Press release as of
07 August 2017

GS_Group_old

 

+++ Press release +++

German Startups Group still strongly believes in SoundCloud

  • – Due to prior precaution, even in case of a downround no significant negative effect on the balance sheet of German Startups Group

Berlin, 07 August 2017 – German Startups Group, the most active private venture capital provider in Germany in the time period since 2012 (CB Insights2015, PitchBook 2016),is indirectly invested in SoundCloud through a Special Purpose Vehicle for several years. SoundCloud is one of the best known and most successful German startups, founded by two Swedes in Berlin and employing nearly 250 people in offices in Berlin and New York. With approx. 175m unique users and a music catalogue of far more than 135m tracks SoundCloud ranks among the biggest music streaming platforms worldwide. SoundCloud’s uniqueness and one of the reasons for German Startups Group’s investment at that time sits in its vast repertoire of user generated content, e.g. DJ mixes, remixes, demos, etc., which is why SoundCloud is often titled Youtube for music by the media while competitors rather get compared to Netflix. Despite the overwhelming success of its product SoundCloud’s careful approaches of monetising it haven’t been yielding enough, yet. In March 2017 SoundCloud succeeded in raising a venture loan of 70m USD.

For a few days now, there are persistent rumours of a so called downround financing round with a valuation of 300m to 320m USD. Due to a prior precautionary mark-down, even in case of such downround there will be no significant negative effect on the balance sheet of German Startups Group but only amounting to around 1% of its balance sheet total.

However, the management of German Startups Group is still convinced of SoundCloud’s excellent chances to establish itself as sustainable leading music streaming provider in the market. In this case, enormous value appreciation chances do exist.

 

Investor Relations Kontakt
German Startups Group
Marcel Doeppes
ir@sgt-germanpe.com
www.sgt-germanpe.com

 

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German Startups Group – We Love Startups!

The German Startups Group, a publicly traded company comprises one of the leading VC providers in Germany with a digital agency employing 150 staff in Berlin. With a focus on Germany’s young, fast growing companies – so called startups – the company acquires majority and minority shareholdings by providing venture capital. The core investment focus is on those tech companies whose products or business models include disruptive innovation, allow for a high degree of scalability and are run by strong entrepreneurial management teams. Since it commenced operations in 2012, German Startups Group has built a diversified portfolio of stakes in such companies and has become the most active private venture capital investor in Germany (CB Insights 2015, Pitchbook 2016). With the launch of G|S Market™ via a wholly owned subsidiary German Startups Market GmbH, the company operates a secondary market platform for tech assets since June 2018. Its majority holding, German Startups Asset Management GmbH, will launch its own novel type VC funds in the future and provide SPVs for G|S Market™ on the acquirer side in order to enable several investors to acquire larger investment opportunities through pooled investments.

 

More information at https://sgt-germanpe.com/.