rheo-CEO Philipp Vetter: “I hardly had to deal with the administrative tasks of my capital increase”
The rheo AG is active in the manufacture of medical devices and produces mobile sensors and predictive data analyses for patients' vital data. In spring 2023, it took out a convertible loan from 30 new investors as part of an initial financing round. In summer 2023, the loans were converted into shares, the share capital was increased and the investors were pooled in two syndicates. Philipp Vetter, founder and CEO of rheo, explains in an interview how Konsento supported him in this endeavour. Philipp Vetter, Gründer und CEO von rheo, erzählt im Interview, wie Konsento ihn dabei unterstützt hat.
Konsento: Hello Mr Vetter. Please tell us a little about yourself and rheo.
Philipp Vetter: Hello. I studied natural sciences at the ETH and earned my doctorate in this field. After graduating, I worked in strategy consulting for about 5 years and then in a management position in the healthcare sector for over 10 years. I am currently the founder and managing director of rheo AG. rheo digitises the measurement and transmission of vital signs data. We are replacing the manual measurement of vital parameters in hospitals with a data stream from our upper arm sensors.
We can enrich the data stream with predictions and seamlessly extend monitoring from the hospital to the patient's home thanks to LTE mobile connectivity. This saves the hospital time, improves quality and can increase the reliability of predictions.
Konsento: In July of this year, you increased rheo's capital. What experiences have you had in the process?
Philipp Vetter: Very frustrating ones at the beginning. We had already created a capital band and conditional capital when the company was founded in order to carry out a capital increase quickly, and in the spring we also had enough investors together to be able to carry out the capital increase via convertible loans. We were therefore very well prepared for the financing round.
We were looking for a simple solution for handling our financing round: in order to remain attractive for any VCs that might join us later, we wanted to pool our convertible lenders, but didn't know how we could do this and coordinate it with the conversion.
The renowned Swiss commercial law firm we were working with at the time was unable to provide us with clear and simple solutions quickly. Discussing this not only took time, but was also expensive.
Konsento: You then turned to Konsento. Why?
Philipp Vetter: An important aspect of our financing round was grouping our 30 investors into pools or syndicates. We searched the Internet for information on investor syndicates, came across Konsento and booked a demo appointment.
Konsento: And to what extent has Konsento helped you to make progress with your capital increase?
Philipp Vetter: The Konsento team very quickly made concrete proposals on how the individual contracts between rheo and the investors could be aligned and how the financing round could be structured chronologically. Specifically, the question was whether the convertible loan lenders should join the syndicate before or after the conversion of the loan into shares. Konsento then also showed us where we needed to make adjustments in our convertible loan agreements to ensure that the chosen procedure was also legally binding. Furthermore, Konsento helped us to complete our capital increase quickly and efficiently with standardised solutions for the administration of the syndicate, the automatic creation of exercise and waiver declarations and the Board of Directors meeting with a declaratory resolution and public notarisation by a notary.
Konsento: To what extent were you still involved in the administrative activities surrounding the capital increase once its structuring had been clarified?
Philipp Vetter: I was hardly involved any more. Konsento automatically created all the necessary documents based on the data from the capital increase resolution and the convertible loans, filled them out and sent them to the investors. I hardly had to do anything with the forms and was able to save about 80% of my time. With 30 new and 3 existing investors, this is a considerable saving. We also didn't have much to do with organising and instructing the notary, as he was called via Konsento and also prepared for the meeting there. The board meeting itself was very simple.
Kosento: What did you particularly like about Konsento's offer?
Philipp Vetter: The mixture of a standardised service for creating documents and holding meetings with the necessary resolutions on the one hand and personal contact and consultations with the team on the other. The workflows and the creation of forms and meetings can be automated very well. However, dialogue is needed to select the financial instrument and the right form of capital. Incidentally, this also showed me Konsento's expertise when it came to capital increases. This was important for me so that I could gain confidence in the reliability of the automated part.
Konsento: Would you carry out your capital increase with Konsento again?
Philippe Vetter: Yes. I am convinced by Konsento, both by the individuals behind it and by the platform as an assistant. The mixture of standardisation and automation on the one hand and consulting on the other is very helpful.
Konsento: Thank you very much for your trust and the interview, Mr Vetter.
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