Bentekk, a Germany-based measurement instrument spinout, has raised a six-figure seed investment from High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg.
HTGF is a public-private venture capital investment firm whose owners include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and government-owned development bank KfW. Innovation Fonds Hamburg is an initiative of the Ministry of Economics, Transport and the City of Hamburg.
Bentekk, spun out of Hamburg University of Technology and Northern Institute of Technology Management in 2014, creates measurement instruments for toxic gasses in industrial settings.
The company’s handhold scanner, called X-PID, quickly measures the air for carcinogenic organic compounds in industrial settings.
The exact investment amount has not been disclosed although a release from High-Tech Gründerfonds reports a six-figure sum. High-Tech Gründerfonds typically invests €600,000 ($689,000) at seed stage.
The money will go towards increased sales in Germany and the development of a second product for use in potentially explosive gas atmospheres.
Gencer Sahin, investment manager at Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg, said: “X-PID closes a gap in the market for mobile gas chromatography. The measurement instrument is the only existing portable solution on the market that is able to detect the always stricter regulatory threshold values for benzene.”
– This article first appeared on our sister site Global Government Venturing.
