Cologne, 4^th of November 2020 – With their seed financing round, _blaenk GmbH was able to attract new and international investors: MA Ventures, the corporate venture capital fund of the Migros Aare cooperative from Switzerland, Marks & Spencer in a joint venture with Founders Factory from Great Britain and Ruddat Grund, specialist for retail real estate.

In addition to the new investors, the existing shareholders AC+X Strategic Investments of Aachener Grundvermögen and BitStone Capital are also providing fresh capital for _blaenk’s vision to revolutionize the retail sector. In total, the start-up was able to collect a seven-digit amount.

On the basis of the latest technologies, _blaenk is developing a hybrid retail concept that combines stationary and digital trade. Most recently, _blaenk won the European Innovation Award for Retail for its concept and is among the top 50 PropTech startups in Europe.

“The stationary retail trade is facing major changes. New, data-driven concepts are in demand. The approach and the team of _blaenk have convinced us and we are looking forward to supporting _blaenk in its further development.” Beat Schlumpf, Investment Manager, MA Ventures.

Martin Bressem CEO & Founder of _blaenk adds: “It’s time for a breath of fresh air in stationary retail. With our existing and new investors, we have the best conditions to take off internationally”.

At the end of November 2020, _blaenk will open its new space in Germany’s prime shopping location on Schildergasse in Cologne. In addition, projects in Switzerland and London are planned for the following year.

About _blaenk
_blaenk is developing into a hybrid B2B2C marketplace for innovative lifestyle products. Both stationary in top locations and online, consumers are offered personalized, experience-oriented shopping. Thereby _blaenk merges stationary and digital trade. The vision behind _blaenk is to serve the consumer’s lifestyle individually by means of data and to increase the well-being by means of the right product selection.

Brands can register flexibly in the _blaenk marketplace via “Retail as a Service”. From shop fitting and personnel to online shop integration, payment processing and fulfilment _blaenk takes care of all processes. The brands can view their camera and sensor-based performance in detail in an individual data dashboard of the _blaenk Business Manager (e.g. visitors, brand views, commitment, turnover, demographic characteristics such as gender and age etc.). ). The participating brands are thus shown tracking data from the online world for the stationary room as well.

For further information see:
www.blaenk.com
hello@blaenk.com

About MA Ventures
MA Ventures invests and accompanies young, innovative companies in the implementation of their growth strategy. Stability and partnership at eye level are of prime importance. MA Ventures’ portfolio companies actively shape digital change by breaking up traditional processes and improving them sustainably. In addition to the business idea, MA Ventures invests in founding personalities who implement their vision with passion and assertiveness. MA Ventures is the corporate venture capital fund of the Migros Aare cooperative. To implement the investment strategy, a strategic partnership exists with the VC specialist Redstone