This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — December 2022 Wrap-Up

Startuprad.io
Startuprad.io
Published in
21 min readDec 21, 2022

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Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups, our startup news wrap-up for December 2022 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on December 19th, 2022. Keep in mind, this news episode covers everything since our last news episode.

As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode, which will be January 2023, the first news for 2023. Guys, another year is over!

Our Highlights:

Enpal makes huge fundraising in the current environment, more than 800 mn €. Sennder doubles its valuation in the next funding round to 2 bn US$ and has already 60 mn € commitments. The funding environment may be bleak, but investors announced new funds for VC and PE investments worth 3.1 bn US$ targeting startups and scaleups in GSA or Europe. One blog asks if the time of Rocket Internet is over, Matter Labs raises 200 mn, a big heist drives a startup into insolvency and Getir buys Gorillas for 1,2 bn US$, a far cry from Gorillas’ former 3 bn US$ valuation.

Let’s talk startups:

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Top News

Enpal Fundraising

Enpal could double valuation in new funding round https://buff.ly/3EF42Z9 Berlin-based unicorn Enpal closes €855 million in debt funding to accelerate the adoption of solar energy https://buff.ly/3FUXEgV

Sennder Raises New Funds At Double Valuation

Digital forwarder unicorn Sennder is raising new money, at a 2 bn US$ valuation. According to the report, they already have 60m € commitments https://buff.ly/3BDc8j3

Fundraising For VCs Went Quite Well — More Than 3.1 bn Euros Worth of New Investment Funds Have Been Closed

The largest is EQT Ventures. It has money if your startup needs it: EQT Ventures III closes Europe’s largest venture capital fund committed to early-stage tech startups https://buff.ly/3V1wdXE The money will go to early-stage startups in Europe and North America. For more funds, wait for our later section with new fund announcements.

A service for our audience: Learn more and send in pitches here:

Has Rocket Internet Already Seen Its Best Years?

“Mucho trouble over at Rocket Internet,” wrote Robin Wauters in his readworthy newsletter for Tech.eu. The article asks if their era is over. Staff cuts and investment stop point in that direction https://buff.ly/3VeVyxF

Startup Brand Ranking

Jung von Matt publishes their annual GERMAN STARTUP BRAND RANKING https://buff.ly/3OSZamD

Some of the top 50 startup brands are known from our news: About You, Flink, Numa Group, getquin, Vivid, Flaschenpost, Tier Mobility, Zolar, Enpal, Sono Motors, Trade Republic

Matter Labs raises 200 mn US$

Matter Labs, the Berlin, Germany-based developer of zkSync, a solution that reduces the cost of Ethereum transactions, raised $200M in Series C funding https://buff.ly/3UorChp

Not Oceans Eleven, But Still BIG

Berlin-based luxury watch marketplace Watchmaster was one of the largest marketplaces of its kind. After a spectacular robbery where 10 m € worth of watches have been stolen the company has to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/3Fi3qsG

Getir Buys Gorillas And It Is Not Going Well For the Gorillas Founder

First, this news appeared: Getir will take over Gorillas soon — according to press reports. The negotiations have been dragging on for some time now https://buff.ly/3B0vtdG

Than the confirmation came: Getir acquires German competitor Gorillas in $1.2 billion deal — where Gorillas was once valued at 3 bn US$ https://buff.ly/3Wxizfs

Housekeeping & Time to Brag

We will be back in the new year 2023 with the first new episode towards the end of January, as far as we can tell right now. Our schedule got a bit screwed up. Sorry!

Joe got featured on TopTierStartups.com: Want To Know About German-Language Startups? Joe Menninger Is Your Guy | https://buff.ly/3gJtbZB

Oh, one more thing:

We got our wrap-up from Spotify and it turns out that we are in the global top 5% of most shared podcasts on Spotify. Thank you audience!

