Venturepreneurs'

Last year we wrote a blog entry about “Entrepreneurship in Davos and the year ahead”. Entrepreneurship was a leading topic in last year’s discussions, especially because many politicians saw it as a way out of the crisis. After one year we can say that entrepreneurship has been a buzz word for many and we’ve seen amazing things happening from Silicon Valley to the “Mediterranean Valley”. LinkedIn has gone public and now Facebook is following. Skype has been acquired by Microsoft and hundreds of events around entrepreneurship are taking place! It has been a great pleasure to see that at the 2012 World Economic Forum in Davos, Global Entrepreneurship had its own section on the website - further proof of the growing importance.

Although as they say, not all that glitters is gold, in his recent blog post in the Harvard Business Review, Daniel Isenberg argues that entrepreneurship (innovative, high-growth and job creation) is not what is really talked about. Too much focus is placed on self-employment and small businesses that are enough to sustain an individual or a family, but don’t create the type of growth and job creation necessary to make a dent in a country’s economy. Below we will explore what has been said at Davos 2012 and throughout the year see if words have turned into action – something entrepreneurs are very good at doing!

Entrepreneurship and the future

There has been a lot of talk by Klaus Schwab at Davos about the future; the future of jobs, the future of youth, the future of the environment and it seems like all the roads lead to Rome entrepreneurship. Sometimes explicitly, other times inexplicitly, entrepreneurs and innovation have been mentioned as the solution to growth, job creation, saving the environment and in general as those capable of making a dream/idea a reality. On a personal note, we want to remind you that the idea is important, but the successful entrepreneur is the one that can gather the right talent around him/herself and can execute!

Is entrepreneurship the 21st Century career?

At Davos an extremely positive attitude could be seen from everyone when it comes to entrepreneurs. It’s almost as if entrepreneurship has become a career. One can now study entrepreneurship at university and take an idea to an incubator, receive courses around pitching to investors, go to events, grow the company and sell it. It has become somewhat of a structured path like building a CV, to go and work for a big firm. In addition we have seen that the rewards of building a successful startup can be huge with all the investments and exits that are available today. Obviously huge rewards are also linked to greater risk – something important to keep in mind.

Barriers to entry & commoditization of entrepreneurship

The rise of information technology, globalization and increased knowledge sharing have been crucial factors in allowing teams and individuals to find the skill sets needed to create cheap prototypes of their main products that ride the wave of platforms like Facebook or the iPhone. As a result we are seeing many small players creating apps, social games and other software or hardware at a fraction of a cost leveraging resources and talent from different countries and with the advantage of not having to move from behind a computer.

This is all very beautiful, but some key questions arise; are we creating sustainable value or seasonal companies with seasonal apps? Is there valuable intellectual property and ideas that change the world or are we simply fueling a consumer, mindless society? And most importantly, are we blurring the lines between a family bakery and a 3 person developer team with an app selling for €0.99 cents and both with a revenue of €300.000/year?

There seem to be more and more young entrepreneurs, some are high-growth, status-quo changers, many are lifestyle entrepreneurs that are happy creating small enterprises that will stay small. What is apparent is that politicians and world leaders don’t distinguish enough from the two. Both are important and essential, but policies need to differ and the future Facebook, Google, cancer curing company cannot be treated the same as a cupcake store. We want to see a greater support towards those entrepreneurs and startups that will change the world and world leaders are not doing enough, as it was apparent in Davos where entrepreneurship was in everyone’s speeches, but on no one’s agenda!

In 2011, the technological progress was remarkable. The world of Smartphones and tablets has further evolved. We can’t imagine a world without these changing technologies anymore and we are curious about upcoming trends and innovations. We made a little forecast of the hottest technological trends for 2012. This year we will surely see some new disruptive technology, but some predictions can be made based on what we have seen in 2011.

