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This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — May 2023 | Episode #385

Startuprad.io
Startuprad.io
Published in
31 min readJun 1, 2023

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

We follow our top-down structure in the news: First, the top news, then we look with a bird’s eye view at the startup ecosystem in the German language countries, dig deeper by looking at exciting startup cities and end with general news. And for those serious about startups, there is even a collection called: “Stay Ahead of the Curve,” where we share in-depth reads, articles, studies, and podcasts.

Welcome to our startup news wrap-up for May 2023 by Startuprad.io with Chris, who is traveling, and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on May 31st, 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.

Our next news episode will be published on June 29th, and then we are — for the news — in summer break.

Chapters of our Recording

If you want to jump to one of the sections:
00:00 Intro
02:20 Headlines for May 2023
04:40 Top News
09:30 Housekeeping
11:00 Ecosystem
16:05 Hubs — German City Highlights
18:45 Hubs — News from Austria
20:30 Hubs — News from Switzerland
21:45 General News — New VC and PE Funds
24:40 General News — Fintech News
26:00 General News — Tech and Startup News
28:40 General News — Creative Destruction
29:25 General News — Successful Fundraising (End on a high note)

Our Highlights:

Germany is now officially in a recession, but one with barely any unemployment. Also, we still track many startups going out of business, BUT the overall picture is improving. The German VC and PE Barometer — which captures the mood of many German investors — is showing an uptick. This shows especially in the massive amount of new funds raised; they promise a bright future for startups! We tracked at least 3,4 bn Euros of newly raised funds, which will be invested entirely or partially in startups in Europe and GSA. Look at our medium blog; we have more information on what the investors are looking for and how to pitch them. We also have investments and exits worth at least 5,4 bn Euros and news in this episode, including WeFox, Tier Mobility, Infarm, Blinkist, Bitpanda, Aleph Alpha, Sono Motors, and many more.

Let’s talk startups:

The Video Podcast Will Go Live on Thursday, June 1st, 2023

The Audio Podcast Will Go Live on Thursday, June 1st, 2023

Tune in to our Internet Radio Station here:

Subscribe Here

Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio

Our Enablers

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

Startupraven.com

The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/

Top News

Deal or No Deal?

Getir is in talks to take over German grocery app rival Flink | Financial Times https://buff.ly/3LsKfOK

But then: Flink’s sale to Getir fell through. Now Flink is raising 150 M € from investors, including grocery giant Rewe and Doordash https://buff.ly/438RoM2

Tier Mobility to Merge with Competitor

European e-scooter giant Tier Mobility maps route to merger https://buff.ly/44sXnMI

Will Infarm Be Soon Outfarm?

Infarm keeps shrinking and is leaving Europe, reports Handelsblatt. The greenhouse startup reportedly has only 80 employees in Europe left and will get an investment at an unknown valuation for their relocation — likely to the Middle East with low energy prices https://buff.ly/3LX6exG

Blinkist Makes a Large Exit!

Berlin-based startup Blinkist is sold to Australian education startup Go1 for an undisclosed amount, reported to be “hundreds of millions.” Blinkist offers short wrap-ups of nonfiction books as text or audio https://buff.ly/3Bt0VRE

Large Drops in Valuations are Not Only for the Small Companies

Bitpanda boss admits his company may now be worth only 2.5–3 bn US$, vs 4.1 bn US$ valuation at their August 2022 funding | Sifted https://buff.ly/3nZBvrJ

Germany Will Have Another Gigafactory

but not from Tesla. Swedish unicorn Northvolt builts Gigafactory in the north of Germany for 4.5 bn Euros — thanks in part to large subsidies https://buff.ly/3o4qqpy

Heidelberg-based AI Startup Aleph Alpha is Seen as a Promising Competitor of ChatGPT, and Big Names Line Up to Invest

SAP CEO indirectly confirms their investment in German AI startup Aleph Alpha, rumored to be up to 100 m Euros https://buff.ly/3nZRXbw

Related news later emerged: We reported that SAP wants to invest in Heidelberg-based ChatGPT competitor Aleph Alpha, now Intel also shows interest in investing https://buff.ly/3ogZXVT

WeFox closed large funding

wefox raises $110M in Debt and Equity Funding https://buff.ly/3OiOnUx to become profitable: Wefox secures new funding at $4.5 billion valuation as it aims for profitability https://buff.ly/3Ix8Rp6 The company sells insurance products through in-house and external insurance brokers.

