The founders of Secjur (from left to right) Niklas Hanitsch, Manuel Stahl, Simon Pentzien, Sven Moritz want to automate compliance control.
(Photo: Secjur)
Dusseldorf It is only 5.5 million euros that the founding team of Secjur receives. However, the joy about this first financing is great. “Our investors bring more than capital. They bring their knowledge and experience to the table, and they want to help us to become better known,” says Niklas Hanitsch, co-founder and managing director of Secjur.
The company plans to become the world’s leading provider of compliance automation. The product is already a European leader in the areas of data protection and information security. The platform developed by Secjur is a kind of digital complaints office that helps companies to comply with rules automatically. For example, employees can submit complaints anonymously and Secjur uses the software to ensure proper processing. In addition, Secjurs Software should be able to check websites, contracts and digital tools in relation to data protection and information security.
The 34-year-old fully qualified lawyer Hanitsch founded the start-up in 2018 together with Manuel Stahl, Simon Pentzien and Sven Moritz. All four are still in responsible positions in the company.
So far, the company has grown through sales and was able to win the first paying customers just a few months after the start. The software has been used by companies such as Mercedes Benz, Samsung, Mediamarkt Saturn, Pantaflix, Klitschko Ventures and Tomorrow Bank. In addition, Secjur’s platform won first place in the German Startup Cup in the cybersecurity category.
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Secjur’s most important investor is the Berlin Visionaries Club, which manages a venture capital fund with a volume of 600 million euros. The Visionaries Club is supported by a network of entrepreneurs and founders from the digital sector such as those from Flixbus, Mollie, Spotify, Personio and Hello Fresh as well as Europe’s family-run business dynasties such as Swarovski, Miele, Haniel, Stihl, Henkel, Siemens, Oetker, Fiege and Bitburger. They have been working together for a number of years to invest in the next generation of female founders.
The group of investors also includes 18 so-called business angels, who support start-ups financially and in an advisory capacity – including prominent personalities such as soccer star Mario Götze and Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg.
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The investors see great opportunities for Secjur. After all, many companies are now obliged to set up a system for managing information security in order to protect themselves against cyber attacks, for example. In the coming years, the requirements could continue to grow due to increasing regulation. Robert Lacher from the Visionaries Club therefore suspects “limitless potential”:
“Unfortunately, meeting compliance regulations has become a major problem for companies of all sizes because they are manual, repetitive and expensive to manage,” says Lacher.
Secjur wants to use the investors’ money to further develop the platform and to open up new countries such as Austria and Switzerland. “Europe has the strictest data protection regulations. Based on this gold standard, we want to build a European platform,” says Pentzien, the company’s COO.
The founding team gives up the customary 15 to 25 percent of its shares for the investors to get involved. Hanitsch and Pentzien don’t want to be more precise. The investors should also be promptly asked to join an advisory board.
More: In the club of digital investors: the Visionaries Club