Cloud Computing

With examples like Apple’s growing iCloud, Cloud Computing will be one of the hottest continuing trends for 2012. It was introduced in 2011 and a lot more seems to come. The security of cloud computing could also be an area of opportunity. While the market remains in its early stages in 2011 and 2012, it will see large enterprise providers fully engaged in delivering a range of offerings to build cloud environments and deliver cloud services such as the successful Startup Nephoscale. It’s a cloud company, which has its own data center and sells on demand. The global cloud computing market will presumably reach $241 billion in 2020 compared to $40.7 billion in 2010 (source: Forrester Research).

Tablet Computers

Tablets consolidated their presence on the market in 2011 after a successful entry in 2010. Inquiries for tablet computers are constantly rising and the iPad 2 shows record-breaking sales revenues for the 4th quarter of 2011. The tablet market is expected to grow to $35 billion by 2012 (source: Reuters).

Online Storage

The amount of data in our world has been exceeding human expectations and analyzing large data sets will become a key in leading to new waves of productivity growth, innovation, and consumer surplus. Managing big data sets will require new technologies such as in-memory DBMS (Database Management System) which will make analytics and data warehousing faster. DBMS is a software package with computer programs that control the creation, maintenance, and use of a database. Online Storage Providers like Dropbox, Carbonite or Box are likely to have huge success in 2012. New startups and other small businesses will make use of these Service Providers and therefore we anticipate a bright future for Online Storage.

Contextual & Social User Experience

Context-aware computing uses information about a user’s environment, activities, connections and preferences to improve the quality of interaction with the end-user. The contextual application anticipates our requirements based on information such as our current location, temperature, activity calendar or even current TV show being watched. It can help build skills in augmented reality, model-driven security and ensemble applications. Social information is also becoming a major source of contextual information to enhance delivery of search results or the operation of applications.

Mobile Apps & App Stores

The Mobile App World continues to grow and now more than ever before people believe to be able to make a fortune by programming an App. This hype is likely to continue in 2012. Many organisations feel the urge to make use of mobile apps and start creating their own corporate apps. Global mobile application store revenues are about to reach $15 billion in 2011, and are expected to grow to $58 billion by 2014 (source: Gartner).

App stores by Apple and Android provide marketplaces where millions of applications are available to mobile users. According to Gartner Android reached a market share of 52,5 % in Q3 with iOS (15,0%) and RIM (11,0%) being far behind. Android’s growth in 2011 is remarkable and is very likely to continue in 2012.

The forecast indicates that by 2014 there will be more than 70 billion mobile application downloads from app stores every year. The role of IT may shift from a centralized planner to a market manager providing governance and brokerage services to users.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality can be seen in games, location apps and can also be used to search for coffee shops or other locations. An example of an app using this kind of Augmented Reality is WorkSnug, a startup connecting mobile workers to the nearest and best places to work in cities around the world. In future it will be seen related to various different products. Augmented Reality puts a virtual view on top of your real world. Looking up a restaurant in your neighborhood gets a complete new touch and is becoming a real experience. Use tools such as Yelp to see its location, to search for reviews and other restaurants right on top of your on-screen view of the street. Mobile Augmented Reality will show substantial growth and is definitely one of the key trends, not only for 2012. A report from Visiongain indicated that 25% of all app downloads will include some sort of augmented reality.

Internet Television

According to media reports Apple is negotiating with media companies about iTV, Apple’s television. Apple’s intention here is to join competition with Cupertino’s Google TV. The Apple TV is expected to come in two different screen sizes (32 and 37 inches). Almost certainly iTV will integrate its voice recognition system Siri. Customers will be able to control the television with their iPhones and iPads. iTV users will be able to stream films and music via iTunes. According to his biography Apple TV was the last big project of Apple Mastermind Steve Jobs who regrettably passed away last year. A lot of people are very curious about iTV and we’ll see in 2012 how it’s going to be perceived by its potential customers.

