Berlin/Hamburg/Cologne – At YPOG, every single day the Team works hard to help its clients achieve their strategic goals by providing comprehensive legal advice with specialization in the fields of Tax, Funds, Corporate, Litigation, Transactions, IP/IT, Notary Services, Banking + Financial Services and FinTech + Blockchain. In recent weeks, YPOG has again been involved in a large number of transactions in the startup sector. Among others, investors and companies such as Ventech, Project A Ventures, Headline, VSquared Ventures and Burda Principal Investments recently relied on the expertise of the boutique law firm with offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne.
YPOG advised Project A Ventures on €10 million financing round of Knowunity
YPOG provided comprehensive advice to venture capital investor Project A Ventures on the Series A financing round of Berlin-based e-learning platform Knowunity. The funding has a total volume of €10 million and was led by Redalpine and Stride VC. Alongside existing investor Project A, Verena Pausder and national German football player Mario Götze also participated again. Knowunity plans to use the new funding to expand its operations in Europe, to increase its workforce and to develop their product. More information can be found here.
Project A is one of the leading venture capital companies in Europe with offices in Berlin and London. In addition to $600 million in assets under management, Project A supports its portfolio companies with a team of over 100 in-house experts in themes such as software and product development, business intelligence, brand, design, marketing, sales and recruitingP roject A was founded in 2012 and since then has backed more than 100 startups. The portfolio includes companies such as Trade Republic, WorldRemit, sennder, KRY, Spryker, Catawiki and Voi.
Team:
Dr. Frederik Gärtner (Lead, Transactions), Partner
Alexander Sekunde (Corporate/Antitrust), Associate
YPOG advised Ventech on €4 million financing round of 7Learnings GmbH
YPOG advised venture capital investor Ventech on the recent seed financing of Berlin-based retail-tech start-up 7Learnings. The funding has a total volume of €4 million and was led by Ventech, with further participation from HTGF and various Celonis executives. 7Learnings offers a software that enables retailers to optimize their pricing and marketing strategy. The company was founded in 2019 by Martin Nowak, Eiko van Hettinga and Felix Hoffmann, formerly a product manager of Zalando's pricing algorithm, who came up with the idea for developing price optimization software for small and medium-sized retailers. More information can be found here.
Ventech is a pioneering global early-stage venture capital firm with a strong digital focus. Founded in 1998, Ventech backs the most innovative and visionary tech-entrepreneurs with a global ambition. With its dual structure platform, Ventech has dedicated funds for Europe (Paris, Munich, Berlin & Helsinki) and Asia (Shanghai and Hong Kong). Since its inception, Ventech has raised over 900m€, and has realized over 200 investments, (including Vestiaire Collective, Passion.io, Ogury, Picanova, Veo, Reveal, Speexx) and over 80 exits (Fintecsystems - acquired by Tink; Believe (BLV.PA) – listed on Euronext; Arteris (AIP) listed on Nasdaq).
Team:
Dr. Benjamin Ullrich (Co-Lead, Corporate/Transactions), Partner
Tobias Lovett (Co-Lead, Corporate/Transactions), Senior Associate
Dr. Benedikt Flöter (IP/IT), Associated Partner
Anna Eickmeier (IP/IT), Senior Associate
YPOG advises Headline on €4 million seed financing round of automaited
YPOG provided comprehensive advice to Headline on the recent seed financing round of Cologne-based automatization startup automaited. The investment has a total volume of €4 million and was led by Headline with further participation of Northzone as well as existing investors Visionairies Club and TechVision Fonds. automaited focuses primarily on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and process mining of computer work patterns. Bonn's municipal utilities are one of the startup's first clients. More information can be found here.
