Michael Brandkamp, formerly managing director of High-Tech Gründerfonds, a German state and corporate-backed venture capital fund, has left to become a general partner at European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF).
ECBF will be established in Luxembourg in order to accelerate late-stage companies and bring circular technologies – an economic system aimed at eliminating waste and the continual use of resources – to market.
The fund was cornerstoned by the European Commission as part its work on developing so-called blended finance. The European Investment Bank, through its innovation finance advisory service led by Shiva Dustdar under Simon Barnes as overall head of advisory services at the bank, presented the idea initially in 2017 and gave further details at the Innoenterprise conference in Austria in 2018 before a procurement process to select the best manager ended last year.
Brandkamp will now have to raise private capital to blend in with the state funding. The EIB and commission is working on further blended finance initiatives as it prepares for next year’s budget lasting from 2021 to 2027 (called Horizon Europe) with a focus on sustainable development goals.
Founded in 2005, HTGF backs early-stage startups and typically provides up to $3.5m per portfolio company, though it has the option to supply more capital to particularly promising opportunities. It has backed more than 540 startups to date and celebrated more than 100 exits.
HTGF’s third corporate-backed fund closed at $375m in May 2019. Its limited partners include 32 corporate backers as well as Fraunhofer Society, development bank KfW and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
