Welcome to our summer 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.

This time we wrap up September 2023. There have been a lot of news sad (insolvencies, final closures, …), but also good ones (expansions, fundings, …) that we just had to make a selection in order not to bore you to death.

Our startup news is recorded with Chris live in New York City and Joe in Frankfurt. The recording date is September 26th and all news not included will be in our next news to be released on October 26th.

Our Highlights:

We track close to 500 mn Euros in newly announced investments in GSA. We have the first defense tech unicorn in Berlin and a lot of great news from Greentech startups in Germany. Some proptechs are not doing well, but not all startups associated with construction are performing poorly, as shown by the fundraising from Schüttfix. Long-distance trucking gets more autonomous with FERNRIDE and some bank news: Deutsche Bank uses Swiss DLT startup Taurus’ technology and we learn more about JP Morgan’s retail offering in Germany. Unicorn Flix already hired banks for their IPO in H1 next year. We also keep you updated on the bank holidays in Germany in the next weeks.

Let’s talk startups:

The Video Podcast Will Go Live on Thursday, September 28th, 2023

The Audio Podcast Will Go Live on Thursday, September 28th, 2023

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This recording is supported by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen

This recording was made possible by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen. These organizations have made tremendous contributions to helping startup businesses succeed and thrive, providing a range of services from helping to find grants to ongoing partnerships. By taking advantage of these resources, startup companies can network and develop innovative strategies for success on the international stage. The dedicated support of HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen is paramount in providing startup businesses with the tools for lasting success. Look for our dedicated sub-podcast in partnership with them: Tech Startups Germany on our https://linktr.ee/startupradio

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Top News

Helsing (Berlin-based) Defence Tech Startup Becomes Europe’s first Unicorn in Defense

Helsing raises €209M in Series B funding for AI Defencetech https://buff.ly/3rqCmDx becoming, in turn, Europe’s first defense unicorn Tech.eu writes:

“The round is led by General Catalyst. Swedish group Saab is joining the round as a strategic investor, deepening the existing partnership. This funding round follows a previous Series A (€102.5 million) led by Prima Materia, an investment company founded by Daniel Ek, co-founder and CEO of Spotify. Founded in 2021, Helsing develops AI-based capabilities to “protect our democracies.“ Related: News from Handelsblatt in German: https://buff.ly/462rcny

FERNRIDE Extends Series A to 50 M USD

Autonomous driving startup FERNRIDE from Munich extends its Series A funding to 50 M USD. Investors include DTCF (Germany’s Deep Tech and Climate Fund), Munich Re Ventures, Bayern Kapital, and Klaus Kleinfeld https://buff.ly/3PQLWIj The company wants to become an end-to-end solution provider for autonomous, electric trucking, keeping humans as teleoperators in the loop. Meaning the trucks will maneuver autonomously, but if the AI recognizes a problem a human driver from FERNRIDE will take over.

Schüttfix Gets a Pour of Money

Despite a souring mood in Germany’s construction industry, the construction startup Schüttflix raised 45 m € to break even https://buff.ly/46gsGKz to put this in perspective new housing construction was down 30% in H1 2023. Schüttflix is an online portal enabling construction companies to order materials like sand, or gravel online.

Lots Of Good News For GreenTech Startups. Just One Example

Berlin-based climate tech startup Plan A raises 25 M € from investors including Silicon Valley-based Lightspeed https://buff.ly/3PzIbqx Plan A is a GreenTech company that develops a carbon quantification platform to measures, monitors, and reduces environmental footprint. Investors in this round include clients, Visa, Deutsche Bank, and BNP Paribas. New investors are the founders of Wolt and Zalando.

Deutsche Bank Offers Crypto Services with a Startup

Deutsche Bank now offers crypto services together with Swiss startup Taurus https://buff.ly/3Pv3rxw The startup will help Deutsche with the introduction of digital asset and DLT-based products and services in some of their accounting centers. In February of 2023, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank invested in the startup (https://buff.ly/3rrnAwu) in a 65 mn US$ venture capital funding round. Deutsche Bank does not recommend cryptocurrencies, but tokenized or digital assets. At the time of the investment Deutsche already announced their intention to use Taurus’ IT for their services. Neither bank disclosed what kind of digital assets they wanted to offer their clients.

