Hamburg, Munich, Menlo Park, 14 May 2007. Earlybird announces the successful completion of a financing round of some EUR 4 million in smava, Germany’s first online marketplace for person-to-person lending. This was Earlybird’s second investment from the next-generation fund Earlybird IV. Other investors recruited were the successful Internet entrepreneurs Lukasz Gadowski (Spreadshirt), Stefan Glänzer (Last.fm), Oliver Jung (Adinvest), Peter Schüpbach (GenevaLogic) and Tim Schwenke (getmobile).

smava will use the money for further growth. The capital will primarily be used for expanding product development, risk management and marketing. Dr. Christian Nagel, Managing Partner of Earlybird: “smava has a promising vision for the future and a strong management team, and is the first company in Germany to launch a secure online credit marketplace for money lending between individuals. Just as Interhyp – a first-generation fund Earlybird investment – has had a major impact on the market for online mortgage financing, smava can improve the consumer credit market by ensuring better terms and greater transparency for consumers.”

The Internet entrepreneur group comments: “smava is an example of how Internet marketplaces with a strong community can change established industries. A credit volume of nearly EUR 100,000 arranged to date shows that investors and borrowers are accepting the new business model in Germany as well.”

With this financing round, smava – like successful credit marketplaces abroad, for example Prosper (USA) and ZOPA (England) – has succeeded in recruiting established investors for its business model even in the early stages. Alexander Artopé, general manager of smava GmbH, has this to say about the successful financing round: “Participation by a well known venture capital specialist like Earlybird and reputable Internet entrepreneurs gives smava the opportunity to increase its lead. It allows us to push ahead with our aim of enabling investors and borrowers to gain a considerable financial and social advantage.”


About Earlybird
Earlybird is an international venture capital company with offices in Germany (Hamburg and Munich) and the USA (Menlo Park). The company was established in 1997 and currently manages a fund volume of around US$ 410 million (€ 300 million). Earlybird invests primarily in businesses which have their origins in Europe, in convergent multi-technology fields such as embedded software, communications technology components, Internet services, cleantech, medtech and other healthcare technologies. Its focus is on investment in the early stages of a company’s development. In the past 18 months Earlybird has sold seven companies, including six IPOs on four European stock exchanges and the sale of the Israeli firm Identify to a US company. Companies put on the stock exchange are Interhyp, Tipp24 and Wilex (all Prime Standard, Frankfurt), Esmertec (Swiss Exchange, Zürich), Entelos (London Stock Exchange) and NoemaLife (Borsa Italiana, Milan). Interhyp alone returned more than 50 times the original Earlybird investment and currently has a capital market valuation of €600 million.


About smava
smava is Germany’s first P2P lending market place and sets out to enable investors and borrowers to gain a considerable financial and social advantage. Just as eBay facilitates the sale of goods between individuals on the Internet, smava transfers the idea of private money lending between individuals to the Internet. smava earns money by charging the borrower a single performance fee of one percent of the loan sum financed. The service is free for investors. smava GmbH, a German company based in Berlin, was established by an experienced management team from the finance and Internet sectors.


Further information:

Daniela von Wedel
vonwedel@earlybird.com
Earlybird
Van-der-Smissen-Str. 3
22767 Hamburg
Tel.: +49-40-4329 41-0
Fax: +49-40-4329 41-29
www.earlybird.com


  www.smava.de