MOTIONTAG
MOTIONTAG offers the operating system for seamless, sustainable and smart mobility. MOTIONTAG infers insights from smartphone sensors about how, when and where people use transport services.
Customers (selection): Swiss Railway, Telefonica, Deutsche Bahn, Swisscom, BVG, ETH Zurich etc.
Our role
- Advisor in the corporate spinoff of InnoZ, the subsequent establishment of the new entity and strategy development thereof.
- Advisor for the €1.5 Million financing round with ILB, Swiss Post and six angel investors: Dr Michael Frenzel, former CEO TUI & Member of the Supervisory Board Deutsche Bahn, Dr Ralph Körfgen, former CEO Deutsche Bahn Sales, Dr Thomas Doering, former Member of the Management Board Thomas Cook, Petra Euler und Holger Taubmann, two former top manager Amadeus, and Marcus Otto, founder Nfon.
- Advisor for the Series A financing with Wayra, Road Ventures, ILB and Swiss Post.
- Angel investor.
“We have worked with Marc since the inception of MotionTag and his help has always been very fruitful. During our time at the Climate KIC he was our coach and supported us building our company. Now he is one of our Business Angels and we enjoy working hand in hand together. From business model development to fundraising, the range of services Marc can help with is of great value. ”
PlanBlue
Oceans cover over 70% of the earth’s surface, yet 95% of its seafloors are unknown. However, oceans hold a value of estimated 80 Trillion Dollar. PlanBlue makes these values visible.
PlanBlue offers an intelligent hyperspectral camera and a software using machine-learning algorithms and image recognition to analyze the very rich hyper spectral data.
The combination of both enables PlanBlue to see much more underwater and make the hidden values visible – and this even much faster and cheaper.
Customer: NASA, Creocean, University of Nice, University of Guam, Ocean Cleanup etc.
Our role
- Support in building a scalable company, and in development of the strategy and business model.
- Exclusive financial advisor for the first financing round with Westtech Ventures and further angel investors
- Exclusive financial advisor for the seed round with LocalGlobe.
- Angel investor.
“We met Marc via the accelerator program Climate-KIC in Berlin. Since the first day we had a ‘click’, and continued working together ever since. Without Marc we would not be where we are now as PlanBlue. He has been a tremendous help getting investors (successfully) on board. Definitely a recommendation!”
Distribusion Technologies
- Global Distribution System for intercity buses (“Amadeus for intercity buses”).
- 165 bus operators offering 3.5 million connections are integrated.
- 4000 travel agencies and online resellers with more than 20 million visits per month currently using the system.
Our role
- Initiation of and support for the strategy pivot from a B2C platform to a Global Distribution System.
- Exclusive financial and legal advisor for €1.3 million financing round with BfB Frühphasenfonds and HR Ventures.
- Advisor for €6 million financing round with Creandum, Northzone, HR Ventures and reputable angel investors.
- Angel investor.
“Without the Buddies, it would have been difficult to raise the financing on our own. Eventually, we did end up raising far more than we had initially planned. The Buddies helped us tremendously with strategy development, contacting investors, preparing the pitch, the due diligence and finally the negotiation of the shareholder’s agreement. They have a lot of experience, were always available and demonstrated 150% commitment to us. Absolutely recommendable.”
Nüwiel
Package delivery market continues to grow, which leads to the problems in the last mile: increasing costs, congested streets, higher number of road accidents and emissions. NÜWIEL has the perfect solution: an electrically powered bicycle trailer which
- automatically accelerates and brakes (own patented technology),
- can safely move fragile goods due to the integrated suspension,
- can be used as a handcart inside the buildings and pedestrian zones, and
- works with EUR1 exchangeable boxes and up to 200kg.
Current status
- Trailer is developed, and core sensor-technology is patented.
- Customers: UPS, IKEA, Airbus, REWE and others.
- Funding of €2.1m through the EU Horizion2020 program.
Our role
- Company building, financial planing, sparring partner.
- Exclusive financial advisor for first and second financing round and commercial agreement with Freetrailer AS.
