Long-term cooperation to finance Bavarian startups: EIB Vice-President Nicola Beer visits Bayern Kapital portfolio companies in Munich

Bayern Kapital, the venture and growth capital company of Bavaria, received Nicola Beer, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), in Munich on 9 May. The occasion: a visit to two Munich-based startups, OroraTech and Tubulis, in which Bayern Kapital invests through its venture capital fund Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2. Bayern Kapital launched Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2 in 2020 together with LfA Förderbank Bayern. The EIB became a shareholder in Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2 in 2021, investing €50 million in the fund. This brought the total fund volume to €165 million supporting the growth of Bavarian startups.

“Bavaria has become renowned in Europe as a hub for innovation and technology,” EIB Vice-President Nicola Beer said. “The EIB works with experienced financial partners to accelerate investment in innovation and to enable companies across Germany to create high-skilled jobs, become more competitive and grow. The visit to Tubulis and OroraTech has shown once again that such successes are only possible where there is sufficient financing in the growth phase. Supplying Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2 with EU funds has thus proven to be a wise decision. Bayern Kapital has been swift and far-sighted in its role as management company, investing in all the right places. We look forward to continuing to develop this cooperation in the future.”

“Our partnership with the EIB has enabled us to use Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2 to supply even more young, innovative companies in Bavaria with growth capital, further strengthening Bavaria’s tech sovereignty and its position as a business and technology hub. This long-term, close cooperation demonstrates how working with partners who know the local market conditions and are part of the regional innovation landscape can efficiently channel financial resources to where they can effectively create measurable success and sustainable growth,” explained Monika Steger, Managing Director of Bayern Kapital.

In industries of the future like life sciences, space, cleantech robotics, software, artificial intelligence and quantum computing, venture capital or growth capital is essential for startups to emerge and grow successfully. Developing and scaling business models in these areas is often complex and requires lots of capital. That is why Bayern Kapital has been investing venture capital in technology-oriented startups from Bavaria for almost 30 years.

The EIB Group invested €9.6 billion in Germany in 2024, and has expanded its product portfolio in recent years, in particular to create more opportunities to access various forms of venture and growth capital. Financing innovation and digitalisation, especially for small and medium firms, is one of the strategic priorities of the EIB Group. To this end, a number of new initiatives have been launched – like the Tech EU platform to better support European pioneers in areas such as AI, semiconductors and cleantech.

Bayern Kapital has targeted the growth financing segment since 2015, and has done so through Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2 since 2020. To further support this successful approach, the EIB topped up Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2 with €50 million, bringing its total volume to €165 million. Over 30 companies have been financed by Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2, including the likes of Quantum Systems, plancq, Luma Vision, Tricares, DeepDrive, Hololight, SimScale and many more. The investments by Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2 have also mobilised considerable additional private venture capital.  

This past Friday in Munich, EIB Vice-President Beer visited two companies that completed decisive growth phases and made important achievements thanks to investment from Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2: OroraTech and Tubulis. Both companies are examples of the innovative power and growth potential of Bavarian startups and scale-ups, and firms that Bayern Kapital had already supported through several phases as a long-term anchor investor.

OroraTech: Satellite technology for early warning of forest fires

OroraTech is a leading spacetech company in the field of satellite-based Earth observation with thermal imaging cameras. The Munich-based company created a Wildfire Intelligence Solution for early detection, monitoring and forecasting of forest fires, which employs compact satellites equipped with specially developed multispectral thermal imaging cameras that use artificial intelligence. The cameras capture thermal data on the Earth's surface and can detect a fire’s location, size and potential to spread.

OroraTech already has ten working satellites in space, with more to come. It has already concluded important agreements with Greece and Canada to protect forested areas there – meaning fora and fauna, animal and human lives, as well as buildings and critical infrastructure. Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2 invested in OroraTech for the first time in mid-2021, and has supported the company through several financing rounds.

Tubulis: Visionary development of targeted cancer therapies

Tubulis is a unique example of the potential of the biotech industry in Germany and Europe. The biotech company is breaking new ground in the development of targeted cancer therapies, and is a pioneer in the field of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). An ADC acts like a high-precision transporter that injects a desired active ingredient into cancer cells. With this approach, these cells can be attacked even more precisely than with many conventional treatments. Thanks to its technology platform, the company can develop ADCs with better biophysical properties flexibly and according to specific scenarios. This allows it to overcome central challenges of previous ADC technologies, such as unwanted side effects, poor effectiveness and limited applicability. Simply put: Tubulis’ technology gets more of the right medicine to just where it's needed, with fewer side effects.

The two main ADC product candidates from Tubulis’ growing pipeline, TUB-040 and TUB-030, are already in clinical trials for types of cancer that urgently need new and more effective therapies. The company also has ongoing strategic partnerships with leading pharmaceutical company and oncology pioneer Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) and leading biotech company Gilead – bringing in total investment of over $40 million up front and $1.4 billion in potential milestone payments. Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2 has held shares in Tubulis since 2022.

The visits showcased current research and development projects, laboratory and office space as well as product prototypes in Planegg-Martinsried (Tubulis) and Giesing (OroraTech). They were also attended by the two founders and CEOs, Dominik Schumacher (Tubulis) and Martin Langer (OroraTech), the management of Bayern Kapital and representatives of LfA Förderbank Bayern.

About Bayern Kapital

Bayern Kapital is the venture capital company of Bavaria. With €700 million under management and holdings of up to €25 million per company, over 110 active portfolio companies, and 30 years of experience in venture capital, it is one of the strongest, most active and most experienced investors in the DACH region. In a consortium with private investors, Bayern Kapital invests in Bavarian high-tech and deeptech startups and scale-ups with innovative business models from all sectors – from seed, to scale-up, to exit.

Since it was founded in 1995, Bayern Kapital has invested more than €500 million of its own funds in more than 320 startups and scale-ups in industries like life sciences, software, materials and new materials, nanotechnology and environmental technology. This has created more than 12 000 permanent jobs in sustainable companies in Bavaria.

Examples of the numerous groundbreaking success stories that Bayern Kapital has fostered at an early stage include Casavi, Catalym, commercetools, egym, EOS, Fazua, Immunic, Isar Aerospace, IQM, Parcellab, Proglove, Qbilon, Riskmethods, SimScale, Sirion, tado, Tubulis, Marvel Fusion, Proxima Fusion, plancq, Akhetonics and many more.