Gerhard Miller

Cipio is a private equity investment manager specialized in acquiring and realizing corporate venture portfolios, with a generally shorter-term outlook than primary investors. They target portfolios across all development stages, including early-stage venture capital, mid-market expansion, smaller buy-outs and control investments. Their investments may involve equity, mezzanine and debt securities. They may also acquire limited partnership interests in connection with a direct portfolio. Within a portfolio they seek to identify strong management teams, clear competitive advantages, high-growth potential and attractive realization prospects. Cipio's funds are invested in early and later-stage venture capital and medium-sized companies worldwide, favoring sectors such as information technology, media and telecommunications as well as select areas of life sciences. Their investment approach is bottom-up and their investment philosophy emphasizes credibility, trust, partnership and flexibility. Cipio gets actively involved in fostering the growth their portfolio companies, similarly to a primary investor, and may reinvest fresh capital as needed for expansion. They are often the lead-investor, serve on the board, and offer consulting advice on operations, strategy and IPO preparation. They focus on synchronizing corporate strategy, budget allocation and financial strategy with a global industry perspective. In addition to their secondary market activities, the firm also makes direct primary investments in special situations. In 2004 Cipio acquired the private equity operations of both Deutsche Telekom and DaimlerChrysler. In 2005 the firm bought the corporate venture capital portfolio of Infineon Technologies, which was invested in semiconductor, micro-electronics and communications technology businesses in North America, Europe and Israel. Later in the same year Cipio acquired the venture capital portfolio of West STEAG Partners, sponsored by WestLB AG and invested in semiconductor capital equipment and communications technology companies in North America and Israel. They have also acquired a portfolio from RAG Coal International AG. In 2007 they acquired a portfolio of venture capital investments from Siemens Venture Capital, invested in late-stage technology companies in the areas of semiconductors, optical components and communications equipment in North America and Israel.

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