Triangle sells portfolio

German seed and early stage investor Triangle Venture Capital Group has sold the majority of its Fund I-III portfolio companies to an undisclosed European financial investor. Existing Triangle investors will receive a significant cash return. Triangle will continue to manage the portfolio and take advantage of current attractive M&A and IPO markets. The transaction involves eight companies.Triangle founding partner Uli W. Fricke, said: “We are in the upper quartile with those VCs who realized significant cash returns (DPI) for their vintage year 1999 and 2001 funds – and these are the statistics for US VCs. The returns from the transaction also reflect the high value Triangle was able to develop. At time of investment, all the companies were in their seed phase, generating almost zero revenue; the most successful ones will make €8-10m this year.”

Triangle focuses exclusively on university and research spin-offs. Since its inception in 1997, Triangle has advised four funds: Fund I, which started investing in 1999, and Funds II and III, parallel funds with vintage year 2001. The three funds have invested in 11 start-up companies with Triangle acting as lead investor in all portfolio companies and completing 50 transactions including follow-on funding rounds. Some €70m has been committed to these companies, including funds from co-investors as well as Triangle-advised funds. Triangle is currently investing Fund IV, which has a €75m target.