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 July and August. We came up with the summer news because the September news has always been very long, overcrowded, and covered 3 months. That was a bit too much of a break and too much news in one piece. So we looked to wrap up summer and since the US is an important market and Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer it seems like a good fit.

This summer has been a bit different and there has been a lot of news, so we focus more on the most recent ones and we have cut a lot of news here.

For everybody in the US who celebrates it: Happy Labor Day!

We follow our top-down structure in the news.

Our startup news wrap-up for summer 2023 by Startuprad.io with Chris who just got back from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on August 30th, 2023. All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode. Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog link below.

Note: We will be back on our weekly publication from today, until Christmas. Our next news will be regular September news, to be published on September 28th.

Our Highlights:

Binance has not — yet — gotten permission to operate in Germany from BaFin, Nextwind raises 750 m US$, Bitpanda surpasses 1 M customers in Germany and Germany sets a new record in new founders. We also shared that SAP wants to invest in Aleph Alpha, they confirmed this and two more.

Germany’s law for legalizing cannabis falls short of the expectations of cannabis entrepreneurs. Europe dominates climate fintech funding and the overall fintech funding shows a sign of life. Bafin also stops mini VC investments — trashing the business model of some fintechs — AND we found newly closed VC funds in excess of 2.8 bn US$ that are open to European founders.

Let’s talk startups:

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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

Du kommst hier ned rein 🙂 Is the usual saying in Frankfurt if a Bouncer won’t let you in a Club

Fintech blog Finance Forward reports German finance oversight BaFin signals no license for Binance for Germany https://buff.ly/3ptcN3S So they can neither advertise nor expand in Germany. To be clear, this is not a final NO, but rather a “Binance keeps trying, but BaFin signaled a No”

750 M US$ for Wind Energy

Wind Energy in Germany: StartUp Nextwind raises 750 M US$ Venture Capital investors include Sandbrook Capital, Canadian funds Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), and Imco https://buff.ly/443GwyE

Bitpanda — The Austrian Unicorn

Surpasses 1 million customers in Germany alone https://buff.ly/44mMyKP it is not sure how many of them are really active, but that is always a tough question, even for the startups. But the question is important, since one only makes money with active users.

Germany Sets a New Record in Founders

Despite the current economic situation, Germany has the highest share of founders in 24 years!!! https://buff.ly/3sudRpo According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Germany had a larger than 9% founder quota, meaning people from 18–64 who (co) founded a new business within the last 3,5 years (Young Entrepreneurs). The highest value since 1999 when the monitoring started.
Immigrants are especially willing to start new businesses. The founder quota of immigrants in Germany is 20% compared to 1,7% of non-immigrants.
The founder quota of women (7,1%) is overall lower than the one for men (11%).

SAP Invests in AI Startups

We have shared before that German software giant SAP is rumored to be interested in investing in Aleph Alpha, now they confirmed the investment in three AI startups https://buff.ly/45OC6Nb This is quite a new strategy for SAP, in the past they wrote their own code. Now they intend to work with partnerships

Housekeeping & Time to Brag

There is much more reason to be here than just to keep you up to date and entertain you. We inspire entrepreneurs. I just talked to Alexander the founder of AwesomeQA. Our podcast was his major inspiration to quit his job and start his AI startup. Now they have raised 2,8 mn US$ in an oversubscribed seed round for their Web3 customer support solution! https://awesome-qa.notion.site/Press-release-3167f9b705d64e2b986108c24a96a689 Ain’t that cool Chris?

Publication Schedule:

We will get back to our regular weekly publication schedule from today until Christmas. This year is the first where we will not be publishing the fintech review on the 25th of December, but before the holidays — due to popular demand. Expect our last piece for the year to drop on December 21st. We will take a break around the holidays and be back in January 2024.

Business Culture in Germany:

Note that Germany has its only federal holiday in the fall on October 3rd and therefore this year many people will take off October 2nd and have a 4-day weekend (including Joe). If you are planning a business trip in early October in Germany, keep that in mind.

Just a bit of Bragging

We now scored in podcast charts in 75 countries (Apple Podcasts only). We just scored in Guatemala, Uganda and Jordan. Thank you very much, muchas gracias, shukram!

