BayBG and Bayern Kapital are responsible for managing Startup Shield Bavaria. Bayern Kapital focuses on applications from life sciences projects, while BayBG's venture capital team handles the other sectors.
Investment criteria include a promising, scalable business model and a demonstrable negative impact from the coronavirus pandemic. Further application requirements include, among other things, that the focus of business activities is located in Bavaria. The maximum aid limit of €800,000 must not have been exhausted elsewhere.
“Startup Shield Bavaria can help close the gap until the next financing round”
Marcus Gulder, Head of BayBG’s Venture Capital Team, says:
"The uncertain impact of the coronavirus pandemic is unsettling the venture capital market and currently making it difficult for young technology companies to find new investors. The 'Startup Shield Bavaria' can help bridge the gap until the next financing round."
George Ried, Managing Director of Bayern Kapital, adds:
“Independent of the Startup Shield, our regular financing offers can generally be used for the follow-up financing rounds that are likely to be required more frequently.”
The Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger says that "efficient equity and mezzanine instruments are now also available to startups to help them cope with the coronavirus crisis. With BayBG and Bayern Kapital, we can rely on two renowned and successful investment companies to manage the program, which have already successfully supported and developed numerous startups over the past decades."
The Federal Government’s startup aid was already announced on 1 April and decided in MayThe package of measures is based on two pillars: Under the first pillar, VC-financed startups receive public funding through venture capital funds. For startups that are not financed by venture capital firms and therefore do not have access to Pillar I, the states should establish a solution in Pillar II. The Business Angels Network Germany warned at the time of a "difficult to understand and quite uneven patchwork."