- Angel investor.
Zolar
Solar energy is cheaper than buying electricity from the grid – and on top home owners can become independent from the grid and generate their own green energy.
With 127 Mio. residential houses in Europe, the market potential in Europe is around €1.4 trillion. However, the sales process is still manual, offline and locally fragmented.
ZOLAR makes buying a solar system for residential home owners as simple as possible based.
Our role
- Support in building a scalable company, and in development of the strategy and business model.
- Advisor for €4m Series A financing round with Heartcore, Statkraft Ventures, Partech Ventures and Tim Schumacher.
“Marc has been a tremendous support in our financing rounds. From day one, he has always pushed us to believe in our story and helped us create a financially sound business model. Without Marc, we would not have been able to raise and close our 4 Mio. € financing round.”
Resourcify
Resourcify is digitizing the waste disposal industry, where around 97% of communication still takes place via fax and telephone.
In the first step, Resourcify digitizes this communication with the “My Recycling App”. This app helps companies to organize and document their waste disposal – and to comply with the new Commercial Waste Ordinance 2017.
The vision is the zero waste economy. Resourcify will develop further solutions for this step by step.
Our role
- Support in building a scalable company, and in development of the strategy and business model.
- Exclusive financial advisor for a €1.2 Million financing round with HTGF, IFB Hamburg and high-caliber Business Angel, e.g. Dr. Ralf Struthoff (Sulo / Veolia / Blackstone), Gunnar Froh (Airbnb, Wunder) and Christian Springub (Jimdo).
- Angel investor
“Business Buddies was instrumental in preparing us for the harsh-reality of early stage venture funding. They helped us to prepare all of the important and crucial information in a clear and structured way which was both convincing and attract for the investors. They were also extremely helpful during the closing negotiations and ensuring we had a fairly structured deal. Best of all: Business Buddies re-invested some of the success fee into our company – a true partnership as a result of the work together.“
Leaftech
- Today’s building management systems have a significant disadvantage: they look at buildings in isolation and forget about the environment, which, however, has a substantial influence on a building.
- Leaftech creates a digital twin of the building in its environment and combines it with geodata, such as weather data, solar radiation, etc.
- In just a few hours and without hardware, Leaftech uses its software and AI to generate the data that the building management system needs to control the building more efficiently and reduce energy consumption by over 20%. In addition, occupant comfort increases significantly, CO2 emissions decrease, and the value of the building rises.
Our role
Exclusive advisor on the six-figure seed financing with a high-caliber angel investor and IBB Ventures.
“We have been working successfully with Marc for several years. He has played an immense role in helping us raise successful investments of more than half a million euros. Marc is also a great sparring partner for business models, offers excellent support in preparing pitch decks and helps to strike the right note for the right investor. He is also fun to work with and creates a lot of positive energy!”
Haferkater
It was a small kebab shop; it became a small porridge café. Three founders, one vision: a well-known, simple dish made from just three ingredients has what it takes to become breakfast for the masses.
The tiny Berlin porridge café has since grown into stores all over Germany: Commuters, travellers, athletes and connoisseurs eat the Oatkaters on the way to work, together with friends or relaxed while waiting for the next train.
Our role
Advisor on the seven-figure growth financing with Zentis Ventures, the system gastronomy expert Alexander Eberl and existing investor Katjesgreenfood Ventures.
“Thank you very much again at this point. It wouldn’t have worked out without your advice, and doing a financing in the current situation is quite something. Happy to do it again.”
Diametos
Diametos is developing the world’s first and only medical device for diagnosing the causes of snoring based on artificial intelligence.
Our role
Advisor on the high six-figure seed financing with a consortium of top-class angel investors.
“The Buddies did not only support us competently and pragmatically in structuring our business financing and finding investors, but they also invested in our business. In the end, we were significantly oversubscribed and were able to close the round much larger than we originally anticipated.”
