14leafs is a new venture capital fund from Würzburg that finances early-stage deep-tech start-ups and deliberately focuses on regional roots – with partners from the university, savings bank, and entrepreneurial practice. An approach that clearly differs from the well-known VC structures in Berlin or München.
That was precisely the communicative challenge: How do you credibly position a new fund in a market dominated by established names – and that without a track record, but with a clear substantive standpoint?
EPOS developed a PR strategy that positioned 14leafs not as another capital provider, but as a strategic voice for technology-driven corporate development. The focus was on the question of what the market really needs right now – and why 14leafs has its own answer to that.
Instead of accompanying the launch with classic product messages, EPOS relied on thought leadership: fund experts and the scientific partner Prof. Axel Winkelmann (University of Würzburg) were positioned as discussion partners for business, finance, and trade media. The communication linked the fund approach to overarching topics such as early-stage financing in Germany, regional innovation potential, and the structural requirements of deep tech – thereby creating relevance far beyond the target group of direct investors.
The launch of 14leafs achieved a media reach of over 38 million contacts within a few weeks – with placements across all relevant media segments.
Highlights include contributions in FAZ, VentureCapital Magazin, Deutsche Startups (two placements), Cash., goingpublic, FinanzBusiness and expertenReport as well as a podcast episode in the format Beyond Billions from Börsen-Zeitung. The supra-regional coverage was supplemented by targeted placements in regional media such as Mainfranken News, SW1.News, and NewsAllianz.
Further results are already in preparation: including a guest article in the Deutsche Wirtschaftsnachrichten and StartupMag, an interview in the trade journal transkript, as well as contributions in the IHK-Magazin and the Main Post.
Header photo by Sheila C on Unsplash
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