JP Morgan Is Getting Ready for a Challenge

JP Morgan has already 50 employees in Berlin for their online bank “Chase,” working on the launch https://buff.ly/3ZyTtzW according to FAZ (https://buff.ly/3t3Ft4J) the online offer for retail clients will start 2024 or 2025, as second country in Europe, behind the UK. Interestingly they are still investing, despite competitors like Goldman and Citi closing or downsizing their retail client business. You can learn more in these articles (Handelsblatt https://buff.ly/46s0jtg or Capital https://buff.ly/3LEg9ce)

Unicorn Flix (Known as Owner of Greyhound) is Looking for an IPO

Munich-based mobility unicorn Flix (known as owner of Greyhound) is looking to IPO. They have reportedly hired J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sach, and BNP https://buff.ly/3t9hy4d Of course you can learn more about the company in our interview last year with one of the founders of the unicorn: https://buff.ly/457t4u5 According to Handelsblatt they want to get listed in H1 2024 with a potential valuation of 4 bn Euros (4,25 bn US$). 2022 Flix could show a positive EBITDA and increased revenue by 185% to around 1,5 bn Euros. They are looking for +20% topline growth for this year (Handelsblatt https://buff.ly/45b2KPA).

Housekeeping & Time to Brag

We have been recommended as one of the 10 podcasts entrepreneurs should listen to by EU Startups in September: 10 Podcasts every entrepreneur should listen to in 2023 | EU-Startups https://buff.ly/48rc5ps Thank you!

Business Culture in Germany:

For our little business and culture diversion: Keep in mind that Germany has a long weekend ahead, we celebrate Unity Day on October 3rd. Since it is a Tuesday, many will take off Monday, October 2nd. If you do business with or travel to Germany keep that in mind. The holiday is observed in all states (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Unity_Day).

Some states have bank holidays on either October 31st or November 1st.

Radio YouTube Live Stream:

You can not also listen to our internet radio station 24/7 on YouTube as a live stream. Note that we have to change the live stream every few days due to the way YouTube was set up. Just have a look at our YouTube page and catch the most recent stream: YouTube.com/startupradio

Keeping Up with Our Guests:

Our former guest HR Tech startup Kenjo raises 8,8 mn € Venture Capital https://buff.ly/45TXnFV

Learn more about the company here: https://buff.ly/3rcINu2

Events for our audience for free

Crypto Assets Conference: Organized by our former guest Prof. Philipp Sandner www.eventbrite.com/e/crypto-assets-conference-2023-cac23b-tickets-686212850107

• 100% Discount online use the code: CAC23Online
• 25% Discount for onsite tickets in Frankfurt use code: CACNetwork25

Ecosystem

Relevant News from the World

• Global Startup Funding Remains Subdued But IPO Market Sparks Hope Of Rebound https://buff.ly/3rxlgUv

Focus on GSA

• Germany implemented 45% of its startup strategy measures, ministry says https://buff.ly/3PTzLf1
  Learn more here in our interview with the digital commissioner: https://buff.ly/3rrMADL
• German startup founders are increasingly bootstrapping, due to the currently not favorable funding environment for startups https://buff.ly/3tdovks
• Germany will subsidize solar charging stations for electric cars with up to 500 M € starting September 26th https://buff.ly/46mOHHN
• Why and How Germany Bans (B2B) Paper Invoices https://buff.ly/3LqZatI

Hubs

Here we want to highlight some hidden gems and cities of general startup interest.

Frankfurt / Rhein-Main-Area

• Congratulations to the Seed Funding for adtech startup Admetrics: https://buff.ly/453Gqr0 This brings total investments tracked by RhineMain.vc to 31 deals totalling more than 180 m Euros for 2023 already: https://rhinemainvc.medium.com/

Cologne

• KYP ai secures €17.5M to boost GenAI feature and global expansion https://buff.ly/46mF0sS

Ilmenau (Thüringen)

• Betterspace, an Ilmenau, Germany-based provider of software and hardware solutions, raised a 7-Figure investment from Round2 Capital https://buff.ly/3RnShgF “Betterspace is a provider of a smart software solutions for the hotel industry in the areas of digital guest communication (better.guest) and intelligent energy management (better.energy).”

Jena (Thüringen)

• Jena, Germany-based rooom AG closes 17 M Euro Venture Capital funding for their 3d software https://buff.ly/46tH4Q1 their customers already include companies like Deutsche Telekom, BMW, Zeiss, porta and Bosch.

Mittweida (Saxony)

• Mittweida (Saxony)-based startup Corpus takes on first-time investors for their software enabling tokenized investments in companies https://buff.ly/3taAm2T

Essen

• »Staige One« plans to raise 8 M € from offering their shares in October, after listing with SPAC deal https://buff.ly/3PSwXyI

Austria

• Tripmakery, a Vienna, Austria-based group travel booking platform provider, raised a seven-figure funding round. https://buff.ly/46e0hoz
• Salzburg-based legal tech sproof raises 3 m € venture capital https://buff.ly/456Rm7e
• Vienna-based startup LimeWire buys Midjourney competitor BlueWillow to add to their “AI Content Creator Studio” https://buff.ly/3t5fAlc
• Storebox: Vienna-based logistics scale-up raises 15,5 M € https://buff.ly/48wZ1yH

