Discover how AI is transforming the financial services industry!
In this episode, fintech futurist Paolo Sironi, IBM’s Global Research Leader for Banking and Capital Markets, joins Startuprad.io to unpack how artificial intelligence is evolving from back-end automation to full-scale transformation—reshaping retail, SME, and investment banking.

🔥 What You’ll Learn

• The AI-Powered Bank: From chatbot to C-suite—how AI is redefining customer service, credit, and even organizational structure.

• SME Banking Disrupted: Tailored, data-driven banking solutions are finally reaching small and medium-sized enterprises.

• Wealth Management, Reimagined: Robo-advisors, personalized portfolios, and smarter investment strategies.

• Embedded Finance Explodes: Banking is now built into the apps you use every day.

• The Regulatory Tightrope: How ethical, transparent, and explainable AI is shaping the future of financial compliance.

👉 Download the banking and fintech strategy 2025 cheat sheet here: https://docsend.com/view/qywh6bwwuapnjkre

🎙️ Guest: Paolo Sironi — Fintech author, IBM researcher, and host of The Banker's Bookshelf
🎙️ Host: Jörn "Joe" Menninger — Founder & Editor, Startuprad.io
🧠 Based on: IBM 2025 Banking & Capital Markets Outlook

💬 Key Quotes

• “Every banker must be an AI risk manager.” – Paolo Sironi

• “AI is not about the best tech—it’s about using it best.”

• “Transparency builds trust.”

⏱️ Timestamps

• 00:00 – Intro

• 02:54 – The Evolution of AI in Banking

• 11:40 – AI’s Impact on Banking Efficiency

• 13:56 – AI and SME Banking

• 18:54 – Capital Markets Transformation

• 23:43 – Risk Management & Regulation

• 28:54 – Digital Currencies & CBDCs

• 30:59 – Embedded Finance Trends

• 35:45 – Wealth Management with AI

• 37:31 – Transparency & Ethics

• 40:04 – Outro

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📢 Call to Action

• ✅ Subscribe to Startuprad.io so you never miss insights from global fintech leaders.

• ⭐️ Found it valuable? Please leave us a 5-star review—it really helps!

• 📣 Share this episode on LinkedIn or Twitter using the hashtag #AIinBanking2025

• 🌐 Visit startuprad.io for more deep dives into fintech, AI, and startup innovation.

🧭 Also Check Out

• 🎙️ Fintech Review 2024: Navigating Trends and Innovations in Startups

• 🎙️ Fintech and Banking 2023 and Beyond | Strategy

Welcome to Startuprad.io™, your go-to source for news and insights into the world of German, Austrian, and Swiss tech innovation. Join us for conversations with industry leaders, game-changing entrepreneurs, and influential investors. Our guests include Nobel Laureates, Emmy Award winners, and Forbes list luminaries. We focus on startups around Series A funding, ensuring you get exclusive insights into the rising stars of tomorrow. Tune in for inspiring discussions that drive innovation and growth. Join us at Startuprad.io, where every conversation sparks new possibilities.

Episode Summary: In this episode, host Jörn "Joe" Menninger interviews Annelise Osborne, Chief Business Officer at Kadena. Annelise discusses her journey from commercial real estate to blockchain, highlighting the inefficiencies in traditional finance and the transformative potential of blockchain technology. She covers her book on blockchain and cryptocurrencies, the benefits of stablecoins, and the regulatory challenges facing Fintech in the US. Learn about the importance of marketing, strategic partnerships, and adaptability for startups. This episode emphasizes the need for clear regulations to foster financial innovation and the vital role of networking in the Fintech space.

Key Points:

1. Marketing for Startups

2. Blockchain Technology Potential

3. Traditional Finance Inefficiencies

4. Stablecoins and Cross-Border Transactions

5. Regulation and Compliance Challenges

6. Strategic Partnerships and Networking

7. Economic Downturns and Resilience

Notable Quotes:

• "So if I was a building owner, I could borrow cheaper, and I could borrow more money because of these bonds that took the risk off the bank's balance sheet." — Annelise Osborne [00:02:46]

• "When I learned about blockchain, to me, it was just an eye opener of how much more efficient it could make finance." — Annelise Osborne [00:03:53]

• "Marketing is different, takes different channels now, and it's more direct with all the digital world that we have, that we didn't have, you know, 15, 20 years ago, especially with social media." — Annelise Osborne [00:08:32]

• "Globally, ICOs raised billions because people wanted to find ways to invest their money." — Annelise Osborne [00:13:44]

• "Regulation is really around to protect investors. But where do you find, you know, with innovation and how do you find a way to regulate innovation when there's more ideas coming out with this technology?" — Annelise Osborne [00:15:16]

Leave a review, share the episode, and don't forget to subscribe for more insights into the world of startups and tech innovation!

Links:

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In this episode of Startuprad.io, we dive into the world of deep tech investments with Max Narr, General Partner at Blue Forest Ventures. Max shares their strategy for bridging the gap between scientific innovation and investment by translating complex ideas into compelling equity stories. Discover how Blue Forest Ventures leverages alternative data sources and AI to evaluate markets, focusing on impactful solutions and diverse founding teams. Learn about their investment criteria, recent innovations, and commitment to combining financial success with positive impact. Join host Jörn “Joe” Menninger for an inspiring discussion on the future of deep tech investments and the unique ecosystem Blue Forest Ventures is fostering from their hub in Berlin.

Tune in to explore:

- Challenges and solutions in translating scientific ideas into compelling equity stories.

- The impact of avoiding heavily regulated fields like drug development on their investment strategy.

- The use of alternative data sources for evaluating potential investments.

- Balancing economic benefits with impactful deep-tech solutions.

- The significance of heterogeneous founding teams.

- Importance of technological readiness levels in attracting investments.

- Exciting advancements in data transmission and storage technologies.

- Integrating impact measurement into investment decisions.

- Staying informed on new deep tech innovations.

- Broader implications of innovations in global agriculture and sustainability.

🎧 Join us for this episode and learn how Blue Forest Ventures is transforming scientific research into marketable solutions.

📌 Learn more and support us:

- Passionfroot Storefront: [Link](https://linktr.ee/startuprad_io)

- Startuprad.io's Blog: [Link](https://medium.com/startuprad-io)

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🔗 Guest Information:

Max Narr, General Partner at Blue Forest Ventures

[LinkedIn Profile](https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-narr/)

📌 About Blue Forest Ventures:

Blue Forest Ventures is a Berlin-based VC fund focusing on early-stage deep tech companies transitioning from academic research to commercial applications. Avoiding heavily regulated fields, they aim for impactful solutions with tangible economic benefits. With ticket sizes between 500,000 € and 1,000,000 €, they leverage data-driven methodologies to predict market trends and support innovative deep tech startups.

Listen now and discover the future of deep tech investments with Blue Forest Ventures! 🎙️

Welcome to the September 2024 Startup News from Startuprad.io! This episode covers the most impactful developments in the startup scenes of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Stay informed about key trends, funding rounds, and industry shifts that could influence your business or investment decisions.

Key Highlights:

1. Intel Pauses €30B Chip Factory in Germany

   Intel has halted its €30 billion chip manufacturing project in Magdeburg due to cost-cutting measures and financial challenges, despite a €10 billion investment from the German government. We discuss the implications for Europe's tech industry and startups.

2. Magic AI Secures $320M Led by Eric Schmidt

   Vienna-based Magic AI has raised $320 million, led by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, elevating its valuation to $1.5 billion. Magic aims to revolutionize coding with its AI-powered developer assistance software. Learn how this could impact the European AI landscape.

3. Flink Raises $150M for Quick Commerce Expansion

   Berlin's Flink secured $150 million to expand its quick-commerce services in Germany and the Netherlands. Despite a volatile market and a valuation just below $1 billion, Flink aims for profitability and growth. We explore their strategy.

4. Northvolt Faces Financial Challenges

   Swedish battery maker Northvolt is experiencing financial difficulties linked to troubled partnerships with automotive giants like Volkswagen. We examine how this affects Europe's green energy goals and the startup ecosystem.

5. Germany's WIN Initiative Unveiled

   Germany introduces the WIN Initiative to inject €12 billion into its startup ecosystem by 2030. Backed by major players like Deutsche Bank and Allianz, the initiative aims to improve access to capital and foster innovation.

6. DePoly Tops Swiss Startup Awards

   Swiss startup DePoly wins the 2024 Top 100 Swiss Startup Awards for its innovative plastic recycling technology. We highlight what sets DePoly apart in the Swiss innovation scene.

