This Month in GSA Startups — February 2022
Welcome to This Month in GSA Startups — meaning Germany, Austria and Switzerland, for February 2022 by Startuprad.io — in a news recording with Chris from New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio, our partner station IBGR.Network and the Fundscene blog.
We recorded this new episode on Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022. Today we bring you everything from a new Switzerland-based unicorn to a new take on quick delivery — pardon the pun.
We start out with mega-deal in Gaming: ESL Gaming is sold for 1bn US$, Munich-based Fintechsystems is sold for 120 mn € and Aachen-based Next Ego may accomplish THE turnaround of the whole year, coming out of insolvency, they are looking to list via SPAC, valued at 1.5 bn €. Switzerland has a new unicorn, congratulations to Scandit, Gorillas wants to buy a french competitor and is thinking about a SPAC deal. Also, we have a large update on neobanks in Germany, and they are not all doing well.
Let’s talk startups:
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Top News
Megadeal in eSports
ESL Gaming, based in Cologne, is sold for 1 bn US$ to Savvy Gaming Group, backed by Saudi SWF https://buff.ly/3g1GeSg
Takeover worth 120 mn Euros
Swedish Tink buys Munich-based Fintecsystems, an open banking service provider, for around 120 mn € https://buff.ly/3ID4NRN
From Insolvency to 1.5 bn in half a year?
Aachen, Germany-based, electric car manufacturer Next Ego leaves insolvency protection and plans to list with a SPAC deal in H1 2022 for an expected 1.5 bn Euros https://buff.ly/3r3d6Ad
A new Switzerland based unicorn
Scandit raises 150 mn US$ at unicorn valuation. The company provides scanner software, used at FedEx, Carrefour, and German dm drugstore chain https://buff.ly/3gAhPn0
Gorillas in the news
- Gorillas is considering a SPAC IPO according to Deutsche Startups https://buff.ly/3H3lq85
- Gorillas Set to Acquire French Rapid Delivery Startup Frichti https://buff.ly/3rRWrz3
NeoBank Update
N26 in the news. We just have some articles collected here.
- The leadership team of N26 is still losing members. COO Adrienne Gormley is leaving https://buff.ly/3fZYr2I
- N26 to start “soon” with their crypto offering in Germany https://buff.ly/3Box3Ff
- related: They are rumored to rely on BitPanda’s services to offer crypto service to its client https://buff.ly/3v6timN
- N26 — indirectly — discloses revenues and number of premium customers. 45% of revenues are from premium account fees, which leads to approx. 300k premium clients on average https://buff.ly/3orA2aR
Berlin-based neobank Vivid raises 100 mn Euro Venture Capital from investors https://buff.ly/3GGNVbe
Not all neobanks are doing well. Hamburg-based neobank Remagine has to file for insolvency. They first wanted to be a bank for entrepreneurs, and then pivoted to a green bank. The investors don’t seem to have bought that https://buff.ly/3tXLcaI
Some data on the clients of Berlin-based neobroker unicorn Trade Republic emerged. https://buff.ly/3rQy3il
- 84% of the users are male
- 47% are new to the stock market
- of which 50% are 18–26 years old
- Of the total 70% aim to invest long term
- 56% are not in it for the thrill
- In total, the users invest 60% in equities, 26% in ETFs, and only 2% in derivatives
- The median return for the users was 7.1% (2019 to summer 2021)
Germany and Telegram
- Germany’s Ministry of Interior successfully establishes contact with Telegram leadership. Apparently, someone in the ministry googled successfully an email 😀 https://buff.ly/3rwaUBB
- As a reaction Telegram closes 64 channels, after pressure from the German government, including the one of conspiracy theorist Attila Hildmann https://buff.ly/3oQ7WpS
Housekeeping — Time to Brag
Guys, it is again time to say thank you to our audience, we are now a global Top 400 Business Podcast according to Chartable! :-)
A little hint here: Our website is doing pretty bad. It will soon be replaced and we are currently moving our content to medium. So you will soon find all of our show notes and blog posts on medium.com/startuprad-io
Also, we have a hint at an event. The EU-Startups Summit will take place this year on May 12–13th in Barcelona. They say “At this exclusive in-person event we’ll be showcasing many of Europe’s hottest startups and coming together to learn from some of the most successful European entrepreneurs of our time.” There is also a special 20% discount code for our audience using “STARTUPRADIO20”. Note: If you listen to this via one of our network partners, you are also free to use the code :-)
