The fourth fund of High-Tech Gründerfonds has reached a final fund volume of €493.8m.

Alongside the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) and KfW Capital, 45 private investors (companies) participated in HTGF IV - an increase of 50% compared to HTGF III that closed at €319.5m.

An initial life science investment has already been made, in Phialogics, which develops biologics that balance the immune response in acute and chronic inflammation. With the new fund generation, HTGF can now invest even more flexibly and quickly, as some investment criteria have been adjusted. Start-ups only have to be less than three years old and have their headquarters in Germany or have a German permanent subsidiary if the company is based in another European country. Some of HTGF's investments in companies operating mainly in Switzerland had raised questions in the past, which they probably wanted to clear up now. In addition, the fund will be able to provide more capital per start-up in future: Up to €1m is possible in the seed round, €4 m in all financing rounds.

With the launch of the fourth fund, HTGF has around €1.4bn under management. Through co-investors and numerous follow-on financings, the total amount of investments has more than quadrupled: more than €4.5bn of capital has been invested in the HTGF portfolio by external investors in more than 2,000 follow-on financing rounds to date. In the meantime, HTGF has exited around 160 companies.