Medical and safety technology provider Dräger has committed an undisclosed sum to the third fund raised by Germany-based public-private investment partnership High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), which has a target size of €310m ($386m).
HTGF III began investing in September 2017 after closing an initial $275m in March, and will provide up to €3m in equity funding for each portfolio companies. Dräger will join HTGF III’s investment committee and will supply portfolio companies with its expertise.
Steffen Müller, Dräger’s head of mergers & acquisitions and new business development at Dräger, said: “By collaborating with agile startups, we are looking to significantly strengthen our ability to innovate.
“Through our collaboration, Dräger’s extensive knowledge of customer requirements and regulations in medical and safety technology will help drive forward startups’ development projects in a targeted and efficient way.”
Dräger paid an undisclosed sum for a 51% stake in gas measurement device developer Bentekk in an April 2017 transaction that enabled HTGF, which had invested in the latter’s 2016 seed round the year before, to exit.
The fund’s corporate backers also include EWE, RWE, Evonik, Lanxess, Altana, BASF, Wacker, Büfa, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, Cewe, Deutsche Post DHL, Drillisch, Hettich, Knauf, Phoenix Contact, Postbank, SAP, Schufa, Qiagen, Franz Haniel, Körber Group and Media + More Venture.