This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — March 2024
Welcome to our March 2024 wrap-up with vital news from the startup and tech entrepreneurship scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.
Our startup news is recorded with Chris in New York City and Joe in Frankfurt. Recording date is March 25th 2024 and all news not included will be in our next news to be released on April 25th 2024.
Happy Easter!
Today we publish on Holy Thursday (Gründonnerstag) in Germany. Note that the Friday before and Monday after Easter are public holidays. Many people will take off around the holidays. So don’t expect your calls to be returned promptly during this time.
A Seismic Shift in the Regional Startup Scene
You are witnessing a seismic shift in the GSA startup scene with us here and today. The headlines of our startup news used to be dominated by fintech funding. Now we have more than 7 billion € investments in green startups (battery, renewable energy) vs. “only” around 150 million in fintech funding in different forms. This is surely a foretaste of what’s to come.
Our Highlights:
The European energy landscape is witnessing significant developments with key investments across sectors.
Northvolt’s Gigafactory in Northern Germany, backed by €900 million in subsidies and a €4.5 billion investment, aims to produce 1 million car batteries annually, driving electric vehicle adoption and job creation.
Enpal secured €1.1 billion in refinancing commitments, while Sunfire raised over €500 million, bolstering Europe’s green hydrogen economy.
ENVIRIA secured $200 million in capital from BlackRock, signaling confidence in the solar sector.
Solaris Bank secured €96 million in funding but faced a €6.5 million fine from BaFin, reflecting fintech regulatory challenges.
Magic gained traction with open AI’s and Tesla’s former Andrej Karpathy as investor, and Bitpanda established a €50 million VC fund for blockchain startups. However, the startup community grapples with stress, with nearly half considering quitting, underscoring the toll of rapid innovation.
Let’s talk startups:
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Top News
Northvolt Groundbreaking Ceremony for their Gigafactory
Starts with the construction of their Gigafactory in the North of Germany. Even Chancellor Scholz attended the groundbreaking ceremony. 900 M € subsidies will be invested, 700 M from the state of Schleswig-Holstein and 200 M guaranteed. The Swedish company wants to produce up to 1 million car batteries a year, for electric vehicles, employing up to 3.000 people. The company itself will invest 4,5 BN Euros (4.88 BN US$). https://buff.ly/494IMrO
Enpal Secures 1.1 BN €
Enpal secures € 1.1 billion in refinancing commitments for German residential solar and heat pump securitizations https://buff.ly/492MKRD
Sunfire Raises 500 M € in Funding
Sunfire, a Dresden, Germany-based electrolyzer manufacturer, secured more than EUR 500m in funding. https://buff.ly/4a4vlti
From another source: Sunfire raises over €500M to boost European’s green hydrogen economy https://buff.ly/49749Zt
200 M Euros for Frankfurt-based ENVIRIA
Germany’s Leading Commercial and Industrial Solar Company — Secures Capital Commitment of Over USD 200 Million From BlackRock https://buff.ly/4cvaKzO
From another source: German renewables firm Enviria secures $200 mln Blackrock capital commitment https://buff.ly/4cu4rwE
Good News and Bad News for Solaris Bank
Solaris Raises €96M in Funding https://buff.ly/3ITlVVi The funding was led by Softbank International and other existing investors. The funding is for the expansion of the ADAC credit card program. ADAC is Germany’s and Europe’s largest automobile association, with more than 21 M members, best known for their yellow cars providing roadside assistance.
Bafin fines German fintech Solaris SE €6.5M for late filing systematic anti money laundry reports https://buff.ly/3Pwtm8K Direkt to BaFin: https://buff.ly/3Vyyugp
Austrian AI Startup Magic Gets Famous Investor on Board
Andrej Karpathy was a founding member of OpenAI, and head of AI for Tesla. He left there to focus on other projects. One of them seems to invest on the Vienna-based AI startup Magic https://buff.ly/3PwYntq
Bitpanda Set Up their Own VC Fund
Bitpanda announce that they have set up their own first VC fund together with other investors totalling 50 M Euros, to invest in 250k — 2M in startups in the digital assets, blockchain and crypto space: https://buff.ly/49V8j85
Bitpanda also liquidates a subsidiary: BP 22 Pfandleihe GmbH, their pawn shop: https://buff.ly/3veWGdd
Founders are Feeling the Stress
49% of founders say they’re considering quitting their startup this year https://buff.ly/4aq1UBG Startup founders tell Sifted they’re “overworked”, “exhausted” and “broken”
Housekeeping & Time to Brag — Celebrating one Million Downloads in a Quarter!
Starturpad.io has reached a massive milestone. We have surpassed more than 1 Million confirmed downloads in Q4 2023. Thank you to all of you who made this possible! Our hosting service changed their setup and enabled us to look up all the statistics and it turned out we had 1.071.970 downloads in October, November, and December last year. It really feels AMAZING!
Looking to Cooperate With Us?