2012 will definitely bring some new innovative technologies and we can already see huge progress in the mobile sector and it seems to be only the beginning. We’ll observe these tech trends in 2012 and see whether there will be new ones to be discovered.

This year has been exciting for entrepreneurship in terms of numbers, news, conferences and enthusiasm. It seems like there is a ‘must-attend’ conference every week and that startups get created and bought out on a daily basis at valuations we have never seen before. Back in June Steve Blank stated that we were seeing the beginning of a bubble but it was not necessarily a bad thing because we see investments in new technologies. Six months down the road we have not seen the bubble burst yet, but who knows what will happen in 2012?

Startup cities

The advantage that we have in Europe is the variety of countries,  cities, people and cultures. Very interestingly both the Wall Street Journal and Wired reported about the different entrepreneurial cities of Europe; Barcelona, Berlin, Moscow, Tallinn, and more. What is obvious is that each of these ecosystems is seeing a wave of 1st generation or 2nd generation entrepreneurs with good ideas, good teams and anxious to change the status quo. 

Events

We are seeing a growing numbers of local and international events in Europe.  Those that want to go to important international conferences can do that. There is NOAH in London, LeWeb in Paris, and SIME now in Stockholm, Vienna, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Helsinki. Then there are very local or geographic base conferences like Seedcamp and Startup Europe and big award ceremonies like Techcrunch or more niche and very selective summits like F.ounders, White Bull and our own Venturepreneurs’ Summit. It is so motivating and inspiring seeing Europe unifying at these events and work together for entrepreneurship.

EU Emerging stars

In the past years there has been a lot of talk about Europe being the copycat factory of Silicon Valley startups. We don’t doubt that many have copied ideas from the USA, but 2011 has been a year where EU originals stepped on the world stage because of their achievements. Spotify is the music sensation of the web and has now landed in the USA. Skype has been sold to Microsoft in an $8.5 Billion deal. There are hundreds of original startups emerging from Europe - from enterprise software to mobile apps to new internet services and biotech. In the past years these startups have raised money and they are now ready to internationalize and become leaders in their industry.

EU Copycats

Albeit a wave of innovation we do still see many copycats. This is a reality of Europe and not necessarily a bad one. Copycats are not always unimaginative or not innovative. Copying an idea in the same place where it started is much different than copying an idea in a new market with different languages, culture and so on. In addition it creates competition, a necessity to somehow differentiate itself, jobs and experience. Todays copycats could be tomorrow’s innovators and the experience gained by the founder and the team around him can just help the next generation of entrepreneurs. 

2011 was a big year and 2012 might be even bigger. Silicon Valley has always been a step ahead but Europe is catching up at a fast pace and creating a unique and borderless environment. Now entrepreneurs can finally choose where to start a company. Capital, talent, infrastructure, networking, advisors and all the pieces of the puzzle can be found here. Therefore make 2012 the year of the entrepreneurs!

The Venturepreneurs had their 8th summit in Vienna from the 2nd to the 4th of October. This time around the summit took place in conjunction with the Vienna Startup Week 2011. Not only did two of our Venturepreneurs – Oliver Holle and Markus Wagner – inspire and push forward the conference; Jose Marin, Jan Andresen and Christian Mandl also participated as speakers and lecturers for the entrepreneurs.

The Summit saw more than one novelty, from format to location to members. For the first time the summit was held outside of the Barcelona area. In the future this will become a tradition. One out of the two yearly summits will take place in a European entrepreneurial capital. The purpose is to meet new entrepreneurs and get to know the trends and markets all over Europe.

We are also very happy to announce the addition of a new Venturepreneur, Dirk Freise, founder of blau.de. He is a very successful entrepreneur and investor in the telecommunications/mobile space. Dirk is from Hamburg and manages blau.de which got sold to KPN, one of the biggest phone operators in Europe.

