High-Tech Gründerfonds and Steelhouse Ventures Limited invest in SOPAT GmbH

The Berlin high-tech startup SOPAT GmbH is concluding its first round of financing. The investors are High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and Steelhouse Ventures Limited (SVL). The mission of SOPAT is to revolutionize the measurement of particulate systems. Using the digital analysis of particle images in previously unattainable results, it becomes possible to directly optimize the production in chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological processes.

2012 was most eventful year yet for the Berlin startup. A successful presence at ACHEMA, the world’s largest exhibition congress for chemical engineering, environmental protection and biotechnology, brought with it an overwhelming show of interest by customers. The result was a number of service contracts, the sale of the first prototype, and the acquisition of research funding. In addition, company founder and Managing Director Dr. Sebastian Maaß received a Young Researcher Award from the European Federation of Chemical Engineering. The financing round is now intended to push market entry and enable further product developments.

“We’re very happy with the positive growth in the past months and are looking forward to the coming year with a lot of ambition and anticipation,” says Dr. Sebastian Maaß, Managing Director of SOPAT. “With the help of our new investors and the capital we were able to gain through them, we’re now looking at expansion and further strengthening and developing our product.”

Mark Conway, Partner for German Investments at SVL, adds: “SOPAT has successfully managed to combine the potential of digital software technology with the advantages of highly developed optical devices. The team and the product won us over right away, and we want to help shape and foster the further development of this up-and-coming company with our investment.”

“Thanks to the scientific innovation of SOPAT, there is now new and enormous optimization potential for chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological production processes. We’re very happy to be able to support the team in further building up the company and widening the product’s technological head start,” comments Ron Winkler, Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds.

The SOPAT-VF probe sets new standards in the application of image processing in the analysis of particulate systems and enables for the first time an accurate, automated real-time image analysis of particle sizes and distributions in complex industrial processes.

About SOPAT
SOPAT (www.sopatec.com) specializes in the analysis of particulate systems. The team develops and markets an innovative particle measurement technology for the real-time analysis of multiphase systems. Particles such as drops, grains, cells, or bubbles are measured with the highest precision in an ongoing process. The technology consists of a photo-probe with integrated intelligent image analysis. This newly developed measurement system makes it possible to optimize chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological processes based on the measured particles and their characteristics.

Press contact:
Mashup Communications GmbH | Miriam Rupp | sopatec@mashup-communications.de | +49.30.83211975

Company contact:
SOPAT GmbH | c/o Technische Universität Berlin | Sekr. FH 6-1 | Fraunhoferstraße 33-36 | 10587 Berlin | +49 30 314 78609

About Steelhouse Ventures Limited
Steelhouse Ventures Limited has been established to bring capital and expertise to new business start-ups in the areas of energy, telecommunications and advanced technology. SVL has a primary focus on technology start-ups in Germany, and are keen to identify management teams who have the potential to transform great ideas into commercially viable enterprises.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests risk capital in young, high-opportunity technology companies that turn promising research results into business ideas. The seed financing is to help the startups develop their R&D projects further to the creation of a prototype or proof of concept, or on to market introduction. The funding share is initially €500,000; up to a total of €2 million is available per company. Investors in the public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE Color, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann, and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gründerfonds has total available funds of €573.5 million (€272 million in Fund I and €301.5 million in Fund II).

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Ron Winkler
Schlegelstraße 2 – 53113 Bonn
phone: +49 228 823001-00 – fax: +49 228 823000-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de