In our view, being a respon­si­ble investor means believ­ing that we owe some­thing far beyond our cap­i­tal com­mit­ment to the com­pa­nies in which we are invested. It means we will strive and fight for their suc­cess while always act­ing with integrity. Clas­si­cally, we con­tribute more than cap­i­tal to our Investee-Part­ners by using our net­work and other resources to ben­e­fit them as much as pos­si­ble. More specif­i­cally, respon­si­ble invest­ing can also mean com­mu­ni­cat­ing clearly, trans­par­ently, and hon­estly with our val­ued co-investors and Investee-Part­ners and proac­tively inform­ing them of our abil­ity and will­ing­ness to par­tic­i­pate in future fundraisings.

Although some may argue that pri­vate investors have the right to view their invest­ments sim­ply in a trans­ac­tional way, we strongly believe that, espe­cially in the early stages, when com­pa­nies are still in the process of find­ing their best path and each investor is of extreme impor­tance, all investors should have some sense of addi­tional com­mit­ment to fur­ther assist the com­pa­nies in which they are invested. It is surely true that the best way for an investor to ensure a strong finan­cial return in early-stage invest­ments, where the bulk of value cre­ation lies in the future, is to coop­er­a­tively con­tribute value to the company.

The def­i­nite actions that an investor can take to con­tribute to their ven­ture invest­ments vary greatly depend­ing on the com­pany and investor. How­ever, at a min­i­mum, early-stage investors should have a will­ing­ness to open their net­work to the com­pany and effi­ciently and cor­rectly process all documentation/voting require­ments with­out play­ing any unnec­es­sary games.

Impor­tantly, being a respon­si­ble investor in a com­pany does not mean that an investor agrees with all of management’s deci­sions or that valu­able crit­i­cism is with­held. Exactly the oppo­site is true, because engage­ment is the pre­req­ui­site for con­struc­tive con­tri­bu­tion, and engage­ment means sort­ing through the var­i­ous ini­tia­tives and chal­lenges with a dis­cern­ing eye in order to assist the com­pany in achiev­ing its ulti­mate goals.

In Thürin­gen we are extremely for­tu­nate to have attracted pri­vate investors who under­stand invest­ing is a two-way street. The nature of our high-tech B2B com­pa­nies means that it is clear from the begin­ning of the rela­tion­ship between com­pany and investor that this is a mar­riage and not just a fling. This mar­riage takes dili­gent work from both sides, as excep­tional cor­po­rate devel­op­ment and expo­nen­tial invest­ment returns are only attain­able with con­tri­bu­tions from all.

We are grate­ful to have a clear man­date to be a respon­si­ble investor and we look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing to make mutu­ally-ben­e­fi­cial matches between other like-minded investors and our out­stand­ing Investee-Part­ners for the ben­e­fit of all involved.

Your bm|t Team