Uniwhere
Uniwhere offers students an app with which they can easily and conveniently access their personal university data, such as their grades, dates and much more. In addition, the app offers valuable career tips and job offers, and students can share their experiences about courses, internships, exchange semester etc. In short: Uniwhere is your companion through university life.
Uniwhere is already integrated over 70 universities, acquired 150,000 registered users with a zero marketing budget and achieves top ratings in the app stores.
Our role
- Support in building a scalable company, and in development of the strategy and business model.
- Exclusive financial advisor for an early stage round with Westtech Ventures, Boost Heroes, Rancilio Cube and further angel investors.
- Angel investor
“I have met Marc during our acceleration program and I have really appreciated his willingness to support us; we moved from Italy to Berlin and Marc has been our gate to the German investors market. We’ve worked together to close our seed round: from strategy, planning, documents preparation to a fundamental training period, that made us perfectly prepared for meetings and negotiations. Marc is a great team player and a great value for the company!“
bookingkit
Online booking solution and global distribution system for activity providers.
Our role
Exclusive financial advisor for the Series A financing round with Intermedia Ventures, High-Tech Gründerfonds and Robert Kabs.
Wunderflats
- Renting of furnished apartments from 1-12 months (“mid-term Airbnb”).
- Presence in 37 cities, e.g. Berlin, Munich, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart.
Our role
- Development of the pitch-deck.
- Preparation and coaching for the successful application to the Microsoft Accelerator and Hasso-Plattner-Institute.
“We gained very much from their experience. They have improved the quality of our presentation for the Microsoft Accelerator and Hasso-Plattner business plan competition very much and had a significant contribution to our success in both cases.”
Hoard
Hoard is cracking the last mile by building up a network of pick-points and providing them with an easy to use mobile app. The app enables nearly anyone to exchange anything in a safe and easy way – Hoard is pretty much like UBER without wheels.
- Hoard has built up a network of more than 200 pick-points in 15+ cities.
- First use case is the exchange of keys for Airbnb-appartments, supported by a close cooperation with Airbnb.
- Sold to Norwegian competitor Sharebox in 2018.
Our role
- Exclusive financial advisor for 300K financing round with MetroTechstars and Texas Atlantic Capital.
- Angel investor.
“I met Marc in early 2016. Since day one he has been an important advisor, investor and friend we can rely on: Always available and very dedicated. He has become an integral part of our team and his experience and calm manner help us a lot to navigate Hoard through the ups and downs of start-up life.”
Clevver
Clevver is a platform for digital internationalization of SMEs.
With Clevver SMEs can within minutes open virtual locations nearly worldwide, including an exclusive address, mailbox, telephone number, legal entity, bank account etc. And via the Clevver app they are able to manage their locations literally out of their pocket.
In short: Clevver offers SMEs all the services they need to expand quickly, easily and at lowest cost internationally.
Our role
- Exclusive Advisor for an angel financing of €640,000 with Dr. Cornelius Börsch, Volker Rofalski, Andreas Perreiter and others.
- Angel investor.
“The support may come from the beach or from a mountain top, but the bottom line is, it comes. Without Marc, we would not have been able to raise our angel round or be where we are today.”
Cashboard
Cashboard automatizes the tradition financial advisory role for retail investors, streamlining the investment process.
Cashboard offers retail investors the opportunity to invest in more than 6,500 financial products at the lowest costs, according to their investment profile.
Our role
- Provide support in €2.8 million Pre-Series A financing round with Earlybird, Redalpine, 500 Startups, Heilemann Ventures (now part of Earlybird) and Heiko Hubertz.
- Provide support in €3 million Series A financing round with Digital Space Ventures and the existing investors.
- Board member (representative of the founders in the board).
“We appreciate the experience and support we receive from the Buddies. Both have helped us considerably in our fundraising, and we therefore continue working with them. Highly recommendable.”
Climate-KIC Accelerator
- EU-Accelerator for cleantech start-up companies.
- Support with up to €95,000 in three stages about up to 18 months.
- Examples: Thermondo, Tado, emmy, MotionTag, Lilium, Volocopter, Resourcify, Zolar, Nüwiel, Enway, PlanBlue, Lumenaza, Wiferion
Our role
Lead-coach for company building, strategy development, financial planing and fundraising.