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joernmenninger_podcaster-podcastshow-startupradio-activity-7095001234192912384-d22v?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joernmenninger_startupradio-startup-podcaster-activity-7094386311603609601-FADk?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

ALSO: Our internet radio station startup.radio has surpassed 100,000 listeners in 30 days ending August 18th! Thank you everyone.

Ecosystem

Relevant News from the World

• Lean times hit the vertical farming business https://buff.ly/3L2nBxh Energy costs are just too high in vertical farming to become profitable and some spent most of their money developing their own technology, which is expensive and may not be competitive.

Relevant news from Europe and the EU

• Europe dominates in Climate Fintech funding despite overall funding slump in 2022 https://buff.ly/442wAX1
• Investments in European solar startups quadruple in 2023 https://buff.ly/45IXvr4
• Fintech startups in Europe raised less money in Q2 2023 (1,6 bn €) than in Q2 2022 (5,5 bn €), BUT still an increase from Q1 ’23 (1,4 bn €) https://buff.ly/45LlDcG

Focus on GSA

• Swiss Fintech Funding Pulls Back 45% YoY — Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News — FintechNewsCH https://buff.ly/45xJMDG
• 80% of Germany’s medical cannabis startups set to die a painful death https://buff.ly/47KQR5l To give you some background on this story, there was a large legalization of cannabis in the works for recreational use. We talked about it in our interview with cansativa (LINK) but the lawmakers made the law much more restrictive than expected. Now you need to be a member of a club.
• German Finance Oversight BaFin is in the process of stopping VC investment for small investors writes FinanceFWD, killing the business model of a few fintech startups https://buff.ly/45uZ10k
• Part of Germany’s plan to get ahead in the AI race is 150 additional professorships related to AI https://buff.ly/47RG8pQ

Hubs

Here we want to highlight some hidden gems and cities of general startup interest. Berlin and Munich are so large they are excluded here. You will find their news in the respective sections.

Frankfurt / Rhein-Main-Area

• Frankfurt-based custodian for crypto securities CashLink raises 7 M € in Series A funding https://buff.ly/44qiA9j we even have an old interview with the CEO and co-founder Michael Duttlinger here: Interview from 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=QzCjiImFRn0
• Marley Spoon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange through a business combination with 468 SPAC II https://buff.ly/3q1Cskh
• Qualifyze raises $12M to accelerate growth in healthcare supply chain compliance https://buff.ly/45DKajY You can learn more about the company in our interview here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/qualifyze-makes-supply-chains-in-life-science-and-chemical-industry-more-transparent-56587dcb4152
• Leonardo raises 555K € in Pre-Seed Funding https://buff.ly/3OXD8Q5

Sulzbach, Saarland

• Kraftblock Raises €20M in Series B Funding https://buff.ly/3Otj7AR The company works on a High-Temperature Energy Storage System

Aachen

• Accure: Aachen-based battery startup raises 7,2 M € Venture Capital https://buff.ly/45AYWaU

Metzingen

• Neura Robotics, a Metzingen, Germany-based AI and robotics startup, raised $55M in funding https://buff.ly/44rxZFL

Austria

• EET: Graz, Austria-based Solar Startup raises 6,5 M € #VentureCapital to grow to 100 employees https://buff.ly/44Yuh7L
• Vienna-based #traveltech startup Midnightdeal files for insolvency, getting a customer shitstorm for allegedly not passing payments through to hotels. We hope the situation will be resolved soon https://buff.ly/45hIr3n
• Vienna-based Trality offered a marketplace where one could place their crypto trading bots and charge others for using them. Now they have to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/45JrhMz
• Austrian ebike startup Greenstrom has to file for insolvency after raising nine million Euros https://buff.ly/3Pg6QkG

Switzerland

• Swiss startup SAEKI launches with $2.3M seed funding for industrial micro-factories https://buff.ly/47vB1vg

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, where we believe they have an impact on our relevant segment of the GSA economy:

New VC Funds, If You’re Looking for Money

Our show notes will have more information on where to pitch these investors: medium.com/startuprad-io. Note here that we include all funds we find (mail or comment if you know about more) that are not excluding investing in GSA startups one way or another:

