m8 Capital announces $4.2 million investment in SCHAD

LONDON, UK & HAMBURG, GERMANY: m8 Capital, the venture capital fund investing exclusively in mobile technology, announced a $4.2 million investment in German mobile technology company SCHAD.

SCHAD’s technology allows engineering staff of global enterprises to remotely access, monitor and manage their plants, systems and facilities from mobile phones (BlackBerry/iPhone/Android/Windows) and other mobile devices (iPads/tablets).

The technology frees maintenance engineers from centralised control centres, and allows them to monitor and manage their plants and facilities from anywhere. As a result, the system can significantly reduce unscheduled downtime, allows for shorter maintenance response times and reduces overall maintenance costs for the world's largest businesses.

SCHAD will use the investment to further develop its product line and to expand globally.

High-Tech Gründerfonds of Germany, who had provided seed and start-up funding to the company, will also participate in this new funding round, which is being led by m8 Capital.

Within the past two years, SCHAD’s technology has been implemented by leading global enterprises including Ford, BASF, Vanderlande Industries, FRoSTA, Deutsche Lufthansa, Volkswagen and the Airports of Cologne/Bonn, Munich and Berlin.

In recognition of its success, SCHAD was recently awarded the 2010 Innovation Award for 'Transforming Enterprise Business Performance' by Blackberry.

"With an impressive array of international clients like Volkswagen and BASF, SCHAD has proven that its technology enhances profitability of global enterprises. With this investment from m8 Capital, we are confident that SCHAD will emerge as the leading company mobilizing large industrial processes around the globe," said Joseph Kim, Partner at m8 Capital.

"We welcome onboard the m8 Capital team who bring a wealth of know-how and experience that can only aid the future growth of SCHAD GmbH," said Alexander von Frankenberg, MD of the High-Tech Gründerfonds.

"The significant investment from m8 Capital enables us to grow even faster and fully develop our product line. We aim to establish Extend 7000 as the global standard for mobile access to Factory Automation and to Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). In m8 Capital, we have a strong and knowledgeable investor who believes in the high potential of our innovative mobile technology,” said Christian Schad, the founder of the company."