“I work with Marc for almost a year now in our Climate-KIC Accelerator and really appreciate him as an expert for fundraising. He has already coached more than 30 of our start-up companies and has developed a fundraising strategy with them, discussed and explained term sheets and has fine-tuned their pitch decks. His clear and pragmatic way helps the start-ups to focus on the main tasks. In addition, he supports with his know-how and his network the further development of our accelerator program. All in all, it is a great pleasure working with him!”
Lumenaza
Digital marketplace for local producers and consumers of electricity (“utility-in-a-box solution for distributed energy”).
Specific algorithms ensure a secure and balanced supply.
Our role
- Development of the pitch-deck.
- Sparring partner during the €1.3 million financing round with EnBW and IBB Venture Capital.
“We worked closely together with Marc during our last financing round. Marc has a strong view on the really important things and always pushed us to stay focused. Besides that he helped us quite a lot with developing a compelling pitch deck. We could close the financing successfully and still appreciate Marc’s opinion very much.”
„After ages, I got to attend such an insightful & engaging session with no bs, and it was relevant to everyone irrespective of geographies. And the way you have integrated GIFs and formal info about the landscape was the highlight. Your session was full of insights and it will always remain one of my personal favorite of this program.“
“Marc and I worked together at Innotech. I particularly appreciated his judgement, his integrity, and his no-nonsense approach, even during difficult times. I look forward to receiving new investment proposals from him and can highly recommend him to every founder.”
“We came to Berlin to check out the start-up scene and see if the buzz was a myth or a reality! And the best person to call for intros was of course Marc, who knows everyone from start-up founders, to accelerators and investors.”
„Hi Marc, it has been so great working with you through Climate KIC. You always knew how to improve what we already thought was good (but was definitely far from that :-). Learning from you, how to prepare, and receiving your feedback has been fabulous. It has been our honor!“
“I have known Marc for many years as a co-investor, fellow Board Member and friend. Over the years, I have learned and appreciated his high integrity, curiosity for new challenges and commitment to his investments, especially during difficult times. I can highly recommend Marc as a competent sparring partner and wish him and his Business Buddies all the best.”
“I’ve known Marc as an investor, founder and friend since 2007 and love to work with him. I appreciate his analytical skills, his reliability and high integrity. He is definitely a great, experienced, and highly recommendable partner for any founder.”
“I have had good experiences with the Buddies both professionally regarding investment funds and personally. They have been a valuable source of support for evaluating our business and financial plans, have extensive legal know-how and we also like to get their help for market and background research. And of course, we are always happy to receive new investment proposals from them.”
“We had received a lot of pressure from potential investors and hired Business Buddies on Friday night. By Sunday night, we had already received a correct state-of-the-art financial plan. The plan fulfills our requirements perfectly and the investor standards as well. Further, the plan enables us, to check sensitivities and run different scenarios. Great work! We would definitely hire them again.”
“Marc has helped us tremendously with the closing of our seed financing round. Furthermore, he is a sparring partner that adds significant value, is available 24×7 and has a broad network in the startup scene, both very unique.”
“The Buddies have the expertise that you, as a founder, highly appreciate. With a blend of entrepreneurial spirit and investor know-how, they give you detailed input and feedback. And when you go with them for lunch, you might find even a review about it afterwards on: http://mittagsinmitte.de“
“Marc has extensive experience as an investor as well as a founder. He is very result oriented and together with his team, delivers valuable strategic input and hands-on support when it comes to fundraising. Highly recommendable!”
“With his 10 years of experience in Venture Capital and Private Equity and 4 years of Startup experience, I have appreciate Marc’s counsel and insights very much. I value him as a good sparring partner, since he is always sincere and straightforward with his advice.”
“Marc is always my valued sparring partner for fundraising. With his analytical, straightforward approach, he has always given us valuable input and his open-minded, positive character – he never minds his words – makes him stand out from the crowd.”