Invesdor Group completes first DACH equity case: Biogena raises almost €2m in funding

The Austrian company Biogena has concluded a successful equity funding round on Invesdor’s digital investment platform. To Invesdor’s knowledge, this is the first time an equity issue has been conducted by a Finnish MiFID-licensed investment service to an Austrian company and its investor base.

Biogena is a health and micronutrient company founded in 2006 and based in Salzburg, Austria. The company has raised funding in the past by way of debt and mezzanine capital rounds with Finnest GmbH, an Austrian platform that became a part of Invesdor Group in 2019 and now operates as a registered tied agent of Invesdor.

Biogena’s equity issued on Invesdor’s digital investment platform on Thursday, 7 May. The round proceeded quickly and closed fully subscribed on Wednesday, 13 May with €1,995,000 in investments. The successful funding round is the first equity issue Invesdor or, to the company’s knowledge, any Finnish investment service company has completed with a target company based on the DACH market.

Invesdor CEO Günther Lindenlaub: It’s a new step for the financial market

The funding round of Biogena is also notable from a systemic point of view: it’s a genuine cross-border step forward on the European finance market. Typically such cases are handled by local operators or branches, whereas in the case of Biogena and Invesdor a funding round was executed for an Austrian target company by a Finnish investment service company with a Finnish MiFID license.

“We are extremely happy for Biogena: it was a great co-operation and a fantastic way to share our equity expertise cross-border-wise”, says Invesdor Group’s Chief Executive Officer Günther Lindenlaub. “Going cross-border with this funding round is a step towards the ultimate goal of a single capital market. It’s a major step for both European companies and investors if we can continue to increase access to funding and investing across the continent; it offers more and new opportunities for everyone.”

Lindenlaub also notes that even though the coronavirus pandemic has caused uncertainty on the financial market, investors can still be active if an interesting case comes along.

“The market atmosphere has been pessimistic lately, perhaps even too much”, Lindenlaub comments. “Biogena’s success shows that there is still plenty of interest for investing. The market just needs to offer appropriate ways to connect companies and investors; that’s exactly what we at Invesdor are doing by offering paths to digital investing. We are excited to deepen our relationship with Biogena and at the same offer a new funding option for Austrian companies as well.”

Biogena’s Albert Schmidbauer: “A more healthy world with our investors”

Biogena was founded in 2006 by Albert Schmidbauer, CEO of Biogena Group. Biogena describes its goal as pursuing the health and well-being of as many people as possible. Their community today consists of 300,000 customers in more than 40 countries, over 10,000 partner doctors and therapists in connection with numerous research collaborations and over 200 supplier partners from all over the world.

“With this issue we enable our community to participate in the appreciation of Biogena Group for the first time. Together with our investors, we are thus ensuring a more sustainable and healthy world”, Schmidbauer emphasizes.