Paris, Cologne, Berlin, March 14, 2013 – Iris Capital, a leading pan-European VC focusing on digital economy, backed by its main corporate investors Orange and Publicis, and Capnamic Ventures, a rapidly rising player on the German VC scene, which recently spun off from the DuMont Schauberg media group, have entered into a partnership agreement for early-stage investments in Germany.

The Iris Capital early-stage vehicle (‘OP Ventures Early Stage`) is dedicated to European investments. It will co-invest alongside the newly launched multi-corporate Capnamic Ventures Fund in fast growing start-ups of the German digital economy. The cooperation may also extend to later stage investments in Germany.

The two teams will closely cooperate in order to benefit most from their combined technical and business knowledge for investment decisions and portfolio management. In combining their efforts, they will also offer a broader international development perspective to their respective portfolio companies, benefiting in particular from Iris Capital’s presence in North America, Asia and the Middle East.

“Iris Capital has been investing in Germany for a long time. Considering that the German VC environment is particularly dynamic in Europe today, it is increasingly important to reinforce our presence in the early stage segment. Beyond our passion for VC, we share our strong focus on digital economy, spin-off history and innovative and unique multi-corporate approach with Capnamic. By joining forces, Iris and Capnamic will definitely represent a major European early-stage VC player”, declared Antoine Garrigues, Managing Partner at Iris Capital.

Sophie Dingreville, Partner at Iris Capital, has joined the investment committee of the Capnamic Ventures fund. “Our respective early-stage vehicles, both operational and already investing, were launched simultaneously. This is rather unique in fund cycles and builds the perfect ground for a successful collaboration”, she said.

Christian Siegele, Managing Partner at Capnamic Ventures, explained: “We associate well-known corporate investors and successful family offices. The partnership with Iris Capital creates a new level of added value: Iris LP’s Orange and Publicis are leader in the European telecommunication and advertisement market. In cooperation with our investors from the entertainment and publishing sector, we will create a complementary partnership.”

“With Iris Capital as our partner for early-stage investments, we will reach an unparalleled set-up in continental Europe” said Jörg Binnenbrücker, Managing Partner at Capnamic Ventures. “Both teams combine their excellent market knowledge and will thereby enlarge as well as enrich the opportunities for fast-growing startups in Europe.”

• NRW.BANK, Nordwest-Zeitung, HR Alpha GmbH and Gauselmann AG also invest in the new multi-corporate fund
• As an independent VC fund Capnamic Ventures focuses on rapidly growing companies along the digital value chain
• M. DuMont Schauberg hands over the management of its in house investment business to Capnamic Ventures

Capnamic Ventures is the name of the new multi-corporate fund that acts as key to the digital business world for its investors. The new fund is co-managed by two experienced investment professionals: Jörg Binnenbrücker (41) and Christian Siegele (49). The investment focus lies on fast growing business models along the digital value chain and invests in scalable areas such as Mobile, e-Commerce, Gaming, Payment, Advertising and Software as a Service. The Capnamic Ventures fund model attracted not only well-known corporate investors but also successful family offices like Wecken & Cie. and usbaecker capital GmbH. Capnamic Ventures starts off with a managed capital well in the tens of millions and is open for another 12 months for new backers to invest. Along with its new fund Capnamic Ventures will take over management of the entire portfolio of DuMont Venture, the investment vehicle of M. DuMont Schauberg currently holding over 20 portfolio companies.

Jörg Binnenbrücker, founding partner at Capnamic Ventures: "The digital world offers very exciting prospects and enormous potential for businesses off which both, new and old economy can benefit. At Capnamic Ventures we bring together incumbent and new players and through our fund concept, network and investment experience we are ideally positioned to create win-win situations for all parties involved." Christian Siegele, founding partner at Capnamic Ventures: "A multi-corporate approach creates value for non net native companies as well as start-ups. We focus on consumer related topics based in the German speaking market, which are scalable and marketable via digital channels. The first investments that we will make through Capnamic will be in the seed to start-up phase."

The multi-investor concept bears several advantages for investors and start-ups alike. Investors benefit from early access to new business models and can externalise parts of their innovation management process. Corporate investors face reduced investment risk in a potential acquisition and benefit from risk diversification through a broad spectrum of backers and significant leverage in follow-up investments. Portfolio companies on the other hand profit from improved access to market data, sector specific know-how and a myriad of potential business partners without tying themselves down strategically.

Capnamic Ventures’ team of investment professionals boasts experience from more than 100 investments and 25 years of experience combined. Jörg Binnenbrücker previously led the investment business of M. DuMont Schauberg as founding partner and CEO, thereby significantly contributing to the development of digital strategy at the publishing house. Whilst at Dumont Venture he accompanied investments such as reBuy, lieferando, Navabi or Tradoria (now Rakuten) from start-up to established business. Being an expert within early stage investments he was awarded the title „Investor of the Decade“ in 2011 (Gründerszene) and is actively engaged in several institutions around the topics of venture capital and entrepreneurship. Christian Siegele, previously senior partner with 3i (Venture Capital), managed large VC portfolios and realised numerous exits (IPOs and trade sales) with a total volume of over 240 million Euros for the investors. Among his investments were Interhyp, Element5, Mister Spex, BuyVIP, DocMorris, Mindjet and clickandbuy. Twice he was nominated for the EVCA/Real Deals “Deal of the Year”.

The fundraising process was supported by IEG - Investment Banking.
P+P Pöllath + Partner acted as legal advisor.