External links
- Dr. Cornelius Boersch at Mountain Partners Group
Cornelius Boersch (born April 11, 1968 in Hannover) is a German serial entrepreneur, technology investor, business angel, and author. He is the founder of the investment companies Mountain Partners AG and Conny & Co. Boersch is considered as one of the most active and well-known investors in the (European) technology and start-up scene [1] and is the initiator of the annual Entrepreneurs Day at Tegernsee, Bavaria, which takes place annually since 2007. [2] His best-known investments are Alando.de (predecessor of Ebay Germany), Lieferando, the Scout Group (Autoscout, Immoscout), wefox, Kavak, and reBuy. [3]
Boersch studied business administration at the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel, Paris Business School and the University of Colorado from 1989 to 1994. [4] In 1998, Boersch completed his doctorate on "Mutual savings banks and Venture Capital" [5] at the University of Essen. He later also served as an honorary professor there. [6]
Cornelius Boersch is working as an entrepreneur in Germany since 1991. He already founded his first company "Sabeco GmbH" during his studies, which was the beginning of the German electronic health card, [7] and from which the smart card broker and RFID manufacturer ACG AG developed in 1995. [8] ACG AG was originally listed on the stock exchange segment Neuer Markt in Germany (NEMAX 50) in 1999 [9] [10] with a valuation of more than EUR 1 billion. [11]
Boersch sold his shares in the company in March 2000 [7] and since 2003, the former ACG AG belonged to the Assa Abloy Group, which became insolvent in 2008. [12] After Boersch withdrew from the operational business of ACG AG, he worked as an investment manager in the field of venture capital and subsequently initiated the development of other RFID-based companies such as Smartrac (IPO 2006) and Identiv (NASDAQ since 2006). [7]
Boersch’s focus lies mainly in investing in young Internet companies. [1] As an active business angel, he has invested in more than 350 companies since 1995. He was able to sell more than 50 companies during this time, of which 14 went public. In 2009, Boersch was elected "European Business Angel of the Year". [13] Additionally, he is part of the European Angels Fund initiative of the European Investment Fund (EIF), a EUR 800 million program that mirrors investments of selected business angels on a pari-passu basis. [14]
In 2004, he founded Mountain Partners AG together with Daniel S. Wenzel, which is an investment company focusing on investments in technology startups and venture capital companies. [15] Mountain Partners AG is mainly active in growth regions such as Latin America, South-East Asia, but still invests in Europe as well. In Latin America, Mountain Partners is one of the market-leading funds through Nazca. [7] However, the investment company hardly invests directly in startups these days. Instead, it acts as a global multi-fund manager in the sense of a house of funds, through which it is currently invested in more than 120 companies. [1]
In 2007, Boersch initiated for the first time the Entrepreneurs Day at Tegernsee, which is now held annually. The aim is to give entrepreneurs and investors a networking platform to exchange ideas in an informal atmosphere. The 2-day program includes annual key-notes on current topics, presentations of start-ups and investment opportunities as well as a social program. Meanwhile, the event is considered one of the most popular ones in the venture capital and private equity scene. [2]
Beginning of 2019, Boersch founded another venture capital company, namely "Conny & Co". This company has no particular industry focus but again concentrates geographically on growth markets. The current portfolio includes recent highlights such as Flash Coffee, Albo, and Luuna. [1]
Politically, Boersch worked as an advisor to Dr. Guido Westerwelle, the former German foreign minister, for 12 years. He organized his election campaigns and in 2009 was the founder of the first digital election campaign in Germany. [7] In the course of this, he also accompanied Guido Westerwelle on trips abroad (Estonia, Japan and the People's Republic of China) and donated around EUR 160,000 to the FDP. [16]
Boersch published four German books between 2006 and 2009, each co-authored with renowned personalities from politics and business. All of these are united in the book title by the word Summa Summarum, and the first three works deal in particular with topics from the everyday life of a manager. [17] His fourth book in this series "Das Summa Summarum der Politik und Wirtschaft" ("The Summa Summarum of Politics and Business"), which he co-authored with Guido Westerwelle, was published in 2009. [18] His latest book, "Zukunft verpasst_?" (“Future missed”) , was published in 2020 together with Dr. Thomas Middelhoff. In this, the both authors discuss the state of digitalisation in Germany and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on it. [19]
Boersch wrote most of his books in German and therefore, the list includes the original titles in German language (except "ONE").
{{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)Sieger Handel: Der Hightech-Broker ACG regelt Angebot und Nachfrage bei Computerchips und Smartcards.[ permanent dead link ]
Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number of employees, annual revenue, scale of operations, etc. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing start-ups in the hopes that some of the companies they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments have high rates of failure. Start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and often come from high technology industries such as information technology (IT) or biotechnology.
Assa Abloy AB is a Swedish Group whose offerings include products and services related to locks, doors, gates, and entrance automation. Related products and services include controlling access and confirming identities with keys, cards, tags, mobile, and biometric identity verification systems.