Additional Insights:

• Austria's Hydrogen Valley: Austria plans to invest €578 million to build Europe's first Hydrogen Valley, aiming to produce over 10,000 tons of green hydrogen annually by 2030.

• Berlin's Startup Revival: Mayor Kai Wegner outlines plans to rejuvenate Berlin's startup scene, targeting a top-three position in Europe.

• Major VC Fundraisings:

  • Insight Partners nears a $10 billion fund closure.

  • Atomico raises €1.12 billion to invest in Europe's top founders.

  • Headline secures an $865 million growth fund focused on European startups.

  • Redalpine launches its largest fund yet at $200 million.

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• Original Blog Post: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/categories/startup-news

Tune in to the latest episode of our podcast, where we discuss the top news and trends in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) startups. From European unicorns to emerging tech companies, we cover it all in this monthly show. Don't miss out on the latest tech news and startup updates!

Our Highlights:

Joe already did a 2023 review focused on valuations and investments. All publications more or less agreed that 2023 was hopefully rock bottom for startups, their valuation, funding and founding of new ones and it should get better. Thumbs pressed for that (as is German custom). Our former guest Finn raises 100 M€, unicorn 1Komma5 Grad is looking for 100 M€, Unzer loss amounts to 400 M€ and Everphone raises 270 M€. Despite the dire situation, almost 2,500 new startups were founded in Germany. Also one should take notice of Karlsruhe, a city with a world-class technical university, that is home to INTERATEC which raised 118 M€ for efuels. Please, take a moment and match again all the bad news we have gathered here and weigh it against entrepreneurs sticking their heads out and even raising hundreds of millions from investors. Congratulations to those brave ones! Let's talk startups:

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#startupradio #startupnews #startuppodcastgermany #technews #technologynews #techpodcast

Welcome to Startup News Roundup: December 2024 Highlights & Key Insights, where we dive deep into the vibrant world of startups across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This episode delivers a comprehensive look at the latest developments, highlighting the most impactful stories, trends, and investments shaping the startup landscape.

What’s Inside?

• Top News Stories:

  • Black Forest Lab's Billion-Dollar Valuation: Discover how this Karlsruhe-based AI innovator is revolutionizing the global tech scene.

  • Upvest’s €100 Million Investment Round: Learn why this fintech powerhouse is Germany's largest funding success story in 2024.

  • Wefox's Resilience: Insights into the Berlin-based insurtech’s survival strategy amid challenging market conditions.

• Emerging Trends:

  • The rise of green tech startups with groundbreaking solutions like carbon-to-bioplastics conversion.

  • The continued growth of AI-driven enterprises and their pivotal role in transforming Europe’s economic landscape.

  • Pan-European startup initiatives fostering cross-border innovation and regulatory harmonization.

• Funding and Investments:

  • A total of €2.5 billion in new funding raised across the region this month, including major contributions from Northvolt and focused energy startups.

  • New VC funds worth over €1 billion, setting the stage for continued innovation in 2025.

• Regional Spotlights:

  • Germany: Success stories from Berlin, Munich, and Frankfurt startups paving the way for the next unicorns.

  • Austria: Rising stars like Wood_Space securing 8-figure investments for sustainable building solutions.

  • Switzerland: Groundbreaking biotech partnerships, including a $300 million agreement by Cimeio.

Exclusive Insights:

Hear from Jörn “Joe” Menninger and Christian “Chris” Fahrenbach as they analyze the biggest stories and provide expert commentary on what these developments mean for entrepreneurs, investors, and the broader startup ecosystem.

Resources:

• Original Blog Post

• Work With Us

• Subscribe to Startuprad.io

• Leave Feedback

Call to Action:

Stay ahead of the curve by subscribing to Startup News Roundup on Spotify and your favorite podcast platforms. Don’t forget to leave a review and share your thoughts on social media to join the conversation!

Welcome to Startuprad.io's 10th Annual Fintech Review, where we dive deep into the trends, challenges, and opportunities defining fintech in 2024. In this special milestone episode, we reflect on a decade of fintech evolution while offering fresh insights into the latest developments driving the industry forward.

This year, fintech faces a dynamic landscape marked by economic pressures, groundbreaking AI advancements, and increasing regulatory demands. Our expert panel shares their predictions, strategies, and lessons learned to help fintech startups, investors, and enthusiasts navigate the challenges and opportunities ahead.

🌟 What’s Inside This Episode?

1. Biggest Challenges for Fintech in 2024:

   • How high-interest rates and reduced funding opportunities are reshaping the industry.

   • Strategies for operational streamlining and achieving profitability amidst tightening investor demands.

2. AI and Machine Learning Revolutionizing Finance:

   • AI-powered chatbots and predictive engagement redefining customer experiences.

   • Insights into generative AI's role in credit scoring and operational efficiency.

3. The Regulatory Landscape:

   • Understanding the impact of DORA and the European AI Act on fintech innovation.

   • Why compliance is now a driver for creativity and growth in financial technology.

4. Competing with Traditional Financial Institutions:

   • SME banking as a significant untapped market for fintechs.

   • How collaborations between startups and banks are reshaping the competitive landscape.

5. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Blockchain:

   • Tokenization of illiquid assets and its potential to transform traditional financial models.

   • Real-world applications of blockchain in creating transparency and reducing costs.

🎙️ Meet Our Expert Guests:

• Paolo Sironi: Global Research Leader and Banking Expert
  "Regulation can drive innovation when transparency and accountability are prioritized."

• Frank Schwab: Co-Founder of Fintech Forum
  "Simplicity is a competitive edge in a world of overengineering."

• Luca Frignani: CEO of Exaloan
  "AI's predictive engagement is reshaping customer relationships and driving operational efficiency."

Ressources:

• Original Blog Post: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/fintech-review-2024-navigating-trends-and-innovations-in-startups

• Work with Us: https://www.startuprad.io/become-a-partner

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Dear Esteemed Listeners,

As the holiday season wraps us in its joyful embrace, I wanted to take a moment to extend my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you who has been a part of our incredible journey here at Startuprad.io.

This time of year is not just about the twinkling lights and merry melodies; it's about cherishing connections, celebrating accomplishments, and embracing the spirit of togetherness. Your unwavering support, insightful feedback, and enthusiasm have been the driving force behind our podcast's success.

As we reflect on the year gone by, I'm filled with immense gratitude for the enriching conversations, the wisdom shared by our remarkable guests, and the vibrant community that surrounds us. Your engagement fuels our passion to continue bringing you thought-provoking insights and valuable content.

May this season fill your hearts with warmth, your homes with laughter, and your lives with endless joy. Here's to a new year brimming with innovation, inspiration, and boundless opportunities.

Thank you for being an integral part of our journey. From the entire team at Startuprad.io, I wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season.

Warm regards,

Joe Menninger Host, Startuprad.io

The background music is Borrtex 04 Happy Holidays published under Creative Commons License

Ever wondered what makes customers choose one product over another? It's not always about flashy features or marketing hype. It's about solving their problems and fulfilling their needs. In this episode of Startuprad.io, we delve into the fascinating world of Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) with the creator of the theory himself, Tony Ulwick.

Tony Ulwick, the founder and CEO of Strategyn and a renowned innovation expert, takes us on a journey through the JTBD framework. Discover how this customer-centric approach can revolutionize your product development process, helping you identify the "jobs" customers are "hiring" your product to do.

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In this episode, you'll learn:

• The core principles of JTBD and how it differs from traditional market research.

• How to identify and prioritize customer needs using the JTBD framework.

• Practical steps to implement JTBD in your product development process.

• Real-world case studies of companies successfully using JTBD to create winning products.

• The benefits and challenges of the JTBD approach.

Prepare to be inspired and challenged as Tony shares his insights on:

• Why most product development efforts fail.

• The importance of understanding customer motivations.

• How to segment markets based on unmet needs.

• The role of AI in the future of JTBD.

• This episode is a must-listen for:

• Entrepreneurs and product managers looking to build better products.

• Marketers seeking to understand customer behavior.

• Innovators and change-makers who want to create products that truly matter.

• Anyone interested in the future of product development and customer-centricity.

Tune in now and discover the secrets to building products that customers truly love!