Switzerland

• ETH greentech startup viboo raises 1,5 M CHF venture capital https://buff.ly/3PzH5ep
• Zurich-based Instimatch Global AG raised 11.5 M CHF for their offer of a web-based cash management trading platform for institutions across industries and geographies https://buff.ly/456goU7
• Blockchain Startup Swisstronik Secures $5M and Launches Private Token Sale https://buff.ly/462H09P

General News / Tech News / Companies News Section

A little note here. Since we aim to inform you about the startup world in GSA, SMEs and large enterprises are also active in the markets. Therefore we include some news of them here as well:

Fintech News

• Proptechs are currently not doing well: Proptech startup Homeday is in crisis and bought by Axel Springer, which axes 20% of the headcount https://buff.ly/3t5NmH9
• Berlin-based cypto startup Bitwala is trying a comeback after insolvency https://buff.ly/3FbA6nb
• Solaris bank generates first profit for H1 2023 https://buff.ly/3PE83Sa
• Chief Product Officer is leaving N26 — marking the fifth high ranking departure in recent months https://buff.ly/3RvNUjH

Green Tech News

• Greentech unicorn Enpal invests in startup theion, which produces batteries based on sulfur https://buff.ly/3RRqR35
• Greentech unicorn 1Komma5 Grad is looking for an IPO in 2025 https://buff.ly/48vubX8
• Shell is putting solar and energy storage startup Sonnen up for sale, after just 4 years https://buff.ly/3EPUU34 and we have talked about Sonnen quite a lot in the past, right Chris?

General News

• Device-as-a-Service Startup “Fleet” Expands into Germany https://buff.ly/3rjLh9T
• Kleinanzeigen (formerly part of eBay) and Mobile.de (one of Germany’s leading vehicle platforms) are up for sale again https://buff.ly/3ZxBdXl investors are lining up
• Berlin-based Babbel acquires US-based Toucan to further expand its learning ecosystem with browser extension | EU-Startups https://buff.ly/3Pz41Ku
• Fast delivery startup Jokr, founded by tech veteran Ralf Wenzel, is only active in Brazil and lost with the most recent investment it’s unicorn status https://buff.ly/48r9njL

Schumpeters Schöpferische Zerstörung ⇒ Creative Destruction Still Ongoing:

Schumpeter was one of the most influential economists of the 20th century and coined the term creative destruction in German Schöpferische Zerstörung as well as Entrepreneur. Learn more about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schumpeter. We introduced this section towards the end of covid and it is still going strong.

• Bielefeld-based crypto startup Coindex ceases operations after filing for insolvency and negotiations with Binance fell through https://buff.ly/46hilOQ
• Vienna-based workflow startup Ataleo starts restructuring https://buff.ly/469e7Zy
• Graz, Austria-based hr tech startup Talto has to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/3ESBPxf
• Austria-based agtech startup Pixofarm has to file for insolvency since their strategic investor UPL from India changed strategy. They are under pressure from competition and started a 100 mn cost-cutting program https://buff.ly/3ZzsRyK
• The Berlin-based startup behind carsharing service „Clevershuttle“ will disappear. The company can not be rescued from insolvency https://buff.ly/46jRMrW

End on a High Note: Successful Fundraisings and Exits:

Keep in mind this is a small selection. The news here and their total value show how resilient the startup scene is. We included only selected fundraisings above 5 million Euros or USD

• CHF 45 million Investment takes H55 next level https://buff.ly/3RzHRuv “. The Valais based startup has raised substantial financing from a group of distinguished strategic and financial investors, further consolidating its leading position as a major provider of certified electric propulsion aviation technologies. The financing will support H55 path to Type Certification (TC) by 2024 and accelerate growth.”
• PowerUs gets 24 M € investment for their platform that enables users to find craftsmen https://buff.ly/3ETRKf0
• Wise, N26 investor backs Germany’s Ivy in €18M round for its API for instant bank payments https://buff.ly/46owiKz
• GentTwo, a Zurich, Switzerland-based provider of a B2B Fintech platform specialized in securitization of bankable and non-bankable assets, raised USD15M in Series A funding. https://buff.ly/3RBQepq

Stay Ahead of the Curve

• Compensation Decoded: Tech leader salaries at early-stage startups https://buff.ly/3rbvEkV
• What the Finance Industry Tells Us About the Future of AI https://buff.ly/46grsir
  HBR writes “What will artificial intelligence do to industries and jobs? For a preview, look to the finance industry, which has been incorporating data and algorithms for a long time, and which is always a canary in the coal mine for new technology. The experience of finance suggests that AI will transform some industries (sometimes very quickly) and that it will especially benefit larger players. But it may not leave the overall system better off.”

We will be back shortly before Halloween on the 26th of October.