The structure of the summits has also slightly changed to reflect the feedback and the evolution of the organisation. For the first time the Venturepreneurs will create their own investment fund: the Venturepreneurs’ Fund will be a pan-European investment fund. For more information about this stay tuned, you don’t want to miss out on the opportunity of being selected to receive this important investment.

We are very happy that the Venturepreneurs are making giant leaps into transforming the summits into a regular and valuable experience. The organisation is growing at a sustainable and controlled level from a quantity point of view and exponentially from a qualitative perspective. We thank each and everyone for attending and participating and look forward to seeing you back in Barcelona in May 2012 for the 9th Summit!

One of our Venturepreneurs, Rodolfo Carpintier, was interviewed by the magazine Emprendedores the last 20th of September 2011. He is a serial entrepreneur with over 27 years of experience in the Internet industry, an active Venturepreneur member and founder of the Internet incubator DaD. In the interview, Rodolfo shares different perspectives on the situation of the industry and on his experience as an investor.

We have summarized for you the main topics of the interview:

DaD – The Internet Incubator
After his experience in Netjuice, Rodolfo created DaD, a 2.0 Internet incubator. Rodolfo explained the process the projects go through in DaD. From more or less 700 project proposals received, they finally decide to invest in 7. Sometimes they help the entrepreneur to build up his corporate team and usually hold 15-25% participation. They usually accompany the entrepreneur along the different stages (from start until exit) for about 5 years. A hint on how to get into DaD? Show that you are an entrepreneur but also have management skills!

An overlook on the Internet industry
According to Rodolfo, the industry has changed significantly during the last years. It used to be very costly to invest in technology in the early days whereas now with €50,000  you can easily get the technology.
The success of projects like Tuenti or BuyVip has increased the number of Business Angels in Spain. It’s not true that there is no money for new projects. There are very few people who are ready to analyze technological projects and thus it’s difficult for technological projects to get funds.
 
To invest or not to invest
First of all, the project needs to be scalable, which means that it will generate average revenues of €200 million after 5 years. To see a balanced team is also a key factor when analyzing a project. It’s very important for entrepreneurs to know how to sell the idea.

Rodolfo explained that a couple of times in DaD they have rejected projects, which later on they realized they were worth the investment, but the initial valuation was too high.

Entrepreneurs’ common mistakes
An unbalanced team and the wrong business model can lead the entrepreneur and the venture on the wrong path. The first common mistake is that entrepreneurs sometimes feel they can handle it by themselves. Secondly relying 100% on advertising and not defining other revenue sources is also a frequent error amongst Internet entrepreneurs. At least 75 % of the revenue should come from other sources.
Experienced Venturepreneur
Rodolfo has been an investor and entrepreneur in the Internet industry for a long time. As an entrepreneur he created two Internet incubators and as an investor  he has been involved in three important Spanish Internet projects of the last decade: BuyVip, Tuenti and Xplane.

The interview provides the reader with very interesting and sound insights of the situation of Internet and start-up these days. We are very proud to have such an experienced member amongst our organisation. Great interview, Rodolfo! 

It has now been 4 years since the existence of the Venturepreneurs’ Organisation. It was 2007 when Christopher Pommerening, Philipp Schroeder and Ricard Soderberg coined the term “Venturepreneur”. The whole concept and organisation are based on very simple but deep and solid ideas. A Venturpreneur is an entrepreneur who also acts as private investor. The Venturepreneurs’ Organisation has the mission to group international Venturepreneurs together.

All of this might seem as any other entrepreneurial association or business angel network, but the reality is that there is a very powerful underlying concept. Unlike a business angel, which term has become very broad, the Venturepreneur Organisation searches for those individuals who have created their own ventures and are now investing actively into new ventures. The added value of a Venturepreneur is the entrepreneurial experience that comes with the investment. Advice is as important as money in a startup as a fragile idea is being implemented into a marketable product or service. This is where the role of the Venturepreneur can really stand out in both experience and network of contacts.

