January 29, 2019

Enhanced access to digital start-ups for the consumer business

Henkel invests into Partech global seed fund

Düsseldorf – Henkel takes another step in expanding its venture capital activities combined under the umbrella of Henkel Ventures: The company committed to invest into the Partech Entrepreneur Fund III managed by Partech. Through partnering with the fund, Henkel’s consumer businesses – Beauty Care and Laundry & Home Care – will gain further insights into new digital technologies, services and applications. 

Partech is headquartered in Paris, France, operates offices in Berlin, San Francisco and Dakar and has strong connections in the European and US start-up scenes. Focusing on seed investments, Partech Entrepreneur Fund III offers access to a significant volume of more than 2,000 new start-ups per year. 

“As a Limited Partner, we now have access to this highly relevant community of start-ups with promising digital ideas and products – ranging from Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) platforms and services, e-commerce, marketplaces, social/media to advertising tech”, says Anne Lemmen, Head of Corporate Venturing at Henkel Beauty Care. Thus, the investment is aligned with the search fields for Henkel’s consumer businesses which are known for successful brands such as Schwarzkopf and Persil. “We want to further explore new business models, applications and technologies in areas of strategic interest for Henkel and connect these with our strong brand and market expertise to help start-ups grow,” adds Thomas Jungmann, Head of Corporate Venturing at Henkel Laundry & Home Care. 

“We are delighted to welcome Henkel as a Limited Partner of our Partech Entrepreneur Fund III. Henkel has a strong reputation for its leading consumer brands, its expertise to successfully launch innovations to the market – and also for its strategic focus on digitalization, playing an ever more important role in the FMCG markets. We are looking forward to actively working with Henkel on the discovery and the development of new opportunities for our existing and future portfolio startups,” says Romain Lavault, General Partner at Partech. 
Henkel’s corporate venture capital engagement
Henkel Ventures is Henkel's corporate venture capital engagement with a total volume of up to 150 million euros. The dedicated team actively evaluates and manages equity investments and joint development projects with start-up companies. Building on existing successful collaborations between Henkel’s three business units and start-ups, Henkel Ventures focuses on a variety of business-related search fields. The investment into the Partech Entrepreneur Fund III follows further direct and fund investments from Henkel. Recently, the company invested into a specialist circular economy fund from Circularity Capital, supporting the company’s progress in sustainability. For more information on Henkel Ventures please visit www.henkel-ventures.com.

About Henkel
Henkel operates globally with a well-balanced and diversified portfolio. The company holds leading positions with its three business units in both industrial and consumer businesses thanks to strong brands, innovations and technologies. Henkel Adhesive Technologies is the global leader in the adhesives market – across all industry segments worldwide. In its Laundry & Home Care and Beauty Care businesses, Henkel holds leading positions in many markets and categories around the world. Founded in 1876, Henkel looks back on more than 140 years of success. In 2018, Henkel reported sales of around 20 billion euros and adjusted operating profit of around 3.5 billion euros. Henkel employs more than 53,000 people globally – a passionate and highly diverse team, united by a strong company culture, a common purpose to create sustainable value, and shared values. As a recognized leader in sustainability, Henkel holds top positions in many international indices and rankings. Henkel’s preferred shares are listed in the German stock index DAX. For more information, please visit www.henkel.com.

About Partech
Partech is a global investment firm with offices in San Francisco, Paris, Berlin and Dakar. We bring together capital, operational experience and strategic support for entrepreneurs at seed, venture and growth stages across multiple continents, with over $1.2B investment capacity. Investments range from $200K to $50M in a wide range of technologies and businesses for enterprises and consumers, from software, digital brands and services, to hardware and deep tech across all major industries. Companies backed by Partech have completed more than 20 initial public offerings and more than 50 strategic exits above $100M. Our current portfolio: https://partechpartners.com/companies/ 

Photo material is available at www.henkel.com/press

Contact	Jennifer Ott	Wulf Klüppelholz
Phone	+49 211 797-2756	+49 211 797-1875
Email	jennifer.ott@henkel.com	wulf.klueppelholz@henkel.com                               	

Henkel AG & Co. KGaA