Munich, September 8th, 2020. UVC Partners is happy to announce the successful acquisition of portfolio company fos4x by PolyTech.
fos4x is a Munich-based innovator in fiber optic sensor technology and data analytics for the wind power industry. The company’s success story began in 2010 as a TU Munich spin-off at the Chair of Measurement Systems and Sensor Technology. Based on the vision of making wind turbines more efficient, combined with the team’s excellence in R&D, UVC Partners, Bayern Kapital, and HTGF provided seed financing in 2012. EXTOREL and Equinor Ventures joined in later rounds. Today fos4X counts 100 employees in Germany and China and supports its customers in creating sustainable digital business models by enabling autonomous industrial plants based on its own sensor technology. Wind energy plants around the world use fos4X software and hardware products to optimize their operations.
Dr. Ingo Potthof, Managing Partner at UVC Partners said: "It has been a great experience to accompany fos4x as investor from R&D stage up to today, as the company has built a global business and became a category leader with further strong growth perspectives. Congratulations to this strong performance Lars Hoffmann, Alexander Michel, Bernhard Kopp, Bern Kuhnle, Fabian Zelenka, Markus Schmid, Robert Erdmann and the entire fos4x team. Thank you for having been part of this journey and all the best for the future.”
Lars Hoffman, CEO and founder of fos4x, said: “We are very grateful for the early trust and good support, even in difficult times, provided by UVC Partners and especially Ingo Potthof. His strategic advice was always very valuable and helped us find and defend our market positioning.”
PolyTech is a leading development, production and service company for the wind power industry. fos4X perfectly complements the core business of the buyer by enabling advanced turbine blade designs. Enhancing the blades through digital technology and data analysis will allow wind turbine operators to optimize operations and maintenance through intelligent use of real-time data. The acquisition of fos4X strengthens PolyTech's expertise in precisely this area.
“As a founder, I could not wish for a better match. As part of PolyTech, our intelligent sensor and software solutions will be further developed and the fos4X vision of abundant clean energy will be driven even more strongly than before”, says Lars Hoffman, CEO fos4X.
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About fos4X
Fos4X GmbH is a Munich-based innovator in fiber optic sensor technology and data analytics for the wind industry. The technology developed by fos4X utilize data-driven approaches such as machine learning to digitize and optimize existing and new wind turbines. The intelligent solutions are based on robust fiber optic rotor blade sensor technology. Founded in 2010, fos4X has benefited from the innovative startup environment and high availability of skilled engineering talent in Munich to grow to a size of 100 employees.
About Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners
Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners (UVC Partners) is a Munich- and Berlin-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in technology-based startups in the areas of industrial technologies, enterprise software and mobility. The fund typically invests between € 0.5 – 4m initially and up to € 15m in total per company.
Portfolio companies benefit from the extensive investment and exit experience of the management team as well as from the close cooperation with UnternehmerTUM, Europe’s leading innovation and business creation center. With over 240 employees and more than 100 industry partners, UnternehmerTUM can draw from many years of experience in establishing young companies. This cooperation enables UVC Partners to offer startups unique access to talent, industry customers, and other financial partners. The portfolio includes investments such as Blickfeld, Carjump (Free2Move), FlixBus, KONUX, TWAICE and Vimcar.