Ecosystem

  • Forget neobanks: In 2022, it’s B2B fintech that investors find ‘sexy’ by AmyOBrien via Sifted https://buff.ly/3Gz3hT5
  • The (worrying) State of European Tech in 2022: Annual #EUtech funding expected to drop to $85 billion, and 15 other takeaways https://buff.ly/3iKHldK

Now to GSA’s ecosystem

Hubs

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

Frankfurt

  • Germany’s First Cannabis Start-Up Lists On Frankfurt Stock Exchange Ahead Of Legalization https://buff.ly/3EGK1BJ
  • Related: Canopy Growth founder and former CEO invests privately in German-listed cannabis company SynBiotic, which is working to use cannabinoids in medicine https://buff.ly/3P7AkQ8
  • Breezy Brands starts the first cannabis marketplace for pharmacies in Germany https://buff.ly/3Bj8o6f

Cologne

Buynomics, a Cologne, Germany-based provider of a SaaS platform to support enterprise customers with their commercial decisions, raised €13M in Series A funding https://buff.ly/3TKQS0U

Hamburg

Hamburg-based Fashion Cloud — a software provider for wholesale fashion — raises 25 m Euros https://buff.ly/3VZLHMy

Planegg-Martinsried

German biotech company CatalYm raises 50 m € in Series C funding https://buff.ly/3gOP75A

Augsburg

Dropbox buys Augsburg (Germany) based encryption company Boxcryptor to enable end-to-end encryption for their business clients https://buff.ly/3FvJqmy

Itzehoe

Customcells, an Itzehoe, and Tübingen, Germany-based battery cell manufacturer, raised €60M in Series A funding https://buff.ly/3j5Zums

Konstanz

Fruitcore robotics startup just raised €23M to meet the increasing need for robots in SMEs — TFN https://buff.ly/3hpjXCh

Switzerland

Austria

  • GoStudent, a SoftBank-backed education startup valued at $3 billion, has commenced the second wave of layoffs hitting over 100 jobs, sources say https://buff.ly/3uWWwDr
  • The Austrian subsidiary of German delivery service Flink files for insolvency https://buff.ly/3P96KK0

General News / Tech News / Companies News Section

New VC Funds, If You’re Looking for Money

  • VSquared Ventures unveils new €165 million fund for early-stage deep tech https://buff.ly/3Ef9qkf
  • Berlin-based VC Cavalry Ventures announces the first close of its third fund with €160m https://buff.ly/3BEj4g7
  • London-based One Peak closes third fund, One Peak Growth III, at $1B targeting B2b software companies in Europe https://buff.ly/3UxNmaM
  • TX Ventures launches CHF 100 million FinTech investment fund https://buff.ly/3Pa8m6l
  • Berlin-based VC Paua Ventures rebrands to Square One and announces a new 100 million enterprise software and SaaS fund https://buff.ly/3HjnLzo
  • European Investment Fund pumps €50 million into climate tech VC World Fund | EU-Startups https://buff.ly/3VIE3pP
  • Vienna-based early-stage investor Speedinvest raises Speedinvest 4 early-stage fund with 500 m € https://buff.ly/3BAUgVU

Fintech News

  • Study by Solaris and Handelsblatt Research Institute reveals great opportunities for embedded finance in the European mobility sector https://buff.ly/3H2gNii
  • The European FTX entity is up for sale. According to press reports, there are 50 parties interested https://buff.ly/3PFjQyR the investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners is looking for a buyer
  • Motive Partners acquired German venture capital firm embedded/capital https://buff.ly/3VblDha
  • The Crypto Winter Is About to Become a Crypto Ice Age https://buff.ly/3grWMXn

General News

  • Founder factories: Alumni from 344 European and Israeli unicorns have birthed 1,018 startups since 2008 https://buff.ly/3V1a7Ei
  • Not really a startup, but a company with an iconic product. This article is just here to show you how hard companies have to fight right now to stay afloat: Small car parts supplier BIA produces the iconic Mercedes Star, but now has to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/3VbDZPl
  • Berlin startup to wrap homes in ‘second skin’ as heating costs soar https://buff.ly/3tE3L2A
  • HR-Startup Workmotion cuts 20 percent of their workforce https://buff.ly/3hsPSl8
  • Grover lays off 10% of its employees to reach the break-even point https://buff.ly/3FFcLtQ

