Rising interest rates and the difficult market environment are taking their toll on startups and investors. One of the latest casualties of the crisis is Toposens: a required follow-up financing did not materialize and the company had to file for insolvency on November 18, 2022.
Insolvency administrator Stefan Strüwind launched a worldwide search for investors. His efforts have now paid off: Mey Industry, the investment company of Webasto majority shareholder Gerhard Mey, is taking over the complete business operations of Toposens including all trademark rights and patents. All employment relationships are also being retained. Insolvency administrator Stefan Strüwind told Munich Startup:
“Toposens’ technology is an excellent idea and already well developed. Interest from potential investors was very high.”
Nevertheless, ultimately only one written offer was received. For the remaining interested parties, the problem lay in the short decision period, according to Strüwind:
“Since the timeframe for insolvency benefit pre-financing could only extend over two months, a buyer had to be found by January 31, 2023. Due to the short notice, most interested parties were unable to submit a written offer. If we had more time, we would certainly have received more offers.”
Toposens: “We achieved a very good result for all parties involved”
Toposens itself is not being taken over by Mey Industry and will continue to exist after the sale of business operations until the end of the insolvency proceedings. Stefan Strüwind concludes:
“By selling the business operations of Toposens GmbH to a third party, we were able to achieve a very good result for all parties involved and save all employment relationships.”
Toposens develops sensor systems and software that enable autonomous technologies to perceive their environment in three dimensions and interact with it. The sensors operate on the basis of ultrasonic waves, which are transmitted and received similarly to how a bat’s echolocation system works. The product is already being used by major customers in the warehouse industry.
