SGT German
Our Mission
SGT German Private Equity is a stock market listed holding of a private equity asset manager, thus of a service provider which makes investments for its issued private equity funds, hence it acquires, fosters and sells stakes in established larger businesses after value gains have been generated. Usually, 100% of the shares of the targets are acquired. The acquired stake holdings managed by our 100% subsidiary SGT Capital Pte. Ltd. belong to a separate private equity fund for institutional investors such as pension funds, life insurances and others.
The economic goal of our business model is to generate sustainable, predictable profitability and increase the Assets under Management steadily with a high quality asset management service.
With the creation of our listed platform we are following our vision to build a significant alternative investment and private equity asset manager in Germany by exploiting long term growth potentials, also through acquisitions of further asset managers, just as various renown foreign peers have successfully proven.
SGT German Private Equity has spun-off all of its minority stakes in German startups, acquired from its history as a leading German venture capital provider under the brand German Startups Group, into its 100% subsidiary German Startups Group VC GmbH in the first half of 2020.
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OUR MANAGEMENT
Christoph Gerlinger is managing director of SGT German Private Equity GmbH & Co. KGaA, which he founded in 2012 and which until October 2020 operated under the brand of German Startups Group and was a leading German VC provider. In 2020, German Startups Group merged with SGT Capital Pte. Ltd. and became SGT German Private Equity GmbH & Co. KGaA. Christoph has gained over 20 years of management experience in the Internet industry, in which he has founded and brought to life a number of businesses. Amongst these is Frogster Interactive Pictures AG, founded in 2005, which he took public and managed as CEO for seven years. Prior to that, he was Head of Germany for Infogrames/Atari and CFO of CDV Software Entertainment, which he took public as well. Christoph was named one of the 50 most interesting founders by the German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche, was appointed external expert of the network “Digitalization” and member of the digital commission by the federal board of the CDU. The Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy has appointed Christoph as an advisory board member of “Young Digital Economy” in 2020. Christoph holds a graduate degree in Business Administration and is alumnus of Singularity University’s Executive Program class of 2017. Christoph occasionally releases own articles and gives interviews in various publications.
Supervisory Board
Bank & Capital Markets Expert
Long-standing seats on various supervisory boards, 35 years of banking experience in leading positions
More than 10 years as CEO of AXG Investment Bank and Head of Corporate Finance Commerzbank
Significantly involved in more than 40 IPOs
Investment Banker, Business Angel, M&A Expert
Founder and Managing Director of a corporate finance advisory and investment company
Former Head of Investment Banking Credit Suisse Ger/Aus, Member of the Executive Board of Dresdner Kleinwort’s investment bank, and VP JP Morgan
Lead involvement in more than 20 M&A transactions
Managing Director of an asset management firm
Private equity & venture capital expert
Managing Director of Cara Investment GmbH
As Director of INDUC GmbH and PE/VC Investment Manager at Kedge Capital long-standing experience as asset manager of various asset classes
Fund and capital markets expert
Co-founder and supervisory board chairman of Shareholder Value Management AG, an owner-managed investment specialist with focus on value stocks, based in Frankfurt
Roughly 20 years of expertise as executive board member and fund manager
Accredited advocate
SGT Capital
SGT Capital
The SGT Capital Pte. Ltd. is a global alternative investment and private equity asset manager headquartered in Singapore.
The five-member and partly German management team of SGT Capital, which was founded in 2019, consists of almost the entire senior team of the predecessor private equity company which has invested 1.2 billion USD from 2015 on over the course of two years and achieved for its fund investors a gross performance of 27.4% IRR p.a. and a return of 2.2x Money on Money (MoM) with private equity investments in Europe and the USA until early 2020. In total, the SGT Capital senior team has generated more than 1.4 billion USD in profits to investors.
For its new, sector-agnostic private equity fund „SGT Capital Fund II“ with a geographical focus on Europe and North America and fund lifetime of ten years, SGT is aiming for a target fundraising volume of 1 to 3.5 billion USD. The management team has many years of senior experience at renowned addresses – global private equity houses, management consultancies and investment banks. The merged company expects further mid- and long-term growth of its Assets under Management (AuM) beyond the initial scenarios mentioned above.
