Two co-founders of Germany-based SAP have taken contrasting approaches to their investments with one investing in biotechnology and the other into businesses connected to their enterprise software company.
Dietmar Hopp has reinvested in a German developer of therapeutic vaccines for the treatment of cancer through his Dievini Hopp Biotech firm while Hasso Plattner has invested in Panaya, which develops software as a service for automating SAP upgrades.
About half of the €53.8m ($71.3m) invested in Immatics Biotechnologies came from Dievini Hopp Biotech, local venture capital (VC) firm Wellington Partners and other existing shareholders, the other half coming from new financial and family office investors MIG and AT Impf.
Panaya’s $6m round saw Hasso Plattner Ventures and VCs Benchmark Capital and Battery Ventures agree to acquire financial investor Tamares Group’s stake in the company.
A third SAP co-founder, Klaus Tschira, also invests in technology businesses through his Aeris Capital family office.
SAP’s own corporate venturing vehicle, SAP Ventures, is well connected to its co-founders investments, senior sources at the groups said, as the wealth created by its own entrepreneurs helps fund new businesses.
Separately, Jitendra Saxena, founder of storage company Netezza, has been named as an investor in Actifio’s $16m series B round, according to news provider CityBizList using a regulatory filing, just before IBM agreed to acquire his company for $1.7bn.