Raumfeld gains strategic partner – exit for High-Tech Gründerfonds

High-Tech Gründerfonds has successfully sold its shares in Raumfeld GmbH. Lautsprecher Teufel, Europe’s no. 1 direct seller of loudspeaker and home cinema systems, has taken over Raumfeld, the specialist in multi-room audio systems. Based on its unique, patent-pending software, Raumfeld has since 2009 been successfully developing and selling its own audio systems, which turn the enjoyment of music into a special experience with wireless speakers in various rooms as well as remote control. The Raumfeld brand will be kept and will in the future be sold as a separate product line via the Teufel webshop.

The Raumfeld company was established in 2008 by Stephan Schulz and Michael Hirsch, two audio enthusiasts and market aficionados.  “Teufel is the ideal partner for Raumfeld as a technological leader in the segment of multi-room audio system solutions,” says Stephan Schulz, managing director of Raumfeld GmbH. “Our customers will therefore in the future be able to benefit not only, for example, from the Teufel sound, but also from the outstanding Teufel service.”

Raumfeld obtained start-up finance from High-Tech Gründerfonds in 2008. The capital enabled the founders to develop their first multi-room audio system to readiness for the market. The Berlin-based company has since then become a technological leader and a provider of innovative digital audio systems.

Romy Schnelle, investment manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds, assisted Raumfeld through to the successful exit: “We are delighted that, in Lautsprecher Teufel GmbH, we have found the ideal partner for Raumfeld GmbH. This collaboration will open up tremendous selling power and will yield both Raumfeld and Teufel major strategic benefits. Merging of the two companies will create major synergistic potential – in sales and purchasing as well as in further expansion of the product range; for High-Tech Gründerfonds there is a good, double-digit return.”

Teufel’s managing director Thorsten Reuber: “The market’s demands have changed dramatically in recent years. Digital audio formats are becoming increasingly appealing to customers and are establishing completely new application scenarios, as Raumfeld is proving in impressive fashion. This in turn impacts on the consumer electronics sector. Our objective with Raumfeld’s technological know-how is to set new standards in the field of multi-room audio systems. We want to combine the advantages of digital audio formats and network technologies with the familiar quality of Lautsprecher Teufel’s sound systems.”

Since mid November, all staff of Raumfeld GmbH have been firmly integrated with the Teufel team in Berlin and have, with their know-now, been broadening Teufel’s expertise in the areas of development and product design.

About Teufel
Teufel is Europe’s no. 1 in direct sales of loudspeaker systems. The Company was established in 1980 in Berlin and during the subsequent years quickly advanced to being a high-flyer among the German loudspeaker specialists.
Over the years, Teufel developed and produced a large number of high-quality audio products. In addition to home cinema speakers, its portfolio encompasses multimedia and PC systems as well as various products for the iPod marketed under the name iTeufel. In 1996 Teufel was the first German company to launch speakers with a THX licence – an extremely exacting quality standard for the fidelity of home cinema systems. Today Teufel offers the world’s widest range of THX loudspeakers. Teufel products are available only via direct sale and in this way guarantee high quality at a fair price.

Contact:
Lautsprecher Teufel GmbH
Bettina Blees
PR Manager
Tel.: +49 30 300 930 407
blees@teufel.de
www.teufel.de

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds invests risk capital in young, high-potential technology companies that convert promising research results in business success. The seed finance provided aims to enable start-ups to take their R&D project through to the creation of a prototype, a proof of concept or to market launch. High-Tech Gründerfonds provides EUR 500,000 of the seed finance and may invest up to a total of two million euros per business in subsequent rounds. Investors in this public/private partnership are the German Federal Ministry for Business and Technology, the KfW Banking Group as well as the six industrial groups of BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gründerfonds has a fund volume of about 272 million euros.

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Romy Schnelle
Investment Manager
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn
Tel: +49 228 823001-00
Fax: +49 228 823000-50
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de