Ernst Burbacher, the parliamentary state secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, launched the second High-Tech Gründerfonds fund on Thursday 27th October. The High-Tech Grunderfonds II fund will invest up to €500,000 ($692,000) of seed funding in Germany-based high-tech startups.
High-Tech Gründerfonds I was initiated in 2005 as a joint initiative by the Ministry of Economics and Technology together with the German government-owned development bank KfW Bankengruppe and six corporate backers. The second fund will be provided with €288.5m ($399m) in capital, with the German government contributing €220m and KfW €40m.
The remainder of the funding will be raised from twelve Germany-based companies, double that of the first fund. The companies are: Altana, BASF, Bosch, B. Braun Melsungen, Carl Zeiss, CeWe, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, and Tengelmann.
Burgbacher said, "I’m very pleased that High-Tech Gründerfonds II will continue to allow us to lend assistance to newly founded technology companies. Our economy needs new, innovative entrepreneurs for it to remain successful."
Burgbacher continued: "But founding a company is often no walk in the park. The founders of technology companies in particular have difficulty finding a financier, no matter how brilliant their ideas. Even private venture capitalists only get involved nowadays when companies have passed their initial market test. High-Tech Gründerfonds closes this financing gap."