Show Notes:

• Guest: Tony Ulwick, Founder and CEO of Strategyn

• Topics: Jobs to Be Done (JTBD), Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI), Customer Needs, Product Development, Innovation, Market Research

• Links:

  • Strategyn: https://www.strategyn.com/

  • Jobs to Be Done website: https://jobstobedone.org/

  • Tony Ulwick's books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tony-Ulwick/e/B001H6MZJC

  • Free eBook/Audiobook: https://jobstobedonebook.com/

  • Blog post: http://startuprad.io/post/jobs-to-be-done-a-framework-for-building-better-products

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Introduction

Dive into the DACH region's startup scene! This episode covers the latest trends in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, recorded with Chris Fahrenbach in New York City.

Key Highlights

• Fintech Evolution: Coorsair's IDNow acquisition (€300M) and the stablecoin surge to $226B highlight fintech's dynamism.

• Venture Capital: Toma Bravo's €1.8B European fund signals investor interest, but "zombie VC" and insolvencies persist.

• AI and Tech: Germany leads in AI research, but faces implementation challenges. Volocopter's acquisition and BioMed's cancer detection breakthrough showcase innovation.

• Funding & Founders: Funding rounds like Tectal's (€52M) and Swiss female founder success demonstrate growth.

• Legal & Regulatory: Legal battles (startup vs. SAP) and GDPR reviews (DeepSeek) highlight complexities.

Fintech: A Sector in Motion

Fintech sees Coorsair's IDNow acquisition and stablecoin growth. The ECB's digital Euro plans are also significant.

Venture Capital: Navigating the Landscape

Toma Bravo's fund shows investor confidence, but "zombie VC" and insolvencies pose challenges.

AI and Technology: Innovation

Germany's AI research faces implementation hurdles. Volocopter and BioMed demonstrate other tech advancements.

Startup Ecosystem: Challenges and Successes

Funding for companies like Tectile contrasts with layoffs and insolvencies. Acquisitions continue.

Regional Highlights

• Germany: Strong AI research, but application lags.

• Switzerland: Tight fintech VC, but female founders thrive.

• Austria: Linz launches an AI cluster; the Austrian DAH Fund starts.

Conclusion

The DACH startup scene is dynamic, with innovation and challenges across sectors.

Call to Action

Subscribe to our podcast for DACH startup updates! Share your thoughts below.

The music used in our intro is "MF-297 : First Hero" licensed from Musicfox.com: https://www.musicfox.com/detailsuche/?searchtext=297&submit=search

All rights reserved - Startuprad.io™

Welcome to the October 2024 edition of "This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian Startups," where we bring you essential insights into the GSA startup ecosystem. Join hosts Jörn “Joe” Menninger and Chris Fahrenbach as they unpack the month’s top stories, from groundbreaking funding rounds to unicorn achievements and major pivots in tech and innovation.

Episode Highlights:

1. Lilium’s Financial Struggles and eVTOL Innovation Setbacks
This month, the NASDAQ-listed eVTOL pioneer Lilium, based in Germany, navigates financial challenges, pursuing self-administered bankruptcy due to funding constraints. Although recent setbacks impacted its market valuation, Lilium’s story represents the high-stakes reality of aerospace tech, where R&D costs often create financial risk. Discover the unique challenges that innovators in sustainable aviation face and Lilium’s hopes for a future in clean transportation.

2. Egym and Orderfox Join the Unicorn Club
In major achievements for the healthtech and AI sectors, German fitness tech company Egym and Swiss AI-driven industrial procurement firm Orderfox each attained unicorn status this October. Egym’s valuation now exceeds $1 billion, fueled by tech advances that position it toward IPO readiness. Orderfox, leveraging AI to optimize industrial processes, underscores the GSA region’s strength in practical, data-driven solutions. Learn how these companies reached new heights and the impact of their technologies on health and industrial sectors.

3. Austria’s Gropyus Secures €100 Million for Sustainable Housing
Austrian startup Gropyus made waves with a €100 million investment to expand its modular, timber-hybrid housing production. With a mission to address Europe’s housing crisis through sustainable materials and design, Gropyus embodies the shift toward green construction tech. This investment supports their scalable model of eco-friendly housing solutions, meeting the demands of an evolving market.

4. EU’s Deep Tech Initiative with Trusted Investors Network
In a strategic move to elevate Europe’s role in global tech, the European Union launched a deep tech support network, collaborating with over 70 venture capital firms in the Trusted Investors Network. Aiming to close the technology gap with global leaders like the U.S. and China, the EU’s partnership initiative highlights Europe’s vision for advancing fields like AI, biotech, and sustainable energy.

5. SolarisBank’s €178M Loss and Restructuring Efforts
German fintech SolarisBank reported a €178 million loss, announcing job cuts and a restructuring to regain profitability. The company’s experience is indicative of the broader European fintech scene, where scaling comes with financial pressures. Discover how Solaris is adapting its strategy in the competitive fintech landscape, aiming to enhance operational efficiency.

📍 Useful Links:

• Original Blog Post: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-startups-october-2024

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Dive into the world of fintech with Startuprad.io as we bring you an exclusive interview with Maximilian Rofagha, CEO of Finimize. Hosted by Jörn "Joe" Menninger, this episode unravels the journey of Finimize from a WordPress blog to a global financial content powerhouse that engages nearly 2 million investors worldwide.

Maximilian Rofagha shares his insights on building a thriving investment community without relying on paid marketing, a feat few startups achieve. Learn how Finimize delivers financial content solutions for enterprises, utilizing over a billion data points annually to create engaging and relevant content in 29 languages. This episode is a treasure trove of information for entrepreneurs, investors, and anyone interested in the fintech space.

We also explore the strategic acquisition of Finimize by Aberdeen, discussing the mutual benefits and the factors to consider when evaluating acquisition offers. Maximilian offers a candid look at the challenges of scaling a fintech startup, the role of community in business growth, and the current trends in the investment climate.

If you're looking for actionable advice on scaling a business, building a community, or navigating the complexities of fintech, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in to hear from one of the most innovative minds in fintech today.

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Links and Show Notes:

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Hashtags: #FintechPodcast #Finimize #MaximilianRofagha #CommunityBuilding #InvestmentContent #StartupStrategy #Aberdeen #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #ScalingStartups #Startupradio

Are you ready to revolutionize how your startup or SME operates? This episode of Startuprad.io is your ultimate guide to understanding the transformative potential of cloud-based ERP systems. Join host Jörn 'Joe' Menninger as he sits down with Ertan Özdil, the CEO and Founder of Weclapp, to explore how this cutting-edge technology empowers startups to scale efficiently, streamline operations, and stay competitive in a fast-evolving market.

What’s in This Episode:

• Weclapp’s Inspiring Journey: Discover how Ertan turned a groundbreaking idea into one of Europe’s leading ERP providers for small and medium businesses. Learn how Weclapp's innovative platform democratizes ERP software, making it accessible to startups and SMEs worldwide.

• Why Cloud-Based ERP is a Game-Changer: Gain actionable insights into how ERP solutions enable startups to integrate inventory management, customer relationships, and financial processes seamlessly into one platform.

• The Road to Scaling Success: Ertan shares candid stories of scaling Weclapp, from burning cash during the development phase to achieving a two-digit million-euro revenue milestone. He also discusses the challenges of calling off an IPO and how those lessons shaped the company’s future.

• The Role of Culture and Vision: Learn why company culture is the backbone of a scalable business and how staying true to your vision is critical for long-term success.

• The Future of ERP Systems: Dive into emerging trends like AI integration, predictive analytics, and mobile-first ERP strategies that are redefining the industry.

Episode Stats & Insights:

• 87% of startup failures are linked to poor operations management. This episode offers solutions to avoid that fate.

• The global ERP market is projected to reach $71.6 billion by 2026. Learn how startups can tap into this massive opportunity.

Episode Links:

• Watch the Video Interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nCHjj7X9EqU

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🚀 Tune in to Startuprad.io for an exclusive look into the dynamic world of German, Austrian, and Swiss startups! 🚀

This episode is jam-packed with the latest news and insights from the DACH startup ecosystem. We'll explore the hottest trends, major acquisitions, and exciting funding rounds that are shaping the future of innovation in the region.

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Here's what you'll discover:

🔥 Acquisition Frenzy:

• Creative Dock Group acquires NFrontier: We'll break down Creative Dock Group's strategic acquisition of NFrontier, a Berlin-based hardware innovation company, and discuss how this move is bolstering their hardware development expertise.

• Sona acquires TiteLift: Discover how Swiss cybersecurity firm Sona is strengthening its security offerings with the acquisition of German open-source software company TiteLift.

💰 Funding Fireworks:

• Klukotopia Secures Multimillion-Dollar Funding: We'll explore how Berlin-based life science company Klukotopia is revolutionizing diabetes management with its innovative solutions, thanks to a significant funding round.