• RTP Global goes big with new $1 billion fund https://buff.ly/3PCkqj1 with $660 million earmarked for new investments and $340 million for follow-ons. Looking to invest in startups from North America, Europe, India, and Southeast Asia, RTP Global says that its sector focus is broad, however, special mention was afforded to AI/ML, enterprise software, fintech, e-commerce, and tech.
• Venture Firm QED Raises $925 Million for Fintech Investing https://buff.ly/44372ci
• Yttrium raises over EUR 400 million for Digital Growth Fund II — One of the largest in Germany to date https://buff.ly/3L0pnyS
• UK-based fintech VC firm Illuminate Financial closes third fund at €215.2M looking to invest in Series A fintech fundings https://buff.ly/45tdjOZ
• Illuminate Financial Closes Third Fund, at $235M — The fund will invest in early-stage / Series A stage businesses solving problems for financial institutions. https://buff.ly/3snNb9x
• European edtech VC Bright Eye VC closes second fund at €100 million looking to invest in seed and series s fundings of edtech startups https://buff.ly/43LIunX

Fintech News

• German finance oversight BAFin extends limits for new business for N26, which have been in place since 2021 due to problems in anti-money laundry and fighting of terrorism financing https://buff.ly/3so5qf1
• Fintech Solaris made 56 M € loss in 2022, but looking to break even in 2023 https://buff.ly/45QJ2t5
  This is an increase of 33% compared to their loss in 2021. High costs for HR and compliance with BaFin orders drove the increase
• Credit platforms: Auxmoney buys majority in Dutch competitor Lender & Spender, their first takeover ever. The author sees the start of the expected consolidation in the fintech market https://buff.ly/3Ea2IMV
• From banking giants to lending up-and-comers — here are the world’s top 200 fintech companies https://buff.ly/3OEe2qv including @check24 rentablo @TradeRepublic @onecrowd
• Dutch crypto exchange Bitvavo plans expansion to Germany, profiting from Binance’s retreat https://buff.ly/3ss7X81

General News

• Online grocery markets in Germany: Knuspr gets permission to take over competitor Bringmeister from Germany’s Federal Cartel Office https://buff.ly/44e1JpK
• Mercedes sells its stake in the used car marketplace Heycar — Germany no more in focus https://buff.ly/3qsePl5
• HelloFresh beats core profit forecasts as customers return https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/hellofresh-beats-q1-core-profit-expectations-2023-04-27/
• Getir: Quick delivery service Getir entered the German market with the takeover of Gorillas, now they throw in the towel in 17 of 23 cities in Germany https://buff.ly/3QT55vi

Schumpeters Schöpferische Zerstörung ⇒ Creative Destruction Still Ongoing: Chris

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 Corona and it is still going strong.

• Insolvency — even for startups — is not always the end: Founder of recommerce platform Momox buys insolvent second-hand marketplace Mädchenflohmarkt out of insolvency https://buff.ly/3Kshkur
• German energy giant E.On buys insolvent charging column startup Elvah out of insolvency https://buff.ly/3Egfd9O
• Future Stories a marketplace for sustainable cosmetics has to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/44tVqOO

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

• metrofibre secures €120M debt financing to support ruhrfibre roll-out https://buff.ly/3OUDTd0 This is not really a startup investment, as we would understand it, so it is not making our top news.
• AI startup deepset from Berlin raises 30 M US$ for: Next-level semantic search for enterprises fueled by latest NLP and open-source https://buff.ly/445lT55
• beeOLED raises EUR 13.3m in Series A funding from world-class deep tech investors to solve the last big challenge of the OLED industry | HTGF https://buff.ly/45HiwCm
• Berlin-based Mercanis raises $10M for AI-powered procurement platform https://buff.ly/3qHqEUK
• Munich-based HOLOGATE bags €8.3 million Series A to expand interaction with virtual humans worldwide | EU-Startups https://buff.ly/3Qwb3Su
• Battery startup Voltfang wins German company Viessmann (owned by Carrier Global) as investor https://buff.ly/3qpjKU8

Stay Ahead of the Curve

• The startup landscape has shifted dramatically: Accelerators must adapt or fade away | TechCrunch https://buff.ly/45hhbCC
• Why do startups keep focusing on the wrong KPIs https://buff.ly/3slfHst
• Seizing the Moment: Strategies for Startups to Outmaneuver Competition in a Turning Economy by Tomaz Tunguz https://buff.ly/3KNMywk
• Death to Revenue Multiples: Long Live the DCF! https://buff.ly/44rL8P9
• ‘Investor-friendly’ VC deal terms rankle startups’ early backers | @PitchBook https://buff.ly/3qVLIa4