A consortium led by High-Tech Gründerfonds and Innovationsstarter invests in Sonormed: E-health solution Tinnitracks can alleviate tinnitus
March 31, 2015
In a series-A financing round, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg, Quotas Beteiligungs GmbH and Heiko Hubertz, the Bigpoint founder, have invested jointly in Hamburg-based medical technology company Sonormed GmbH.
With its Tinnitracks solution, the young company offers a therapeutic option for people affected by tinnitus. In Germany alone, three million people suffer from the bothersome ear sound. The classified medical product treats the causes of subjective, tonal tinnitus in the auditory cortex by individually filtering the affected person’s favorite music. Its scientific basis is so-called tailor-made notched music training (TMNMT), whose efficacy has been confirmed in independent clinical studies.
“With Tinnitracks, the Sonormed team has developed a trendsetting technology in digital audiology. Within a very short time, academic research results were translated into a practical form of therapy accessible to patients. Dr. Martin Pfister, Senior Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds, explains the Sonormed investment: “With this technological know-how, Sonormed has the potential to decisively influence the growing e-health sector.”
“The support of the consortium led by HTGF and Innovationsstarter means that we have reliable and experienced partners at our side. For us, it is an ideal combination of a strong network and experienced entrepreneurs that support us and set the course for additional growth”, says Jörg Land, co-founder and CEO of Sonormed. The company will use the money for product development and further corporate expansion. It has created an integrated solution and collaborates with ENT physicians, hearing aid audiologists and renowned audio specialist Sennheiser.
Sonormed has already won numerous awards and start-up competitions, the most recent being the internationally renowned American SXSW Accelerator Award in the category “Digital Health and Life Sciences Technologies”. Before that, the company had won first place in the EU competition of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology in Eindhoven (EIT) and the “IKT Innovativ” prize of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.
About Sonormed
Sonormed GmbH, founded in 2012 in Hamburg, is a medical technology company specializing in digital audiology that developed the medical product Tinnitracks with an interdisciplinary team of sound engineers, computer scientists and neurobiologists. Sonormed has already received a lot of domestic and international financial support and prizes for developing and introducing Tinnitracks into the market. For more information, visit: www.tinnitracks.de//
Press contact:
HOSCHKE & CONSORTEN Public Relations GmbH
Marta Iza de la Torre, Christina Siebels
Heimhuder Str. 56
20148 Hamburg
Phone: +49 (40) 36 90 50-45, -58
E-mail: m.iza@hoschke.de; c.siebels@hoschke.de
Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg
Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg invests risk capital for young, innovative Hamburg-based companies in order to strengthen their R&D activities. Envisaged are active partnerships in joint-stock companies up to a maximum amount of 1 million euros. Fund investors are the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The fund volume amounts to 12 million euros. IFB Innovationsstarter GmbH is a 100% owned subsidiary of Hamburg-based Investment and Business Development Bank. For more information, visit: www.innovationsstarter.com//
Contact:
IFB Innovationsstarter GmbH
Doreen Huhle
Besenbinderhof 31
20097 Hamburg
Phone: +49 (40) 657980592
E-mail: huhle@innovationsstarter.com
About High-Tech Gruenderfonds
High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests EUR 500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 576 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II).
Further information can be found on www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds
Dr. Martin Pfister
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Phone: +49 (228) 823 001-00
Fax: +49 (228) 823 000-50
E-mail: info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
Stay up to date
Subscribe now and receive the latest press releases on investments and other news from High-Tech Gründerfonds. We inform you about important developments at HTGF and provide you with interesting news from our portfolio. Whether it’s a successful exit, a new exciting investment or HR news – you’ll be the first to know!