🚀 Industry Trends:

• Life Science is Booming: We'll analyze the factors driving the growth of life science startups in Austria and highlight some of the most promising companies in this sector.

• Hardware Innovation is Gaining Momentum: Discover how Germany's strong engineering and manufacturing tradition is fueling a thriving hardware innovation scene, with companies like NFrontier pushing the boundaries of what's possible.

This episode is perfect for:

• Aspiring entrepreneurs seeking inspiration and guidance.

• Investors looking for the next big thing in the DACH startup scene.

• Startup enthusiasts and industry professionals who want to stay ahead of the curve.

Don't miss out on this exciting episode! Hit that play button and subscribe to Startuprad.io for more insights into the world of startups.

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Welcome

Welcome to our November 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.

Our Highlights

AI startup Aleph Alpha raises half a billion dollars, CMBlu raises 100 mn € for energy storage, WeFox gets 55 M US$ from Deutsche and Unicredit, and Vanguard pulls the plug on their German robo advisor. It seems that Sono Motors has found an investor to keep going at least until the end of 2024 and the German subsidiary of WeWork also has to file for insolvency.

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Top News

Aleph Alpha raises 500 mn US$

Heidelberg-based Aleph Alpha raises a total investment of more than half a billion US Dollars from a consortium of industry leaders and new investors for their AI for Enterprises and Governments.

CMBlu Energy raises 100 mn €

German Energy scale-up CMBlu offers „warehouses for energy", with batteries storing up to gigawatt hours. They now raised 100 million Euros, with Strabag being the sole investor, one of Europe's largest construction companies, based in Vienna.

WeFox Raises 55m US$

Deutsche Bank and UniCredit back $4.5 billion insurance startup Wefox with $55 million in fresh funds. WeFox is an online insurance broker and it did not raise equity, so their valuation stayed the same.

Sono Motors May Have Found An Investor

Sono Motors was once hailed as a new hope for the German startup scene, listing early in the US in November 2021. The company wanted to increase the reach of electro-cars by adding solar cells but ran into many problems while developing electro-cars. In the end, they had to file for insolvency but are now restarting with tech that allows the retrofitting of solar panels for fossil fuel busses. Sono Motors filed a 6-K form with the SEC saying that the company secured its survival for 2024, apparently most of the 250 employees can find further employment. Read more in our blog post: Sono Motors Finds Investor https://buff.ly/3Rjuo9t

Vanguard Pulls The Plug on Their Robo Advisor in Germany

Vanguard's German robo advisor costs millions and scores only 4 mn assets under management (AuM) at the end of 2022. A disaster according to FinanceFWD. To put this in perspective: Scalable Capital had 11 months after launch more than 100 mn AuM

WeWork Germany Files For Insolvency

WeWork's German subsidiary filed for insolvency - the company had issues everywhere.

Find the full news with all links and show notes here:

https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-november-2023-startuprad-io-e-405-99d9efb6f3ff

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Executive Summary

In this episode of Startuprad.io, host Jörn "Joe" Menninger interviews Michael Duttlinger from Cashlink. They discuss the importance of transparency with shareholders and how communication is key during a pivot. Cashlink, a leading registrar for tokenized securities in Germany, aims to disrupt the securities market and provide a more cost-efficient and transparent alternative to traditional intermediaries. They recently raised €7 million in a fundraising round and are collaborating with major financial institutions in Germany. Cashlink is focused on growth, acquiring new issuers and clients, and building its regulated financial institution to support the growing market for tokenized securities in Germany.

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Our Enabler 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. Learn more here: https://www.htai.de/ and https://www.een-hessen.de/

Questions Discussed in the Interview

• How has transparency played a role in Cashlink's relationship with shareholders? 
• In what ways did the communication with shareholders intensify during the pivot period?  How does Cashlink differentiate itself from traditional infrastructure providers such as Clearstream Banking Frankfurt? 
• What benefits does tokenization bring to participants in the securities market? 
• How has Germany's progressive regulation for tokenization contributed to the growth of Cashlink and the ecosystem as a whole? 
• What challenges did Cashlink face during its pivot from a fintech for money transfers to a tokenization market focus? 
• How did Cashlink navigate investor and stakeholder concerns during the pivot period? 
• How does increased competition in the tokenization market disrupt the traditional securities market and benefit investors? 
• What role does automation play in making securities handling more cost-efficient and creating new investment opportunities? 

The Founder

Michael Duttlinger, the founder of Cashlink, started his fintech journey with a typical garage story reminiscent of those heard in Silicon Valley.

All Links and Show Notes

https://blog.startuprad.io/revolutionizing-securities-exploring-tokenization-and-transparency-with-cashlink-e-403-f655217533fc

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“I built the tech behind it to make it work, and, we got quite some revenue through through that, and, yeah, it was one of my first businesses that I really incorporated where it really went to the notary, Form the legal entity and all these things.” — Mario Hachemer

Executive Summary

In this episode of Startuprad.io, we are joined by the newest co-host, Mario Hachemer, who brings a wealth of experience in technology and entrepreneurship to the table. Mario’s journey has been nothing short of fascinating, from the rise and fall of his subscription box business to his role as CTO of FastBill and later for unicorn FreshBooks in Germany, eventually leading to his exploration of the world of AI as a freelance consultant and mentor. Mario’s insights into deep tech and AI’s impact on businesses and society are both thought-provoking and enlightening. Moreover, the hosts share a passion for science fiction and discuss the works of literary giants such as Ian Banks and Terry Pratchett. They also delve into Mario’s love for spicy food and his experiences in various countries. Join us as we delve deep into the world of tech, AI, entrepreneurship, and a touch of spicy cuisine with our new co-host, Mario Hachemer.

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The Entrepreneurial Spirit: “I had trouble finding like-minded people. I studied my 1st university was in Koblenz, and it just there wasn’t that much of an entrepreneurial spirit.” — Mario Hachemer

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The New Co-Host

Mario Hachemer, (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahachemer/) the co-host of Startuprad.io's Deep Tech Track, was involved in the successful startup Fast Bill. During his time with Fast Bill, the company raised significant venture capital, allowing them to develop innovative technology stacks and rapidly expand their operations. The company's success eventually led to its acquisition by FreshBooks, a major player in the accounting and invoicing software industry. Fast Bill's ability to attract venture capital and subsequent successful integration into FreshBooks showcase their achievements and position them as a standout player in the technology and startup landscape. Fast Bill set itself apart from its competition through its ability to not only raise venture capital but also develop and implement groundbreaking technology stacks.

Learn more about Mario or reach out to him:

https://twitter.com/MarioHachemer https://www.meetup.com/de-DE/grunderstammtisch-founders-table-frankfurtrheinmain/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahachemer/ mario@startuprad.io

All Links and Show Notes Here is our blog post: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/from-unicorn-cto-to-co-hosting-startuprad-ios-deep-tech-track-startuprad-io-e-402-073c63686fc4

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Welcome to our October 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.

This time we wrap up October 2023 in our 400th episode!

Our startup news are recorded with Chris today in Germany and Joe in Frankfurt. The recording date is October 25th and all news not included will be in our next news to be released on November 30th.

This time we made more cuts to our news here. We hope you like the lighter version of it. If you think we cut too much, feel free to let us know.

For everyone who celebrates it: Happy Halloween AAAAAAAAAAAAAAND Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Highlights:

BioNTech is a very special case in Germany, but now one of their former Senior Vice Presidents (Katalin Karikó, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine 2023 for her research in mRNA). Two German companies IPOed (yes, no startups, but still a good sign). Solar startup Nexwafe starts 120 M € funding, Black Semiconductor from Aachen is looking to raise 500 M €, and there is bad news about the former unicorn Infarm.

Let's talk startups:

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Our Enablers

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

Former Employee of BioNTech Receives as 13th Women Nobel Prize in Medicine

BioNTech is a very special case in the German startup world. During corona, they have been assumed to be responsible for 0.5% of GDP growth of all of Germany, one of the five largest economies in the world. Now they have another very unique distinction: A former Senior Vice President (2013–2022) of the company Katalin Karikó, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine 2023 for her research in mRNA. Congratulations to her, being the 13th woman to have won a Nobel prize in medicine, she is sharing the prize with Drew Weissman.

