This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — February 2023
Welcome to our February 2023 wrap-up with the 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 interesting startup cities and end with general news. And for those of you who are really serious about startups, there is even a collection called: Stay ahead of the curve where we share interesting reads, articles, studies, and podcasts.
Welcome to our startup news wrap-up for February 2023 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on February 21st, 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 Highlights:
Rising interest rates are leading to an interest rate war between the neobrokers. We covered the troubled company Windeln.de, which is now liquidated. Farewell! Moonfare extended it’s Series C funding to more than 130 m US$, but we are not sure who invested in the last batch, since a fund is mentioned, that was also founded by Moonfare’s founder. The City of Mainz goes live with its quest to become a world-class biotech hub. N26 was reportedly in advanced talks to buy dutch broker Bux, but buxed out shortly before the closing. AAAAAAnd, we like to end on a high note: Raising is in the process of reclaiming its unicorn status with new funding.
Let’s talk startups:
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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
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Top News
Neobrokers Just Started — What May Be An Interest Rate War (Chris)
After german unicorn Trade Republic had a smashing success with offering 2% interest for money deposited there now also fellow unicorn Scalable offers even 2,3%, BUT only from 100k € on and only if you are a subscriber (4.99/month) https://buff.ly/3kMYvIG
Farewell Windeln.de
We have often talked in our news about the precarious position of windeln.de. Now it is finally liquidated https://buff.ly/3YvTKSf
Who Extended Moonfare’s Series C?
Moonfare is a fintech from Germany, allows individuals to invest in Private Equity Funds, founded by former KKR Germany Head Steffen Pauls. They cap their Series C extension round at about $15M, bringing its Series C funding to $130 million+ https://buff.ly/3YyZScu the Berlin-based fintech allows HNWI, family offices, banks, and their advisor's access to top-tier private markets investments. BUT German business magazin Manager Magazin reports that for this extension the only investor mentioned by name is one that Mr. Pauls has co-founded: https://www.manager-magazin.de/finanzen/geldanlage/moonfare-steffen-pauls-feiert-investment-durch-eigenen-fonds-7gc-als-erfolg-a-0cfccba4-d0ab-467d-93b0-0d5aacaa5d7d
You can find his profile at 7 Global Capital here on their website as Managing Partner and Founder: https://www.7globalcapital.com/team/steffenpauls
City of Mainz Starts to Invest some of Their Billions in the BioTech Hub
You may remember that we told you the story of Mainz? A lovely city with a normal annual budget of 100 million Euros, the capital of one of Germany’s states. Since they are also the headquarters of BioNTech they got flooded with tax revenues as soon as the corona vaccine was rolled out. They showed more than 1 bn € profit as a city in 2021 alone and they want to invest the money to become a world-class biotech hub. Now the company they want to use to drive this initiative is operational: biomindz | Newly established company to promote Mainz as hub for life science and biotechnology now operational and supporting the city of Mainz https://buff.ly/40ICQlo
Here is the interview with the person in charge of the BioTech Hub:
N26 Bux(ed) Out?
According to a press report, N26 was in discussions to acquire Dutch broker Bux, but backed out shortly before the deal was closed. The price tag is also reported as around 100 m €, but N26 feared too much complexity with the deal and the post-merger integration https://buff.ly/3Itnpqc
Raisin Get It’s Horn Back
Not everybody is suffering from higher interest rates. The deposit broker fintech Raisin is in the process of raising 50 m € venture capital at a 1,5 bn € valuation reports Boersenzeitung https://buff.ly/3YE9ZgE. We talked about them losing narrowly their unicorn status in our news before, but apparently, they are on their way back to reclaim it.
We had Raisin in an interview before many people outside of Germany knew they existed. Have a listen at our interview form 2017 here (https://buff.ly/3IrLDQc)
Housekeeping & Time to Brag
Today we want to hint at two events we will be both attending this year, where we are media partners. Look at our medium blog for discount codes:
- EU startups Summit (April 20th to 21st) in Barcelona use code STARTUPRADIO20 for 20% off. Learn more about the event and book your tickets here: https://www.eu-startups.com/eu-startups-summit-2023/
- Tech Open Air TOA (July 5th to 7th) in Berlin https://festival.toa.media/
- Get a completely free online ticket to the Crypto Asset Conference 2023 on March 29th and 30th in European Time Zone. Book via this link here: www.eventbrite.com/e/crypto-assets-conference-2023-cac23a-tickets-515386273217?discount=Assets23T
Day 1 (Wed., March 29, 2023): Digital Securities, Tokenization of Assets, Custody
Day 2 (Thu., March 30, 2023): Web3, Crypto Assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, Defi, Metaverse, and Carbon Tokenization
Ecosystem
- A European View: Report says Europe’s AI industry’s set to confound market expectations, generating 25% CAGR through to 2026 https://buff.ly/3Z5mhhG
- The mood in the German VC market hits a low — only seen at the onset of the corona pandemic — according to KfW’s VC and PE index https://buff.ly/3K2qE96
- Here is a full English version: https://www.kfw.de/About-KfW/Service/Download-Center/Konzernthemen/Research/Indikatoren/German-Private-Equity-Barometer/
- ‘They fire, we hire’ — Germany seizes on Silicon Valley’s woes https://buff.ly/3x82en3
