Blog on Gimv Technology in Europe – early to late stage
After opening an office in Paris and hiring great people in France, today Gimv announced again that we are very serious about France. The French team announced today a €4,5 Mio investment in Made-in-design, a leading online design specilialist.
For the Technology team, this investments completes an already large French portfolio including Inside Contactless, TinubuSquare, Movea, Mentum, fovea, Innate, …
This year sees the 10th edition of the Technology Fast50. Just like last year, Gimv is one of the main VC sponsors of the event. For the first time Belgian companies can participate in the selection. Criteria for Fast50 are :
Criteria for Rising Star are :
Resgistration at http://www.fast50.be/
Richard Seibt, Chairman of the Open Source Business Foundation (OSBF), is joining the Technology Advisory Board. Richard Seibt has 30 years of international business experience in the IT industry, mainly in software and internet. Previously he was CEO of SuSE Linux AG, which he sold successfully to Novell, where he became President EMEA. Prior to that, he was a management board member at United Internet AG. He started his professional career at IBM where he held several management positions in Business Development and Sales and Marketing both in Germany and in other European countries. He is also board member of several, mainly European, software companies and acts as a business angel.
Since 2002 Gimv Technology can rely on the support of an Advisory Board, a committee consisting of high-profile international managers. They assist the Technology team in identifying market and investment opportunities and providing insights in strategic and operational matters
Openbravo keeps on surprising the industry by moving fast and attrackting exceptional people :
Growing a company is a lot of hard work, but hiring exceptional people is the catalyst for growth.
GreenPeak, the Netherlands based ultralow power wireless chipset venture, has been selected by World Economic Forum as one of the world’s leading technology pioneers offering new technologies or business models that could advance the global economy and have a positive impact on people’s lives. http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/12/1204_tech_pioneers/index.htm
The timing of this reward coincides well with the market introduction of GreenPeak’s ultra low power wireless chipset for control and sensor networks the GP500. Based on the demos of its solutions for remote control, ESL and light switching applications the company had already attracted significant interest of the large OEMs and vendors in these markets. Since third quarter, commercial samples were shipped to customers resulting in several design wins in North-America and Japan in 3 months time since shipping the first samples! The consistent positive feedback and great progress at customers have confirmed that GreenPeak has a clear technological lead and taken the right approach towards the market. We at Gimv are very proud that we are actively participating and backing this exciting venture.
Elderd
Last week the world of venture capital received a summary of an apparently dramatic CEO meeting at Sequoia. In these notes, the senior partners of the VC firm elaborate on the consequences of the worldwide financial crisis for their portfolio companies and urge the CEO’s to preserve cash and extend their runway: “RIP good times”. Although nobody is sure about the full implications of the crisis and whether the old models will still apply, there seems to be a consensus that the old motto remains valid: “Cash is king”.
We noticed that several of our portfolio companies had already taken the appropriate action without waiting for the wisdom spread by the Sequoia report. Different contingency plans are being prepared taking into account different scenarios of market development. Each business has to adjust its roadmap depending on the depth and length of the crisis in its relevant market. These plans have to be reviewed at least on a quarterly basis.
Gimv Technology agrees that actions should be prepared to defend the current portfolio. We believe however that this crisis also provides the basis for attractive new investment opportunities, the basis for future wealth. Any fundamental crisis provides scope for disruptive innovations, led by smart and daring entrepreneurs, either to solve the issues at hand or to lead the economy into totally new area’s of growth. Given the strong and cash-rich balance sheet of Gimv and given our evergreen structure, we are well positioned to capture such opportunities and support international technology companies, not just to weather the storm, but also to capture market positions left open by others. Our message towards the technology leaders of the future: Gimv Technology is willing to support you in building your business and capture the market opportunity !
“Every disadvantage triggers an advantage” said Johan Cruyf, the famous Dutch soccer player. We believe this also applies to the current market.
After the opening of its French office last year, Gimv ICT has now hired Hansjörg Sage to expand its activities into the German speaking countries. Simultaneously two Investment Associates reinforce Gimv’s presence in France and the vertical sector knowledge in electronics and telecommunication.
Hansjörg Sage was formerly a Director in 3i’s global Venture Capital team where he focused on hardware-related early- and late-stage investments in European technology start-ups, mainly in the electronics, semiconductor and cleantech sectors.
Gimv has already a track record of investments in the German market with companies such as Coreoptics and DIS. The German market is not as mature as the French or UK market. A lot of new initiatives are being developed at this moment. This makes it an interesting time for Gimv to enter the German market. Moreover, this supports our strategy to provide to the best European start-ups an international investment offering with a presence in Belgium, The Netherlands, France and Germany.
The GIMV ICT Team
23 October 2008
Brussels, La Hulpe, Dolce
Hosted by Gimv and Sun, this combined event will address the most pressing and timely issues tech entrepreneurs are confronted with when further growing in a competitive landscape.
Seasoned speakers will walk you through their journeys:
- Bruno Lanvin – Executive Director of INSEAD’s eLab
frequently asked and well-known keynote speaker on IT development and new economy
- Alex Brabers – Executive Vice-President Gimv
with his 18 years at Gimv, Alex is a very experienced venture capitalist who helped many companies grow into a success, well know examples are Telenet and Mobistar.
- Sun – speaker to be confirmed
- Franky Van Damme – entrepreneur and consultant
founded Business Architects International, an innovative company developing financial solutions in the loans and investment management sectors, which he sold successfully to Sopra and Thomson.
Do you think of yourself as a tech company with breakthrough potential, are you interested in meeting people with the similar spirit and do you have a slot left in your agenda on Thursday 23 October 2008 from 14 until 20 pm? Feel free to contact us and send your executive business summary to Elinet@gimv.com
On July 1st GIMV together with the management team bought all assets related to the OTN business unit of Nokia Siemens Networks. A new company OTN Systems was born …. GIMV indeed builds (new) companies !
OTN Systems is active in the field of industrial networks. They design, develop and market a unique range of Open Transport Network solutions for specific market segments such as : metro & light rail systems, mines, utilities, oil & gas, railways, airports and large industrial plants. The solutions are based on the latest fiber optical technology and offer a very reliable, open and easy-to-use system.
Carving out such a business from a multinational was certainly not the easiest transaction I have done in my 12 year career within GIMV but it was very rewarding to see the enthusiasm of the OTN people to start their own business after a long stay within Siemens (and a short one with) NSN.
Currently the company employs around 80 people. We want to get to 100 people before year-end. We are recruiting in R&D, S&M and support staff, so if you are interested to join this new venture go to www.otnsystems.com/jobs or get back to me !
Hope to see – hear you soon.
Bart Diels
