News week 29 - 2024

Main Capital Partners invests in Xitres. Leipzig Summer School for Diverse Startups starts. XenoPatch receives seven-figure financing. MCML and appliedAI Initiative announce partnership. Signicat announces partnership with Intrum and mesoneer. Briefly Bio secures USD 1.2 million pre-seed. Martin Sinner returns to idealo as Co-CEO.

Leipzig Summer School for Diverse Startups enters its fourth round

The "Leipzig Summer School for Diverse Startups" is entering its fourth round and will be organized by SpinLab - The HHL Accelerator and HHL Digital Space from July 22 to 26, 2024. The aim of the program is to support underrepresented founders through tailor-made workshops in the areas of sales, marketing and financing. Ten diverse start-up teams are taking part, including VoluLink, DeepFile and eras.fyi. The highlight of the event is the public pitch competition on July 25, during which the City of Leipzig will present the "Digital Award", endowed with 2,000 euros. First place also wins a ticket to the "Slush" start-up festival in Helsinki. Mayor Burkhard Jung is once again the patron of the event. The program is supported by SAB, Dell and Spreadshirt, among others.

XenoPatch receives seven-figure funding for expansion

XenoPatch GmbH, a medical technology start-up from Halle, has successfully completed a seven-figure pre-seed financing round. The round was led by bmp Ventures with the IBG funds and supported by SCE Freiraum Ventures, the Berlin Angel Fund and other angel investors. With the fresh capital, XenoPatch plans to accelerate approval as a medical device, accelerate market entry and drive the further development of its technology. The company offers an innovative device that combines heat, cold and vibration therapy and can be controlled via an app. The products are expected to be available from the fourth quarter of 2024.

Main Capital Partners invests in real estate management software provider Xitres

Main Capital Partners has acquired a majority stake in Xitres, a leading provider of software solutions for the for-profit residential real estate sector in the Netherlands. Xitres, founded in 2007 and headquartered in Hengelo, offers innovative cloud-based CRM solutions that digitize and automate the sales and rental process of new construction projects and existing properties. The company serves major clients such as Vesteda and ASR Real Estate. Main Capital Partners plans to use its PropTech expertise to drive Xitres' growth and international expansion. Xitres' current management team will remain active in the company with a minority stake.

MCML and appliedAI Initiative announce partnership to promote AI in companies

The Munich Center for Machine Learning (MCML) and the appliedAI Initiative have entered into a partnership to facilitate access to artificial intelligence (AI) for companies and make its application more efficient. The cooperation combines the latest research results of the MCML with the practical application knowledge of appliedAI, Europe's largest initiative for trustworthy AI. Companies can contact MCML or appliedAI directly with their AI questions, whereupon a team of experts from both institutions will be put together to develop customized solutions. The aim is to strengthen regional, national and international competencies in the field of AI and to support the holistic AI transformation in companies.

Signicat announces partnership with Intrum and mesoneer for digital signing

Signicat, a European provider of digital identity verification, has announced a strategic partnership with Intrum and mesoneer. Intrum is integrating Signicat's identification solutions and trust service into its new SIGN platform, developed in collaboration with mesoneer. This platform offers different levels of security for electronic signatures, including Basic, Advanced and Qualified Electronic Signatures. This integration gives companies access to automated and compliant electronic signatures that are equivalent to a personal signature and can also be used in a legally binding manner outside of Switzerland. The partnership aims to ensure regulatory compliance and improve companies' digital signature capabilities.

Briefly Bio secures USD 1.2 million pre-seed

Briefly Bio, a TechBio startup, has closed a USD 1.2 million pre-seed funding round led by Compound VC with participation from NP Hard, Tiny VC and several angel investors from the tech and biotech industry. Briefly Bio has developed software that makes lab work more reproducible by helping scientists document and share their work clearly and consistently. The software uses AI to convert existing experiment descriptions into a standardized format, fill in gaps and detect errors. The founding team consists of Dr. Katya Putintseva, Harry Rickerby and Staffan Piledahl, all of whom have extensive experience in science, technology, biotechnology and robotics. The funding will be used to improve efficiency and collaboration in scientific laboratories and increase the reproducibility of experiments.

Martin Sinner returns to idealo as Co-CEO

idealo, the well-known price comparison platform, welcomes back its co-founder Martin Sinner as Co-CEO after 12 years. Together with co-CEOs Maxim Nohroudi and Jörn Rehse, Sinner will strengthen the management team and further expand idealo's strong market position. An advisory board will be set up to support the management in strategic decisions. Albrecht von Sonntag, also co-founder of idealo, is withdrawing from the operational business and moving to the new advisory board to concentrate on market regulatory issues. Other members of the Advisory Board are Niddal Salah-Eldin and Patrick Wehrmann from Axel Springer. Martin Sinner brings his extensive experience, including from his time in Silicon Valley and at 360dialog, back to idealo to support the company's next phase of growth. Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer, thanks Albrecht von Sonntag for his achievements to date and looks forward to working with him on the Advisory Board in the future.