Four years ago it is not to say that Venturepreneurs didn’t exist, in fact many famous entrepreneurs once they finished their first project went on to create a new one and also invested in others. The difference lies in the recognition of such added value and in the “formalisation” of such a term and role.

Since the inception of the organisation the idea has received recognition and the membership is growing at a good controlled base. We now count more than 25 Venturepreneurs from 11 different countries. Each Venturepreneur has an average of 8 investments and has created various companies with many successful exits. All of a sudden one realises the value and worth of these individuals.

The Venturepreneurs will meet for their 8th Summit in Vienna on the 2nd of October. The summits take place twice per year in fall and spring. We have decided this time to have it in Vienna, unlike the usual Barcelona area, because it will take place in conjunction with the Vienna Startup Week.

We are happy that we got some press coverage on Rodolfo Carpintier’s blog, he is also a Venturepreneur in the organisation and it would be a safe bet to say he is the most experienced and gives the group valuable wisdom. From Carpintier’s blog entry also Pablo Martinez from Todostartups.com wrote about the concept of Venturepreneurship. We like to see the concept gain more awareness because entrepreneurs need to know that Venturepreneurs are special individuals who can give added value to a startup and make a difference between success and failure.

The 7th Summit of the Venturepreneurs’ Organization took place from the 5th to the 7th of May in Sitges. The main venue of the summit was the spectacular Hotel Dolce. Breathtaking views of the sea and the beach town set the stage for a very productive and enjoyable gathering. 

The working sessions took place in a beautiful conference room facing Sitges and the sea. There were 19 Venturepreneurs that came from different parts of Spain, Germany, Austria, France, Sweden, Romania, Croatia, Mexico and Holland.
 
The Venturepreneurs had 4 distinct sessions during this time:

Session 1:

A short introduction of the new members who just joined the Venturepreneurs’ Organization combined with an update from the existing Venturepreneurs is always a must at the Summits. Here the members describe their “Best & Worst” of their past 6 months in a few minutes in order for others to understand on a professional and personal level where each member stands.                            

Session 2:

The Venturepreneurs are combining their efforts to implement a common project that will enable them to foster entrepreneurship on an international level. As these individuals cover more than 10 international markets around 3 continents they rely on well-established and powerful networks that can really make a difference. We will keep you posted on this project that will make a big difference for seed and start-up entrepreneurs in Europe. 
            
Session 3:

A very important section of the summit is for every Venturepreneur to share what s/he needs (contacts, knowledge, experiences, etc.) in the professional and/or personal life. Each member can share 3 needs and present them to the group and then the others can volunteer to offer their lead on a specific issue.
 
Session 4:

The Venturepreneurs are have gathered many years of experience and are experts in their fields. None-the-less they are also individuals that like to grow companies, people and themselves on a constant basis. This year we invited two highly regarded professionals in order to share their insights with the Venturepreneurs. Verne Harnish, experienced entrepreneur and expert in high-growth companies with Gazelles, and Jose Mestres, Managing Director at Blackstone and expert in the M&A and IPO fields, had rich discussions with the Venturepreneurs. Verne Harnish gave a lot of advice to the Venturepreneurs regarding both their professional and personal lives. A key takeaway is to remember to dedicate time to the venture but without disregarding the wife and children in the family. Jose Mestres gave a very informative talk outlining IPO and M&A strategies and suggesting that now-a-days M&A is a preferred exit for a tech entrepreneur while IPOs are very cyclical and tend to follow the economic patterns of a country.

It was a summit enriched by ideas, facts, figures and especially people. What matters is value and this is what the Venturepreneurs’ found in this summit.  We are happy to announce that the next Summit will take place in Vienna and we all look forward to the next October 2011 Summit – “Venturepreneurs go Wien”!

Every year the World Economic Forum takes place in Davos. This global event was founded in 1971 by Klaus Schwab and has now become the global platform where business executives, political leaders, activists and thought leaders get together to improve the state of the world. Wide arrays of topics are discussed and this year entrepreneurship took the centre stage in many discussions. Below follows a synthesis of the role of entrepreneurship in 2011 and the future to improve the global economy and society.