A Very Few And Selected Fundraisings

  • Munich-based healthcare startup Temedica raises 25 m Euro https://buff.ly/3XG9LFA
  • Taktile, a NYC- and Berlin, Germany-based Software as a Service (SaaS) startup enabling businesses to make automated decisions, closed a $20m Series A funding https://buff.ly/3VGXejp
  • Qunomedical from Berlin raises 10 m Euro in Series A funding. They win Bertelsmann Investments and Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures as new investors. Existing investors also invest https://buff.ly/3OZNgaO
  • Ostrom lands €9.3 million to help us use less electricity https://buff.ly/3UWBhMp
  • Tapline bags €31.7M to provide on-demand funds to early, late-stage SaaS companies https://buff.ly/3BEhElu

We will be back in January 2023. Enjoy your holidays!

Stay ahead of the curve

Automated Transcript

Transcript

[0:00] Music.

[0:08] That I owe you were podcast and YouTube blog covering the German.

[0:14] With News interviews and Live Events
merry Christmas happy New Year everyone Chris can you do a ho ho ho from New York.
Yes ho ho ho happy holidays you can already tell this is the holidays.
Episode this month in German Swiss and Austrian startups December 20 22 and as you have heard Chris is already here and Chris has his
Christmas present already to show right you got a black belt in geography
I have a black belt and geography here that it will hopefully you’ll prefer it actually says that’s the Christmas present I got
from Joe so thank you for that because we will talk about German cities and also since I don’t own a Christmas sweater I’m just wearing a bathrobe which I think everybody should do on Christmas so that’s my Christmas style.
Yeah it’s a very relaxed person so you don’t have to dress up if you are Chris you can dress as you like on Chris Moss who.

[1:19] Sure sure
welcome to this month in Germans with an Austrian startups our startup news wrap-up for December
2022 by startuprad.io with Chris from New York and me from Frankfurt we recorded this nice episode on December 19th 2022
keep in mind this news episode covered everything since our last news episode and as always all news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode
which will be changed published in January 20 23 or first news 2023 guys.
Another years over what he say about this Chris.
Doesn’t feel like it the weird thing was I recently did like a reflection exercise and thought Oh the whole you was murky and then we were encouraged to write down highlights and lowlights
and was a couple of highlights that I had forgotten about
so I can recommend everybody to just have a look at your calendar go through your iPhone photos and you will realize that probably things were better than you remember.

[2:26] Chris can you tell us a little bit about the highlights.
Well actually I was also in Vegas last week that was high life I didn’t gamble I was in Vegas only for the second time in my life and I liked it much more
I said three hours at the buffet at the Excalibur which is not like the greatest buffet in Vegas and I watched the White Lotus
so I was watching this American TV show about rich horrible.
White people in the middle of this like three hour long Buffet where I just sat around and head like food all the time I thought I did Vegas right.
So that was a highlight.
And obviously like the biggest highlight is working here with you awesome we also have some highlights in the nude right there when we’ve been Meandering enough.

[3:17] Yes okay I do that one you have already have the biggest highlights
n Pol makes huge fundraising in the current environment more than
800 million years send doubles its valuation in the next funding round to two billion US Dollars and has already
60 million commitment aquatic press report the funding environment may be Bleak but investors pronounced new funds for
venture capital and private Equity Investments worth 3.1 billion US Dollars targeting startups and scale UPS in TSA or Europe
just in the last month one block asked if the time of Rocket internet is over metal apps raises 200 million.
And a Big Heist Drive start up into insolvency as well as get here by squirrels for 1.2 billion u.s. dollars Far Cry from gorillas former 3 billion US dollar valuation
let’s talk startups but first I’ll win a blurs invest in Hesston this show was made possible by hasn’t rated the best with a brand investing Henson.