Further information can be found at www.sgt-capital.com
Our Holdings
Stakeholdings in companies that are of particular significance to German Startups Group*
GROWTH STAGE
Armedangels - Sustainable Fashion E-Commerce
AuctionTech - Online livestream technology for auctions
Chrono24 - The world's leading online market for luxury watches
Delivery Hero – Online Food Delivery Service
Fiagon - MedTech for ENT Navigation
Friendsurance – Insurance FinTech
Fyber - Mobile Advertising Monetization Strategies
Juniqe - Online Shop for Art, Apparel, and Accessories
Mister Spex – Brand Glasses Online
Onefootball - Largest online football platform
reBuy – The Easy Buy and Sell Platform
Remerge - App Retargeting
Scalable Capital - Asset Management Technology
Simplesurance – One-Click Online Insurance for Purchases
SoundCloud - Social sound platform
Wunder Mobility – Mobility technology service provider
EARLY STAGE
Amorelie - Sensual E-Commerce
CRX Markets - Supply chain finance platform
Software Solutions for review management
eWings.com – Platform for Flight Bookings
Finiata - FinTech for Factoring
Pyreg - GreenTec for Carbonisation Machinery
realbest - online transaction platform for real estate
Thinksurance - Commercial Insurance Platform
*Operationally active companies only (i.e. without special purpose vehicles). We publish investments and hence the shares of companies that are in our portfolio at our sole discretion, if and when the time is thought best by the portfolio company itself and by us. Thus, the following list raises no claim to completeness.
Down WHAT WE OFFER
In the first step, we usually invest around 100,000 Euros in the seed stage, and up to 500,000 euros in the early stage, nearly always with other co-investors. Our investments in more mature startups in the growth stage typically range from 500,000 to 2 million euros per financing round. Additionally, we are one of the few market players that also acquires ‘secondary shares’ of more mature startups from founders, business angels, and other early stage investors.
The executive team of German Startups Group consists of an entrepreneur who has experienced the relationship between founders and investors from both perspectives and believes in the necessity of strong, self-dependent, and highly incentivised entrepreneurial teams. Our structure as an operative holding company enables us to act much more flexible and with a more long-term oriented perspective compared to VC funds. For example, our investment decisions are not limited by fund periods, short investment timeframes, prohibition of majority stakes, constraints on ‘primary shares’, or specifically set investment guidelines. Our startups benefit in several respects.
With our experience from several company foundations, numerous achievements in building up companies, the structuring of countless funding rounds, various exits of our own, and one successful IPO as well as two additional ones of our CEO’s former companies, we take an active part in increasing the shareholder value of the companies we invest in. Through our majority stake in the digital agency Exozet, we offer our portfolio companies access to an extensive range of services – from the realisation of complex web, iOS, and Android applications through the development of online marketing campaigns, strategic consulting on brand development, modifying business models, and selecting technology up to blockchain applications and ICO’s. In addition to venture capital, young entrepreneurs can access the theoretical and practical knowledge, wealth of entrepreneurial experience and long-standing contacts that are based on the mutual trust of the team of German Startups Group.
ENTREPRENEURIAL PARTNERSHIP
Down WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
THINK BIG
We are looking for talented entrepreneurs with knowledge, courage, and passion, who create a highly scalable company based on a disruptive product or business model. Traction or revenues that are already verifiable are a plus. We also acquire secondary shares of the founders, business angels, and other early investors of more mature companies.
Down PITCH US YOUR IDEA
ARE YOU A PASSIONATE ENTREPRENEUR WITH A HIGHLY SCALABLE, DISRUPTIVE IDEA? CONVINCE US WITH YOUR PITCH!
Contact us at pitch@german-startups.comDown Our Entrepreneurs
GUNNAR FROH GUNNAR FROH
FOUNDER WUNDER MOBILITYGunnar Froh is the founder and CEO at Wunder Mobility Europe’s fastest-growing mobility technology company. Founded in 2014, the company is providing turn-key solutions that enable companies and cities worldwide to provide clean, convenient, and accessible mobility. Gunnar previously worked at Airbnb, where he played a leading role in its international expansion until the end of 2013. Airbnb acquired Accoleo in 2011, a residential marketplace he founded in 2009. Prior to this, Gunnar gained experience as a consultant at McKinsey and founded the non-profit car-sharing organization CampusCar. “Wunder Mobility has benefitted from German Startups Group's support — from seed-funding to today — as we have grown into the global leader in SaaS for new mobility.”
LEA LANGE LEA LANGE
FOUNDER JUNIQE
Lea Lange could not have founded a startup that suits her better since the online shop for affordable art, apparel, and accessories combines three of her strengths: her economic know-how, the experiences she had already gained in this market segment, and, last but not least, her enthusiasm for art and design. She acquired her management and sales expertise during her studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the University of St. Gallen, and the ESADE Business School in Barcelona as well as at the consulting firms Ernst & Young and Roland Berger. Subsequently, at the age of only 24, she was presented with the opportunity to combine her entrepreneurial knowledge with her love for art, and, to top it off, gain valuable experience in the strategic planning of a design e-commerce store: She was appointed Executive Director Strategy & Analytics for the European business of FAB. There Lea Lange discovered that art prints enjoy great popularity with customers; yet require little logistics expenditures and therefore offer high margins. Based on these insights she founded Juniqe, the online shop for affordable art, along with Marc Pohl and Sebastian Hasebrink, which has already expanded into several countries shortly after its foundation.