Sono Motors has to file for bankruptcy

For now, this is the end of a dream. Sono Motors wanted to bring with the Sion a solar roof charging car to the market. They raised several crowdfunding rounds and got external investors. Then they had to return to crowdfunding in 2019. They eventually made it to a NASDAQ listing in 2021 but could not finish the development of the car with the money at hand, even the down payments of many enthusiasts. After ending its solar car project, Sono Motors must file for insolvency. https://t.co/orByo6H5Pu

Housekeeping & Time to Brag

Events: Today, we want to hint at two events. Look at our medium blog for discounts:

Publication Schedule:

During July and August, we will still have entrepreneur interviews and entrepreneur tools for you but only published every other week, so twice a month. You can expect our summer wrap-up to be published as a Labor Day Special on Monday, September 4th. From then on, we are back to a regular, weekly publication schedule until Christmas.

Internet Radio Station www.startup.radio

We just posted a few days ago that we surpassed 60.000 listeners per 30 days, and now we are happy to announce that we have surpassed even 70.000 listeners. Thank you to our audience. Let us know what we can do better.

Ecosystem

Relevant news from the EU

  • The new EU payment system, “European Payments Initiative” (EPI), is about to start in 2024 to build a European competitor to Paypal, Visa, and Master Card https://buff.ly/3Hvaa7m
  • Invest in Europe report: Record fundraising in 2022 as long-term investors step up support for European private equity and venture capital https://buff.ly/42WuCGE

Focus on Germany

  • Germany is in a recession, well, technically. That means two consecutive quarters of negative growth (shrinking) https://buff.ly/3qe35Cp but what is different are the circumstances: For example, this time, Germany has an unemployment rate of just 5,7%, compared to 6,9% during the 2012/2013 recession. What makes it different for many startups is that it is the first recession for many entrepreneurs and investors. Plus rising inflation, interest rates, and the Ukraine invasion. Later in the news, you will see that we still have insolvencies, but many new funds are being raised to invest in the (hopefully soon-to-come) uptick.
    On average, the recessions lasted 1–8 quarters since 1945, with an average duration of 4,8 quarters. So, despite a silver lining on the horizon, we are not out of the woods yet.
  • Germany is the first going to legalize cannabis via cannabis clubs. After this was made public in April, the existing clubs in Germany got a massive wave to join: https://buff.ly/3oC3k9R
    Related: Partial legalization of cannabis could bring in one billion euros in additional tax revenues and savings for Germany, an economist Justus Haucap calculated https://buff.ly/3LxxqTD. The government estimates a legal market for 400 tons each year. Most money comes from savings in less work for police and courts, additional tax revenues, payroll taxes, and social security payments from jobs. Also: This is not the big solution cannabis startups have been hoping for like our interview showed last year. https://medium.com/startuprad-io/germany-has-approved-cannabis-for-medical-use-and-legalization-for-recreation-is-next-25681d4a970e
  • German VC and PE business climate indicator of KfW Research the PE Barometer shows signs of recovery for Q1 ’23 (link opens PDF) https://buff.ly/3BA0F3t Learn more about the index in our interview with KfW’s chief economist here: https://buff.ly/3pPGIDf
  • Rise Europe European start-up ecosystem builders join forces https://buff.ly/3MuIzVF
  • In our interview, you can learn more about UnternehmerTUM from Munich, one of the initiators, where they already announced their intentions https://buff.ly/3OxbbA9 more than half a year ahead of other news outlets.
  • US pensioners benefit most from German start-up successes, German pensioners go largely empty-handed https://buff.ly/3omNXC2 writes redstone.vc based on their study. To give you a bit of background: The US pension funds profiting are the ones who give money to the VCs investing in German startups as so-called Limited Partners or LPs, so they also get a large share of the profit when they are realized. US pension funds comprise 27% of US-based VCs and 15% of German-based VCs. US pension funds hold 10% of German startups indirectly via VC funds.

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

Two of our former guests received funding:

And one is aiming for a billion euros in revenue:

Other Frankfurt Rhein/Main News

  • WunderGraph, a Miami, FL- and Frankfurt, Germany-based provider of a software solution for building APIs, closed a $3M Seed funding round https://buff.ly/3LtEccY
  • We talked in our news about the DWS investment in crypto company Tradias. Now DWS calls the deal off https://buff.ly/3LqAjFy
  • Startup Rail-Flow closes a financing round with 3.6 million euros https://buff.ly/3IdF1pn
  • Scammers duplicated the website of the fintech app Finanz-Guru, where the difference was just one dash, which was added https://buff.ly/3q1xrb9 instead of one word, the just added a dash between the two words. Fortunately, the scam page is down by now

Cologne

Hamburg

Passau

  • Katjes Greenfood — the VC arm of Katjes (also owning VICKS cough sweets, Ahoj-Brause, and SALLOS brands) — invests in mymuesli https://buff.ly/40Y6RMI