Headline is a venture capital firm actively on the ground in 7 cities around the world. The early-stage Funds are based in the US, Europe, Asia, and Brazil, and invest locally. The San Francisco-based Growth Fund invests globally from Series B and beyond, working in collaboration with their early-stage Teams. The sizes and locations of these funds make it possible to see local trends up close, identify winning founders, and lead rounds at every stage. Sonos, The RealReal, Creditas, Sorare, Pismo, AppFolio, goPuff, Acorns, Farfetch, Segment, Bumble and Yeahka are among the stars in Headline’s world.
Team:
Dr. Stephan Bank (Lead, Corporate/Transactions), Partner
Dr. Johannes Janning (Co-Lead, Transactions), Associated Partner
Dr. Benedikt Flöter (IP/IT), Associated Partner
YPOG advised Vsquared Ventures and Project A Ventures on their investment in Vaeridion
YPOG advised venture capital investors Vsquared Ventures and Project A Ventures on their recent investment in aviation startup Vaeridion. The investment has a total volume of €3,2 million with further participation from Investor Andreas Kupke. The Munich-based air mobility startup focuses on constructing climate-friendly small commercial airplanes and estimates that by 2030 between 1000 and 2000 electric airplanes could be offered globally. More information can be found here.
Vsquared Ventures is a deep tech focused early stage venture capital investor based in Munich. Backed by pioneering entrepreneurs and techies they create a reinforcing ecosystem to provide interdisciplinary knowledge and access for those inventing the future and together push their companies to the next Level. Focus areas are New Space, Quantum computing, New Materials, AI, Robotics and Enterprise SaaS.
Project A is one of the leading venture capital companies in Europe with offices in Berlin and London. In addition to $600 million in assets under management, Project A supports its portfolio companies with a team of over 100 in-house experts in themes such as software and product development, business intelligence, brand, design, marketing, sales and recruiting. Project A was founded in 2012 and since then has backed more than 100 startups. The portfolio includes companies such as Trade Republic, WorldRemit, sennder, KRY, Spryker, Catawiki and Voi.
Team:
Dr. Frederik Gärtner (Lead, Transactions), Partner
Konstantin Häfner (Transactions), Associate
YPOG advised Burda Principal Investments on their investment in Habyt
YPOG provided comprehensive advice to venture capital investor Burda Principal Investments (BPI) on its recent participation in Berlin-based co-living start-up Habyt through a merger with Asia-Pacific competitor Hmlet, in which BPI was a leading investor. The group is now backed by a number of leading venture capital investors including BPI, Sequoia Capital, HV Capital, P101, Picus Capital and Vorwerk Ventures and now counts over 8,000 units in 10 countries and 20 cities. The group’s goal is to expand up to 20,000 residential units by the end of 2022 and 30,000 units by the end of 2023, transforming the way people live and work around the world. More information can be found here.
BPI is a division of Hubert Burda Media which provides long term growth equity for fast growing digital technology and media companies. Hubert Burda Media is one of Europe’s largest media and technology conglomerates with a strong investment track record in internet-centric businesses, since 1998.
Team:
Dr. Benjamin Ullrich (Lead, Transactions), Partner
Tobias Lovett (Co-Lead, Transactions), Senior Associate
Dr. Malte Bergmann (Tax), Partner
Dr. Benedikt Flöter (IP/IT), Associated Partner
Matthias Kresser (Transactions/Banking & Finance), Associated Partner
Bilal Tirsi (Transactions/Banking & Finance), Associate
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YPOG is a law firm specialized in tax and business law, active in the core fields of Funds, Tax, Banking + Finance, and Transactions. The team at YPOG represents a broad client base, which ranges from emerging technology companies and family-run SMEs to large corporations, as well as private equity, and venture capital funds. YPOG is one of the leading advisors for venture capital, private equity, and fund structuring in Germany. The firm and its partners have been recognized nationally and internationally by JUVE, Best Lawyers, Legal 500, Focus, Chambers and Partners as well as Leaders League. Today, YPOG has more than 150 experienced attorneys, tax advisors and tax specialists and a notary, in four offices, located in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, and Munich.
