Deutsche Telekom announces $620m corporate venturing fund

Germany-based telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom approved the launch yesterday of a €500m ($620m) corporate venturing unit that will be known as Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners (DTCP).

DTCP, set to begin operations in early 2015, will make early-stage investments, with a particular focus on Germany, and later stage private equity investments in companies in order to help foster corporate partnerships.

The unit will also advise Deutsche Telekom on its existing investments made through its other subsidiaries: Strato, Interactive Media, Scout, Deutsche Telekom Innovation Pool and T-Venture, currently its main corporate venturing subsidiary, which will henceforth wind down.

Founded in 1998, T-Venture has built a portfolio numbering 67 companies, according to its website. Its management team will stay on to oversee that portfolio, which includes adtech company AppNexus, security app developer Lookout and interconnect producer Ranovus.

Vicente Vento, Deutsche Telekom’s senior vice president of mergers and acquisitions, will take over as chief executive of DTCP. Thorsten Langheim, the company’s senior vice president of group corporate development, will oversee the fund’s operations.

“As a hybrid fund, DTCP combines the strengths of a large corporate group with the speed and expertise of an investment fund, and expands Deutsche Telekom’s spectrum considerably,” Langheim said.

“We are opening up new opportunities for ourselves to increase the value of our own investments that are not part of our core business in the long term. And our private equity approach will allow us to invest in more mature companies that have to date been outside the reach of a purely venture capital focus.”