DIRK GRABER DIRK GRABER
CEO MISTER SPEXDirk Graber knew early on that entrepreneurship would be his calling. During his studies of business administration, which he conducted in Marbug, Leipzig, Moscow, and Hong Kong, he completed internships at eBay and Jamba – still emerging startups at the time. The energetic spirit of the young companies made him take the decision to one day found his own startup. After Dirk Graber had gained further experience as business consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, in 2007 he decided on founding an online optician called Mister Spex. Even though he wears glasses himself, his choice had purely economic reasons: Roughly half of all Germans wear glasses. They are sold at high average prices, and correspondingly at high margins, and require comparably low storage costs. Additionally, online sales presented the possibility of breaking down the extreme price intransparency of the established opticians. The success has proved him right. In its tenth year after its foundation, Mister Spex is the leading online optician in Europe and already active in ten countries, according to their own records.
FRANK ZAHN FRANK ZAHN
CEO EXOZETFrank Zahn represents the SMEs among the founders. He laid the foundation for his Internet agency Exozet some 18 years ago – before the word “startup” even meant something in Germany. Since then, he has turned his agency for “Creative Technologies” into one of the market leaders in the online, media, and entertainment sector and employs approximately 140 staff. His advice is also coveted by representatives of politics and business, amongst others as chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry committee “Digital Economy” and as member of the advisory board of the Investitionsbank and the Berlin Cross Innovation Advisory Board of the Berlin Senate. Not only is he one of the pioneers within the German startup landscape, with Exozet as the first tenant after the reopening, he is also a pioneer of the Berlin Tempelhof Airport. “We have waited for a long time to include an investor, but German Startups Group has convinced us with their entrepreneurial verve.”
LEA-SOPHIE CRAMER LEA-SOPHIE CRAMER
CEO AMORELIE
Typical for high-potential founders of the digital economy, Lea-Sophie Cramer held several key roles before she took the calculated path towards her own startup. After completing her business studies in Mannheim and her study visit in Japan, she was lured away from the Boston Consulting Group to the incubation giant Rocket Internet, where she was quickly named Vice President for Asia. Subsequently, she shared the responsibility for 1,200 employees in 11 different countries across Asia in a similar role for the discount platform Groupon – at this stage, she was 24. After meticulous analysis of the German e-commerce market, she saw a gap that would garner her buoyant interest from the press: an online lifestyle shop for sensual sex products. She founded the shop at the end of 2012 under the name of Amorelie together with her co-founder Sebastian Pollock. Following strong growth and an extensive TV campaign of the e-commerce company, Lea-Sophie Cramer received the Victress Award as a “female role model in Germany who possesses convincing business ideas and strong vision” and, in addition, has been appointed to the board of administration and advisory board of Conrad Electronics at the beginning of 2014. “Just as cars need fuel, founders need the right investors in order to move forward with the right combination!”
JAN THIEL JAN THIEL
CEO AUCTIONTECHThe founder and CEO of our portfolio company AuctionTech, Jan Thiel, is a real cosmopolitan, not only in his private life. After graduating from high school, he moved to France, England and Spain, where he completed his Masters in Management (ESCP-EAP) and afterwards his MBA (INSEAD). Meanwhile, after various positions as a Business Development Manager at the international mobile phone provider Orange and after 9 years as a Strategy Consultant at McKinsey in London, Jan speaks five languages and has travelled to over 60 different countries. In 2012, this path finally led him to Auctionata, the world’s largest online auction house for art and luxury goods, which he co-founded and managed for five years, where he was instrumental involved in international expansion and building up global partnerships. When the Auctionata Group had to be wound up due to a failed takeover of an US competitor, Jan saw this unfortunate situation as an opportunity to lift Auctionata's unique technical legacy and rebuild it together with its former core team in a new start-up as a pure software provider. With the help of German Startups Group, which bought the technology IP out of the Auctionata insolvency estate, Jan and his team succeeded in founding today's AuctionTech, successfully expanding the former core product of Auctionatas to other segments such as real estate auctions. “When it came to the point of founding a second start-up together with an investor, German Startups Group was at the top of the list! Above all, the entrepreneurial spirit, the outstanding network and the unrestricted and pragmatic support are what distinguish German Startups Group and its team.”Down Our Partners