Austria

  • Vienna-based startup Talentir allows converting YouTube videos into tradeable assets. Now they raise a million Euro funding round with lead investor Bitpanda CEO Eric Demuth https://buff.ly/42fTt7N
  • Austria-based AT&S receives €250M loan from EIB to secure Europe’s microchip supply https://siliconcanals.com/crowdfunding/ats-receives-250m-loan-from-eib/
  • According to its founder, Austrian tutoring unicorn GoStudent is profitable in its core business. He says they will show a profit overall at the end of the year https://buff.ly/43dUIpf
  • Prewave, a Vienna, Austria-based provider of an AI-first solution for supply chain risk management, raised €18M in Series A+ funding https://buff.ly/3BSEO7i
  • Vienna-based Schrankerl, a company offering an alternative to canteens, raises 1 m Euro in additional Venture Capital https://buff.ly/45B8Iuu
  • SignD: Vienna based #KYC and #KYB RegTech have to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/3N1R8Zk (Know your client and know your business customers) are regulations against money laundering and terrorism financing that all financial services entities have to follow to one degree or another.

Switzerland

  • Big Exit in Switzerland: Ripple acquires Swiss-based Metaco for USD 250 million https://buff.ly/3WpmhsM
  • Switzerland-based robotics company ANYbotics has raised $50m in a Series B funding round led by Walden Catalyst and NGP Capital https://buff.ly/3okrztb
  • Ecorobotix, a Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland-based manufacturer of ARA, an AI-powered plant-by-plant recognition and precision spraying system, raised $52M in funding https://buff.ly/3MLVuDZ ARA here is the brand name of their solution for precision distribution of herbicide agents and similar products.
  • Startup CARE raises 6 m CHF in seed funding and starts US expansion https://buff.ly/3IHUPRG CARE is a startup for evidence-based prevention medicine (think biohacking)

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:

  • Amsterdam’s investment firm Convent Capital commits €100M to its AgriFood Growth Fund | Silicon Canals https://buff.ly/3Hxsrkw
  • One Equity Partners Closes $1 Billion Continuation Fund https://buff.ly/3ItNvsH
  • Mayfield Raises $955M Across Two New Funds https://buff.ly/41U3RBP
  • HV Capital raises 700+ mn Euro to invest in European Tech Startups https://buff.ly/3WqHe6I
  • BrokerTech Ventures Launches $34M BrokerTech Fund looking for early stage #insurtech startup https://buff.ly/41ZQb8b
  • Claret Capital Partners unveils new €72 million Opportunity Fund to boost support for its growing portfolio https://buff.ly/3OsNtFe
  • Energy Impact Partners Closes Fundraising for Fund I, at $111.9M for cleantech startups https://buff.ly/3IwA8rH
  • Longwood Fund Closes Sixth Fund, at $180M for science-based startups https://buff.ly/3op01ml
  • Seedcamp closes its ambitious €166 million Fund VI, doubling the size of previous vehicle investing in early-stage startups https://buff.ly/3MClW2B
  • LifelineVC Closes €150M Early-Stage Fund https://buff.ly/3IKBe3b
  • Alpine Space Ventures docks €60 million via the EIF, remains on course to close €160 million fund a private space industry, or NewSpace, -focused fund, founded by former SpaceX, Starlink, and Mynaric exec https://buff.ly/3N23QHH
  • Related to the VC funds: You see how many funds are raised? Well, then, they are not all performing well. New news around the funds of prominent investor Klaus Hommels emerged: LPs of European VC Lakestar are unhappy. The founder Klaus Hommels was hyped, but now it turned out that his funds Lakestar I and Lakestar II are currently just showing 10–16% returns vs. 46% long-term average according to a 2022 study https://buff.ly/42eB1fi Mr. Hommels has been in the GSA news quite frequently. We also had news about him and his funds. He seemed like an authority, but you can not always win.

Fintech News

  • Fintech: Solarisbank is fundraising 50–60 m € from investors with a “stable” valuation. They were valued at 1.6 bn Euros during their fundraising last summer https://buff.ly/45mTpWe
  • J.P. Morgan is right now in Germany only a bit smaller than Germany’s 2nd largest listed bank Commerzbank, by total assets, only being active in B2B business but wants to bring their B2C Chase offering for retail clients to Germany until 2025 https://buff.ly/3W3Tda8
  • Suspicious Deals: Bafin investigates SDAX-listed online broker Flatexdegiro and shares transactions of its CEO https://buff.ly/3BJtjzg
  • Corporate credit card startup Moss was once valued at 500 mn US$ (investors include Peter Thiel) and had employed 500 employees. They keep shedding headcount, according to a German blog, which could only find 380 current employees https://buff.ly/3WnxnPb