Ecosystem
And the politicians said there will be money:
Our audience already knows about the 10 bn startup program of the German federal government from our interview in summer 2021. Now there are new programs on the horizon:
- European Tech Champions Initiative want to spend more than 10 bn Euro on European Startups https://buff.ly/3uCtMRw
- Europe’s Chips Act to bake in up to €2BN in funding support for startups and scale-ups — TechCrunch https://buff.ly/3Llsmkb
- German Federal Finance Minister Lindner sees prospective startup program of 1 bn Euros, where the government invests in scale-ups https://buff.ly/3rBDK3u
- European Commission adopts EIC (European Investment Council) work programme for 2022, unlocks €1.7 billion in funding https://buff.ly/3HbpFhV
- If all of the programs go through, that would be a funding push of almost 14 bn €
Hamburg-based Brightpoint Capital is in the process of raising Europe’s largest privately managed umbrella venture capital fund, with a goal of 500 mn Euros. https://buff.ly/3rA5ohd
Cherry Ventures from Berlin raised a new crypto fund of 30 mn Euros, after a 300 mn € fund last month. Apparently, there is someone pretty busy raising funds from LPs https://buff.ly/3BDfFN3
EIF Venture Capital Survey 2021 (link opens PDF) https://buff.ly/3IIo8B6
Digital euro bill due early 2023 https://buff.ly/3oOF9BS writes Bjarke Smith-Meyer at Politico. This would be quite an acceleration compared with the former timelines, moving it closer by many years.
Some bad news here: More than one-third of Europe’s top VC firms are yet to hire a female partner https://buff.ly/3sK3t99
Hubs
There are many deserving startups, cities, and entrepreneurs who will never get any English coverage, would it not be for us. This is why this section exists.
Frankfurt
- Seed Funding of 1.1 mn Euros by hyrd “The Early Career Network” https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gethyrd_we-are-incredibly-proud-and-happy-to-announce-activity-6901825523689881600-lSdn/
- Frankfurt-based INTRANAV a specialist for real-time surveillance of production lines and warehouses is bought by NASDAQ listed Inpixon https://buff.ly/3KX31Nn The transaction was announced by Inpixon in early December, but we just found the release on the Intranav website this month. Better late than never …
- Frankfurt-based Operations1 raises €11.1 million for its software that manages operations and connects workers | EU-Startups https://buff.ly/330D7XU
- Frankfurt-based bank Helaba invests in Munich-based #impact #fund https://buff.ly/3IadCT9
- European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator invests 30 mn € in three green startups, including CO2Bioclean from Frankfurt https://buff.ly/3I9Nacu note: We will interview CO2Bioclean soon.
Mainz
Vicampo Group Exit 2021 was worth 125 mn € https://buff.ly/34ZaHyq
Darmstadt
TU Darmstadt wants to become a startup investor with the program “IP for shares”, it has been already tested for a fusion energy startup https://buff.ly/3BoSR3J
Walldorf
SAP buys fintech Taulia and becomes a competitor of banks like Deutsche Bank https://buff.ly/3r8Qi2f
Heidelberg
KKR and other investors have channeled approx. 800 mn Euros (900 mn US$) in Unzer, formerly Heidelpay, a payment app from Heidelberg, Germany https://buff.ly/3glXx0E
Dresden
Wandelbots Raises $84M in Series C Funding — FinSMEs https://buff.ly/34aewk1
Munich
- Marvel Fusion gets €35 million to accelerate the roll-out of ‘Made In Europe’ clean energy https://buff.ly/3oqeoDJ
- Yoummday lands €30 million to bring new work models into the world of customer services https://buff.ly/3BfS7Of
- Healthtech startup Climedo picks up €5 million funding boost https://buff.ly/3gZTRlb
Austria
- GoStudent the tutoring unicorn from Vienna, buys two companies Seneca Learning and Tus Media Group, after buying Fox Education in September 2021 — all to extend their product offering https://buff.ly/3sdr6a0
- Firstbird one of Vienna’s first HR Tech startup exits to a US-based company https://buff.ly/3o393lz
Switzerland
- Swiss-based “Russian Elon Musk ‘’ builds a cargo drone with a speed of 19,000 km/h called Jungfrau (Virgin). Such a drone would make transatlantic freight delivery much faster and cheaper, but could also have military applications https://buff.ly/3oH4NIW This is not a perfect example, since such a drone would need time to speed up and slow down, but if they would fly all time at max speed, the drone could deliver a parcel from Frankfurt to New York City in 20 minutes.
