Potsdam-based startup KURABU receives 1.55 million euros in seed financing round

Former DFL boss Christian Seifert and serial founder Julius Göllner as well as Brandenburg Kapital among investors

Potsdam, 7 December 2022 – The Potsdam-based startup KURABU has raised 1.55 million euros from investors in a seed financing round. With its digital platform, KURABU relieves sports and social clubs of administrative work and makes club life more attractive for members, employees and sponsors. Members, teams, coaches and parents can communicate with each other via an app, and officials, employees and administrators can manage the club efficiently. The capital raised will be used, among other things, to expand the offering and increase brand awareness.

The investors in the financing round include Reedstreet Ventures, Christian Seifert’s investment firm, the series founder Julius Göllner, and the venture capital company Brandenburg Kapital, a subsidiary of the Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg (ILB).

"Clubs make an irreplaceable contribution to the cohesion of our society," says co-investor Christian Seifert. "KURABU opens up the potential of digitization to small and large clubs, thereby strengthening the unique club landscape in Germany."

"We want to become the leading community management platform in the German-speaking region," says KURABU co-founder and CEO Marc Zwiebler. "With the support of our investors, KURABU will help sports and social clubs become more attractive to their millions of members and employees."

Katja Kühnel, Senior Investment Manager at Brandenburg Kapital, adds: "Increasing expectations among members and sponsors in terms of service and communication are forcing clubs to use digital solutions. KURABU's management team has many years of professional experience and the necessary intuition to leverage the previously little-used potential together with the clubs."

One solution for everything

KURABU's all-in-one solution facilitates the entire club management - from online membership applications, digital membership cards with QR code and a check-in option; self-administration of member data; automated contribution billing and donation function; planning and registration of events, trainings and meetings; to uploading documents for members and teams.

Hundreds of clubs already use the software

Hundreds of sports and social clubs with well over 100,000 members already use Kurabu. These include traditional and carnival clubs, hobby, animal breeding, cultural and nature conservation clubs, foundations and associations, self-help groups and support associations for charitable projects such as schools or daycare centers. The DJK Sports Association, the Bavarian Football Association and other regional and national sports associations have already been acquired as exclusive partners. The number of customers is set to rise sharply in the coming years - partly through referrals from satisfied existing customers, but also through continuous platform improvement and expansion. Cooperation with public sports promotion institutions and private sponsors are also planned.

KURABU = united, jointly, together.

KURABU is Japanese and means united, jointly or together. The name not only reflects the software's core concept of digitally bringing together all stakeholders of an association, but also further developing the platform in close partnership with associations.

Background: Clubs in Germany

Germany has a landscape of associations that exists nowhere else in the world: 50 million people, or 60 percent of the population, are organized in 635,000 registered associations where they play sports, make music, pursue a hobby, cultivate garden plots or organize themselves for self-help. Thirty-one million volunteers and 2.3 million employees are involved in associations.

About KURABU GmbH

KURABU was founded in 2020 by Marc Zwiebler (CEO), Bodo Brockdorff (COO) and Santosh Dhirwani (CTO). Zwiebler can point to a career as the most successful German badminton player of all time with three successful Olympic participations, Brockdorff brings to the startup experience in Product & Sales at Foodpanda, among others, and Dhirwani expertise as a software engineer at Accenture. The team includes 15 women and men from eight nations, and further hires are planned. In a first financing round (pre-seed) at the beginning of 2021, the company was already able to raise around one million euros from business angels, including via the private investor network Companisto. Webseite: www.kurabu.com

About Brandenburg Kapital GmbH/ ILB

Brandenburg Kapital GmbH is a subsidiary of the Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg (ILB). Since 1993, as the venture capital arm of ILB, it has supported Brandenburg-based companies by acquiring equity stakes and equity-like investments. As a public venture capital company, experienced lead investor and active partner, Brandenburg Kapital ensures a strong equity base for start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises in the State of Brandenburg on the basis of a stable group environment. The Early-stage and Growth Fund is currently available in the amount of around 100 million euros for this purpose. The funds for the Brandenburg Kapital fund, which was set up on behalf of the Brandenburg Ministry of Economics, are currently provided by the European Fund for Regional Development and by the ILB. Through ILB's investment activities, 252 companies have so far been supported on their growth course with around 290 million euros. In addition, private investors have invested more than 640 million euros in the companies to date. For more information, visit: www.brandenburg-kapital.de

About Companisto

Companisto is the market-leading private investor network in the D-A-CH region and has been the most active private venture capital provider in Germany for five years in a row. To date, Companisto has commited more than 149 million euros in 227 financing rounds. Since 2018, Companisto has expanded its network of currently 122,300 private investors with their digitally organized Angel Club. Around 1,400 business angels invest in the equity of companies via Companisto with investments starting at EUR 10,000. The investment process and investment management have been fully digitized. For further information, visit: www.companisto.com