The German government has created a $320 million (262 million Euro) venture capital fund to support technology-based startups within the country. A European Commission website referenced the creation in pointing to the Partners for Innovation website this past week.

Industry analysts see the creation of the High-tech Startup Fund (High-Tech Gründerfonds) as an attempt to reform previous German federal venture capital programs begun several years ago.

This new fund will begin with 142 million Euro in initial government funding, with 120 million Euro in additional government funding over the next five years. The remaining contributions will come from KfW, BASF, Siemens and Deutsche Telekom.

Planned projects are expected to be between 500,000 Euro to 1 million Euro and to be segmented into material and life sciences, information technology, automation and optical technologies and telecommunication and new media.