Germany-based telecommunication company Deutsche Telekom launched a new investment unit called Deutsche Telekom Strategic Investments (DTSI) yesterday in order to streamline its corporate venturing investments.
DTSI will incorporate Deutsche Telekom’s existing corporate venturing units, T-Venture, and Telekom Innovation Pool (TiP), and will invest in the technology, media and telecoms space. It will have a total of €360m ($395m) of capital under management.
Deutsche Telekom has not however disclosed how DTSI’s formation will affect Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, the €500m unit the firm announced in November 2014, which was set to take over T-Venture’s investments this year.
Vicente Vento, chairman of T-Venture’s supervisory board, said: “Recognising that Silicon Valley is no longer a region, it is a high-velocity platform, DTSI will allow us to deliver a more agile and consistent engagement model to startups seeking access to our strategic capital.
“Through DTSI, we’re intensifying our commitment to support and encourage breakthrough innovation that produces new and exciting customer services and solutions”.
T-Venture was formed back in 1997 and has since made over 200 investments totalling more than €750m. The 90 companies it has backed include daily deals site Groupon, geospatial software provider DeCarta, advertising technology developer AppNexus and wearable technology producer Jawbone.
In addition to funding new startups, DTSI will take on the responsibility of making follow-on investments in the T-Venture portfolio.
TiP was founded by Deutsche Telekom in 2012 to take majority stakes in early-stage companies. The company has not revealed whether its Hub:raum incubator will also come under the DTSI umbrella.