Solar Startup Hunting for 100+ M € in Funding at 500 M Valuation

Freiburg, Germany-based solar startup Nexwafe starts new funding, aiming for 120 m € in Venture Capital at a valuation of up to 500 M €

Black Semiconductor 500 M € in Funding

Aachen, Germany-based chip startup Black Semiconductor about to close large funding of 500 M €, with up to 70% of government funding. The founders are looking to develop a new way to connect elements on semiconductors but may need up to 7 years for the...

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Executive Summary

Welcome to Startuprad.io, the podcast that brings you the latest insights and stories from the world of startups. In today's episode, we have a special guest, Christian Noske, a Partner at NGP Capital in Berlin. Christian joins our host, Jörn "Joe" Menninger, to discuss their recent research on the startup ecosystem in the DACH region, which encompasses Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. They delve into the findings of NGP Capital's analysis, which explores the impact of COVID-19 on venture funding in the region and highlights some surprising facts about the different countries. Tune in to discover why Switzerland has emerged as a strong force in the startup scene, how Germany's diverse ecosystem mitigated the decline in funding, and the reasons behind France's larger drop in startup funding. If you want to uncover the hidden gems and thriving startups beyond the well-known hubs, this episode is a must-listen. Stay tuned for an in-depth conversation on the startup landscape in the DACH region with Christian Noske of NGP Capital.

Find all blog posts with all the links on our blog https://medium.com/startuprad-io/from-berlin-to-zurich-ngp-capitals-research-on-vc-funding-in-the-dach-region-startuprad-io-36553faace33

The Investor

Christian is a Partner at NGP Capital in Berlin. In a recent study, Christian and his team examined the post-COVID landscape in their core region, which includes Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. They found that each region had its own unique characteristics. Germany, being the largest country, was not surprising in terms of its size and activity in various sectors. However, Switzerland was a pleasant surprise, as, despite its smaller size, it had managed to build a thriving ecosystem and was demonstrating significant growth in venture funding, new creation, and deep tech software. The findings were quite astonishing and revealed the diverse and dynamic nature of the region's entrepreneurial and innovation landscape.

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Topics Discussed in this Episode:

#startuppodcast #germany #austria #switzerland #founder #startupradio #ngpcapital #vc #venturecapital #berlin #newyork #globalbusiness #venturefund #paloalto #shanghai #helsinki #seriesa #seriesb #technology #entrepreneurship #techentrepreneurship #dach #research #venturefunding #deeptech #software #climatetech #robotics #fintech #ecosystem #food #travel #france #gsa #deutschland #oesterreich #schweiz

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Welcome to our summer 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in around 30 minutes sometimes less 🙂.

This time we wrap up July and August. We came up with the summer news because the September news has always been very long, overcrowded, and covered 3 months. That was a bit too much of a break and too much news in one piece. So we looked to wrap up summer and since the US is an important market and Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer it seems like a good fit.

This summer has been a bit different and there has been a lot of news, so we focus more on the most recent ones and we have cut a lot of news here.

For everybody in the US who celebrates it: Happy Labor Day!

Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-summer-2023-july-august-episode-fdb709d89fbd

Like what you hear? You can tip us here: https://startupradio.captivate.fm/support

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Our Highlights:

Binance has not - yet - gotten permission to operate in Germany from BaFin, Nextwind raises 750 m US$, Bitpanda surpasses 1 M customers in Germany and Germany sets a new record in new founders. We also shared that SAP wants to invest in Aleph Alpha, they confirmed this and two more.

Germany's law for legalizing cannabis falls short of the expectations of cannabis entrepreneurs. Europe dominates climate fintech funding and the overall fintech funding shows a sign of life. Bafin also stopped mini VC investments - trashing the business model of some fintechs - AND we found newly closed VC funds in excess of 2.8 bn US$ that are open to European founders.

Our Enablers 

This recording is supported by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen

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 

Du kommst hier ned rein 🙂 Is the usual saying in Frankfurt if a Bouncer won't let you in a Club

Fintech blog Finance Forward reports German finance oversight BaFin signals no license for Binance for Germany. So they can neither advertise nor expand in Germany. To be clear, this is not a final NO, but rather a "Binance keeps trying, but BaFin signaled a No"

750 M US$ for Wind Energy

Wind Energy in Germany: StartUp Nextwind raises 750 M US$ Venture Capital investors include Sandbrook Capital, Canadian funds Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), and Imco

Bitpanda - The Austrian Unicorn

Surpasses 1 million customers in Germany alone https://buff.ly/44mMyKP it is not sure how many of them are really active, but that is always a tough question, even for the startups. But the question is important since one only makes money with active users.

Germany Sets a New Record in Founders

Despite the current economic situation, Germany has the highest share of founders in 24 years!!! According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Germany had a larger than 9% founder quota, meaning people from 18–64 who (co) founded a new business within the last 3,5 years (Young...

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Find all blog posts with all the links on our blog https://medium.com/startuprad-io/navigating-the-insurtech-landscape-thinksurances-rise-in-the-digital-insurance-era-startuprad-io-1555e1d35e0a

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Executive Summary

In this episode of Startuprad.io, our guest is Florian Brokamp, CEO and Co-Founder of Thinksurance. Brokamp discusses the positive economic state of the company, the importance of smart investors analyzing macroeconomic trends, and the growing industries of AI and insurtech. He emphasizes the stability of the insurance industry and the need for digitalization. He shares insights on their fundraising journey and the different parts of their company's offerings. Florian also highlights the importance of proper risk valuation, data transparency, and providing value to distributors, customers, and insurers. Overall, Thinksurance's vision is to connect insurance carriers, distributors, and customers through its technology platform.

Questions Discussed in this Interview:

How did Thinksurance navigate the fundraising process and secure funding for their business?

What were some of the challenges Thinksurance faced during the fundraising process, and how did they overcome them?

How does Thinksurance differentiate itself in the B2B commercial insurance space in Germany?

How does Thinksurance use data to address the lack of transparency in the insurance industry?

What is the importance of properly pricing risks in the insurance industry, according to Thinksurance?

How does Thinksurance define their target user and how do they cater to the needs of different types of users?

How has Thinksurance's market coverage and relevance increased through onboarding large associations and brokers?

How does Thinksurance aim to streamline the consultation process and provide value to distributors, customers, and insurers?

What is Thinksurance's approach to hiring and maintaining a strong company culture?

How does Thinksurance plan to further penetrate sales channels and collaborate with partners to address their digitalization needs?

The Founder

In this episode, our guest is Florian, the CEO and Co-Founder of Thinksurance, an insurtech startup from Frankfurt, focused on revolutionizing the commercial insurance industry through their technology platform. Throughout the episode, Florian shares insights into the economic landscape, the challenges of fundraising, and the growth potential of industries like AI and insurtech. He highlights the importance of finding investors who believe in the long-term vision and emphasizes the need to update legacy systems in the insurance industry.

The Startup

Thinksurance is a German insurtech company that provides digital insurance solutions for businesses and brokers. As mentioned by Florian Brokamp, the CEO and Co-Founder of Thinksurance, the company focuses on updating the legacy systems of the insurance industry, enabling a seamless and efficient consultation process between customers, insurers, and brokers. They offer a comprehensive suite of services including core consultation, Consult Direct service, and a data suite that collects and analyzes market...

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Executive Summary

In this episode, our guest Kimmo discusses the concept and potential of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) in part two of our series. We highlight the need for government control of the monetary system and the risks posed by private currencies. We explore various use cases and mechanisms that can encourage the adoption and success of CBDCs, including simplifying cross-border transactions and optimizing liquidity. We also dive into the idea of purpose-bound money and the importance of simplicity and convenience in utilizing CBDCs. As always we emphasize the role of entrepreneurs in developing new use cases and analyzing consumer behavior to drive CBDC adoption. Analytical approaches and network analysis play a crucial role in this process.

The Potential of Programmable Money: “I think these new use cases and thinking about new use cases of programmable money, for example, is definitely something that I think there’ll be loads of different opportunities for companies to start to provide new ideas, new services to people.” — Kimmo Soramäki

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The Importance of CBDC for Financial Stability: “But the crypto showed that, hey. Actually, you can run this in a distributed multi multi-asset international environment relatively smoothly. So I think that was an enabler for the conversation.” — Kimmo Soramäki

Three Key Developments in CBDC in The Last Year

We had our last update with Kimmo almost a year ago and since there have been three important developments:

1) CBDC does not have to be on blockchain anymore, the discussion has shifted to other cryptographic means.

2) The conversation has also shifted to tokenization for bank deposits and inter-bank lending for Central Bank Digital Currencies

3) CBDCs have been launched in other countries, especially in China. We do not see a large-scale adoption there yet, since there is a real use case missing.

