Cybersecurity fund
eCAPITAL provides for growing cybersecurity companies 50 Million Euro together with cybersecurity experts, experienced founders and a worldwide network within an in Europe unique cybersystem.
Cyber attacks lead to damages of more than 500 k € in every second corporation. Projections indicate that the worldwide damage caused by such attacks will rise up to 6 trillion USD within the year 2021 – which is significantly more than the German gross domestic product. The German federal chancellery reported over 85.000 cyberattacks recorded by the police, while it can be assumed that the majority of attacks is not reported.
The number of attacks rose by up to 600 % especially within new technology branches and growth markets like the internet of things (IoT). Due to the progressive digitalization the focus of attackers broadens and more and more areas of life are affected. Almost daily headlines about attacks on nuclear power plants, million hacked routers, data-leaks of international corporations or crypto-trojans are read in the news. Cybersecurity is a cross-sectional topic and enables numerous innovative business models and many chances for innovative founders.
The rising relevance of cybersecurity becomes also apparent when considering the investment amount in this field. In 2018 approximately 5,9 bn USD have been invested in cybersecurity companies. Thereof though only a smaller amount in Europe. The challenge, which the European data security landscape has to face, is not missing cutting-edge research or missing ideas of founders, but missing venture capital investors with necessary technological expertise, experience as well as a worldwide network.
eCAPITAL fills this gap with a specialized cybersecurity fund, which was closed at a volume of 30 Mio. Euro on the 31st December 2018. This fund invests parallel with the at the end of 2017 closed 100 Mio. Euro eCAPITAL IV fund, within which 20 Mio. Euro are reserved for cybersecurity. Thus, eCAPITAL provides 50 Mio. Euro for cybersecurity companies within an in Europe unique ecosystem. The eCAPITAL Cybersecurity fund is in Germany the first of its kind. Alongside the ERP-special-asset, the RAG foundation and the NRW.BANK also an insurance, some pension funds and private investors invested in the Cybersecurity fund.
eCAPITAL can rely on the support of proven cybersecurity experts to implement the investments of the new fund and support the portfolio companies. Willi Mannheims is Managing Partner of eCAPITAL AG and has already founded and successfully established various data security companies (including Secunet AG and escrypt GmbH). Cybersecurity Venture Partner Dr. Hans-Christoph Quelle brings in further technology and start-up experience, who, with secusmart, also secured the mobile phones of the German federal government.
On the technological side, leading global researchers such as Prof. Thorsten Holz, Prof. Christof Paar (both Ruhr-Universität Bochum) and Prof. Norbert Pohlmann (Institute for Internet Security, p-venture) as cybersecurity partners are an integral part of the fund and can evaluate the cybersecurity technologies of young companies and contribute added value. The founding environment is not foreign to them either. At the Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security and at the Ruhr University Bochum, over 30 start-ups have been spun off since 2001, which means a leading role in cyber security in Germany.
The eCAPITAL Cybersecurity Fund is currently looking for other exciting technology companies in the fields of cybersecurity, data security and privacy that are looking for capital as well as technology and start-up partners for their growth strategies.