This month we are cele­bra­ting 20 years of inves­t­ing as bm|t. Not­wi­th­stan­ding many impres­sive figu­res, such as having inves­ted over 500 Mio. EUR in over 200 com­pa­nies, com­ple­ting over 500 invest­ment rounds and attrac­ting addi­tio­nal co-invest­ment of over 740 Mio. EUR, we feel like a 20-year-old in many ways: having recei­ved an excel­lent edu­ca­tion and having gai­ned valuable early expe­ri­ence, we are eager to take on the world, to advance our lear­ning, and to con­ti­nue honing our trade of ven­ture capi­tal and pri­vate equity inves­t­ing.

Even more pro­found and meaningful than the above figu­res, are the core tenets of our ope­ra­ting phi­lo­so­phy which we have deve­lo­ped over the last 20 years.

• Respect and trust are para­mount and neces­sary for suc­cess in this busi­ness. The best way to gain respect and trust is to respect and trust our valued partners.
• Inte­grity and trans­pa­rency in com­mu­ni­ca­tion is essen­tial for buil­ding pro­duc­tive rela­ti­onships. Clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion, even about dif­fi­cult issues, is far supe­rior to the assump­tion of impli­cit understanding.
• Col­la­bo­ra­tion is the ideal way to suc­ceed when inves­t­ing in lon­ger-term inno­va­tions. Working coope­ra­tively tog­e­ther with mul­ti­ple part­ners can achieve suc­cess far bey­ond that which is pos­si­ble when ever­yone only prio­ri­ti­zes their own goals.

With the lear­nings of the past 20 years deeply ing­rai­ned in our expe­ri­en­ced team, we are con­fi­dent that we, and the entire Thü­rin­gen inno­va­tion eco­sys­tem are well-pre­pared for the next 20 years. We cle­arly sense that the gains of the past 20 years are cumu­la­tive, and that our entire eco­sys­tem beg­ins the next 20 years in a much stron­ger posi­tion than when bm|t initi­ally star­ted. The foun­ders with whom we work are bet­ter infor­med of their mar­kets and com­pe­ti­tive posi­tio­ning, our net­work of co-inves­tors has grown tre­men­dously and includes many repeat inves­tors in Thü­rin­gen, and all the rele­vant play­ers in Thü­rin­gen are well-groo­ved and work tog­e­ther coope­ra­tively and pro­duc­tively to sup­port our inno­va­tive companies.

Of course, this strong start­ing point does not offer com­plete pro­tec­tion against dif­fi­cul­ties, espe­ci­ally in this period of geo­po­li­ti­cal strife and incre­asing eco­no­mic chal­lenges; howe­ver, it does offer us a strong sense of pro­ven pur­pose, which we know will be instru­men­tal over time. Ven­ture capi­tal and pri­vate equity inves­t­ing are lon­ger-term endea­vors which require vision, per­spec­tive, pati­ence, and for­ti­tude. Over the long term it is these attri­bu­tes, not the pre­vai­ling tem­po­rary con­di­ti­ons, that deter­mine the out­co­mes. Our man­tra at bm|t, and we believe it applies to Thüringen’s entire inno­va­tion sec­tor, remains: we can have a large impact on our out­co­mes, and thus we must give our best.

As bm|t turns 20, we feel espe­ci­ally gra­teful to be able to play a cen­tral role in Thü­rin­gen’s inno­va­tion land­scape and are extre­mely con­fi­dent that the next 20 years will bring even more posi­tive deve­lo­p­ments to our Inves­tee-Part­ners and Co-Inves­tors and thus to inves­tors in our funds and the entire Thü­rin­gen ecosystem.

Thank you to all our valued part­ners for the ama­zing last 20 years; we’re loo­king for­ward to an even bet­ter next 20 with you!

Your bm|t Team