General News

  • Founders of Gorillas quick delivery startup start a clone of the health data app Aware. Interesting: Super Angel Christophe Maire invests in the clone but is also an investor in Aware https://buff.ly/3VrGEVV
  • Bosch to acquire TSI Semiconductors to boost US chip production https://buff.ly/3NygajA
  • Deutsche Boerse offers $4.3 billion for Denmark’s SimCorp https://buff.ly/3Hz47i2
  • ING Banking App in Germany got a significant overhaul, which did not improve the user experience. A recent blog post collects social media posts from angry customers https://buff.ly/42Ca3j0
  • AI: Google’s chatbot Bard is coming to Europe https://buff.ly/3IaFSav was announced, but then Google pulled back: https://buff.ly/3OGKUzw The likely background is the AI regulation of the EU environment
  • Member of the German parliament Philipp Amthor was in trouble for lobbying for the New York-based company August Intelligence. Now the company filed for insolvency, and the administrator wants to claw back money from Mr. Amthor https://buff.ly/42KbTOQ
  • We talked about Timeless in our news, a startup that enabled small investors to own shares of expensive wristwatches for 100k+. A robbery of the central safe ended the company; now the police have the first suspect arrested https://buff.ly/41L9Atz
  • German crowdfunding platform Seedmatch lost a court ruling and has to compensate their client. The problem: The contract clause in question that led to the compensation is part of thousands of other contracts https://buff.ly/3og2D6d
  • LUKSO: The Berlin-based blockchain project starts its main net for social media, virtual clothing, and NFTs https://buff.ly/3qjzbNe

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 and Entrepreneur. Learn more about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schumpeter

  • Berlin-based carsharing company clevershuttle has to file for insolvency reports Tagesspiegel https://buff.ly/3LRf94P
  • Startup Foodwater recorded a pitch in the German version of Shark Tank and found one investor. Unfortunately, it had to file for insolvency before the episode went on air and is in liquidation https://buff.ly/3O8Ew3A
  • Berlin-based HR Tech startup expertlead has to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/3ME33Lz
  • Keep in mind oköse from Cologne from before
  • Keep in mind SignD from Vienna, Austria, from before

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.

  • Popcore — the Berlin-based gaming studio — was sold in November 2022. Now in an SEC filing, a blog found the purchase price of 199,2 mn US$ for 61,5% https://buff.ly/3IyxOk6
  • Patient21, a Berlin, Germany-based digi-physical healthtech company, raised €100M in Series C funding https://buff.ly/42fEOt9
  • Dualyx raises €40 million to progress Treg therapies for autoimmune diseases into the clinic via HTGF https://buff.ly/3nYv9ZR
  • Berlin-based SPREAD raises €14.6 million to become the source of truth for complex physical products https://buff.ly/4215Fcf
  • Ariadne Secures $7 Million in Series A Funding to transform commercial real estate with location data and crowd analytics https://buff.ly/42tdo37
  • Munich-based OCELL raises $5 Mio seed investment for their Dynamic Forrest software, an operating system for forestry https://buff.ly/3BolA9w
  • Food saver etepetete raises 1,7 m Euro via crowd investing https://buff.ly/45F0gug

Stay Ahead of the Curve

Automated Transcript This Month in GSA Startups — May 2023 E #385

Announcer (00:00:05) — Welcome to Startuprad.io, your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startup scene with news interviews and live events.

Chris (00:00:20) — Hello and welcome to our May, 2023 wrap up, uh, with this month in German, Swiss, and Austrian startups. We, as always, will bring you the important news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austrian, Switzerland, in 30 minutes or less, which today will be, uh, quite a task on our hands because we have a full program. Um, as always, we will follow our top-down structure in the news. First, the top news. Then we look with the bird’s eye view at the startup ecosystem in German language countries. We dig deeper looking at interesting startup cities, and we will end with general news. For those of you who are really serious about startups, there’s a collection called Stay Ahead of the Curve, where we share interesting reads, articles, studies, and podcasts. Um, not only related to Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, but to everything, um, to like a global level. Welcome to our, uh, wrap up with Mead this time, the host Chris Traveling, which also explains this like little hostage like situation in the back and my travel vacation shirt. I’m actually in my childhood bedroom and, um, with you Joe from Frankfurt. Hey,

Joe (00:01:30) — Hey guys. But Chris, I do remember we did this, uh, once before where we’ve also recorded one news with you from your childhood bedroom, right?

Chris (00:01:41) — Exactly, yes. Oh, that was probably then the childhood living room. We will see. We will, we go through the whole apartment here. Um, we recorded this news episode on May 31st, 2023 on news. Not yet included will be published in our next news episodes, and as always, you can find all links that we quote to, um, or about all the news that we are talking to in our talking about in our medium block. Um, link is in your show notes. Our next news will be published on June 29th, and then we are for the news in our summer break. So let’s start off with our highlight section because, well more lowlight than a highlight is the fact that Germany’s now officially in a recession, but one with barely any unemployment. We will talk about what that means. Also, we still track many startups going out of business, but the overall picture is getting better.

