Argo Venture ́s capital markets subsidiary Argo Capital Solutions structured equity financing with a total volume of € 15 m with 3M Ventures, creating the largest independent e-reading infrastructure worldwide. 3M Ventures is the venture capital arm of Minnesota-headquartered 3M, a large multinational corporation with market leadership in numerous technology sectors.

It all started in 2008 when Berlin-based txtr GmbH, the German e-reading forerunner, set out to capitalize on the e-reader boom and built a competitor to then market leader Amazon Kindle.

With the help of Argo Capital’s Stefan Beiten and Nikolaus Weil, they subsequently partnered up with investor 3M Ventures. In a bid to grow its technology portfolio, 3M wanted to get involved in the digital library space and also secure txtr’s help with developing the app 3M Cloud Library, devised to connect e-reading solutions, e-book lending and cloud services. At the time, textr’s more than 400.000 e-book titles represented Europe’s largest digital library. In 2011 the company shifted its focus from hardware design to developing a white-label e-bookstore platform, which it planned to license to telecoms and other industrial customers.

Habitual entrepreneurs Beiten and Weil hold stakes in Argo Venture Capital and its various subsidiaries and associated companies such as client and portfolio company Berlin Atlantic Group and independent film production outfit Greenlight Media. They have a keen instinct for commercial opportunities and specialize in developing novel financial strategies and products.

Our veteran advisory team excels at raising, structuring and implementing fund vehicles tailored to your requirements and expectations.