[4:34] You can learn more about them
and dub-dub-dub investments in — has in.com we also run a dedicated sub podcast with all our interviews and use in cooperation with them you can have a look at the link tree link and startupradio in the best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups you can sign up for Early Access and start a brave in.com Chris you want to Enlighten us about the a fundraising and I take over
when you’re done with the rocket internet Corner yeah we’re going back to that so yeah and Paul fundraising you kind of hinted at it already
Npower could double the evaluation in a new founding round the berlin-based Unicorn closed 855 million euro in.
Funding to accelerate the adoption of solar energy and then we have sender with SE
double nder it’s a digital for water unicorn raising new money at a two billion dollar US valuation according to a report we found they already have 60 million commitments and.

[5:44] One thing that really not caught us by surprise but we felt it was definitely worth emphasizing is that fundraising for VCS when quite well and more than 3.1
billion euros worth of new investment funds have been closed so the largest is eqt Ventures it has money if your startups needed eqt Ventures free closes Europe’s largest Venture Capital fund committed to early tape
early-stage Tech startups money will go to startups in Europe and North America
for more funds wait for a later section with new fund announcement
but you can also learn more and send in pictures.
Not pictures pictures under a link that we have in the show notes maybe you should also send some pictures if you have nice ones and then rock it internet.

[6:40] Rocket internet we were wondering if it has already seen its best years I mean not that we are the best measuring stick here but it also got
quieter and I will show about them so
mucho trouble over a rocket internet Road Robin watches in a reed worthy newsletter for Tech dot EU and the article also asked if their era is
over Bay and they base this assumption or this question on staff cuts and an investment stop
so also if you want to know more the link to the more detailed article about this is in our show notes
back to you and the startup brand ranking that you devoured.

[7:24] So to say so to say right and there is an annual brand ranking by an.
Agency called you fun much they published this annually and they call it German startups brand ranking I think the name is quite telling some of the top 50 startup brands are known from our news
it includes about you feeling.
Mumbai group get Quinn vivid flash and post career Mobility solar and pal.

[7:57] So no Motors and trade Republic
metal apps raises 200 million u.s. dollars the Berlin Germany based employee developer of set KS.
Why and see.
I think I do believe as a nation that we use is the cost of a theorem transactions raises 200 million u.s. dollars in series C funding
not Ocean’s Eleven but still big berlin-based luxury watch Marketplace
watch mass that was one of the largest marketplaces of its kind after spectacular robbery with 10 million euros worth of watches have been stolen the company has to file for insolvency.
And we’ve been talking about it on and off and tweeting about it quite a lot get here to Turkish competitor
we’ll take over gorillas as you know 1.2 billion u.s. dollar deal.

[8:57] You have to know that the rulers was once valid at 3 billion US Dollars and according to other press reports the founder of Google
had to sell his remaining stake already at the discounted price back to the company let’s do a little bit
housekeeping and time tube rack we will be back in the New Year 2023 with the First new episode towards the end of January as far as we can tell right now our schedule got a bit little bit screwed up so it depends on the funding round of a startup
Joe got featured so meeting me at top-tier startups.com they write one to know about German language startups do manager is your guy.
And one more thing we’re pretty proud of that you know November is the type is the time that Spotify.
Gives you that and your rap meaning you can see what you’ve been doing they provide you some statistics and so on and so forth.

[9:57] And what we found pretty amazing is our podcast is in the top 5% of them.
Of the most frequently shared podcasts globally for Spotify and that is just
awesome thank you guys Chris you are ecosystem guy aren’t you
that’s what they say so yeah we found a couple of interesting articles about the general startupnews system in Germany or also
Beyond in Germany so one of them is by Amy O’Brien on sifted writing about
a trend when it comes to the finance base saying that we should forget Neil bangs so
the banks that are catering with a more let’s say
barebone product to Consumers and we should forget about them but because in 2022 it’s B2B fintech that investors find sexy
we have
a link to the whirring state of European Tech and 2022 it’s an annual you Tech it is about Nu u tech funding expected to drop to 85 billion dollars and 15 other key takeaways there.

