T-Venture

Auto parts marketplace daparto receives investment from T-Venture and IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft

Bonn, August 11, 2010

Today, T-Venture, the venture capital company of Deutsche Telekom, and the VC Fonds Technologie managed by the IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft announced an investment in the online auto parts portal daparto. daparto, which is operated by Berlin-based magari internet GmbH, allows its users a targeted search as well as a convenient comparison of car parts offered online. The platform’s currently aggregated assortment consists of more than 4 million listings.

daparto, which connects online shops for auto parts with potential buyers via its platform, was founded by former eBay managers Dr. Stefan Friemel and Christian Koeper and launched in early 2009. Online merchants are provided access to strongly converting traffic by addressing their relevant target audience with the help of the portal. “Do It Yourself” mechanics and price sensitive vehicle owners, as well as professional auto repair shops, are offered the opportunity to search for, compare and purchase spare parts needed for repairs. By using daparto’s efficient comparison of merchants, products and prices, users can realize price advantages of up to 75%.

daparto’s structured search process for relevant offers is supported by the portal’s numerous functions suited for the purchase of spare and repair parts. The platform allows exact identification of both vehicles and parts via detailed catalogues. In addition, offers can be found via part number entry, as well as via an intelligent full-text search.

"Online product search- and price comparison portals already play an important role in everyday purchasing situations. However, before we launched daparto, the German market for auto parts - with a size of about 25 billion Euros - lacked transparency. Our goal is to change this situation for all market participants” says Christian Koeper, co-founder and general manager of magari internet GmbH. His partner Dr. Stefan Friemel adds “With T-Venture and IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, we have won two highly engaged investors. Their involvement will allow us to expand our activities in the areas of product development and marketing to reach our goals even faster.”

“Automotive still represents one of to the most exciting areas of ecommerce. By focusing on the auto parts market, daparto targets a highly attractive segment, which is still at a very early development stage” states Oliver Fietz, fund manager at T-Venture. “The portal offers a convincing solution for both supply and demand, and we are happy to support its future growth.”

Marco Zeller, general manager at IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft concurs: „Thanks to its innovative approach, daparto has developed into the leading destination within the market for auto spare and repair parts in a very short period of time. The platform’s recent development, its future potential and the professional and very experience founders have motivated us to invest in the company.”

T-Venture and Neuhaus Partners invest in apprupt

Bonn, May 6, 2010

apprupt, the first affiliate network for mobile applications, announced today the closing of a financing round with the Connected Life and Work Fund managed by T-Venture, the venture capital firm Neuhaus Partners and KfW. The funding is currently subject to approval by antitrust authorities.

"apprupt has successfully positioned itself in recent months as the leading affiliate network for mobile apps in Germany. Having already been financed in 2008 by Neuhaus Partners, we are pleased to have landed another strong investor with T-Venture, who is significant for us in this market segment," says Jascha Samadi, Director Marketing and Sales. “Together with our investors, we now look forward to future international growth in an exciting and rapidly growing market environment", adds Kjell Fischer, Director Product and Operations.

"We monitor the mobile Internet segment closely and have recognized early on mobile applications as an attractive target segment for us. We firmly believe in apprupt’s technology and the potential to develop the leading position in this rapidly growing market. We are pleased once again to invest in the company as well as the team and to support the further acceleration of growth," says Paul Jozefak, Managing Partner at Neuhaus Partners.

Harald Eisenächer, Senior Vice President Personal & Social Networking of Deutsche Telekom, adds: "Mobile applications are currently one of the fastest growing market segments. apprupt is well positioned with its range of products and services and offers both app developers as well as publishers an innovative and convincing solution."

T-Venture Makes Strategic Investment in Lantiq

Bonn, March 1, 2010

Lantiq, a leading company in next-generation access and home networking technologies, and T-Venture today announced the closing of a strategic investment. T-Venture, the venture capital company of Deutsche Telekom, is supporting Lantiq with a capital investment and will provide future strategic advice to the company. By agreement, the terms of the deal remain undisclosed.

“We are pleased to announce that we have taken our relationship with Deutsche Telekom Group to the next level with this investment, and our partnership will help drive our products and technology roadmap for the benefit of our customers and the industry,” stated Christian Wolff, CEO of Lantiq. “Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading carriers defining and driving the architecture of next generation networks. The investment in Lantiq demonstrates trust and enthusiasm in our business strategy and technology portfolio, and we look forward to working together.”

“Continuing to expand and improve broadband infrastructure is a priority for Deutsche Telekom. We are convinced of the great potential that Lantiq’s innovative semiconductor solutions offer,” said Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, Member of the Board of Management T-Home, Technology, and Managing Director Technology, T-Mobile Germany. “Lantiq's innovative technology portfolio and future product and market roadmaps perfectly match Deutsche Telekom’s needs. Both parties involved can profit from the investment – in terms of technology as well as market success.”

With revenue of more than 450 million USD in 2009, Lantiq is the second largest fabless semiconductor company in Europe. Lantiq continues to bring broadband solutions to life and remains dedicated to its customers, enabling carrier innovations for next generation networks and digital homes. According to the most recent market research data from iSuppli for 3Q09, Lantiq ships 34% of all xDSL ports worldwide, which positions the company as a leading provider for wireline access networks.

T-Venture invests in BPM Specialist

Bonn, February 23, 2010

T-Venture, the venture capital subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, is getting on board with BPM specialist Jcom1 AG. The strategic partnership specifically targets the international expansion of the BPM specialist in Europe as well as in America und Asia. By its own account, Jcom1 is the leading provider of software for subject-oriented business process management (S-BPM), a further development of existing BPM technology. Bayerische Beteiligungsgesellschaft (BayBG) and KfW Bankengruppe have already come on board. Now Jcom1 has acquired yet another important investor. The amount and scope of the investment is being kept confidential.

For Jcom1 chairman Herbert Kindermann, the new investor’s participation is another milestone in the process of internationalizing Jcom1’s activities: “T-Venture is one of the most important corporate venture capital firms in the world. Our new investor’s focus regions include Europe, the USA, and Asia. This is an excellent fit with our own international orientation.” The subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom will also be acting as a long-term partner, which, Kindermann says, is very important to Jcom1. When T-Venture takes an interest in an enterprise, it also makes available sales, R&D, and marketing networks of Deutsche Telekom. Affiliate companies receive national and international proactive support.

Experts believe that the market potential for innovative business process solutions such as subject-oriented BPM (S-BPM) is enormous. Therefore, this was the right time for T-Venture to invest in Jcom1, as Hansjörg Baur, investment director at T-Venture, explained. According to Kindermann, subject-oriented BPM (S-BPM) involves a paradigm change in business process management. Here, in contrast to conventional approaches, the individual employee (“the subject – the doer”) is the center of attention. Putting subject-oriented BPM (S-BPM) to work offers several advantages right from the start, says Kindermann. These include an enormous reduction in costs, faster process results, and a considerable relief of organizational and IT stress. Conclusion: Companies become more flexible through subject-oriented BPM (S-PBM) and can realistically implement and live their company strategy.