Entrepreneurship in Medvedev’s Keynote speech

Entrepreneurship not only took the centre stage at the forum but has been mentioned from the beginning as Russia’s President Medvedev opened up the annual meeting with his keynote speech. His words made it clear that the private sector not only solves crisis in the short term but is the only way forward in the longer term. Russia is trying to develop innovative entrepreneurship by creating a “Russian Silicon Valley” called Skolkovo, previously mentioned in our blog. In addition new legislation is being drafted to foster entrepreneurship to allow new ventures to have “preferential treatment”.

From Russia to The Entrepreneurship Imperative

The Entrepreneurship Imperative has been the title of a panel where the importance of taught entrepreneurship was discussed. The panel argued that entrepreneurship needs to be taught not as a subject but as a state of mind on a global level. From primary education to business schools a model where risk taking is encouraged alongside sustainable development and the generation of entrepreneurs rather than managers.

Another key issue discussed was the idea that in order to be a sustainable entrepreneur one needs to be able to deal with failure understanding that the world’s success stories are the point of a much bigger iceberg. In addition role models are encouraged to take an active participation in fostering entrepreneurship and teaching that the importance of new ventures is not only money but job creation and the spread of certain values. An important fact from the panel is that SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) are the top employers in the world, not multinational corporations!

Entrepreneurship as the Pillar for the Middle-East growth

The Middle-East is “blessed” with a young and fast growing population, but this can be a double-edge sword if there is little job creation. Further this region has a climate that limits supply of water and food. Some countries are blessed with oil and gas fields, but these will not last forever. Innovative entrepreneurship in the fields of water and agriculture as well as in major tech and biotech industries are seen as a must for this region to increase employment and steer away from social unrest.

This panel of experts discussed the importance of teaching entrepreneurship related skills to foster this body of knowledge and parity of opportunities to both genders and all income groups. The panel also reinforced that the legal structures and institutions that are in place in these countries should shift to create a better environment for taking risks, creating new ventures and ease bankruptcy procedure.

Scaling-up Big Ideas & Social Entrepreneurship

Big ideas and social entrepreneurship are a hard match, but very possible according to this panel, what is needed is a pinch of help from multinationals and some willingness to give away some control. It’s a challenge to set up local social ventures and survive for long, so one can imagine the challenge it can be to scale existing social ventures to reach more people in dispersed geographic locations. The panel spoke of two examples where social entrepreneurs teamed up with corporations to implement social projects. The first example given was Coca-Cola producing the “Mango Haiti Hope Juice” while the second example was with Cemex selling concrete at cost to develop communities where the people put in their labour. The reality is that in both example the social entrepreneurs had to make the sacrifices to give away a lot of the power in order for the projects to be carried ahead. In order to scale in such a manner or by creating partnerships and franchises the social entrepreneur must give away some control and power for the good of the project.

Listed were some of the insights into entrepreneurship at Davos and what the world intellectual elite is thinking. Some ongoing themes appear that entrepreneurship is what keeps countries growing by providing jobs and in turns diminishes the chances of social unrest. In parallel, policies, decisions and actions that impede entrepreneurship are harmful on a short and long term perspective. The real issue though is not whether entrepreneurship is bad or good or if it should or shouldn’t be implemented. The question is how can entrepreneurship values be taught to increase the rate of entrepreneurship and the positive values around it?

Our Venturepreneurs are individuals with great insight into the world of entrepreneurship, start-ups, investments and much more. For this reason the first Venturepreneurs’ Organization Online Video Channel has been created with the intention of recording these valuable insights and allowing viewers to learn from this content.

