TheStartup.eu

High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), DuMont Venture and bAV Consult have sold their stakes in northworks Software to games provider Travian Games in early March.

Now, the same High-Tech Gründerfonds, now together with RapidTainment, have also made a seven figure seed round in online game company UP Web Game GmbH.
“People enjoy playing with each other,” the founders Ibrahim Evsan and Thomas Bachem comment “and the Internet makes it possible to realize completely new concepts.” Evsan and Bachem have developed the idea behind the game since 2005, until they put it aside for some time in order to found the video platform sevenload. “However, we are entrepreneurs, and sometimes you can’t let an idea go. This game is one of those very special projects, and we are happy to finally implement it together with strong partners”.

Tobias Hartmann, who joined end of 2009 as co-founder: “Our two investors complement each other perfectly. RapidTainment AG is a very powerful partner with an exciting strategic vision, while HTGF contributes an excellent VC network and a high degree of professionalism”.

ClickandBuy is to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG. Via its venture capital company, T-Venture, Deutsche Telekom has held shares in ClickandBuy since 2006 and currently owns 20.2 per cent of its shares.

Other investors included Intel Capital and 3i. Deutsche Telekom has now acquired all remaining shares in the internet payment service provider ClickandBuy. The agreement was finalized yesterday. The supervisory bodies of the companies concerned and the UK’s Finacial Services  Authority (FSA) have already approved the process.

Klaus Konrad, Investment Director of Intel Capital: “ClickandBuy has become one of the top three online payment providers in the world and is a European investment success story.This shows that even in challenging economic periods, it is possible to grow top performing organizations through great management and the right investment strategy.”

ClickandBuy’s CEO, Charles Fraenkl, welcomed the deal: “Our minority shareholders T-Venture and Intel Capital with their dedication and commitment have contributed a lot to the success and growth of ClickandBuy.With the support of our new shareholder, ClickandBuy, already one of today’s leading providers of online payments solutions, will continue to strengthen and expand its market position in the future. ClickandBuy is in an exceptionally good position and is very happy about the huge advantages this synergy contains regarding the realisation of its global strategic goals which will be made possible through the involvement of Deutsche Telekom.”

ClickandBuy is one of the leading payment services in the internet.Certified by McAfee and tested by Germany’s Technical Inspection and Testing Association (TUV), this online payment system is used for internet purchases by over 13 million people. Having doubled its turnover generated by traders and end customers to EUR 922 million (TTV) in 2008, the ClickandBuy Group first crossed the billion euro threshold in 2009.

Over 16.000 online traders use ClickandBuy’s e-payment system for their e-commerce, retail, online entertainment, and paid content & services billing, including Deutsche Telekom, Scout24 Group, Apple iTunes, Napster, Orange, msn, AOL, Meetic, Parship, Electronic Arts (EA), Codemasters, McAfee, Panda, RTL, Playboy, Financial Times Deutschland, Foto.com, Deutsche Boerse Group, KPMG, Yamaha, Digital River, Redcoon, bonprix (Otto Group).

Founded in 1999, ClickandBuy represents over 10 years of experience and expertise in the e-payment market. The online payment system is operated by ClickandBuy International Ltd. in London. As an e-money institution licensed by the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA), ClickandBuy’s complete service includes 120 currencies and offers 50 national and international modes of payment throughout 31 countries.

Financial Innovation is one of the leading sectors of disruption lately. It’s an industry that hasn’t changed for years, with very high profits and very high fees for customers. The guys over at NetBanker understood this quite some time ago, and gave life to a series of awesome conferences: Finovate.

In may they will be hosting Finovate Spring 2010, in San Francisco. I highly suggest that who has an interest in this industry book his flights right away, as it’s an unmissable event. It’s going to showcase the best in financial and banking innovation, and likely to see some of the most interesting startup companies in the field.

You can grab your $100 discount entering this code on the registration page: theStartup10

Here are last year participants, if we were to see half the quality this year, I’d still be happy. Expect an update with 2010 presenters soon.

Private Sale Gmbh, the company operating the private shopping community site brand4friends, acquired TripHunter.de, a private online travel club.

The Berlin-based company, owned by a consortium that includes Mangrove Capital Partners is providing a supposedly good exit for the investors in the 2-years-old travel community, which include famous german business angels Lukasz Gadowski and  Oliver Jung BVP Berlin Venture Partners and the swiss Redalpine Venture Partners.

Private Sale also invested a “multi million” amount into UK’s Secret Sale, as reported by TechCrunch in February.

Brands4friends.de made €80 million in sales in 2009, a three-fold increase on the year before, and it ranks as the biggest online shopping club in Germany and Austria, the two markets where it already operates. It became profitable within two years of its launch in 2007 and has 2.5 million members and currently stocks products from around 400 fashion brands.

This is not so new, but it has been overlooked by the media, while I think it’s a very important event in the european venture capital landscape.

BaltCap has been around since 1995 and has managed four private equity and venture capital funds with total capital of €130m.

In January the closed a new €30M fund that will consist of €20m provided by EIF managed JEREMIE Holding Fund and €10m raised from local private investors, including Parex Asset Management, Hipo Fondi, LKB Krajfondi, Pirmais Slegtais Pensiju Fonds and high net worth individuals.

The fund will provide start-up and expansion financing to companies with established operations and growth potential taking equity stakes of between €300,000 and €3m, with the aim to build a portfolio of 15 to 20 investments.

Plus notably, BaltCap is the first venture capital fund to successfully complete private fund raising under the European Investment Funds managed JEREMIE initiatives in Europe, and the first structured private equity fund to be raised in the Baltics since the economic crisis hit the region.