Germany-based enterprise software company SAP has invested an undisclosed amount in one of two private equity funds run by Germany corporate-backed state venture fund High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF).
High-Tech Gründerfonds is public private partnership firm with German government sponsored investors such as the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, and the state run KfW Banking Group. Corporate backers of HTGF include Deutsche Telekom, Daimler AG, Deutsche Post DHL, and Carl Zeiss.
HTGF specializes in providing seed stage funding to tech startups. It manages more than €560m ($712m) in assets which it splits evenly between two funds, HTGF I and HTGF II. SAP’s contribution was directed at HTGF II.
HTGF provides up to €2m to startups with an initial seed investment of €500,000 and a possible additional €1.5m during subsequent rounds. HTGF’s has previously made investments in cloud based software developers 6Wunderkinder, Wunderkit, and online eyewear retailers Mister Spex.
Dr Alex von Frankenberg, managing director of HTGF stated in a press release: “With the participation of SAP we intend to increase the amount of successful high-growth companies in the software business, thus producing further world market leaders in the long run.”