Since our Digital Get-Together in the last years regularly took place in Munich, this year we invited our friends and long-term companions to Berlin – after all, the city is home to several of our portfolio companies. In the Skybar, located on the top floor of the Andel’s Hotel in Eastern Berlin, we came together to enjoy the specialties of chef Alexander Koppe along with a beautiful sunset view over the cities’ roof tops. Thank you to everyone for making it such a pleasurable night, and we are already looking forward to next year.

The world‘s largest independent buy-side advertising platform, Sizmek, cooperates with Roq.ad. Over 3.600 agencies and more than 20.000 clients who use Sizmek’s platform to plan and run their campaigns can now access Roq.ad’s technology. Roq.ad helps marketers to run their campaigns consistently across across all desktop and mobile devices. The Berlin-based company is the only cross-device software provider certified according to GDPR (EU General Data Protection Regulation). „We are very much looking forward to the cooperation with Sizmek“, says Carsten Frien, Co-Founder and CEO of Roq.ad.

Horizn Studios has just closed the next financing round with the former shareholders and Perpetual Ventures as a new investor. The Berlin-based start-up develops smart luggage for frequent travellers and so-called digital nomads. In 2017, the founders Stefan Holwe and Jan Roosen could increase the companies´ turnover by 400%.

Read the article on Gründerszene here (in German)

To make professional interior design affordable for everyone is the goal of Frank Stegert and Julian Riedelsheimer, founders of Berlin-based online platform 99Chairs. In the interview with TechTag, Frank Stegert discusses entrepreneurial challenges he had experienced during the early stage, talks about the companies’ market and shares plans for the further development.

Read the full interview here (in German)

Asanayoga, the Berlin-based platform dedicated to Yoga and developer of the Asana Rebel app, just closed a 6.5 million USD financing round with the investors e.ventures, La Famiglia, High-Tech Gruenderfonds and Astutia. With 150K paying subscribers and 1.5 million workouts completed via the app each month, Asanayoga is on the growth track. Robin Pratap and Pascal Klein, the companies‘ founders, will use the capital to further advance the fitness program and refine the Asana Rebel app.

Read the article on TechCrunch here

Cubitabo GmbH, home of the online-shop for mattresses and accessories Bettenriese, is since middle of December part of Sleepz AG, a Berlin-based e-commerce group focused on sleep products. With the acquisition, Sleepz AG wants to broaden its market access and strengthen the group’s online marketing.

With the sale of our the stakes in the meta search platform for job ads, Joblift, to a European investment company, we have realized another successful exit. ASTUTIA has been invested in the Hamburg-based company since August 2015.

InterNations, with over 2,7 million active users the the world’s largest social network and information portal for people living and working abroad, is acquired by XING AG (Germany). The Munich-based company will continue the operations under its established brand. Malte Zeeck and Philipp von Plato will remain Co-CEO to further develop the business vision. Besides strengthening its existing expat communities, XING is dedicated to invest in the development of InterNations‘ services and B2B business. InterNations has been part of ASTUTIA’s investment portfolio since 2007. We are pleased with the sucessful exit and we say thank you to Malte, Philipp and the entire team.

Companies like Adobe, Unilever, Payback and Immoscout24 already use the technology of Roq.ad. Now Bonava, a residential real estate development company, uses Roq.ad to target the new campaign with digital storytelling and emotional videos and involve the whole family in the decision making process of buying real estate.
Read the Article (in German)