Open procedure for the establishment and management of a venture capital fund in the ERDF funding period 2021-2027 in the Free State of Saxony
The establishment and management of a venture capital fund for the financing of the seed to the early expansion phase of technology-oriented companies and knowledge-based service providers with growth potential in the Free State of Saxony will be put out to tender. As a public client and anchor investor, the Free State of Saxony undertakes to contribute a fund investment of EUR 53,434,000 to the fund. As a further public investor, Sächsische Aufbaubank (SAB) is also contributing up to EUR 20 million. Participation is subject to a committee decision of the SAB. The Free State of Saxony makes its funds available independently of this committee decision.
The financing offer of the venture capital fund is aimed exclusively at start-ups in the Free State of Saxony. The Free State is divided into two regional categories, the transition regions (ÜR) Dresden and Chemnitz as well as the more developed Region Leipzig (SER). In the ÜR, the ERDF contributes 60% of the eligible expenditure, in the SER 50%. Eligible expenditure in accordance with Article 68 paragraph 1 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 is payments to the target company (final recipient) as well as administrative costs of the fund attributable to the share of the client, including the management fee. The ERDF Operational Programme provides for separate budgets for each of the categories of regions. EUR 26,998,499.25 is available for the ÜR and EUR 8,001,500.75 of the total ERDF EUR 35 million for the SER. All private or other national public financing paid by third parties to the target companies is eligible for co-financing of these ERDF funds of EUR 26,000,500.25. The founders' own funds and the returns of the predecessor fund mentioned in Capital I. cannot be used for co-financing.
The fund may be free of state aid or may contain aid in accordance with Article 21 of Regulation (EU) 651/2014 (GBER). The GBER requires the participation of independent private investors in risk financing of at least 10% or 40%, depending on the development phase of the financed companies. A condition for an aid-free capital offer is that independent private investors participate with an economically significant share of at least 30% in all risk financing and that the investors participate symmetrically in the profit and loss according to their shares.
To ensure that the fund is able to act at all times, funds from independent private investors are to be brought into the fund. The concept of independent private investor is defined in Article 2 of the GBER.
As a result of the tender, a capital management company/investment company is to be recruited as fund management. The bidder shall draw up a fund concept with the following contents: structuring and establishment of the venture capital fund, investment strategy of the fund, participation process, fund management, staffing and remuneration of the fund management. This requirement is specifically formulated in the application conditions. The offer becomes part of the contract, if necessary after fine-tuning with the client after the contract has been awarded.
Management performance includes the following tasks:
1. Establishment and structuring of the venture capital fund
2. Investitionsstrategie
3. Beteiligungsprozess
4. Fund management, reporting