[11:15] Where are you from Boy Wonder Robin vouchers at take EU I can add okay
Sagal and you can find the link in the show notes and then if we focus on the ecosystem in GSA Germany Switzerland and Austria the K FW D credit and child for Vida of bow did some research and in German venture capital and German venture capital is going almost exclusively
two men let startups.
So yeah still a lot of work to do there apparently to get more women.
I’m probably not even to get more women into funding startups but rather to get more money to the women I would say and then exist women the German government pledges 6.5 million euros for stipends for female founders.
So probably just like a drop in the bucket here.
Um but still there is a program for the women there by the government then Seventy-Six percent of Germans by their Christmas presents online Corona effect here still hold one could say before Corona only 60% of the people.
Bob presence online.

[12:25] But German online sales in general shrink by 1/6 or 16.8% around Christmas and there is a report about the state of the German blockchain ecosystem talking about things that.

[12:39] Shrink right now probably
I’ll take over in hops exactly I do a little bit of hops and then you can prove your plaque belt in German geography right.

[12:54] Yes I also have to ask you is this is this a typo.

[13:00] Anyway Hub Frankfurt
Frankfurt Germany’s first can Abbott cannabis thought up list on Frankfurt Stock Exchange ahead of the legalization related Kenobi growth founder and former CEO invests privately
in German listed cannabis startups sink biotic.
Which is working to use cat can I be your only in medicine that are the oils
out of cannabis Breezy brand starts the first cannabis Marketplace for pharmacies in Germany going a little bit too cologne by no makes Cologne Germany based providers of a SAS
platform to support Enterprise customers with a commercial decisions raises 13 million euros in series a funding.

[13:53] I’m going to the very North in Hamburg and I think they’re and over to Chris right.
Oh yeah yeah I was just pointing up because hamburgers in the north so Hamburg paced fashion Cloud software provider for wholesale fashion raises 25 million euros
in planning Martin’s read which is basically in the suburbs of Munich there’s German biotech company cattle.
Lim.

[14:23] They raise 50 million euros in series C funding in Augsburg also in the variable north of Munich there is a Dropbox which we.
All know.
Or a lot of us know and use and Dropbox baud the output based encryption company box script or to enable end-to-end encryption for business clients
it’s a whole very far up in the north close to the Northern sea is the home of custom cells.
And it’s a whole and tubingen german-based battery cell manufacturer and custom cells raised 60 million Euros in a series a funding
constant very much in the South right next to the border of Switzerland at Lake Constance is the home of fruit core a robotics startup that just raised 23 million euros to meet
the increasing need for robber robots in small and medium-sized Enterprises.

[15:22] And in Switzerland at the other end side of Lake Constance take the sting out of Frontline Communications says beekeeper a company that add 50 million dollars to their hive.
And apparently they are good company for all kinds of puns and in Austria goes student SoftBank.
SoftBank backed education startup valued at three billion dollars has commenced a second wave of layoffs hitting over 100 jobs sources say.
And.
We go back to the delivery startups because there’s an Australian subsidiary of the German delivery service Flink which had to file for insolvency
now I’m giving back to you talking about the VC funds we already set that you have more information about funds.

[16:18] Who are willing to give away money I mean they’re never willing to give away money hey.
But yesterday they wanted to make that were money exactly yeah we did some calculations we have values in yours in u.s. dollars and in Swiss Francs here but they are very very close right now so you can almost get it one on one it’s
a little bit over 3.1 billion US Dollars Euros or a little bit less Swiss
Frank’s right now vs squared Ventures and ways the new of 165 million funk
for at least eight deep Tech startups oh by the way I forgot all of those funds are targeting GSA or
Europe as a whole but in based VC Cavallari Ventures announces the first close of its
third fund with 160 million years london-based one Peak closes third fund one Peak growth number 38
1 billion targeting me to be software companies
in Europe story to 1 billion was US Dollars TX Dentures launches 100 million Swiss franc fintech investment fund berlin-based VC
power Ventures.

