DGAP-News: German Startups Group GmbH & Co. KGaA

+++ Press release +++

German Startups acquires a stake in Chrono24,
the global online market leader for luxury watches
 

Berlin, 2 March 2018 - German Startups Group, a leading venture capital provider in Germany and Berlin-based digital agency with 140 employees, is entering into an indirect stake holding in the global online market leader for luxury watches, Chrono24, based in Karlsruhe. Founded in 2003, the company is considered the first choice online for watch enthusiasts as well as traders when it comes to new, pre-owned and vintage luxury watches. 2017, the value of watches transacted through Chrono24 amounted to over 1bn euros. Chrono24 estimates that one out of three luxury watch enthusiast worldwide uses Chrono24.

German Startups Group acquires 2.1% of the shares of one of the Chrono24 shareholders who will hold them as trustee for German Startups Group. In doing so, German Startups Group follows its strategy to also buy secondary shares of mature, already well-established growth companies and, by that, to participate in the further value increase on a lower risk exposure. The deal terms of the transaction have been pre-negotiated in late summer 2017, already. Within the portfolio of the company, Chrono24 is considered a focus investment.

Chrono24 has largely funded itself. In 2015, New York-based Insight Venture Partners invested 21m euros in Chrono24, amongst others, in a Series-A round.

Investor relations contact
German Startups Group
Marcel Doeppes
Mail: ir@german-startups.com

German Startups Group - We Love Startups!

German Startups Group is a listed investment company and digital agency based in Berlin that focuses on young, fast-growing companies, so-called startups. The company acquires majority and minority shareholdings mainly by providing venture capital. Its focus is on companies whose products or business models include a disruptive innovation, allow for a high degree of scalability to be expected, and in which it has a great deal of trust in the entrepreneurial abilities of the founders. The geographical focus is on the German-speaking region. Since it commenced with operations in 2012, German Startups Group has in its opinion built up a diversified portfolio of investments in young companies and become the most active private venture capital investor in Germany since 2012 (CB Insights 2015, PitchBook 2016). 20 of the 37 minority stakeholdings in operationally active companies are of particular significance to German Startups Group and together comprise roughly 90% of the total value of all 37 active minority stakeholdings (per 31 December 2017). The 10 core holdings alone make up two thirds of the value of all active minority stakeholdings. According to German Startups Group, its investment portfolio reflects a cross-section of promising German startups of various maturity stages ("Seed," "Early" and "Growth Stage," by German Startups Group's own definition) and includes some of the most successful and best known German startups.

More information is available on our website at www.german-startups.com.