Axel Springer AG, a Germany-based mulit-media company, has committed €30m ($41m) to Project A Ventures, a company builder which specializes in funding and establishing start-ups in the fields of internet, mobile and online advertising technologies and which has experts based in Berlin and Sao Paulo.
Project A Ventures was founded in January 2012 by its managing directors Florian Heinemann, Uwe Horstmann, Thies Sander and Christian Weiss in cooperation with Germany-based mail order retailer Otto Group, which remains the lead investor with €50m of committed capital.
Rainer Hillebrand, vice chairman of Otto Group, said: “We are pleased to have found in the media group Axel Springer and its high internet competence a strategically ideal co-partner to help us make Project A Ventures even stronger.”
Jens Müffelmann, head of the Electronic Media Division at Axel Springer AG, said: “This participation in Project A Ventures closes the gap between our strategic late-stage investments and our early-stage activities, amongst others in the field of Performance Marketing. The founders have been successful for a number of years in entrepreneurial development of online businesses. The Otto Group shows how successful corporate venture capital can be in a trade-related environment. Now we want to strengthen this team with our media expertise, our international network and our experience in portfolio construction, networking and development.”
Thies Sander, co-founder and managing director at Project A Ventures, said: ”In Axel Springer we have won another strong partner which through its proven online expertise and its broad reach represents an ideal complement to the Otto Group for us and, more importantly, also for our ventures.”