[17:35] Reprint to square one and announces new 100 million enterprise software and SAS fund the European investment fund terms 50 million Into Climate xvc World Funk and Vienna based early stage investor.
Speed a less traces split invest for early-stage fun with.
500 million euros that is quite a lot crisp you won’t take over the fintech for a change
yeah going to fintech there’s a study by Sola doors and tunnels blood research institute revealing great opportunities for embedded Finance
in the European Mobility is sector so there’s still room in the market there and then FTX the European entity of FTX is up for sale according to press reports there are 50 parties interested the Investment Bank perella Weinberg Partners is looking for a buyer
and so yeah one of probably the biggest stories right now in the whole Tech and startup space anyway
motive Partners acquired German Venture Capital firm embedded capital and.
We also have an outlook on what was probably one of the most turbulent.

[18:48] Tech stories of 2022 basically the decline of crypto and one article here says the crypto winter is about to become a crypto Ice Age.

[19:02] Which wasn’t fun move so.
General news found a fact I will go on until you stop me found a factories alumni from 344 European and Israeli unicorns have birthed.
1018 startup since 2008 so that’s an interesting article also.
Yeah giving those of us hope who have started a startup but then did not succeed in the first place.
Dad as the old song goes if at first you don’t you see succeed dust yourself off and try again.

[19:40] It’s I think Destiny’s Child
I hope so not really a starter but a company with an iconic product this article is just here to show you how hard companies have to fight right now to stay afloat because the small car parts supply a Bia
produces the iconic Mercedes star but now has to file for insolvency
but you know also because they got rid of so many Mercedes models with the star actually and while the star was on top of the cars they’re now putting it just on the
on the car itself because so many people actually broke up broke off the Stars so because they wanted to wear it as a necklace it’s a whole different story.
Berlin startup to wrap homes and Second Skin as heating costs or so that is a reaction to the
supposedly German energy crisis of the winter which so far has not materialized but it’s also only like MIT
December and we have the HR side of work motion that cuts 20% of their Workforce same as Grover who laid off 10% of its employees to reach
break even fundraisings show me the money.
Before that I would like to add that the energy crisis did not arrive here yet but I have to say now it’s getting really really cold up to minus 7 degrees Celsius.

[21:08] Here in Germany at night we really need to heat plus today we had an unfortunate day with frozen ground and we had fresh rain falling on it so there was
ice all over basically we didn’t leave the house today that was really dangerous but it will get better tomorrow and
I personally also hope that we did a lot of fuss about the energy crisis and it will not materialize but we will only see in January and February next year
going now to little bit better and use a very few and selected Punk raisings munich-based Healthcare startup team medic are raised 25 million years
Tech Tyler New York City and berlin-based software-as-a-service startup enabling businesses to make automated decisions closer to closing the 20 million tears a funding.
No medical from Berlin raises 10 million years in series a funding they win medals on investment and D different husband Ventures as new investors
assisting investors also invested long and Ostrom lens 9.3 million years to help you
less electricity and tab line bags 30.
1.7 million years to provide on-demand funds to early and late State companies.

[22:33] I also have to say that some of the stuff we say sounds as if we do those names for the first time but it’s also really complicated start-up names every time we have but dumb reading the stuff but it’s sometimes so hard to get
people get easier names for your company’s please yes exactly and tap language the last news and so guys thank you very much for being with us yet another year and this is already
depending on how you count to your number 84 startuprad.io and Chris joint me the first time for the
May 2015 recording so it’s almost seven years well as they say time flies when you’re having fun
getting exactly get out we will be back in January 20 23 enjoy your holidays for by not not good and watch Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and of course we do have a lot of
stay ahead of the curve down here from cryptos how to scam investor for steps.

[23:39] It’s an article about the scams European banking Authority go Queen praying for the garden valuation and introducing a 16th set cross guide to growth Matrix.
So that’s it sorry Chris now you go whole life no I don’t have anything to add
Parappa pom pom pom pom pom enjoy your holidays in New York do you stay in the city or you get out.

[24:03] No I’ll stay in the city oh yeah just it would just be me myself and I.

[24:09] You yourself on user enjoy your three guys and Merry Christmas Happy New Year’s be back next time and guys take a break.
Get the energy I think everybody will need it the next year bye bye bye.

[24:24] Music.

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