Central Bank Digital Currencies: “In many countries, the driver has, of course, also been, like, in the Euro system or in China, the sovereign control of money. So if you think of emperors, they always wanted to put their heads on the coins. So, like, that’s been a goal of the government or an objective for a long time to have control of the monetary system.”

 — Kimmo Soramäki

Questions Discussed In This Interview:

How successful do you think the speaker's experiment of living a cashless life has been so far?

Do you believe that Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) will become widely adopted in the future? Why or why not?

What are some potential advantages of using CBDCs over traditional payment methods like cash or credit cards?

How do you think purpose-bound money could simplify consumers' lives and improve payment processes?

What are some potential use cases for CBDCs that have not yet been explored by entrepreneurs in the fintech industry?

How can CBDCs help drive financial inclusion, especially in countries with large unbanked populations?

What role do you think consumer behavior and payment networks play in the adoption of CBDCs?

How might the integration of distributed ledger technology (DLT) or other cryptographic methods impact the success of CBDCs?

What are some potential challenges that central banks and governments may face in implementing CBDCs?

How can network analysis and modeling of consumer behavior help guide the successful adoption of CBDCs?

The Future of Central Bank Digital Currency: “Even if there was a little bit of...

Welcome to our June 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.

We follow our top-down structure in the news.

Welcome to our startup news wrap-up for June 2023 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on June 27th, 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.

Note: We will now go into the summertime: In July and August we will only publish content every other week AND the next startups news will be our summer wrap-up, to be published on September 4th, in the US celebrated as Labor Day.

Our Highlights:

1 Komma 5, a Greentech startup, becomes a unicorn after only 23 months. We are wondering if this is the rise of climate tech startups already? Switzerland has a record funding with Teylor of 275 m €. GetYourGuide shows travel tech is back in favor of VCs with 194 m US$ funding. Germany and Intel agree on subsidies and investments for a new mega chip factory worth more than 30 bn Euros. Fernride, a pioneer of autonomous electric trucks, gets a 30 M US$+ Series A funding.

Let’s talk startups:

Top News 

The Rise of Climate Tech Startups Has Begun, So It Seems

Hamburg’s 1KOMMA5° has raised €430 million — and just become a unicorn at just 23 months old

Related: 1KOMMA5 buys danish solar company Viasol

Related: 430 mn debt funding

A Record Funding for Switzerland

Swiss-based SME lending fintech Teylor raises 275 m Euro, gaining Barclays as a new investor. Other investors include M&G Investments …

Traveltech Startups Seem to Be Back

GetYourGuide raises $194 million to fuel curated travel experiences and global expansion

30 bn For a New Chip Factory

Intel, Germany strike record €30B deal for chip mega-factory

Do You Know Fernride?

FERNRIDE a German pioneer of autonomous, electric trucks, raises 31 M USD in Series A funding

Find all Links and Show Notes here

https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-june-2023-episode-388-960515c65b87

Startups, Venture Capital, Unicorn, New Unicorn, Europe, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scaleups, Tech News, Venture Capital News, Startup News,

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Executive Summary

In this episode of Startuprad.io, Joe Menninger interviews Philip Jonitz, co-founder of Klink Finance, who talks about his company's mission to encourage the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. Offering an easy-to-use investment wallet with an interest-generating-like feature, Klink combines gamification into personal finance by providing liquidity to different players in the crypto space and generating random prizes for its users. Jonitz also speaks about the impact of regulation and institutional adoption on the crypto image problem and shares his experiences and lessons learned from investing in cryptocurrencies. They are also planning to set up a decentralized insurance company. Tune in to learn more ….

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Main Themes Discussed

1. Crypto Image Problem: regulation, institutional adoption

2. Crypto Investing: diversification, multiple wallets/exchanges

3. Clink Finance: gamification, easy entry to crypto markets

4. Price-Linked Savings: incentivizing holding assets, gamification

5. Crypto Insurance: a decentralized, new type of insurance.

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The Founder

Philip is a fintech entrepreneur with a passion for innovation and solving problems with technology. He has extensive experience in the fintech space, venture capitalism, and working with accelerators. Philip noticed the lack of gamification in the personal finance space and decided to explore the possibility of incorporating gamification to make personal finance more engaging and accessible for consumers. In 2016/17, Philip got involved with the crypto space, initially attracted to the potential of becoming wealthy quickly. However, he ended up losing most of his funds due to his lack of education about the market. This experience has taught him to be wiser about crypto investing and motivated him to build his own crypto project, Clink. Through Clink, Philip aims to provide an easy entry into the crypto markets by generating interest in users' deposited funds and incorporating gamification to incentivize users to hold onto their assets. He hopes to make investing in cryptocurrency more accessible and understandable for everyone.

The Startup

Klink Finance is a company that aims to bring gamification to the world of personal finance and accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrencies. The company provides an easy-to-use wallet application that allows users to invest and earn interest on their deposited funds. Klink Finance generates interest on the users' funds by providing liquidity to other players in the crypto space through decentralized lending and tokenized treasury bills. The interest generated powers prices paid back to users and insurance for the jackpot prize. The company plans to expand and offer additional currencies with prices powered through staking, where users can provide liquidity to validate transactions and earn interest.

Klink Wants to Start a Decentralized Insurance Company

Klink Finance is also pioneering a new type of crypto insurance space with decentralized ways of generating and selecting winners fully on chain, ensuring the jackpot prize. Overall, their vision and innovative solutions have the potential to change the way people perceive and invest in personal finance.

All Links and Show Notes

Here is our blog post:

Welcome to our May 2023 wrap-up with 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 exciting startup cities and end with general news. And for those serious about startups, there is even a collection called: "Stay Ahead of the Curve," where we share in-depth reads, articles, studies, and podcasts.

Our next news episode will be published on June 29th, and then we are - for the news - in summer break.

Our Highlights:

Germany is now officially in a recession, but one with barely any unemployment. Also, we still track many startups going out of business, BUT the overall picture is improving. The German VC and PE Barometer - which captures the mood of many German investors - is showing an uptick. This shows especially in the massive amount of new funds raised; they promise a bright future for startups! We tracked at least 3,4 bn Euros of newly raised funds, which will be invested entirely or partially in startups in Europe and GSA. Look at our medium blog; we have more information on what the investors are looking for and how to pitch them. We also have investments and exits worth at least 5,4 bn Euros and news in this episode, including WeFox, Tier Mobility, Infarm, Blinkist, Bitpanda, Aleph Alpha, Sono Motors, and many more.

Let's talk startups:

Find all links and the other news here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-may-2023-episode-385-87fd564d483a

Tune in to our 24/7 Tech Entrepreneurship Internet Radio Station here:

www.startup.radio

Subscribe Here

Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio

Our Enablers

This recording is supported by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen

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

Deal or No Deal?

Getir is in talks to take over German grocery app rival Flink | Financial Times

But then: Flink's sale to Getir fell through. Now Flink is raising 150 M € from investors, including grocery giant Rewe and Doordash

Tier Mobility to Merge with Competitor

European e-scooter giant Tier Mobility maps route to merger

Will Infarm Be Soon Outfarm?

Infarm keeps shrinking and is leaving Europe, reports Handelsblatt. The greenhouse startup reportedly has only 80 employees in Europe left and will get an investment at an unknown valuation for their relocation - likely to the Middle East with low energy prices

Blinkist Makes a Large Exit!

Berlin-based startup Blinkist is sold to Australian education startup Go1 for an undisclosed amount, reported to be "hundreds of millions." Blinkist offers short wrap-ups of nonfiction books as text or audio

Large Drops in Valuations are Not Only for...

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Executive Summary

The Startuprad.io podcast and YouTube blog covers the German-speaking startup scene and in this episode, Joe interviews Paulina Jänsch, co-founding partner at Leanox Impact Capital. Paulina discusses her seven-step approach to evaluating startups and fundraising as storytelling, emphasizing the importance of a financial model that reflects the startup's value drivers. She also talks about Leanox Impact Capital's investment criteria, which focus on impact innovation and solving environmental or social problems. The company invests in early-stage startups in Europe, with a focus on industry-agnostic but always impact-driven ventures, and prioritizes investing in female founders and LPs.

EU Startups Summit

This interview was recorded outside of the EU Startups Summit 2023 on April 20th in Barcelona. Thank you EU Startups for the great event.

The Founding Partner

Paulina is one of two founding partners at Leanox Impact Capital and a TOP 100 most influential women in the European VC and startup space. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Maastricht University School of Business and Economics and a Master of Science from Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, as well as a Master of Science from EADA Business School. She also spent time in Singapore (Nanyang) for an exchange semester.

