Munich – Tech start-up Spanflug Technologies GmbH has secured further funding for product expansion through an investment by the VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association) as a minority shareholder. With the support of the VDW, Spanflug aims to ramp up development of its platform technology even faster and significantly expand it. As part of the financing round, the Initiative for Industrial Innovators also increased its support for the start-up by taking a stake.
A CMS team headed by lead counsel Dr Jessica Mohaupt-Schneider advised Spanflug on all legal and tax aspects of the Series A round of financing. The Munich-based CMS team has been advising Spanflug since 2019 in the context of equIP, CMS’s own start-up support programme.
Spanflug was spun off from the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb) at Munich’s technical university by Dr Markus Westermeier, Dr Adrian Lewis and Dr Johannes Schmalz. The start-up aims to automate the quotation and parts procurement process in manufacturing industry. To do this, Spanflug has created two main products: firstly, a platform on which customers can interact with suppliers and process their orders, and secondly, automatic price calculation for manufacturing companies in the form of software-as-a-service.
The VDW has been the mouthpiece of the German machine tool industry for 130 years. Together with the Machine Tool and Manufacturing Systems Association within the VDMA, the VDW has around 300 members, most of which are SMEs. They account for around 90% of the industry’s total turnover.
The Initiative for Industrial Innovators is a cross-border financing initiative that funds disruptive, deep-tech teams and early-stage start-ups via fast funding instruments. It is backed by – amongst others – the European Investment Fund/InnovFinEquity, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 Financial Instruments and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) set up under the Investment Plan for Europe. The purpose of EFSI is to help support financing and implementing productive investments in the European Union and to ensure increased access to finance for start-ups and other SMEs.
CMS Germany
Stefan-Ulrich Müller, Partner
Dr Jessica Mohaupt-Schneider, Lead Counsel
Felix Schmitt, Senior Associate
Sebastian Hummel, Associate, all Corporate/VC
Jörg Schrade, Partner, Tax
Dr Markus Kaulartz, Counsel, TMC
Press Contact
presse@cms-hs.com
