This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — May 2022
Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups in May 2022 by Startuprad.io — in a news recording with Christian Fahrenbach from New York City and Jörn Menninger, from Frankfurt. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in radio syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio, and our partner IBGR.Network.
We recorded this news episode on Thursday, May 19th, 2022. The next news will go live on June 30th. Keep in mind, that we will have a summer break afterward and be back for you with another news episode on Labor Day September 5th, 2022. In this episode, we will wrap up July, and August.
As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode in June.
We will also slightly change our publication schedule in the summer — as we have done before. For July and August, we will only post a new episode every other week (July 14th, 28th, and August 11th, as well as August 25th). We will be back to normal at the start of September.
We also partner with Artic 15 you get a discount with our code in the show notes at www.medium.com/startuprad-io
- Artic15 startupradio
Our Highlights:
We can proudly announce unicorn No 29 Taxfix, No 30 Onefootball and on the downside, RaisinDS loses its unicorn valuation. Really bad news for car sharing: BMW and Mercedes pull the plug on their joint venture. Our 2018 guest ProGlove is sold in a 500 m € deal (525 m US$) and Orderbird is sold in a 100 m € deal (105 m US$). Other unicorns are currently on the hunt for new capital and feel the heat of the current funding environment.
Let’s talk startups:
Tune in to our Internet Radio Station here:
Subscribe Here
Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here:
Our Enablers
Invest-in-Hessen
This show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Find it all here:
Startupraven.com
The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here:
The Video Interview is set to go live on May 26th, 2022
The Audio Interview
You can subscribe to our podcasts here.
Top News
New Unicorn #29 Taxfix
We just wrapped up the April news with two new unicorns and soon there was the next one: Tax app Taxfix becomes a unicorn with a 220 m US$ funding round https://buff.ly/3vpftiW
Related:
Taxes may be boring, but they are important. So Taxfix becomes yet another unicorn, but the first one in Germany dealing with tax filings https://buff.ly/3LtsptL
New Unicorn #30 Onefootball
Berlin-based Onefootball becomes Germany’s 30th unicorn with their most recent 300 m US$ fundraising https://buff.ly/3KyKG7N
Back at 29 Unicorns with RaisinDS
Germany has lost a unicorn. Not due to insolvency or takeover, but due to a down-round, a funding round where the valuation of the overall startup went down.
Here is the article: Berlin-based fintech Raisin loses unicorn valuation due to slowing growth https://buff.ly/3wrM4FG Don’t worry, this is only hurtful for the feelings. They can bounce back anytime.
This is a Pretty Bad Sign For Carsharing in Germany
BMW and Mercedes pull the plug and sell their 2018 merged car-sharing joint venture called “Share Now” to competitor Stellantis. How can one make car-sharing profitable, if two of the most experienced car producers can not? https://buff.ly/3KJ2vRu
ProGlove Sold for 500 m Euros And Looking to Be the Next Team Viewer
Our 2018 Guest ProGlove Makes ”Monster Exit” at around 500 m € — Plans to Be The Next Teamviewer https://buff.ly/3sJTGB2 by Startuprad.io
Related
Valued in the neighborhood of €500 million, Munich’s ProGlove acquired by Nordic Capital https://buff.ly/3LyaXU5
Orderbird Sold in 100 m Euro Deal
100 m Euro deal: Hospitality startup Orderbird completely sold to new Italian owners https://buff.ly/3FO00wJ
Some Capital Seeking Unicorns Already Feel the New Market Realities
According to a recent press report the current fundraising of Trade Republic, N26, and Gorillas is not going as planned. There is fear of “Flat Rounds” without a higher valuation https://buff.ly/3FOG7FH
Housekeeping & Time to Brag
You may have noticed our partnership with DEEP Ecosystems? They are an analytics company tracking startup activity in more than 120 cities across Europe. Normally you need to be a member to get your hands on the data. Now you can get quarterly updates exclusively with us. We call it “The Pulse of European Startup Ecosystem” and it will also be available as a new sub-podcast. The release of the next update and the sub-podcast will be in calendar week 27 (the week starts June 6th, which is a public holiday in Germany).
