m2p-labs reaches break-even point, thanks to a strong demand for technology in 2010. Strengthened by good sales figures, long-standing investors are now investing in the company?s growth: the Seed Fund for the Region of Aachen GmbH & Co. KG, the KfW with the ERP Start-Up Fund and the High-Tech-Gründerfonds (business start-up fund), as well as two private investors. m2p-labs is a leading provider of innovative screening and fermentation technologies for the pharmaceutical, biotechnical and chemical industries. Its? product portfolio is subdivided into analysis systems, consumables, automation and culture media. The products, with high throughput and an abundance of online process information, enable the user to accelerate F&E processes significantly.
The considerable expansion of the sales and service team is a central focus of capital increase. Several experienced sales representatives will be employed in the second half of 2011 to promote direct contact with the customer in order to fulfil the customer?s needs more specifically. The number of employees in the company is expected to grow to 11 by the end of 2011.
Due to the company”s maturation to an established technology supplier for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, as well as the increase in employees, m2p-labs is also increasing in space. The biotechnological company is underlining this with a move from Aachen to Baesweiler to the International Technology and Service Centre (ITS). “In the ITS we have 350 square metres at our disposal, more than three times the surface area we had before”, Dr. Frank Kensy, managing director of m2p-labs GmbH, now rejoices. A new microtiter plate production and the quality control of instrument production are to be built on the new premises. As well as this there are three laboratories available for microbial and cell cultivation.
“We will use the fresh capital, not only for sales expansion, but also to promote the technological development of new promising products and to invest in their launch onto the market”, emphasises Carsten Müller, managing partner of m2p-labs. The continued development of the BioLector technology for the bioeconomy plays a central role here. “The change of feedstocks in the chemical industry from oil to renewable raw materials requires the use of more biotechnological process steps for the material conversion into new chemical entities”, according to Dr. Frank Kensy. “Innovative technology, such as the BioLector which m2p-labs offers, is necessary for this.” The BioLector allows the online monitoring of cell growth and product formation of new strains already at micro-scale under standardised conditions. In this manner, valuable process information can be gained in high throughput and can make an important contribution to the knowledge-based bioeconomy.
Seed Fonds Aachen
The “Seed Fund for the region of Aachen GmbH & Co. KG” is one of six regional business start-up funds which the NRW BANK initiates together with shareholding partners in North Rhine Westphalia. The Seed Fund provides the necessary equity to young technology-oriented companies in the founding phase. The fund can invest a maximum of 850,000 EUR, together with co-investors up to 1.5 million EUR, per company and round of financing. The shareholding experts of the S-UBG AG are behind the operating management of the fund (FM Fund Management for the Region of Aachen Investment GmbH). The investment company of the Sparkassen (savings banks) in the areas of Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchengladbach look back at 20 years of experience in the financing of small businesses and technology-oriented start-ups. www.seedfonds-aachen.de; www.s-ubg.de
KfW Banking Group-s ERP-Start-Up Fund
The KfW Banking Group finances and supports, among others, entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), as well as investments in growth and employment in Germany. Using the EPR Start-Up Funds, which it manages and finances, it participates especially in innovative technology-oriented companies with a particular chance of growth. Research and product development are to be financed alongside the launching of a new product, process or service on the market. The KfW always works together with a lead investor and only in accordance with market conditions. Since 2004, the ERP Start-Up Fund has had a total of ca. 470 m Euro available for investment in young technology companies. www.kfw.de
High-Tech-Gründerfonds
The High-Tech Gründerfonds (business start-up fund) invests risk capital in young prospective technology companies which initiate business concepts in an entrepreneurial manner. With the help of the Seed financing, the start-ups are expected to take their innovation as far as a prototype or “proof of concept”, or to market launch. The High-Tech-Gründerfonds (business start-up fund) participates in the Seed financing with a sum of about 500,000 euro. It supports the high-tech company with its investment managers and an identified network of coaches, investors and specialists. In individual cases the fund can invest up to two million euro per company. Investors of the Public-Private-Partnership are the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, the KfW Banking Group and the six industrial groups BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss. The High-Tech Gründerfonds (business start-up fund) has a total available fund volume of about 272 million euro. www.htgf.de
m2p-labs is financed by the High-Tech-Gründerfonds (business start-up fund), the KfW and the Seed Fund Aachen. The biotechnology company is specialised in the development of process solutions for cell culture and microbiology in micro-litre scale. The first marketable development is a unique miniature bioreactor system for high content screening. m2p-labs? special know-how in micro process technology and automation enables the company to offer interested customers contract research or consulting. The company is based in Baesweiler near Aachen, Germany. www.m2p-labs.com
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