The invention relates to a compound of the Structure 1 wherein Structure 1 contains a metal Met, coordinated to a tetradentate chelating ligand Lig of Structure 2 where V is a bridging unit which contains 1 to 40 atoms from the third, fourth, fifth and/or sixth main group and connects the two ligand moieties L1 and L2, which may be identical or different on each occurrence, covalently to one another, and where the two ligand moieties L1 and L2 satisfy Structure 3 where Cy1 and Cy2, identically or differently on each occurrence, correspond to a substituted or unsubstituted, saturated, unsaturated or aromatic homo- or heterocyclic ring, which is in each case bonded ionically, covalently or coordinatively to the metal via a ring atom or via an atom bonded exocyclically to the homo- or heterocyclic ring; and where L3, identically or differently on each occurrence, is a mono- or bidentate, neutral or monoanionic ligand, and where a is 0, 1 or 2. The present invention describes novel metal complexes with bipolar ligands. Compounds of this type can be employed as functional materials in a number of different applications which can be ascribed to the electronics industry in the broadest sense.