Chris (00:02:37) — The German VC and PE barometer, which captures the mood of German investors, is showing an uptick already. This shows, especially in the massive amount of new funds that were raised, they are promising a bright future for startups in Germany. Uh, we tracked at least 3.4 billion euros of newly raised funds, which will be invested completely or partially in startups in Europe and gsa, Germany, Switzerland, Austria. Um, have a look at our medium block there. We have more information about what the investors are looking for and how to pitch to them. We also have investments in exits worth at least 5.4 billion euros and news in this episode, including weox T Mobility, inform blinkers, bita, alpha, Sono Motors, and many more. But before we get into it, uh, and into the top news, you have a little word about our enablers.

Joe (00:03:33) — Coors. This recording is supported by H T A A, hasn’t tried invest and the enterprise Europe network has been, um, these organizations have made tremendous contribution to helping startup businesses succeed and thrive, providing a range of services from helping to fight 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 hetra to Invest and Enterprise Serum Network hassen is paramount in providing startup businesses with tools for lasting success. Look for our dedicated sub podcast in partnership with them called Tech Startups, Germany, of course, to be found on our link tree and startup rav.com. The best way to identify investors and corporation partners for early stage startups signed up for early access right now and the maybe the 11th thousand to do so. Chris, you top news guy,

Chris (00:04:36) — . Yes, and our first top news is related to a topic we’ve been talking about quite often here. Um, and that is the grocery and delivery startup or grocery delivery startup landscape in Germany. Um, as always a little reminder, Germany is really price sensitive when it comes to groceries. So in my, from my point of view, this has always been quite a risky bet and we see right now that the market is clearing up because our quest or the question that we are wondering about is, is there a deal or no deal? Because is in talks to take over the German grocery app rival Flink writes the Financial Times, but then the sale to Geier fell through. Now Flink is raising 150 million euros from investors including grocery Giant River, so like a huge German chain and DoorDash. Um, tier mobility is going to merge with a competitor.

Chris (00:05:34) — Uh, tier mobility is an e Eter giant and they map a RO route to their merger. Um, question also here being how big of a market can those scooters be in European cities? I guess we are a bit like past the hype cycle now, but probably there is some um, yeah, saturation of the market or probably even the market might be now on a level that might make room for some of the startups to work. We are wondering whether in farm will soon be out farm because in farm keeps shrinking and is leaving Europe as is reported by handle’s blood in Germany. The greenhouse startup reportedly has only 80 employees left in Europe and will get an investment in an unknown valuation for their relocation, likely the Middle East with low energy prices, blinkers makes large exit, probably you’ve seen their ads somewhere online. Um, it’s a Berlin based startup that helps you understand non-fiction books by writing short wrap-ups of them as text or in audio form.

Chris (00:06:44) — Um, they are being sold to the Australian education startup, go one for an undisclosed amount, reportedly to be or reportedly hundreds of millions of euros. We have large drop in value variation, which are not only for the small companies. Bit Panda, the BITA boss Bit. Panda boss admits his company may now, uh, be worth only 2.523 billion US dollars versus the 4.1 billion US dollars, um, valuation they had at their August, 2022 funding and German NE will get another Giga factory, but not from Tesla this time around Tesla having built one in close to Berlin. But now Swedish unicorn North bald builds a giga factory in the north of Germany, um, for 4.5 billion euros. They say thanks. A large part, as is always the case, I guess in these markets to subsidies. Um, the Heidelberg Heidelberg based AI startup ALF Alpha is seen as a promising competitor of Chet G P T and that’s why big names line up to invest. For example, the S sap P C O indirectly confirms their investment in the, uh, AI startup rumor to be up to 1 million euros. Uh, related news that later emerged. We reported that SAP wants to invest, uh, two. Now Intel also shows interest to invest

Joe (00:08:15) — Like Intel the chip company.

Chris (00:08:18) — Yeah, yeah. Not as in intelligence gathered by the cia and um, we Fox closed, closed large funding. They raised 110 million in debt and equity funding in order to become profit profitable. Um, they, uh, had secured that funding at a 4.5 billion US valuation and is now aiming for profitability. Um, the company sells insurance products through in-house and external insurance brokers, and then we have Sono Motors, which had to file for bankruptcy, um, which seems like the end of a dream for now in a way because Sono Motors wanted to bring the cyan to the market, a solar roof charging car. Uh, they raised several crowdfunding rounds and got external investors. Then they had to return to crowdfunding in 2019. They eventually made a NASDAQ listing in 21, but they could not finish the development of the car with the money at hand, even the down payments of many enthusiasts after ending their solar car project. Now, Sono Motors has to file for insolvency

Joe (00:09:31) — Housekeeping and time to brag, right?

Chris (00:09:34) — Housekeeping and time. It’s like a tough transition from here, but yes.

