should definitely check out the Biomass Europe in Berlin 2007.
Update on my previous article on our portfolio company Isilon:
The Seattle-based company debuted on NASDAQ on Friday, December 15, 2006 under the symbol “ISLN” and opened at $25, up 92% from its IPO price of $13. It’ll be the third biggest opening day gainer of the year and will have market cap far above $1.4Bn! Atlas Venture V was a founding investor in Isilon in May 2001.
What an amazing year end! Congrats to the whole team involved!
Isilon, one of our portfolio companies, a worldwide leader in clustered storage systems and software for digital content, today went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Isilon is enabling enterprises to transform data into information and information into breakthroughs. Customers include media power houses such as NBC, mySpace, LexisNexis or ABC.
My dear fellow Fred Destin has provided some further insights into this exciting deal. Priced at $13, the stock hit highs in the $20-s during today’s trading.
Congratulations to the responsible Atlas team on this great success story!
Congratulations to two of our portfolio companies, who were nominated recently for the World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer Award 2007:
Lilliputian Systems, one of our Cleantech investments, developing micro-fuel cells for portable devices, Interview with Ken Lazarus, and
MicroOptical, providing a new “viewing” experience for digital content, Interview with Kip Kokinakis - No wonder, Paris Hilton love this product!
Congrats and well deserved to both companies!
SAM Private Equity announced yesterday, that due to the recent “merger” of Robeco and SAM Group, the private equity arm of SAM is buying out the entire private equity business to create Emerald Technologies. SAM Private Equity is one of the leading Cleantech oriented VCs managing 3 funds with a total of €250M in committed capital under management, 16 professionals, 26 portfolio companies and with offices in Europe and North America.
Takeaway: Good timing to spin-out the private equity business and establish a new stand-alone player in the Cleantech space. Recent exits in the Cleantech space are attracting more and more interest from the public markets, fueling the inflow of additional capital into the VC industry. Now we all need to deliver on these promises!
A ping by one of the people close to Pemeas Fuel Cell Technologies has alerted me to the recent announcement that BASF is buying Pemeas Full Cell Technologies, a leading company in the fuel cell business. Pemeas was founded in April 2004 as a spin-off of the former Hoechst Group’s fuel cell activities. The company has approximately 50 employees and operates manufacturing and R&D facilities in Germany and in the U.S. The company’s product can be used, for example, in portable electronics, residential applications or backup power systems.
According to industry analysts, the global fuel cell market will grow from €1 billion in 2010 to €21.5 billion in 2020. Fuel cells are environmentally friendly and can operate with a variety of fuels. They can also be used in a wide variety of applications, such as in laptop computers, homes and cars.
Takeaway: From what I heard, the company was considering a listing on the stock exchange in the near future, now the acquisition by BASF comes as a bold move to take advantage of top cleantech technology made in Germany. Good move and congrats to the VC investors BankInvest and SAM Private Equity.
Recommendations: We need more of these cleantech investment / exits here in Europe! The exit channels - no matter if public markets or M&A transactions - are out there!
As Valerie has pointed out nicely on her blog, Datango, one of our portfolio companies from the early internet days, has completed a financing round with HassoPlattnerVenture and Extorel. Datango is an interesting turn-around story, which initially started in 1999 providing “web-rides” to consumers. After the burst of the bubble the company transitioned from the B2C space into the B2B space focusing on eLearning.
After the successful acquisition of a distributor in 2004, the company has continued its turn-around and has been on a steady growth path since, primarily focusing on large roll-out projects and applications support systems (a market to be estimated to be worth a few hundred million Euros).
The new investment round signals a continued interest from investors into Datango and this emerging market space. The international market is still untapped and will provide a great opportunity for Datango to grow in the future.
