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Wednesday, April 5, 2017

bentekk: Dräger buys majority stake

Brilliant deal for NIT alumni Matthias Schmittmann and Johannes Weber: Dräger Safety AG & Co. KGaA has acquired a 51 percent stake in their start-up bentekk GmbH. Dräger bought the share from betekk's seed investors High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg (IFH). bentekk, based in the south of Hamburg, specializes in developing innovative gas measurement devices for industrial applications. This latest acquisition sees Dräger extend its expertise in the area of mobile gas measurement even further.

"bentekk has developed a solution that is absolutely unique in this form," says Stefan Dräger, Chairman of the Executive Board of Drägerwerk Verwaltungs AG. "By purchasing a majority stake in this company, we have gained a major advantage in terms of development over our competitors. The product perfectly complements our range of products for industry customers."

"Dräger's customer intimacy and its international distribution and service network are invaluable to us," says Johannes Weber, Managing Director of bentekk GmbH. "We are looking forward to working together and forming a common future."

In March 2016, the start-up concluded a seed financing agreement with High-Tech Gründerfonds and Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg. The previous investors are to sell their shares as part of Dräger's acquisition of a majority stake. "This transaction provides bentekk with the ideal partner to achieve broad market penetration with its products," says Lucille Bonnet, Senior Investment Manager of HTGF. "We would like to wish the bentekk team all the best!" "We are delighted that the team behind this start-up has developed such an innovative and unique product in Hamburg," said Gencer Sahin, Investment Manager at IFH. "Gaining a strong partner like Dräger seems to have secured the success of the company over the long term."

bentekk's X-PID product is a portable gas measurement device designed to quickly and accurately measure the presence of benzene and other carcinogenic organic compounds in the atmosphere. X-PID is the first handheld device to detect extremely low concentrations of compounds that were previously only detectable in a laboratory environment. The fast measuring device is predominantly used for clearance measurements during maintenance work and indicates if thresholds are being exceeded. Its primary area of application is monitoring maximum permissible concentrations of benzene in the workplace.

Over the next few months bentekk will work on developing the product further together with Dräger. One of the main goals is to develop the device for use in atmospheres with a risk of explosion - a prerequisite for accessing additional application markets.

About Dräger

Dräger is an international leader in the fields of medical and safety technology. Dräger products protect, support, and save lives. Founded in 1889, Dräger generated net sales of over EUR 2.5 billion in 2016. The Lübeck-based company maintains a global presence and employs over 13,000 people.

For more information visit www.draeger.com

About bentekk GmbH

The NIT alumni Matthias Schmittmann and Johannes Weber founded bentekk in November 2014 as a spin-off of the Hamburg University of Technology. bentekk develops, produces and sells analytical measurement technologies for hazardous compounds in air. The gas measurement devices make use of a Industrial Internet of Things approach. In January 2016, the team led by chemical engineer Matthias Schmittmann and the industrial engineer Johannes Weber entered the German market with the product X-PID, which is since then gaining popularity in the German industry.

For more information visit www.bentekk.com

Text: Johannes Weber, bentekk



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