Ecosystem
- After a red-hot 2021, global venture investment cools in Q1’22, even as the global unicorn club reaches a new high https://buff.ly/39e8vVp
- Funding To EU Startups Slows Sharply After Brisk Start In 2022 on Crunchbase. This is a bit at odds with our data from the DEEP Ecosystem, but we will discuss it during their podcast recording https://buff.ly/3sqzi7N
- Have a look at our next episode with DEEP Ecosystems coming out on June 7th
- Berlin-based and Berlin (City) owned IBB Ventures invested in 2021 15 m Euros in Berlin-based startups, creating 75 m Euros in private investments in turn https://buff.ly/3kpgO30
- Demand for electric rental cars by Germans on vacation or business is pretty low. According to a car rental platform from Germany, their electrically powered car bookings only make up 0,22% of their volume https://buff.ly/3LEcVDg
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. This time Chris is channeling his inner geography teacher and has his own order :-)
Frankfurt
- Germany’s Banking Giant Commerzbank Has Submitted Application For Crypto License https://buff.ly/3MqiB3W
- Frankfurter-based #AI startup Read-O passes after Germany version of Shark Tank on investment of billionaire and shark tank judge Carsten Maschmeyer
- You can learn more about them in this interview: Meet Read-O, the Spotify for Books https://buff.ly/3OAKs3l
- Startups in the Larger Rhine-Main Area Raised More than 300 mn € in 2021 via RhineMain.vc https://buff.ly/3MyJfHX
Hamburg
- We have talked about the opportunities the new German law allows for remotely driven cars. Now Hamburg-based Vay wants to start with them still in 2022 in Hamburg-Bergedorf https://buff.ly/3FUZVaz
- Here is the podcast on the legal framework https://buff.ly/3wtjfqQ
- Dutch RV rental startup Campspace buys Hamburg based competitor Pop-Up Camps https://buff.ly/3KmzlYt
- RABOT CHARGE is a startup, which allows charging electric cars at the best time with the lowest possible price. They raise more than 1 m € Pre-Seed funding https://buff.ly/3MN3xNM
Munich
- Private-Equity fund Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL), BMW i Ventures, and Telekom Innovation Pool (TIP) invest 130m US$ in Munich-based startup Kinexon https://buff.ly/3vO4IWz
- US-based investor Coatue, entrepreneur Lip-Bu Tan and existing investors invest 30 m US$ in Munich-based Twaice. The company offers software to analyze batteries https://buff.ly/3vj7zI3
- 200 founders and 48 business angels join forces to raise 160 m € venture capital fund 10x, headquartered in Munich for early-stage investments https://buff.ly/3kHdy3j
- 202 million Euro: Final Closing for Cipio Partners Fund VIII — Munich Startup https://buff.ly/38uIGR2
- Earlybird VC closes €350M fund for Western European startups — TechCrunch https://buff.ly/3wnO815
- Munich-based Rencore raises EUR 3,75 m Serie-A funding for their offering in the Cloud Collaboration Governance market https://buff.ly/3wxs2Za
- The state of Bavaria invests EUR 2 m in TUM Venture Labs — Munich Startup https://buff.ly/39xekNO
Dresden
- Exit for Dresden-based HiperScan (a Fraunhofer spin-off) to pharma company Fagron https://buff.ly/3knlarq
Cologne
- Cologne-based ai startup Automaited raises 4 m Euros venture capital for its automation of copy & paste jobs https://buff.ly/3MHXoCP
Landshut
- Molten Ventures, Mubadala Capital and existing investors Earlybird Venture Capital, Senovo and New Forge 40 m Euro in HiveMQ a startup from Landshut, Germany helping to connect IoT devices to the cloud https://buff.ly/3Fx6wHL
Austria
- Early Bitpanda Investor Speedinvest Defies Tech Jitters With New Seed Fund https://buff.ly/3yKVKfR
- German neobroker Scalable Capital enters the Austrian market, with a large portfolio of tradable assets including cryptos https://buff.ly/3vZ3wRE and therefore directly attacking Bitpanda on their home turf
- Neoh an Austrian household name for chocolate bars, also a scale-up raises one million euros in revenue-based financing from Tauros Capital https://buff.ly/3lF8Mnz
- Storyblok is a Linz, Austria-based software scale-up. They just raised EUR 43 m for their headless CMS https://buff.ly/3lsb09m
Switzerland
- Swiss Medtech startup Bionter secures $3 million seed financing https://buff.ly/3y2WXyS
- Switzerland’s leading domestic provider of coworking spaces Westhive: raises 6 m CHF Venture Capital https://buff.ly/3w4ncSF