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Ecosystem
Global
- As mega-rounds become rarer, energy startups are powering up https://buff.ly/4as00Aj
- Startups Are Still Buying Fewer Startups https://buff.ly/3PyK9b8
Europe
- UnternehmerTUM tops ranking of Europe’s leading startup hubs https://buff.ly/43sSB1w Learn more in our interview:
- Top 100 Next Unicorns: 14 “Soonicorns” on the list are from Germany https://buff.ly/3x7tKUW 22 from the UK, and France has 21 on the list, Austria only one. In total 16 countries had entries on the list. Switzerland was not mentioned.
From Germany, those startups are:
- Amboss
- Anydesk
- Auxmoney
- Avi medical
- Camunda
- Distribusion
- Localyze
- Moonfare
- Oviva
- PriceFX
- Spryker
- Uberall
- Xentral — Look at our interview with them recently: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/inside-xentral-unveiling-startup-success-with-sequoia-and-tiger-global-5fc44b944ff7
- Urban Sports Club
- And from Austria: Planradar
- No entry on the list for Switzerland, but they are usually more BioTech oriented, and startups are not included in the list.
Germany
- Good news on the economic indicators: ifo Business Climate Index rises (March 2024): Sentiment in German companies has improved noticeably https://buff.ly/4csZlAz
- Are you curious about what kind of startups the investors are funding in Berlin? According to a Deal Room analysis, startups are receiving investments, from largest to smallest: Energy, Fintech, Food, Health, Real Estate, Marketing, Travel and more … https://buff.ly/4a433iy
- Invest subsidy: German Ministry of Economic Affairs cuts support for Business Angels https://buff.ly/3PxjSKA
- Deputy Chancellor Robert Habeck dissolves Startup Advisory Board, sparking criticism from the opposition https://buff.ly/3TvruhD
Hubs
Here we want to highlight some hidden gems and cities of general startup interest.
Frankfurt — Rhein/Main
- Frankfurt wins bid to host EU’s new Anti Money Laundry Authority https://buff.ly/3OV9X0P
- Emma Matratzen grows in 2023 to 962 M Euro revenue (+10%) https://buff.ly/3VpFY5q you can learn more about the company in our interview here:
https://medium.com/startuprad-io/meet-emma-they-are-on-their-way-to-becoming-the-worlds-no-1-sleep-brand-5fcda0d1a109
Heidelberg
- Biotech Affimed (NASDAQ listed) is on the hunt for a new CEO to navigate through crucial times. With significant clinical trial data on the horizon, the recent departure of the CEO and a 1:10 stock split, the journey ahead is filled with anticipation. Stay tuned for updates: https://buff.ly/3x6c3oV
Cologne
- DeepL to open first U.S. office as adoption in the market soars https://buff.ly/49vV1ie
- NX Technologies, a Cologne, Germany-based fintech company that operates the automotive payment management platform bezahl.de, raised €22M in Series B funding. https://buff.ly/3TOpXoc
Stuttgart
- Assemblio, a Stuttgart, Germany-based provider of a software platform to plan assembly and generate automatic assistance systems for production, raised €2.1M in Seed funding. https://buff.ly/3Twabgs
Ostfildern (Just 10 KM South-East of Stuttgart)
- ProteinDistillery, an Ostfildern, Germany-based plant-based food company, raised €15M in Seed funding. https://buff.ly/4cpI9fn
Hamburg
- Hamburg’s Novocarbo start-up raises EUR 25 million https://buff.ly/3VnFdd8
- Heyflow Raises $16M in Series A Funding https://buff.ly/3TsQVAG
Osnabrück
- NeoTaste secures €21M in funding for restaurant discovery https://buff.ly/3VuGjDT
Essen
- Greenlyte Carbon Technologies, an Essen, Germany-based direct air capture startup, raised €10.5M in Pre-Series A funding. https://buff.ly/3vpr9oY
Austria
- Fretello, the startup, undergoes restructuring with Berthold Baurek-Karlic stepping in as the new Interim CEO https://buff.ly/3TKHuOk
- Keep in mind the news from Magic and Bitpanda from before.
