This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — November 2022 Wrap-Up
Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups, our startup news wrap-up for November 2022 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on Wednesday, November 16th, 2022. The recording date is due to our schedule.
To all American listeners: Happy Thanksgiving!
As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode, which will be published in our last news this year on December 22nd, 2022.
Our Highlights:
FTX may be history, BUT a German Blog reports there are several parties interested in buying the European Entity of FTX. FTX also triggered Bitpanda to order a special audit from KPMG. We have some more job cuts, this time the 2nd round. Gorillas may sell itself at 1 bn USD even though they have raised 1.3 bn USD in venture capital already. Air taxis are still hot, Volocopter raises more than 180 m US$ to get closer to certification and Lilium sells 100 Airtaxis to Saudi Arabia. The German VC market is stabilizing, according to KfW Research. Our former guest Creditshelf partners with Goldman Sachs and pockets 100 m Euros. Gitpod, a startup from Kiel convinces the founders of GitHub and Shopify to invest.
Let’s talk startups:
The Video Interview is set to go live on Thursday, November 24th, 2022 at 15.00 CET
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Top News
FTX may soon be History, BUT
A German blog Finance Forward reports there are several parties interested in buying the European Entity of FTX, which is headquartered in Switzerland https://buff.ly/3AfUWzC Their information has been spot on in other cases in the past.
Job Cuts Keep Coming — 2nd Round Now
Proptechs Homeday and McMakler enter the second round of job cuts. Homeday cuts 20 jobs (60 before) and McMakler again 100 employees https://buff.ly/3Dt2L6V
Gorillas May Sell Itself at a Huge Discount
Sequoia-backed grocery startup Getir is close to buying its troubled rival Gorillas in a heavily discounted deal said to be worth less than $1 billion https://buff.ly/3UNQkbM they have been valued at their series C investment at 2.1 bn US$ and to date they raised more than 1.3 bn US$.
Related: Deutsche-Startups uncovered that Gorillas (which is in the process of selling itself) paid 300 m € this year for french competitor Frichti https://buff.ly/3TXd6xy
Lilium Sells 100 Airtaxis
Saudi Arabia buys 100 air taxis from Munich -based startup Lilium https://buff.ly/3De7nMZ the delivery is expected 2025. Before the deal they also hired former Airbus executive Klaus Roewe. Fingers crossed for them, they did not generate revenue yet, but 841 m Euros losses so far.
Volocopter Raises 182 M US$
Volocopter raises $182M to bring air taxi closer to certification, as part of their Series E funding https://buff.ly/3UeqSvI
The company is currently testing its two-seater VoloCity air taxi for the requirements set by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Volocopter is looking to certify its aircraft in H2 2023 and generate revenue with rides in 2024.
Creditshelf Partners with Goldman Sachs
Our former guest Creditshelf partners with Goldman Sachs and hits profitability — Goldman Sachs is providing the German alternative lender for SMEs with up to €100m of secured funding https://buff.ly/3ExZxzP
Learn more in our interview with Creditshelf here https://buff.ly/3NVANo1
Creditshelf is Germany’s only listed pure-play fintech, offering a credit platform, where investors can grant credit to German small and medium enterprises.
Housekeeping & Time to Brag
Our hosting service for the audio podcasts decided to sunset its hosting function. Since the last news publication, we have already changed hosters on the weekend of November 12th and 13th. That may have led to interruptions, for which we are very sorry. If you are hearing this episode, that means all is worked out and you are listening via the new feed from the new hoster.
Our next news will be published on December 22nd and every year, there will be a fintech review published on December 25, 2022.
We will be back in the new year 2023 with the first new episode on January 19th, 2022.
Ecosystem
- Not related to Germany specifically as a headline, but still of importance: WSJ reports that “Investors Pour Into Venture Capital Funds Even as Markets Cool“ https://buff.ly/3zFRmOL that can only be good for startups on the other side of the tunnel.
- Europe’s venture capital scene is brighter than the US’s writes AXIOS https://buff.ly/3huQaYA
Now to GSA’s ecosystem
- The expectations in the German VC market are stabilizing according to the Q3 VC Business Climate Index of KfW Research, despite interest rate increases on the horizon. The current situation is even better than expected. Learn more here (link opens PDF): https://buff.ly/3TJRzbJ
- Christian Lindner German Minister of Finance agrees to review taxation of startup employee equity programs https://buff.ly/3h7Oi7N
- German government stops sale of Elmos semiconductor manufacturing to China https://buff.ly/3UNglZj
- News from Austria: Austrian VC investments grow in H1 2022, despite the environment by more than 100% (admittedly from a small base) https://buff.ly/3EsJinq
Hubs
Here we want to highlight some hidden gems and cities of general startup interest.
Also Sifted now understands the startup activity outside of Berlin and Munich is important with their article “The fastest-growing German startups outside Berlin and Munich https://buff.ly/3zi1bm2”
Munich
Munich now shows so much startup activity, that we decided to drop their highlights here in hubs and will include them in the respective news sections.
Frankfurt/Fulda
- Keep in mind the news from Creditshelf
- Proemion, a Fulda, Germany-based technology company creating hardware-enabled software, raised €33.5M in growth funding https://buff.ly/3W3auzX
Siegen
- Siegen, Germany-based Quantum computer maker eleQtron raises +€50 million in funding https://buff.ly/3zDLqGf
Düsseldorf
- Retraced is a Düsseldorf, Germany-based green startup that makes supply chains more transparent. They raise 6,5 m € venture capital. The round is led by German billionaire Carsten Maschmeyer’s Alstin Capital https://buff.ly/3WepFWS
- Moove files for insolvency https://buff.ly/3GbOIEz The start-up wanted to score with fully electric vans. However, the application is not expected to be the end of the company, which was founded in 2018.