Paulin also worked at EY Analytics, immostore, and participated in the CFA Research Challenge by Caixa Bank. Amongst being GP at Leanox, she is also invested as Business Angel in nine companies.

The Investor

Leanox.eu is looking to raise a new fund with not only 50% female (co)founded startups, but also 50% female LPs. Leanox is also looking for parity in itself, they have 50/50 GPs in Leanox. The VC is motivated to disrupt inequalities, to tackle social and environmental issues as an opportunity to improve the world we all live in.

Find the email to pitch Leanox in our blog post (link below).

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Blog Post and Show Notes:

Find all links and show notes here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/the-seven-step-approach-to-evaluating-startups-a-storytelling-perspective-episode-382-a0cec4da3cb8

Chapters:

00:00:00 Intro

00:00:20 Sponsoring Message by ExpressVPN

00:01:04 Paulina Jänsch - Co-Founding Partner at Leanox Impact Capital

00:01:50 Paulina’s Seven-Step Approach to Valuation Impact Startups

00:09:30 How to Pitch Leanox - Investing in Impact Innovation

#techstartups #germany #startupinvesting #femalefounders #femaleentrepreneur #femaleinvestor #startupinvesting #impactinvesting #startup #startups #startupradio #entrepreneurship

Welcome to our April 2023 wrap-up with important news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.

Our Highlights:

Considerable funding made headlines last month. We have more than 600 M euros in funding in our highlights alone. A potential large exit: Software AG, the Darmstadt-based listed software company, is close to a 2.4 bn US$ exit with an offer from Silverlake Partners. Also, Berlin-based Blinkist may be close to a 200 M € exit. Hundreds of millions of raised funds were announced by Enpal (via ABS), Isar Aerospace, IntegrityNext, Razor Group, and Tado. Also, SAP is close to investing in Germany’s hottest AI startup Aleph Alpha from Heidelberg. Diverging picture in Airtaxi space: Lilium is looking for new investors; Volocopter builds the taxis and expects them to fly in less than 500 days at the Paris Olympics.

Let’s talk startups:

Top News

Software AG Close to a Multi-Billion Acquisition

Private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners, based in Menlo Park, is close to buying Germany’s Software AG in $2.42 billion deal. The offer is already public, reported Reuters. Shares of listed Software AG jumped 53% at the announcement. The investor already knows the company: In February 2022, Silver Lake had invested 344 million euros in the software developer’s convertible bond, which upon conversion would represent nearly 9% of issued Software AG shares.

Enpal Raises More Than 300 M€

Enpal raises up to €356 million via Securitization of Solar Receivables with first German residential solar ABS. ABS are asset-backed securities, that means if Enpal can not pay interest or pay back the final sum, the investors have the collateral (assets) backing the security

Blinkist Close to 200 M € Exit

Reports blog Deutsche-Startups, with an offer from an — yet unnamed — American company. The blog, with its founder Alexander Hüsing is usually pretty well informed and has been right before.

Isar Aerospace Closes €155 Million Funding

Isar Aerospace closes €155 million Series C funding round, ignition sequence start, all engine running. Investors are 7-Industries Holding, Bayern Kapital via its Scale Up Fund Bavaria, Earlybird Venture Capital, HV Capital, Lakestar, Lombard Odier Investment Managers, Porsche Automobil Holding SE (Porsche SE), UVC Partners, and Vsquared Ventures

100 m € for IntegrityNext

The company has been bootstrapped for seven years, but now IntegrityNext takes €100 million from EQT Growth fund.

Razor Group Raises 88 M US$

Berlin-based Razor Group, an e-commerce aggregator, closes Series C at $88M at $1.2B valuation, acquires Stryze to consolidate.

Tado Raises Money, As IPO Plans Falter

Smart thermostat startup Tado wanted to IPO but then came Corona and Ukraine. They originally wanted to explore a sale or IPO after their 2021 fundraising, but the SPAC deal faltered and they needed to adapt. So they raised 46.9 M US$. Their existing investors already include Siemens, Amazon, and EON.

SAP To Invest In AI Startup Aleph Alpha

German press reports that the software giant SAP is about to invest in German ChatGPT competitor Aleph Alpha, which also claims to have eliminated fake news from its software. As yet, the valuation and investment are not known.

Related: Heidelberg-based startup, a competitor of ChatGPT, claims to have eliminated fake news from its tool Luminous

Airtaxi Lilium is Looking for New Money, and Volocopter is Planning to Fly

Airtaxi Lilium: 0 Euro revenue, 253 mn € losses. They are looking for new investors. Volocopter on the other hand, wants to start operating their drones as taxis ASAP. They also pledged to operate their air taxis in Paris, during the Olympic Games, in less than 500 days.

Related: Volocopter starts production — founders magazin

All Links and Show...

Executive Summary

Learn how CreditShelf, a leading German fintech company, secured 100 million euros of investment from Goldman Sachs and what that means for businesses seeking credit.

CreditShelf recently received 100 mn € from Goldman Sachs to lend out via their platform; Goldman joins other investors like the European Investment Fund. The fintech works with Raisin Bank to get SMEs loans within four weeks. They IPOed already in 2018 in Frankfurt as the first pure-play fintech in Germany.

The Founder

Daniel is a returning guest. We interviewed CrediShelf shortly after their IPO in 2018 (link below). Daniel holds an MBA from the University of Mannheim and a Ph.D. from the University of Düsseldorf. He has experience s a management consultant from Kienbaum and Bain & Company. He has also been an executive director for Swiss banking giant UBS for eight years in their investment bank (Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC)) in Zürich and Singapore. He is one of the three co-founders of CreditShelf, which was set up in 2016, and currently acting as the CFO of the company.

The Startup

CreditShelf is a credit platform connecting institutional investors and German Mittelstand (German small and medium enterprises). They provide corporate loans using a licensed bank (Raisin Bank). The loans work as a fast stand-alone solution (can be paid out within 4 weeks) or part of a more significant credit, involving other parties and banks. The company has successfully developed an online credit marketplace platform whose processes are supported by proprietary, data-driven risk analysis software. On their platform, they offer loans for companies located in Germany from 100.000 € to 5 M €, stretching up to 5 years for supplies, scale-up, real estate, and M&A. The CreditShelf platform models the entire credit process, from the loan application through credit analysis and risk management to loan disbursement and servicing.

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Keep Up to Date

Here is our publication calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=012i27ak525qi3smgjl8v9tbio%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Europe%2FBerlin

All Links and Show Notes

Here is our blog post: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-fintech-got-100-mn-from-goldman-sachs-to-invest-creditshelf-782d9f2223b7

Chapters:

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:50 Daniel Bartsch, CFO - Former Management Consultant and Investment Banker

00:03:16 The Company - CreditShelf

00:13:42 Loan Demand in Germany Outstripping Supply

00:23:44 CreditShelf’s Outlook on the Economy in 2023

00:25:18 Hessen and Frankfurt as Startup Hub

#startupradio #startup #startups #fintech #fintechfinance #fintechstartups #fintechstartup #frankfurt #germany #credit #sme #lending #lendingcompany #credit #venturecapital #technology #techstartup #techstartups #joemenninger

Mentioned in this episode:

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Intro

Welcome to our March 2023 wrap-up with 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: The top news, followed by a bird’s eye view at the startup ecosystem, next deeper looking at fascinating startup cities, and we end with general information. And for those serious about startups, there is a collection called: Stay ahead of the curve, where we share exciting reads, articles, studies, and podcasts.

Welcome to our startup news wrap-up for March with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on March 27th, 2023. A little disclaimer: You may have noticed a lot of stress in February here at Startuprad.io. We should have remembered a few news items in our backlog and added them to this episode.

All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode for April, to be published on April 27th. Find all links to the quoted information on our Medium blog link below.

If you celebrate it: Happy Easter! We also try to bring you a bit of culture from Germany here.

Our Highlights:

Good news and bad news for Fintechs Raisin and N26. Raisin gets its unicorn status back and gets a lot of new business, so much in fact that the complaints at Bafin are mounting. N26 generated 200 mn € revenue in 2021 but has to deal with a senior employee uprising. Neobank Ruuky is saved last minute. Startup Bonify reportedly makes a 20 mn € exit, but employees only get invited to a barbeque. GoStudent is a no-go with courts, and the first Goldman-backed fintech in Germany struggles. Bavarian Airlines may be just a hoax, and Grover shows the first signs on their way to an IPO.

