GERMANY Law and Practice Contributed by: Carsten Berrar, Florian Späth and Heiko Blaut, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP Neue Mainzer Straße 52 60311 Frankfurt Germany
Tel: +49 69 4262 5200 Fax: +49 69 4272 5210 Email: berrarc@sullcrom.com Web: www.sullcrom.com
1. Trends 1.1 VC Market
Other sectors with significant funding activity include software and analytics (Helsing, osapi - ens), health (eGym, CatalYm, Tubulis) and ener - gy (sunfire, Enviria, 1Komma5°). Interestingly, private debt played a significant role in various later-stage transactions in the German market, such as fintech SumUp, Enpal and iwoca – with the first two private credit transactions reportedly exceeding EUR1 billion in volume. Notable M&A exits were few and far between for German start-ups in 2024. In May, Dedrone, a German drone defence company, was sold to Axon, a police equipment manufacturer from Arizona, for USD500 million. Another signifi - cant M&A exit in the health sector was Cardior, engaged in the development of RNA therapies for heart diseases, acquired by Novo Nordisk for about EUR1.025 billion. Berlin-based start- up Delphai, an AI venture specialised in natural language processing, was acquired by Intapp, a publicly traded company from the US. In a depressed German market environment, only seven companies went public. Germany’s largest IPO was the listing of Douglas in March 2024, with an issuance volume of almost USD1 billion, followed by Springer Nature with USD665
In a structured transaction, global travel tech company Flix secured a minority investment from investment firm EQT and Kühne Holding, an investment vehicle of German logistics entre - preneur Klaus-Michael Kühne. The investment in Greyhound owner Flix was led by EQT’s impact- driven, longer-hold fund EQT Future, and seeks to strengthen Flix’s balance sheet. The aggre - gate investment was reported to total EUR1 bil - lion. Led by General Catalyst, German AI defence company Helsing reportedly raised EUR450 mil - lion in one of Germany’s most sizeable equity funding rounds (Series C) in terms of volume in 2024. AI-driven language translator platform DeepL also secured EUR277 million in funding in May 2024 led by investor Index Ventures, rais - ing the valuation of the Berlin-based company to approximately EUR1.85 billion and making it Germany’s most valued pure-play AI start-up. Munich-based space-tech venture The Explora - tion Company secured a EUR150 million Series B round led by Balderton Capital and Plural, with participation from a selection of additional inves - tors.
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