- UBS has brokered 300 mn CHF in swiss startups so far https://buff.ly/34Zf3oF
- Revival Healthcare Capital, 415 Capital, and existing investors invest 90 mn US$ in Lausanne, Switzerland-based Distalmotion for the development of their robot surgeon https://buff.ly/3H6u3Q5
General News / Companies News Section
Fintech, today very heavily leaning towards US Banks …
- Crypto.com was for months aggressively marketing to German clients, apparently without having any license to do so https://buff.ly/3JeX78J
- JP Morgan plans to enter for the first time retail banking in Germany, with a robo-advisor based on their recently acquired nutmeg platform https://buff.ly/3655aXj
- After 1 1/2 years, Vanguard Invest started the pilot phase of its robo advisor based in Berlin reports a German startup blog https://buff.ly/3g4ndhR on February 22nd they also sent us an email that they are live now. They want to price their offer at a 0,8% fee, which is very low compared to other offers in asset management in Germany. You can learn more here in a German article, combined with an interview with their German CEO https://buff.ly/3JOqApZ
A very very few and very selected fundraisings:
- Private equity fund Carlyle and PayPal invest 100 mn US$ in Germany-based e-commerce software company Shopware https://buff.ly/3gz27sh
- Berlin’s MAYD gets paid in €30 million Series A round, Lightspeed leads the parade https://buff.ly/3upEQBe
- Healthtech startup Ada Health closes Series B at over €105 million to accelerate growth https://buff.ly/34Ps8RP
- Cosuno brings in $30 million to digitize construction industry https://buff.ly/3JAt3nQ
- Eight Roads Ventures, Piton Capital, Kingsway, and Pico Venture Partners invest together with US astronaut Thomas Stafford in medtech Patient21 of former Auto1 manager 110 mn Euros https://buff.ly/3g6H3Jj
- Biontech and railway operator Deutsche Bahn invest 100 mn US$ in Tunisia-based ai startup Instadeep https://buff.ly/3G5ta8Q
HR announcements
- Binance snaps Etoro’s CEO for Germany and is rumored to apply for a crypto custody license in Germany https://buff.ly/3GsdxbT
- Former head of development for Audi and Volvo, Peter Mertens joins Munich-based mobility startup Deepdrive https://buff.ly/3LuMjFn
Togetherness or so …
- Amelie was once a shooting star of the Berlin startup scene. They had a female co-founder who understood to make the online shop for sex toys classy. First they were sold to Pro7Sat1, a group of TV stations in Germany, very active in the German startup scene. Then they were sold in October last year to the dutch EQOM group. Now there is bad news. According to recent press reports, approx. 30% of the headcount will be cut by the new owners https://buff.ly/3JKuS1H
- A new take on quick delivery: That is a new one: Finish quick delivery startup Wolt broadens its delivery to now include sex toys, to be delivered within 35 minutes in Hamburg https://buff.ly/3saW6sC
Other News
Bird.com sold for 2.5 mn US$ Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s a bird.com domain name sale! MessageBird outbids micro-mobility company Bird https://buff.ly/3gwIaT5 reports Tech.eu crazy how much people spent for a simple URL.
How Zewdi, Berlin’s First Black-Owned Travel Agency, Highlights Black German History — Travel Noire https://buff.ly/3JMTNSt
Biotech billionaire and SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp digs deeper to back one of the drug developers in his portfolio https://buff.ly/3h3gipP
German deep tech Vara on track to accelerate breast cancer screening https://buff.ly/35hsTDj
Home24 surprises markets with stagnating revenues and dumps forecast, the takeover of the brick and mortar retailer should be completed in Q2 2022 https://buff.ly/3uewpJ9
Normally they are headquartered in New York City, but since they are a large investor in the German-speaking startup scene here they are: Tiger Global Raised $11 Billion for New Venture Fund, Exceeding Target https://buff.ly/3sldk59
Stay ahead of the curve
- Following the Money in the Air-Taxi Craze https://buff.ly/3HHHuWZ
