Munevo: When investors want to invest but cannot #DHDL

Constantin and Claudiu initially did every­thing right: a round presen­ta­tion of their smart glasses control for wheel­chairs undoubt­edly illus­trated the degree of freedom that a severely ill person, who can prac­ti­cally only move their head, could gain through their devel­op­ment. The approval as a medical product and the first reim­burse­ments by German health insur­ance compa­nies that have already taken place also make the busi­ness model clear. They also showed no weak­ness in the figures.

The lions are enthu­si­astic, but one by one they drop out. Judith Williams, Dagmar Wöhrl and Ralf Dümmel all basi­cally have the same reason: they can’t really help. Also, all those who drop out express their regrets. Judith’s “… unfor­tu­nately unfor­tu­nately this is not my invest­ment” prob­ably sums it up best. Some viewers might think: “But if you think it’s so great, why don’t you just invest anyway, ‘just’ money would also help the founders.” But it is – unfor­tu­nately – not that simple. The lions are not so-​called finan­cial investors. In other words, investors who see start-​up invest­ments purely as an invest­ment busi­ness – albeit one with a very high risk. They invest when they them­selves can deci­sively advance the young company – and with far more than a few phone calls. Often, a whole team of them temporarily works closely with the start-​up, for example to build up sales in a short time.

Such an investor lowers his risk with this approach – but usually also demands a much lower valu­a­tion than a finan­cial investor.

However, this calcu­la­tion can only work in areas in which such an investor is really well versed. Only if he or she can judge quite accu­rately how quickly sales and marketing can be built up and at what cost does an invest­ment make sense for both. Because if it doesn’t work, not only has the start-​up given away too many shares for too little money, but the investor also has to provide much more resources than had been calcu­lated. Extra costs that are diffi­cult to recoup.

In addi­tion, if the planned turnover does not mate­ri­alise, the start-​up will need more financing sooner. This can then become more prob­lem­atic than it already is due to the slightly more shares sold.

Such an investor can there­fore bring huge added value, but possibly endan­gers the start-​up even more if it doesn’t work out.

Judith Williams even mentioned that she could help with marketing, but that this part would be too small for her to partic­i­pate. So in case of doubt, she would rather leave the space for an investor who can help on a larger scale. Dagmar Wöhrl expressed herself simi­larly: Munevo would need above all a strategic partner who could actively support distri­b­u­tion via the medical supply stores.

Carsten Maschmeyer and Dr. Georg Kofler had another reason: they had already invested in an elec­tric rollator that relied on similar distri­b­u­tion chan­nels (this prob­ably meant the “Ello” from season 5). Sales via medical supply stores didn’t go so well here.

Carsten Maschmeyer, who is prob­ably closest to medical prod­ucts in general, then dropped out “as a venture capital investor” and brought up the valu­a­tion of 8 million euros, which he consid­ered far too high. This was explained again after­wards with the lions: Espe­cially because the distri­b­u­tion is diffi­cult to build up, high turnover and profit figures are not to be expected in the fore­see­able future. In order to get back 800,000 € invest­ment (at 10% shares), 8 million euros profit would have to be distrib­uted. To do this, a high number of systems would have to be sold. In the end, Munevo also made itself unin­ter­esting as an invest­ment case due to its too high valu­a­tion.

But in the end, the good impres­sion was worth some­thing: In a rare scene, Carsten Maschmeyer went out with the founders to the entrance of the cave, repri­manded the valu­a­tion once again, but offered his help else­where. So it will be inter­esting to see what else emerges from this.

Photo (above): TVNOW / Bernd-​Michael Maurer