Joe (00:09:39) — Yeah, it only gets better events. Today we want to hint at two events. Look at our medium block for this counts, uh, tech Open Air July 5th to seventh and Berlin, and a kind of competing event with our, uh, partner Deep startup ecosystems, the Deep Startup Ecosystem Conference this year in Budapest, Hungary from sixth, uh, from fifth to 6th of July, um, with our partner and with this link you have here in Aho, 20% percent off on our publication schedule during July and August. We will have entrepreneur interviews and entrepreneur tools for you, but only published every other week, so twice a month you can expect our zama wrap up to be published on Monday, September 4th as a, as a Labor Day special. From then on, we are back to normal weekly publication schedule onto Christmas, maybe even twice a week. We have a lot of content coming up and our internet radio station we just posted a few days ago that we surpassed 60,000 listeners per 30 days in our internet radio station startup.radio. Now we are happy to announce that we surpassed even 70,000 listeners there. Thank you to our audience. Let us know what we can do better. Chris, you look like an ecosystem guy today as well.

Chris (00:11:05) — Yeah, ecosystem. Yeah, whole ecosystem on the shirt. Um, yeah, at first let’s have a look at relevant news from the u from within the European Union because a new e EU payment system called the European Payment Payments Initiative e p i is about to start in 2024. Um, their goal is to build a European competitor to PayPal, visa and MasterCard. We also saw the Invest in Europe report, um, saying that re record fundraising in 2022 as long-term investors step up support for European private equity and venture capital. Um, let’s now zoom in and focus a bit more on Germany. I said it already in the beginning. Germany is in a recession or well technically because that means, uh, two consecutive quarters of negative growth, which is always a nice uh, euphemism for shrinking. Um, but what is different this time around than in other recessions is that there are, uh, very different circumstances.

Chris (00:12:09) — For example, this time Germany has an, um, unemployment rate of just 5.7% compared to 6.9% during the last recession in 12 and 13. And what makes it different also for many startups is that it is the first recession ever for many of them and for their investors. Plus of course we see rising inflation interest rates, the, uh, invasion in Ukraine. And, uh, you will see later in the news that we still have insolvencies, but also a hell of a lot new funds being raised to invest in the hopefully soon to come uptick. Um, we also found a statistics saying that on average a recession lasted one to eight quarters since 1945 with an average duration of 4.8 quarters. So we will see how long this la uh, how long this one is gonna take. So because even though there’s now a silver lining on the horizon, we are not out of the woods yet.

Chris (00:13:04) — Another huge topic in Germany right now is as in many other countries, is uh, about the legalization of cannabis and, um, Germany Germany’s path is that they are first going to legalize it through so-called cannabis clubs. Um, there was an announcement that I mean, cannabis clubs basically meaning it’s public places where you can smoke weed. Um, after, uh, this plan was made public in April, the existing number of clubs in Germany got a massive ways of applications to join. Um, and also there are estimates that the la partial legalization of cannabis could bring in 1 billion euros in additional tax revenues and savings for Germany, as is estimated by economist useless halk. Um, the government estimates a legal marketer for 400 tons per year. Most money, uh, would come from savings in less work police for police and courts plus additional tax revenues, payroll taxes, social security payments from the newly generated jobs.

Chris (00:14:11) — Also, this is not the big solution cannabis startups have been hoping for. Like an interview that we did showed last year. You can find more about that in the show notes and archives. We also see that the German VC and pre business climate indicator of K F W U research, um, said, uh, called the PE biometer shows signs of recovery for Q1 and 23. We have a link to the PDF in the show notes and you can learn more about the index also in our interview with kf W’S, chief Economist and Rise Europe, um, European startup ecosystem builders joined forces. Um, you can learn more about Unan Nema Toum from Munich, um, from the technical university there. One of the initiators in our interview where they already announced their intentions more than half a year ahead of other news outlets was when we had this tiny bit of news US pensioners, uh, benefit most from German startup successes.

Chris (00:15:19) — German pensioners go largely empty-handed, uh, was written by redstone.vc based on their own study. Um, to give a bit of background, the US pension funds profiting are the ones who give money to the VCs investing in German startups as so-called limited partners or LPs. So they also get a large share of the profit when they are realized. US pension funds make up, uh, 27% of US based VCs and 15% of German-based VCs in total US-based US pension funds hold about 10% of German startups indirectly via those VC funds rights, redstone.vc, quite an interesting bit of information I’d say and we will now move on to hubs and, um, different parts of Germany and cities where startup action is happening.

Joe (00:16:13) — Yes, the hubs as always, we try to highlight hidden gems. My home turf Frankfurt lineman area two of our former guests receive funding A I C accelerator program, gives millions to energy robotics. You can learn more in the press release and of course in our interview, win copter Germany’s drone delivery startup rights 44 million U U US dollars from E I B. And of course you’re gonna learn more in our interview with the C e O there. Um, and one more is aiming for a building euros in revenues. Emma sleep is aiming for 1 billion Euro annual revenue for 2023. They said in a interview you can learn more about the company and it’s found of course in our interview our Frankfurt Ryan, my news wk a Miami, Florida and Frankfurt based provider of software solutions for APIs close 3 million US dollar funding round. And we talked in our news about the D W s investment in crypto companys.