General News / Tech News / Companies News Section
Social Freezing and Family Planning are now Startup topics …
- Social freezing startup Oviavo pivots and raises 4 m Euros venture capital https://buff.ly/3vqC7aH
- Apryl bags €4.1 million to bring pioneering fertility benefits platform to the workplace https://buff.ly/3koQIxb
Fintechs
- Former factoring startup Finiata is bought by polish shareholder Manta Ray Ventures. Finata started out as a factoring startup but increasingly turned itself into a credit provider in Poland for SMEs reports Deutsche-Startups exclusively https://buff.ly/3FbVp7f a little hint here: Have a look at our interview with Billie. They are also pivoting to BNPL from factoring. It seems factoring is not the place to be for fintechs right now
- PE Firm Moonfare Picks Singapore Over Hong Kong as Asia Hub https://buff.ly/3M54D7U
Maybe the last news on Zooplus for some time
- Zooplus an online pet supplies store has been taken private in a furious battle of private equity houses (we talked about it in our news). Now, after the buyout, the founder leaves the company https://buff.ly/3vCnG3m
- Zooplus will soon be taken private. Now they publish their 2021 results headline revenue +16% to 2,09 bn Euros https://buff.ly/3OWJnmH
Totally Not The Last News of Wirecard
- German court rules 2017 and 2018 balance sheets of Wirecard are void, so the liquidator can demand the payback of the years’ dividends https://buff.ly/3LQ1x7o
A very very few selected VC fundings
- Bertelsmann is already a shareholder of the app economy company builder Applike Group, in which it invests additional 100 m Euro to develop digital business models https://buff.ly/3KLagX9
- Proptech Gropyus raises additional 40 m Euros to keep developing smart and sustainable solutions for living https://buff.ly/3MbGfRO
- Deepset raises $14M to help companies build NLP apps https://buff.ly/3Mxgyem
- Noteworthy for other reasons than the total investment: German football player Mario Gomez invests in food startup of former cook for Germany’s national football team Organic Garden AG producing in a circular economy approach clean meat and vegetables https://buff.ly/3yGotCA
Other News
- Reportedly Lieferando co-founder and takeaway COO Jörg Gerbig is on leave while an internal investigation of potential misconduct is investigated by a law firm https://buff.ly/3w3EiAo
- Fast delivery startup Flink buys french competitor Cajoo and wins with Carrefour a new partner https://buff.ly/3FUI8QG
- ArtNight, offers „Create-It-Yourself“ events and now raised new funding. It seems investors are going for offline events again https://buff.ly/3KfJOVi
- Amazon aggregator Razor Group set to acquire rival Factory14 in multi-million dollar deal as European market shows signs of consolidation https://buff.ly/3kbmNs8
- Do you know Bastian Lehmann? He is one of the founders of Postmates, which exited to Uber. Now he is starting in fintech https://buff.ly/3vOu1bb
- The legal pressure on one of Germany’s most influential entrepreneurs and influencers Fynn Kliemann increases as suspicious grows that made false statements with the corona masks his company sold https://buff.ly/3w0N435
- Berlin and Brussels-based startup Accountable has banked a total of €10 million for its tax app https://buff.ly/3w1ruvx
- Quick Commerce: No Longer An Easy Way To Make A Fast Buck? Asks Forbes and covers — amongst others — Delivery Hero and Gorillas https://buff.ly/3vYQTGa
- Instafreight had to publish 2020 numbers. Their revenue grew in 2020 by 69% to 32,1 m €. The losses increased slightly from 5.1 to 7.2 m € https://buff.ly/37xR2ab
Stay ahead of the curve
- How’s That Unicorn Valuation Working Out for Your Employees? A Surprising Story in Three Acts — Battery Ventures https://buff.ly/3LJnDbR
- A Minsky moment for venture capital? https://buff.ly/3seK0hL
- Interesting analysis, the unicorns of 2021 could be the zombies of 2022 (in German) https://buff.ly/3w3crl3
- A partner at Sequoia Capital shares the types of startups it’s eyeing as the VC firms expands into Europe https://buff.ly/3FxZFhm
- A flotilla of startups wants to streamline global supply chains — The Economist https://buff.ly/3w0QItN
Back on June 30th with the next news.
Definition of a Minsky Moment: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/minskymoment.asp