- Zizoo: Vienna-based yacht scaleup rescued through acquisition after bankruptcy https://buff.ly/499WDgx
- Solas Capital commits up to 30 million euros in energy projects for the scale-up neeom https://buff.ly/43sIiue
Switzerland
- Edtech Avallain acquires AI toolset TeacherMatic https://buff.ly/4cmXQ6O
- Biotech food startup Cultivated Biosciences bags €4.6M to improve dairy-free products: Here’s how — BeBeez International https://buff.ly/3INZ2mh
- Aktiia, a Neuchâtel, Switzerland-based HealthTech company providing optical blood pressure monitoring devices, raised USD 30M in funding https://buff.ly/3IQ8MMW
- Validation Cloud, a Zug, Switzerland-based Web3 technology company, raised $5.8M in Inaugural funding https://buff.ly/3VBk0wa
- Argá Medtech, a Lausanne, Switzerland-based company providing a cardiac ablation system for treating cardiac arrhythmias, raised €54M in Series B funding https://buff.ly/3IOXfxf
- Dutch revenue-based financing startup Levenue acquires Zurich fintech MidFunder https://buff.ly/3x3xqXD
General News / Tech News / Companies News Section
New Funds, in case you are looking for money (also only a selection):
- Verdane, an Oslo, Norway-based growth investment firm, closed Verdane Edda III, at €1.1 Billion. Verdane will continue to invest thematically in European companies that help digitize and decarbonize the economy https://buff.ly/48wJKNm
- Berlin-based World Fund will provide €300M to climate tech founders over the next few years, making its fund the largest climate-dedicated pool the continent has seen yet. https://buff.ly/3Tv0ezP
- Alpine Space Ventures secured a whopping €10 million from NATO’s Innovation Fund, adding to their impressive €60 million from EIF last year. Learn more: https://buff.ly/3PABNQC
- Berlin’s Web3 First Time Fund secures over €10 million in Second-Closing: A strong signal for the new content-driven VC generation https://buff.ly/3IOLWoT
Fintech News
- Payment card: Trade Republic issues cease and desist declaration and adjusts advertising, after being sued by a consumer advocate group (Verbraucherzentrale) https://buff.ly/4a9g4az
- WeFox CEO Julian Teicke steps down from his position https://buff.ly/496JMvp
- Credit platform Smava — known for their annoying TV commercials — is looking for a buyer: https://buff.ly/3IRzFA9
General News
- Not really about Germany here, but still concerning: Every time OpenAI cuts a check for training data, an unlaunched competitive startup dies. https://buff.ly/42XSM4M
- Zendesk to acquire Berlin’s Ultimate for AI customer support https://buff.ly/3Vj5YPX
- Mahana Therapeutics acquires Berlin’s Cara Care, expanding digital treatment for chronic conditions https://buff.ly/3TDkalw
- Defence tech is all the rage but investors have their guard up https://buff.ly/4ak885Y
- Berlin-based powerdata acquired by CONUTI, a portfolio company of NORD Holding https://buff.ly/43sE1Hs
- Former employees accuse Enpal of missing payments — one even takes legal action https://buff.ly/4ctr5VD
Schumpeters Schöpferische Zerstörung ⇒ Creative Destruction Still Ongoing:
- Not really an insolvency, but still bad news and related to the insolvency from Sono Motors: Prosecutors investigate Sono Motors’ solar car pioneers over suspicion of deceiving state grants https://buff.ly/3TXxFNf
- Finabro had to file for insolvency. No investor could be found and so the company will be liquidated https://buff.ly/3vpqVhw
- ExpressSteuer: All employees now forced to leave — Founder resurfaces for the first time since filing for insolvency https://buff.ly/3TRz5sv
- Thrasio started out as an Amazon shop aggregator, but now has to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/3Tsl1nF
- Twinner, an automotive startup from Halle raised 92 M € in total, but has to shut down: https://buff.ly/3IV0nrn
- Berlin based online advertising company Plista surprised all by shutting down. employees have been called in an all hands meeting and told the company will shut down immediately: https://buff.ly/3PALMW6
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. We included only selected fundraisings above 5 million Euros or USD. This month, there were so many announcements that we could not include ALL funds raised. We will only bring you highlights here.
- Tubulis, a Munich, Germany-based oncology company, closed an upsized €128m ($138.8m) Series B2 financing https://buff.ly/3IMMCuO
- Dryad Networks, a Berlin, Germany-based ultra-early wildfire detection technology company, announced the initial closing of €5.6M in convertible financing, with a total round size of up to €10M https://buff.ly/3PxI5k2
- Daato secures 5 million euros in seed financing round https://buff.ly/490UK5K
- Razor Group, a Berlin, Germany-based technology-driven e-commerce company, raised an undisclosed amount in Series D funding. https://buff.ly/4arGzIe
We will be back on April 25th with the next news episode and the next regular episode will go live next week.
Happy Easter to all of you who celebrate it! Happy Eid, only a few days left.
#ThatsAWrap
Stay Ahead of the Curve
- Why the VC secondaries market is booming: Most of Europe’s biggest VCs are looking into portfolio sales, say secondaries experts https://buff.ly/42TrlZV
- Return-to-Office Mandates: How to Lose Your Best Performers | Brian Elliott https://buff.ly/4apsyux
- Investing in Germany and France in 2023: what happened beyond AI? — Iris capital https://www.iris.vc/articles/investing-in-germany-and-france-in-2023-what-happened-beyond-ai
- The Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Fintech https://buff.ly/496MeC7
- Series B rounds are getting bigger — but harder to raise, according to new data https://buff.ly/4aq21x3
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The Hosts
The news are co-hosted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. And Christian “Chris’ ‘ Fahrenbach, co-founder Startuprad.io, freelance reporter, lecturer, author and blogger . Reach out to them:
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