The channel will feature various topics, from Company Creation to M&A to Team Management. Below is a list of the first Venturepreneurs who have been interviewed: 

Christopher Pommerening – German Founding Managing Partner of Active Venture Capital, also Founder of the Venturepreneurs’ Organization explains why the Venturepreneur is the ideal investor for any seed entrepreneur and the added values s/he can bring. See Video

Jan Andresen – German Founder and CEO of Veeseo talks about Mergers and Acquisitions, the right timing and the importance of an M&A Advisor. See video

Albert Armengol – Spanish Founder of eConozco (acquired by Xing) and co-Founder & CEO of Doctoralia shares his experience about the importance of knowing and understanding how financing works in a start-up. See video

Dušan Stojanović – European with with a Swedish passport (as he describes himself) is a very active Venturepreneur in many start-ups including Alternativa.fr, Prowebce.com, Payson.se, Chapatiz.com, Adriatic-home.com and Lightagency.se highlights the importance of focusing on sales in a start-up. See video

Oliver Holle – Austrian Founder and CEO of themerger.com a services company that helps similar sized, complimentary tech companies merge together.  Oliver speaks about the benefits of mergers between such companies. See video

Karl Funke – German Founder of A.M.I.G. Aguilares-Muro Investments GmbH explains the importance of assessing managers, executives and people in the company and the importance of the “gut” feeling when targets are not met. See video

Richard Murbeck – Swedish Founder and Chairman of Seavus talks about the art of catching the opportunity when it appears. See video

We have also done a general mood video of the 6th Venturepreneurs’ Summit that took place in Castelldefels. This video gives an idea of the ambience at these unique gathering and the special mix between hard work and the pleasure of enjoying life. Our Venturepreneurs are unique individuals that understand the sacrifice of work, but also understand the importance of living life. See Video

ACTIVE Venture Partners SGECR (“ACTIVE”), one of the market leaders in Spain in the venture capital tech scene, announced their second fund; ACTIVE Venture II F.C.R. (ACTIVE Venture II) that adds up to a total of €25,000,000.

ACTIVE Venture II has on board the top European private and institutional investors. More than 50% of the capital derives from a group of 3 private investors (Family Offices) and the managing team’s own funds. The remaining sum comes from NEOTEC CAPITAL RIESGO SOCIEDAD DE FONDOS SA, promoted by CDTI, participated and managed by the EUROPEAN INVETSMENT FUND and by Axis/ICO through their fund FESPYME FCR.

The partners and managers of ACTIVE, Christopher Pommerening, Philipp Schroeder, Ricard Söderberg and Blair MacLaren, are vey satisfied with their investors and having been able to make their first close during 2010. ACTIVE is one of the few European venture firms that have been able to close a fund in the last 18 months, as it has been a complicated time for fundraising.

ACTIVE plans to have their second closing for the ACTIVE Venture II fund in march 2011. The management team is already negotiating with new investors for the next close and has already secured additional commitments.

ACTIVE’s Venture II strategy is to invest two thirds of the fund in Spain and the rest in Europe with a special focus on Germany and Scandinavia. The sector focus is on internet, software telecommunications and energy efficiency. ACTIVE specialises in the start-up and expansion phases and the investments oscillate between €500,000 and €4,000,000.

ACTIVE Venture II has already invested in Oooferton (www.oooferton.com) the e-commerce live shopping company, the first of its kind in Spain

About ACTIVE Venture Partners SGECR: www.active-vp-com

ACTIVE is a managing company that manages venture capital funds registered with the CNMV. ACTIVE is one of the first international venture capital companies in Barcelona. Investments are directed towards technology companies based in Europe that are either in the start-up or expansion phase. In addition active supports the portfolio companies by offering strategic and operational advise experiences and access to an international network of contacts. Being entrepreneurs themselves, the founding management team of ACTIVE created the Venturepreneurs’ Organization that unites the know-how and experience of serial entrepreneurs that also invests in the seed phases of a company. ACTIVE manages the fund Molins Capital Inversion SCR and Active Venture II F.C.R. with total assets under management of €45,000,000.