Joe (00:17:22) — Now DWS caused the deal off startup rail flow closes financing route of 3.6 million euros. Scammers duplicated the website of FinTech app finance school where the difference was just one dash that was added instead of financial.de one word finance dash guru, uh, was the scam website. Um, fortunately the scam page is down by now, so always be careful. Cologne based, uh, cologne, cologne based tify, a tool to purchase and manage SAS subscription raises 32 million years dollar in series B funding. And , a colo based online cheese store has five for insolvency. Hamburg, Hamburg based queen startup Traceless materials received 5 million Euro government funding and of course you can learn more about the found the founding LA one of the founders lady here in our show notes. Also a nice city in the very screen, the VC arm of ka, also owning Vic’s KA Suites A and SAOs Brands invests in my . Chris, you want take over Austria?

Chris (00:18:47) — I want to, but I also before that want to explain the ZA joke because it’s so hard to understand for people not, uh, uh, having Germany as their like mother tongue or street German I would say because ZA is also something that people would say instead of I and Cares is also the German ward for cheese, so it’s a really weird wordplay that they had there. Anyway, let’s move on to Austria where we see that Vienna based startup talent tier, which allows to convert YouTube videos into tradable assets. Um, raised a million Euro funding round with lead investor Bita, C E O Eric Diu Austria based at n s received 250 million euro as a loan from e I B to secure Europe’s microchip supply. Then Austrian Turing Unicorn Go Student is now profitable in its core business according to its founder. He says they will show a profit overall at the end of the year pre wave, uh, Vienna, Austria based provider of an AI first solution for supply chain risk management raised 18 million euros in a series A fund, A plus funding Vienna based hanco, a company offering an alternative to canteens raised 1 million euro in additional venture capital and sign D, also a Vienna based K I c and k i b rec tech has to solve for insolvency, um, K I C K Y B for those who don’t know, know your client and know your business.

Chris (00:20:19) — Customers are regulations against money laundering and terrorism financing that all financial services services entities have to follow to one degree or another. Moving Westwards to Switzerland, um, wait, I’m very sorry. Um, the, there we see a big exit because Ripple acquires the Swiss based METCO for, um, 250 million US dollars. The Switzerland based robotics company robotics has raised 50 million in a series B funding round led by Walden Catalyst and N G P capital, um, equal robotics, a uh, Switzerland based manufacturer of a r a and AI powered plant by plant recognition and precision spraying system raised 52 million in funding a r a here is the brand name of their solution for precision distribution of herbicide agents and similar products. Startup care raises 6 million Swiss Frans in seed funding and starts a US expansion Care is a startup for evidence-based prevention medicine. You can think biohacking. Um, and that completes the hubs section I feel as if I have to, uh, explain the phone ring.

Chris (00:21:39) — That was the New York Blood Center, uh, telling, reminding me that I should donate blood. I’m very sorry for the interruption. And, um, moving on to general news, tech news and company news in our next section. Um, little side note here, our aim is to inform you on the o on the startup world in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, small and medium sized enterprises and large enterprises are also active in the markets. Therefore, we include some news of them here as well where we believe, uh, they have an impact on our relevant segment of the GSA economy. First off, as we did in a couple of, as we are have been doing a couple of months now already, let’s have a look at new VC funds. For those of you looking for money, um, we have in our show notes more information and where on, where and how to pitch those investors. Um, you can find that on medium.com/startup raid io, startup red dash io medium.com/start red dash io. Um, there, um, we include all funds that we find. Um, you can always mail or comment us if you find more, um, that are not excluding investing in GSA startups one way or another. Um, actually right now it is definitely billions of money you can get through those VCs. Um,

Joe (00:23:02) — We are not going into detail here, Chris, right, because we have 11 funds that are investing

Chris (00:23:10) — Exactly. And so some of them even have billions on their own to give away. For example, one equity partners, they have a $1 billion continuation fund or Mayfield, which raised 955 million across two new funds and there’s many, many others. Um, and um, with this just being mentioned, I think let’s move on to some FinTech news.

Joe (00:23:38) — Oh, there was one piece related to VC funds here.

