About: Wellington Partners is one of the most successful pan-European venture capital firms. With some €800 million under management and offices in Munich, London, Palo Alto and Zurich, the firm invests into companies throughout Europe that have the potential to become global leaders, in the areas of Digital Media, Technology and Life Sciences. Since 1998, Wellington has invested in more than 100 companies, including publicly traded Actelion, Wavelight and XING and successful privately held companies like Alando (acquired by eBay) and Grandis (acquired by Novartis).
Key Personnel:
Eric Archambeau, General Partner
Frank Böhnke, General Partner
Rolf Christof Dienst, General Partner and founder (he founded Wellington Partners in 1991)
Bart Markus, General Partner
Christian Reitberger, Venture Partner
Ram Srinivasan, Venture Partner
Daniel Waterhouse, Partner
Erich Schlick, General Partner
Rainer Strohmenger, General Partner
Thomas Widmann, General Partner
Portfolio:
Cleantech – agnion, Enecsys, EnOcean, EnStorage, Heliatek, Netcrystal, Orecon.
Comment: Wellington’s Cleantech Portfolio team includes Bart Markus, Arun R. Jayadev (previously from Spanish PE firm SI Capital which specializes in cleantech investments), and Christian Reitberger (previously from Apax Partners as mentioned earlier here). See video on vodpod by Bart Markus on how to select a clean tech investment or here.
Wellington Partners started investing in cleantech in 2002. Its latest fund in January 2008, Wellington Partner IV Technology, closed at €256 million, surpassed its target of €250 million in just over 6 months. The fund’s initial investments were French-based travel service provider TravelHorizon, German-based solar cell specialist Heliatek and Swiss-founded chip developer Innovative Silicon. In total, this new Wellington fund plans to invest in approximately 25 technology companies throughout Europe in the fields of digital media and online services, software and electronics.
Updated: Investors in WP IV Tech include Access Capital Partners, AGF Private Equity, AlpInvest Partners, European Investment Fund, Horizon21, König & Cie., The Wellcome Trust, von Braun & Schreiber and WEGA. In addition, Wellington Partners was also able to win various new landmark investors, including GIC Special Investments, Pantheon Ventures and Skandia Liv Asset Management.
In June 2009, Wellington Partners led a $10 million Series A round in micro-inverter (related to solar systems) company Enecys Ltd, which was spun out from the University of Cambridge, UK. Wellington was joined in the investment by BankInvest New Energy Solutions, a venture capital fund located in Copenhagen.
CITE Investments 