Second round of financing of SAW Instrument with KI Kapital, HTGF and KfW successfully completed

SAW Instruments has completed in early February its second financing round of one million EUR and is aiming to reach break-even in fiscal year 2012. “The funds will be invested in particular in the expansion of sales & marketing activities and extending our product portfolio.” says Managing Director Sabine Bois.

After an extremely positive development of the company in 2010, the management is very pleased that the KfW joined as new investor. “We have worked together very well with KI and the HTGF in the last year and are pleased to have found another strong partner with the KfW to help us achieve our strategic objectives.”

This year SAW Instruments will expand its market presence in Central Europe and make its first steps into the U.S. market. In addition, next to the biosensor sam5 another instrument – the sam5 pro – will be introduced in the second quarter to address besides the research market, additional applications especially within quality assurance. The samX to be launched in September 2011 will provide the customer with unmatched flexibility for sample loading and parallel analyses. “The sam5 pro and the samX represent an important step towards meeting the needs of the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. We believe this product portfolio gives us a strong position in our target markets. ” adds Managing Director Dr. Markus Perpeet.

„For us, this financing round is the logical consequence of the very successful operational and entrepreneurial development in the starting phase of SAW Instruments. We strongly believe in the continued, and soon also international market success of the technology,” adds Dr. Bernd Goergen, Senior Investment Manager of the High-Tech Gründerfonds.

“We are very pleased with the development of SAW Instruments and are confident that the company can realize its ambitious goals in the next 12 months. This will allow the company to reach profitability and -based on its expanded product portfolio – enable continued long-term growth.”, said Dr. Sebastian Meier-Ewert Advisory Board Chairman and Partner at KI Kapital.

About SAW Instrument
SAW Instruments develops, manufactures and sells innovative analytical systems for the markets of the life sciences. The equipment allows the label-free analysis of molecular biomolecular interactions and combines stability and ease of use with high sensitivity. The products distributed by SAW Instruments products are successfully used by leading research institutions in Germany and Switzerland.

Contact:
SAW Instruments GmbH
Sabine Bois
Managing Director
Schwertberger Str. 16
53177 Bonn / Germany
Tel.: +49 228 8128760
Fax: +49 228 81287620

About KI Kapital
KI Kapital is an entrepreneurial private equity company owned and managed by Dr. Sebastian Meier-Ewert and Dr. Mirko Scherer. KI is independent of structured funds and strict investment guidelines and invest efficiently on a case by case basis. KI is the abbreviation of “Konsortium Invest”: The partners have a wide network of individuals that jointly invest as a consortium. For each investmentprocess the consortium also contributes professional know-how.

Contact:
KI Kapital GmbH
Dr. Sebastian Meier-Ewert
Partner
Goethestraße 9
60313 Frankfurt/Main
Tel.: +49 69 9288 7755
Fax: +49 69 9288 7756
info@kikapital.com
www.kikapital.com

About KfW
KfW finances and supports, among other things, business start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) as well as investments in economic growth and employment projects in Germany.

The ERP Start-up-Fund, administered and co-financed by KfW, offers equity financing for innovative, technology-based enterprises with excellent growth prospects. The fund finances research and product development as well as the launching of new products, procedures and services. KfW always cooperates with a lead investor and exclusively adopts market conditions. Since 2004; the 470 Mio. Euro ERP Start-up-Fund has so far allocated 300 Mio. Euro to emerging technology-based companies.

Contact:
KfW Bankengruppe
Niederlassung Bonn
Ludwig-Erhard-Platz 1-3
53179 Bonn
Telefon: +49 228 831 0
Telefax: +49 228 831 9500
info@kfw.de
www.kfw-mittelstandbank.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. The Fund normally invests EUR 500,000; in total, up to two million euros are available per technology company. 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
Dr. Bernd Goergen
Senior Investmentmanager
Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2
53175 Bonn / Germany
Tel.: +49 228 96568500
Fax: +49 228 96568550
info@high-tech-gruenderfonds.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de