SHS Ventures

VSE and Saarland’s steel industry acquire shares in Zensor

10 March 2017

SHS Ventures, a venture capital company of SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar and VSE, has acquired shares in Zensor, a Belgian service provider based in Brussels. Zensor has developed an integrated solution that provides predictive maintenance for large, stationary parts of technical plants and infrastructure.

 In addition to the investment by SHS Ventures in the single-digit million range, an additional investor – Paul Kumpen, a Belgian entrepreneur and business angel – has placed his money on Zensor, making funds available to finance the growth of the company.

Zensor, founded in 2013, is a promising start-up that uses an integrated method to monitor infrastructure with sensor data, allowing the company to participate in the fast-growing market for predictive maintenance and analytics. The solution can be transferred extensively to many markets, including the on- and offshore wind energy sectors. With this investment, SHS Ventures hopes to extend the value chain of VSE and the SHS Group. Maintenance is an increasingly important subject for the industry and it is viewed as essential to continuously develop this area with a view to greater efficiency and profitability.

Quotes:

Dr. Hanno Dornseifer, Executive Board Member of VSE AG: “Zensor offers a pioneering range of services for efficient maintenance of energy management infrastructure and applications that go far beyond that. Digitalization and new technologies have produced diverse new opportunities in this area that we now want to develop together. The investment is therefore a good fit with the VSE approach to service.”

Dr. Michael Müller, Chairman of the Management Board of SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar GmbH & Co. KGaA: “This investment fits into our concept for continued development of our company as a technological leader. With this, we want to further advance our activities in the area of Industry 4.0.”

Yves van Ingelgem, CEO of Zensor: “Operators of large infrastructure projects in the offshore wind and transport sectors are increasingly focusing on continuous and therefore more reliable remote monitoring, rather than on traditional routine maintenance. This is where Zensor, with our integrated approach and expertise in the areas of materials science, mechanics, software development and electronics, makes the ideal partner.”

Dr. Günter Luxenburger, Board of Management Member for Sales, AG der Dillinger Hüttenwerke:
“Offshore wind power is high technology, extremely high safety standards are required here. As a result of Industry 4.0, new opportunities are opening up in monitoring that increase safety while also minimizing costs. For this reason, Zensor and its services are a great fit with the range of products in the Group.”

For more informationen

About SHS Ventures:

The holding company was founded in February 2016 by VSE AG and SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar GmbH & Co. KGaA. The goal is to identify and develop new business segments for Saarland, allowing the area to participate actively in current developments. As a result, SHS Ventures systematically establishes contacts with start-ups within Germany and abroad.

 

Contact:

Ute Engel, Head of Communications, SHS
Tel: +49 6831-47 3011 email: ute.engel@stahl-holding-saar.de

Marie-Elisabeth Denzer, Head of Corporate Communications, VSE
Tel: +49 681 607-1150 email: denzer-marie-elisabeth@vse.de

Andreas Herzig, Managing Director of SHS Ventures
Tel.: +496831-47 3780 email: andreas.herzig@shs-ventures.de