Thomas Middelhoff is a German corporate manager. From 1994 to 1998, he was a member of the Executive Board of Bertelsmann AG, until he then served as CEO of the Bertelsmann media group from November 1998 to July 2002. In 2002, he was Head of Corporate Investments in Europe for Investcorp International Ltd until May 2005. From May 2005 to February 2009, Middelhoff then took over as Chairman of the Board of Management of the retail group Arcandor. After Arcandor, Thomas Middelhoff founded the investment company BLM in London with Roland Berger and Florian Lahnstein. The spin-off Pulse Capital Partners LLC emerged from this company.
Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG), which loosely translates into English as "German wealth advisors", is a company based in Frankfurt, Germany. The DVAG is active in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Founded in 1975 by Reinfried Pohl, the company is managed by Deutsche Vermögensberatung Holding and is Germany’s largest stand-alone financial services distributor.
EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht, more commonly referred to as EBS Universität or simply EBS, is a state-recognized private research university specializing in the disciplines of business and law. The university is located in Wiesbaden and Oestrich-Winkel, Germany. EBS is considered to be one of the most prestigious institutions for law and business studies in the German-speaking world, being particularly renowned in the finance and consulting industry.
Pacific Life Insurance Company is an American insurance company.
Melker Schörling was a Swedish billionaire businessman. His investment company Melker Schörling AB (MSAB) had large interests in Securitas AB, Assa Abloy, Hexagon AB, Loomis and more. Schörling formed a partnership with fellow billionaire Gustaf Douglas, who was also a major shareholder in Securitas and Assa Abloy.
Hubertus Hoffmann is a German entrepreneur, geostrategist, author, and philanthropist. He is the founder and president of the NGOs The World Security Network Foundation, Mission Future, and The Human Codes of Tolerance.
An entrepreneur in residence, or executive in residence (EIR), is a position commonly held by successful entrepreneurs in venture capital firms, private equity firms, startup accelerators, law firms or business schools. Typically, the EIR has led or currently leads a small, early-stage, emerging company with perceived high-growth potential or has demonstrated significant growth in terms of employees, annual revenue, or both.
EBAN is an international, not-for-profit trade association whose function is to represent the pan-European early stage investor community, gathering member organisations and individuals from Europe and beyond. Originally targeted only to business angels, it later became a cross sector representative of equity early stage investors.
An angel investor is an individual who provides capital to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. Angel investors often provide support to startups at a very early stage, once or in a consecutive manner, and when most investors are not prepared to back them. In a survey of 150 founders conducted by Wilbur Labs, about 70% of entrepreneurs will face potential business failure, and nearly 66% will face this potential failure within 25 months of launching their company. A small but increasing number of angel investors invest online through equity crowdfunding or organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share investment capital and provide advice to their portfolio companies. The number of angel investors has greatly increased since the mid-20th century.
Utimaco is a company active in the sector of cybersecurity and compliance solutions, with headquarters in Aachen, Germany, and Campbell, California, USA. Founded in 1983, the company provides on-premises and cloud-based hardware security modules, key management, data protection as well as data intelligence solutions for regulated critical infrastructures and Public Warning Systems.
SKIDATA GmbH is an Austrian company that operates internationally, specializing in access solutions and management. The company provides access technology to various sectors, including airports, car parks, urban areas, shopping malls, office buildings, educational institutions, hospitals, mountain destinations, hotels, and stadiums and arenas.
Helvetia is an international insurance group that exists since 1858. The group of companies has been organised in a holding structure since 1996. The head office of Helvetia Group is located in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Invesdor is an international crowdfunding platform operated by several companies which make up the Invesdor Group. With headquarters in Berlin, Germany; Helsinki, Finland; Vienna, Austria and Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Invesdor is one of Europe’s largest crowdfunding platforms and operates as an intermediary between companies seeking investment and investors . Invesdor’s low investment threshold aims to empower small investors to invest via their platform. As of May 2023, Invesdor has been able to connect over 170,000 investors with projects they see the potential in, collecting €438 million in pledges from them. Financed projects include for example restaurants, medtech companies, and sustainable energy projects such as solar and windfarms.
Ralph Dommermuth is a German businessman, the founder, chairman and CEO of United Internet.
Rainer-Marc Frey is a Swiss businessman and investor. He is active in the Swiss financial services sector and the international hedge fund industry.
Carolina Dybeck Happe is a Swedish business executive serving as the chief operations officer (COO) of Microsoft since September 2024.
Bitpanda GmbH is an Austrian company headquartered in Vienna. Bitpanda provides a cryptocurrency exchange, commodities and securities trading, and ETFs via their website and mobile app. In 2021, Bitpanda achieved a valuation of over USD 4 billion. The company was the first Austrian start-up to meet the criteria for unicorn status.
Georg Stumpf is an Austrian real estate developer and investor. In 1994, he founded the Stumpf Group.