- „European Tech Champions Initiative“ will be an EU government VC umbrella fund, backed by Germany, France, and Spain. The fund will be located by EIB. It aims to keep tech startups from leaving https://buff.ly/3lzu8FL So far only 3,75 bn € are committed, but the initiative wants to reach 10 bn € in the future https://www.eif.org/what_we_do/etci/index.htm
- Germany has the strictest liability rules for crowdfunding platforms in Europe. Now the federal government wants to ease them to the level of other European countries. https://buff.ly/3jUCGH8
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
- CLARK Group acquires Anorak and further expands on the UK market https://buff.ly/3HaXOAi
- German Casper competitor Emma Matratzen grows in 2022 to 873 Mio. Euro (+35%) https://buff.ly/3wBRBs8
learn more about the company, its founder, and its origins here: https://buff.ly/3De8e16?utm_source=-custom-by-source-3- - Bloomwell Group raises “several million” venture capital from investors Artemis Growth Partners, Measure 8 Venture Partners, a German Family Office, and actor Moritz Bleibtreu. The Frankfurt-based company owns several cannabis brands https://buff.ly/3XerwdN
- Deutsche Bank’s Asset Management Arm Eyes Crypto Investments in Deutsche Digital Asset Management (DDAM) or Bankhaus Scheich (Traidas) (both based in Frankfurt) https://buff.ly/40H94NT Learn more about the founder of DDAM here (under their old brand name) https://buff.ly/3HJY21L
- Europe’s first AI testing hub starts in Frankfurt https://buff.ly/3YSgTyB
Hanau
- French company Data4 will invest billions to set up a new data center in Hanau (30 km from Frankfurt). The center will be one of the largest of its kind in Europe https://buff.ly/3XCuUzg
Marburg
- BioNTech from Mainz invest in production capacity in their facility in Marburg investing 40 mn € for their Plasmids, the basis of mRNA technology https://buff.ly/3xtRz6t
Mannheim
- Despite topping out around 30 mn € annual revenue the jewelry startup Paul Valentine, based in Mannheim has to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/3jShvVU
Göttingen
- The Life Sciences growth fund in Göttingen starts at 12 m Euro and is planned to top out at 20 m Euros to fund life science startups around Göttingen and from the university https://buff.ly/3YwT13N
Austria
- Austrian crypto unicorn Bitpanda changes its setup. The new parent holding is now located in Switzerland https://buff.ly/3DToDbh
- Vienna-based startup valuation company Valutico raises “mid seven-digit” venture capital investment by Austrian investors PUSH Ventures, aws Gründerfonds (not Amazon but Austrian WirtschafsService) and Erste Group https://buff.ly/3Yveeuh
- Austrian startup Revo Foods gets 1,5 m Euro government grant for their 3D printed vegan fish from Vienna https://buff.ly/3jxDVvK
Switzerland
- CHF 2.3M to market Terapet first product and boost R&D https://buff.ly/3IIxq2R
- Unisers secures $14M to develop defect-detecting tools in chip-making https://buff.ly/41jdr23
- Entrepreneurial activity in Switzerland plummets https://buff.ly/3EojBUA
General News / Tech News / Companies News Section
New VC Funds, If You’re Looking for Money
- VC Planet A raises 160 m € fund for climate tech https://buff.ly/3xbgqeR as always: Pitch them directly with the link here: https://v9pa530bdk5.typeform.com/to/wqQpSgge?typeform-source=planet-a.com
Fintech News
- Fintechs C24 Bank and Solaris Bank under Bafin (German finance oversight) scrutiny https://buff.ly/40QpymZ as the authors point out — a lot resembles the troubles of N26 with Bafin (that we covered in other news recordings).
- Corporate credit card and expense management fintech Moss is frequently mentioned as a potential future unicorn. They had to disclose numbers and only generated 1,6 M € revenue in 2021, but currently are valued at around 500 m € https://buff.ly/3DP03bJ
- Insurtech unicorn wefox cuts jobs, less than 10% of the overall 1.400-strong workforce https://buff.ly/40UbE2Y
General News
- Used car marketplace Heycar cuts 16% of their workforce https://buff.ly/3YhtA5X
- We have not talked about Uber in a loooooooooong time. Let's talk about Uber Reserve: Uber takes another shot at the German taxi market in Frankfurt, Berlin, and München https://buff.ly/3YqA2Yl before, you could only book an uber right now, now you can reserve 30 days in advance (formerly only possible with taxis)
- Superfoods startup natural mojo (part of invincible brands) has to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/3HYpOrl
- Zenloop files for bankruptcy https://buff.ly/3ltSJvL
- Munich-based unicorn startup Flix breaks even for the first time https://buff.ly/3KaCOwI learn more about the company in our founder interview here https://buff.ly/412YL75
A Very Few And Selected Fundraisings — End on a high note :-)
- Munich-based Robotics Startup Kewazo Raises $10M in Series A Funding https://buff.ly/3x2UGSj
- Kittl, a Berlin, Germany-based provider of an online design platform, raised €10.8M in Series A funding. The round was led by Left Lane Capital, with participation from Speedinvest, Des Traynor, and Shaan Puri https://buff.ly/3Y4Qa1H
- German edtech Knowunity, a TikTok for schoolwork, raises €9m Series A extension https://buff.ly/3k00idg
- Cylib fuels up with €8 million to hit the accelerator on sustainable electric mobility | EU-Startups https://buff.ly/3EeBo0y
Stay ahead of the curve
- How To Find 🧠 SMART Money VCs and VALUE-ADDED Investors | via @dreamit https://buff.ly/3HZpY1t
- How to estimate market size? (TAM or Total Addressable Market) https://buff.ly/3HZf0t6
- Why VCs and Angel Investors Say “No” to entrepreneurs | Alicia Syrett | TEDxFultonStreet https://buff.ly/3xCLUuV
- The Upside of Venture Capital’s Slowdown https://buff.ly/3KkmnxM
- On Y Combinator startups and the AI revolution https://buff.ly/3HZ7XAy