Kiel
- Kiel, Germany-based startup Gitpod makes coding easier. This convinced founders of Github and Shopify to invest with other investors 25 m Euros https://buff.ly/3G93iNd
Freiburg
- Satellite startup Constellr wins 10 m US$ backing to build out its water-monitoring platform in seed funding https://buff.ly/3fYgzNO
Switzerland
- Anokion, a Lausanne, Switzerland-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, raised $35M in equity funding https://buff.ly/3N9GC0x
- Decentriq, a Swiss enterprise SaaS platform providing secure and compliant data clean rooms, closed a $5 million venture debt funding from Silicon Valley Bank UK https://buff.ly/3EfHNZL
- Jua, a Zurich, Switzerland-based artificial intelligence (AI) climate startup, raised $2.5M in Pre-Seed funding https://buff.ly/3sNgxeJ
- Swiss Digital Health Startup Akina raises 1.6 m CHF in pre-seed funding https://buff.ly/3WsNOJo
- Swiss-based health coach startup KINASTIC buys competitor VIABZ which offers corporate health promotion https://buff.ly/3Ut44IX
Austria
- Bitpanda ordered a special precautionary audit by KPMG after the collapse of FTX https://buff.ly/3V3FKNJ
- Vienna-based security startup Tapkey offers to unlock doors with their software and a smartphone instead of a key. They now sell the majority stake to France-based DOM Security https://buff.ly/3FHb1Sw
- Alfred Gusenbauer is a former Austrian chancellor. He now joins gloves producer ElephantSkin as an investor for a round, valuing the company at 25 m € https://buff.ly/3UvuppE
General News / Tech News / Companies News Section
New VC Funds, If You’re Looking for Money
- Redstone and EnjoyVenture raise with the Human Impact Capital Fund I, Germany’s first early-stage social impact fund with 50 m € https://buff.ly/3sGoIsW
- Privilège Ventures launches 20 m CHF fund for female-led startups https://buff.ly/3E6JPu1
- Prediction Capital just closed the first tranche of its $30 million fund to back early-stage fintech and consumer startups in the DACH region https://buff.ly/3EcmZB5
Fintech News
- We shared the news that Bankhaus von der Heydt (a small bank in Munich) is looking for a new buyer. Now German Bitcoin Group seems to be looking at a potential acquisition https://buff.ly/3DphlMD
- Coinbase Hires Fintech Executive Daniel Seifert, formerly with Solarisbank to Lead European Expansion https://buff.ly/3N2JXyM
- Berlin-based fintech Solarisbank announces its CEO Roland Folz will leave after 6 years at the end of April 2023. The new CEO is a former Barclaycard Germany executive, who has been with auxmoney and Commerzbank: Carsten Höltkemeyer https://buff.ly/3U4YhsB
- Taxfix is a Berlin-based app for simplified personal tax filing. They became a unicorn in the spring of 2022. Now they had to publish 2021 numbers and they revealed they missed their own 2021 revenue targets by almost 40% https://buff.ly/3fUUgbL
- Germany-Based Coinbase Is Having Issues With BaFin https://buff.ly/3TAyFDg BAFin thinks they are not adhering to the current regulations.
General News
- Berlin-based RV portal Paulcamper enables owners to rent out their RVs. Now they are sold for 31m Euro to Australian-listed Camplify https://buff.ly/3F83USE
- VW Offloads German Car-Sharing Business for EV Sales Boost https://buff.ly/3sVD34Q
- US-based Onetrust closes Berlin-based startup Planetly only one year after their acquisition. All 200 employees are let go https://buff.ly/3huOxdq
- Enerkite is a German startup that uses kites to generate wind energy in higher altitudes than windmills. One kite can generate double the energy of a windmill. Now they leave the test stage https://buff.ly/3tfbt2O
A Very Few And Selected Fundraisings
- Jucr raises 31,2 m Euro seed funding to build a pan-European charging infrastructure for e-mobility https://buff.ly/3XjLDsr
- Software Defined Automation Fuels Growth Through $10M Seed Round Led by Insight Partners https://buff.ly/3sPnzj3
- Berlin-based Apheris raises €8.7 million to create a positive impact through better data collaboration https://buff.ly/3hjBRpn
- Carbon intelligence platform Climatiq raises €6 million to fuel net zero future https://buff.ly/3DrEygj
- Vara scores €4.5M to make AI breast cancer screening accessible to everyone https://buff.ly/3D7ZDMz
- Greentech startup Heatle raises 3 m Euros in seed funding to replace electric water boiler with a sustainable alternative https://buff.ly/3ErhLTi
We will be back on December 22nd December Wrap-Up! Enjoy your Turkey :-)
Stay ahead of the curve
- State of European Fintech 2022 — Report (link opens document) https://buff.ly/3Son4GY
- The Fantasy of Instant Delivery Is Imploding https://buff.ly/3DtqMuG
- The German Startup Association published the Female Entrepreneurship Monitor https://buff.ly/3X5PVmY
- Tech Valuations Q3'22 Report — CB Insights Research https://buff.ly/3h0KcOJ
- The Roland Berger Battery Monitor 2022 https://buff.ly/3DSuuNg