Chris (00:23:41) — Oh, oh, I’m sorry. Yeah, because, um, , if we have a look as, uh, uh, sorry, if you see that how many funds are being raised? Well, you can already guess. I think that they are not all performing well. New news around the funds of the prominent investor in Germany, cloud’s ho Hammels emerged. Their, his aps of uh, the European VC Lake Star are unhappy. The founder Homs was hyped, but now it turned out that his funds, lake Star one and Lake Star two are currently just showing 10 to 16% returns versus 46% long-term average. It according to a 2022 study. But Hom has been in the GSA news quite frequently and we also had news about him and his funds. He seemed like an authority, but simply cannot always win . And so yeah, we um, thanks for the reminder. We wanted to, um, have this little, um, follow up here on our, uh, former coverage. Now FinTech news

Joe (00:24:43) — Exactly FinTech my Home Turf FinTech Solars is fundraising 50 to 60 million from investors with they call a stable valuation. They have been validated 1.6 billion euros during their last fundraising last summer. JP Morgan is right now in Germany, only a bit smaller than Germany’s second largest listed bank commas. Bank by total Lessard only being active in B2B business, but wants to bring the B2C case of Chase offering for retail clients to Germany until summer 2025. Suspicious Stealin investigates Aztec listed online broker flat tax de zero and the share transaction of its c e o copper credit cards set up. Moss was once valued at 500 million US dollars Investors include Peter Thiel and had employed 500 employees. They seem to keep shrinking and chatting headcount according to German block, which could only find 380 current employees. Chris, you have more general news,

Chris (00:25:54) — More general news very quickly. Let’s, it’s gonna be a wild ride. Uh, the founders of, uh, Godzillas, the quick delivery startup that we have, have been talking about quite often on this podcast are starting a clone of the health da health data app aware, uh, interestingly enough in their, the Super Angel Christoff male, uh, invests in the clone, but he’s also an investor in aware itself. Bosch German car, uh, suppliers going to acquire TSI semiconductors in order to boost the US chip production. Deutsche Beza, uh, German Stock Exchange offers 4.3 billion for Denmark’s SimCorp, the Ink banking app in Germany. Ink being like a German bank , um, got a significant overhaul

Joe (00:26:43) — There. Dutch,

Chris (00:26:44) — Oh, there Dutch, okay, sorry. Uh, got a significant overhaul which did not improve the user experience. We found a recent blog post that collected social media posts from an angry customers. Um, as always, now there’s the topic of ai. We see that Google’s chat bot Bard is coming to Europe, um, as was announced, but then Google pulled back. The likely background there is the upcoming AI regulation in the EU environment. Um, we, which also feels as if we always have this now, have a bit of information about a German member of parliament named Philip Amour of the Conservative Party. He was in trouble for lobbying for the New York based company August Intelligence. Now the company filed for insolvency and the administrator wants to claw back money that Mr. Amour received. We already talked about timeless in our news. A startup that enabled small investors to own share of expensive risk RO watches for more than a hundred thousand, um, a robbery of the main safe there ended the company.

Chris (00:27:48) — Now the police has the, had the first suspect arrested the German crowdfunding platform, seat match, lost Accord ruling and has to pay compensation to their client. The problem is the contract clause in question that led to the compensation as part of thousands of other contracts as well. So there’s going to be a pretty lengthy, um, reconciliation, I guess And then looks, so the Berlin based startup, uh, sorry, the Berlin based blockchain project starts its main net for social media, virtual clothing and NFTs talking about creative destruction.

Joe (00:28:42) — Yes, creative destruction, still ongoing. Berlin based car sharing company Clever Shuttle has the file for insolvency reports. Berlin based Tigerish Bele startup Food Waters recorded a pitch in the German version of Shark Tank and found one investor. Unfortunately, it had to fight for insolvency before the episode went on air and is in liquidation, meaning no hope of getting back there. Berlin based HR tech startup expert lead has to fight for insolvency as well. And keep in mind the news from ZA and i d um, that we mentioned before, um, Chris, you are the person who always ends on a high note, right? Let’s

Chris (00:29:30) — End on a high note or in this case a couple of high notes. Looking at our 30 minute mark. I’m gonna be, uh, fast because also, and also keep in mind that this is a tiny selection. Um, the news here is just supposed to show you how resilient the overall startup scene is right now. Popcorn, a Berlin based gaming studio was sold in November 22. Now in an s sac filing a block found the purchase price of 199.2 million US dollars for 61.5% of the company. We have patient 21 a Berlin based Digi physical health tech company raised a hundred million euros in a series C funding. Dual AIX raised 40 million euros to progress track therapies for autoimmune diseases into the clinic via itt, gf, Berlin based startup spread, raised 14.6 million euros to become the source of truth for complex physical products. And we have a couple of more in the show notes as always, we also have news for you to stay half of the curve and, um, one of them, for example, being how business leaders should think about the Metaverse in 2023. And now I think we might end up with like two seconds after 30 minutes. But I say goodbye from my hometown in wit house in Germany,

Joe (00:30:49) — Goodbye from Frankfurt. Have a great day. See you in J in July, end of June. Bye-bye.

Announcer (00:30:59) — That’s all folks. Find more news streams, events and interviews at www start io. Remember sharing is caring.

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German, Austrian and Swiss (GSA) Startups in English | Global Top 20 Entrepreneurship Podcast on Apple | Subscribe http://linktr.ee/startupradio

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