Digital pest control: Bayern Kapital and Born2Grow participate in seed financing round of traplinked

traplinked GmbH was established by Tim Kirchhof in Nuremberg in 2019. The company produces remotely monitored automatic pest traps as well as supporting software that performs all of the clerical work associated with pest control systems, from infestation and treatment documentation through routine operational planning and monitoring to invoicing. The idea for the start-up had its genesis during the founder’s working student activity in a pest business. While he was working there, Kirchhof recognised the enormous potential to automate operations, particularly for the monotonous daily handling of trap boxes that had not recorded any catches.

Since then, traplinked has made a significant contribution to the digitisation of the pest control industry by combining wireless communication and sensor technology. The intelligent JERRY and TOM sensor modules monitor and document the condition of trap boxes with real-time notifications across multiple sites, making snap traps a time- and cost-effective method for tackling all kinds of pests. This enables significant reductions in food losses, the spread of diseases and the use of controversial poisoned baits, which present a lot of risks and downsides.

traplinked has now sold more than 55,000 sensor modules throughout Europe. The new funds will be used to further pursue the company’s internationalisation strategy and to expand its hardware, particularly in the fields of connectivity and artificial intelligence for automatic data processing. A further focus will be on the monetisation of the company’s in-house traplinked software.

Daniel Pelikan, CEO of traplinked, notes: “The hardware was our entry to the market. We have implemented it very successfully. This fresh capital will now enable us to focus on the software. Our goal is to generate around 1,000,000 ARR by 2024.”

Manuel Böhringer, BORN2GROW Investment Manager, adds: “Pest control offers huge market potential. We have no doubt that we can revolutionise the market for digital pest control by working together with traplinked’s strong founding team.”

“As the planet heats up, it will become more and more important – and more and more difficult – to curb the impact of pests”, notes Monika Steger, Director of Bayern Kapital. “We are delighted to support the company with this stake. By avoiding the use of poisoned baits and other toxins, traplinked applies a sustainable approach that is in tune with the times.”

About traplinked Gmbh:

traplinked develops digital pest control solutions. Networked trap boxes and the traplinked app save pest controllers time, enabling them to offer an outstanding service to their clients across all industrial sectors. The objective is to make trap boxes a time- and cost-efficient pest control method. The use of traps currently involves substantial personnel costs as the traps need to be inspected on a daily basis. This is where traplinked’s digital solution comes in: A wireless communication system, in combination with sensor technology, monitors and documents incidents of pest infestation, even across multiple sites.
www.traplinked.com

About BORN2GROW

BORN2GROW (B2G) is a Heilbronn-based and internationally active seed fund that focuses on investments in high-growth startups in forward-looking technologies such as Life Sciences, CleanTech, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, IoT, Hardware & Robotics and Software. B2G was founded in 2013 and supports its portfolio companies with capital, know-how and its extensive network. Since its foundation, the fund has actively supported more than 25 portfolio companies. B2G works together with other VC funds and business angels. B2G is a subsidiary of ZFHN Zukunftsfonds Heilbronn, a family office that focuses on networking activities and investments in the Heilbronn-Franken region. In this context, the cooperation between national and international start-ups and medium-sized companies from the region is intensified.

About Bayern Kapital:

Bayern Kapital GmbH, based in Landshut (Germany), is the venture/growth capital company of the Free State of Bavaria. It supports innovative high-tech companies in Bavaria through their various growth phases, from seed to later stage, with equity capital from EUR 0.25 to 25 million. Bayern Kapital often closes gaps in the VC area in proven consortium arrangements with private investors (business angels, family offices and corporate ventures).

Bayern Kapital manages specialist investment funds with a volume of around EUR 700 million. Since its formation in 1995 at the initiative of the state government, the wholly-owned subsidiary of LfA Foerderbank Bayern has invested around EUR 400 million of its own equity capital so far in around 300 start-ups and scale-ups from industries such as life sciences, software & IT, materials & new materials, nanotechnology and environmental technology. More than 8,000 long-term jobs in sustainable companies have been created in Bavaria. The active portfolio currently comprises around 80 companies.

Examples of the many ground-breaking success stories that Bayern Kapital has already supported at an early stage include EOS (now the world’s leading technology provider in industrial 3D printing of metals and plastics), Proglove, Fazua, SimScale, Scompler, egym, Parcellab, Cobrainer, Quantum Systems, Casavi, Theva, Riskmethods, Tubulis, Catalym, Immunic, Sirion and many more.
www.bayernkapital.de