Let’s talk startups:

Tune in to our Internet Radio Station here:

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Our Enablers

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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Register here: www.newsly.me and use the coupon code “STARTUPRAD” to get a one-month free premium subscription.

Top News

Good News and Bad News at Raisin

The rising interest...

Executive Summary

Germany has adopted a startup strategy for the first time. One should pay attention if Europe's largest economy makes such a step. The ten bn € Future Fund and others are part of the program, which channels billions in investments to startups in Europe and especially Germany. Therefore, this episode has a special guest, the Commissioner for Startups and Digital Economy for Germany, Dr. Anna Christmann, a Bundestag (the German federal parliament ) member (MdB). We touch on some of the ten points of the strategy and their criticism. The money comes from the ten bn € startup program (aka Future Fund) we covered with her predecessor in June 2021 (YouTube: https://youtu.be/kZxoEUa_6Uk) during the Merkel government. We also brush the topics of the German Deep Tech and Climate Fund, worth one bn €, and the European Tech Champion Initiative, a fund of funds worth four bn €, and how they fit into the programs.

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The Commissioner for Startups and Digital Economy

Our special guest is the Commissioner for Startups and Digital Economy for Germany, Dr. Anna Christmann, a Bundestag (the German federal parliament) member. This video follows her predecessor's interview from June 2021, where we explored how Germany will spend ten bn € in the newly set up startup program (YouTube: https://youtu.be/kZxoEUa_6Uk). She is a Green Party (Die Grünen) member, one of the three parties forming Germany's coalition government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The Startup Strategy

In broad terms, the strategy has 10 points in our show notes, links to further readings, and the full policy document in English. (Link below).

1. Strengthen financing for startups
2. Help startups to attract talent, including through improved employee ownership opportunities.
3. Develop a spirit of entrepreneurship and facilitate the setting up new digital businesses.
4. Strengthen female entrepreneurs and support diversity in startups
5. Facilitate startup spin-offs from science and universities
6. Improve the policy environment for startups that serve the common good
7. Mobilise startup competencies for public contracts
8. Make it easier for startups to access data
9. Strengthen regulatory sandboxes and facilitate access to them for startups
10. Put the focus on startups

Ten Billion Euro Future Fund

We already covered the ten bn € startup program (aka Future Fund) with the predecessor of Mrs. Christmann in June 2021. This fund is the source of money to be invested in different initiatives, some mentioned in the interview and shortly covered below (DTCF and ETCI). You can learn more in this interview here on YouTube https://youtu.be/kZxoEUa_6Uk.

Deep Tech and Climate Fund (DTCF)

The one bn € deep tech and climate fund is newly set up as part of the government program.

European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI)

Germany also invests one bn € in the European Tech Champions Initiative. Five EU Member States launched the European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI), a Fund of Funds that will channel much-needed late-stage growth capital to promising European innovators. At the time of the recording, four bn € have been committed to the...

Executive Summary

The European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) is a venture capital fund consisting of both public and private investors. It focuses on driving the transformation to a bio-based, sustainable economy throughout Europe. This venture underlines the EU's commitment to its Green New Deal and sets higher standards for venture capital projects. Backed by venture capital, those companies funded must not only demonstrate economic growth potential but also uphold principles of environmental, social, and governance through their work. This fund stands as one part of a larger and definitive effort by the EU to become carbon neutral by 2050.

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The General Partner

Michael is one of the three founders and General Partners of the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF). The German entrepreneur wrote and executed the business plan of High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), the most active early-stage fund in Europe, investing in innovative technologies and business models since 2005. As the first managing director, he led HTGF until 2019. Michael has 25 years of experience in investment and management in the venture capital industry.

The ECBF

The European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) is an impact investment fund. Initiated by the European Union, it contributes alongside others as a financial instrument to achieve the goals of the European Commission's (EC) EU Green Deal.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the main investor in the ECBF with EUR 100 million. Additional funds were invested by another public investor, NRW.BANK, as well as numerous private investors such as Nestlé, Neste, Corbion, BÜFA, Koehler Group, Volkswohlbund, Hettich, Invest NL, Telos, Heino, and more.

The fund invests the available capital of 300 Mio. euros in ambitious and visionary companies that advance the bio-economy and circular economy with innovative technologies or business models and thus have a sustainable impact on the European economy. The goal is to accelerate the growth of bio-economy companies and create pan-European, global players. The goal of generating a very high return on investment is directly linked to this and is on the same level as the impact goal.

The regional focus of the investments includes the EU-27 countries and the 16-Horizon2020 associated countries.

Current Portfolio

The current portfolio includes (amongst others) the following companies:

Peel Pioneers

ProLupin

Aphea.Bio

Nuritas

Elicit Plant

InOvo

Protix

Biosyntia

Trapview

Pitch the ECBF

ECBFs Vision is to build up a prosperous economy realigned with nature. To get there they aim to identify the most promising investment targets in the European Bioeconomy, with both good financial returns and a huge impact on the environment. Thus, ECBF is interested in connecting with entrepreneurs, investors, and business promotion stakeholders with robust business networks in the bioeconomy. Find all requirements and the email to pitch...

Executive Summary

We are back with quarterly cooperation with DEEP Ecosystems research from Munich. Today we talk about a few highlights of their extensive 2022 report. Our current impression is that the VC market could start a new cycle from the lows of Q4 2022. We already see a new uptick in seed investments in Barcelona, London, Paris, Berlin, and Stockholm. Also, London is losing some of its edge as a European Startup Ecosystem compared to the other hubs. For VCs, the next hot sector to invest in Europe is cleantech. Despite the job cuts in 2022, at the year's end, there still have been more employees at startups across Europe than before Corona.

"The mood is down in the venture capital market. Startups definitely feel the crunch, but there is still dry powder available."

Thomas Kösters - DEEP Ecosystems

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About the Pulse of the European Startup Ecosystem

The European startup scene is changing fast. There are new players, old ones fading away, and even more to come in their place- all vying for a piece of this growing pie! To avoid getting left behind, you need regular updates on what’s going on so that our entrepreneurs can stay one step ahead when building or investing in companies here. That’s why we started the “Pulse of the European Startup Ecosystem” which will provide you with quarterly podcasts chronicling different aspects related to startup activity across European Hubs, supported by the data from the specialized analytics company DEEP Ecosystems.

"Berlin is the European Capital of Meetups. "

Thomas Kösters - DEEP Ecosystems

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Some Highlights

Startup funding took a hit on a European Level across the board regarding total investments, especially in Q4 2022. This matches what we have seen in our interview with kfw covering their VC and PE barometer.

On the excellent news site, there is a substantial uptick towards the end of the year 2022 in announced seed funding rounds. All large European Hubs, Barcelona, London, Paris, Berlin, and Stockholm, showed more seed funding rounds. Only Amsterdam did show a decline, which may be due to the available data.

Exits and large fundraisings have filled the coffers of VCs, who build up their teams during the good years. This leads to increasing pressure to invest on the VCs by their investors, called LPs (think insurance companies and pension funds).

Cleantech has also emerged as a new growth sector for VC investments - on a European level. In the last 6 months, compared to the last 3 years, cleantech investments have increased disproportionally.

Classic sectors for VC investments remained sexy in the 2nd half of 2022, including fintech, media, health, and AI & big data.

Hardware is also a sector - along with consumer apps - just on the edge of becoming a growth story for VC investments.

Despite the job cuts announced in recent weeks or months, there is still net positive job growth in the European Startup Ecosystem - compared to before

Executive Summary

The kfw surveys each quarter around 450 investors for this barometer, so it is one of the broadest and most reliable indicators of the current mood of private market investors in Europe's largest economy. In this episode, we have Dr. Fritzi Köhler-Geib, the chief economist of kfw, as a guest. She introduces us to the barometer that has 3 main components: business climate, (current) business situation, and business expectations (for the next quarter). There are also 12 subcategories covering areas like fundraising, entry evaluations, exit opportunities, new investment, deal-flow quantity, deal-flow quality, and even the taxation framework. Tune in to learn more.

The Chief Economist

Dr. Friederike "Fitzi" Köhler-Geib is the chief economist (https://www.kfw.de/About-KfW/KfW-Research/KfW-Chief-Economist/Koehler-Geib-vita.html) of kfw. Dr. Köhler-Geib has studied at HEC in Paris, the University of Michigan in the US, the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, and Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona in Spain. She is still a fan of Michigan's Wolverines by the way. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Ludwig Maximilian University Munich and Pompeu Fabra University. Before becoming the chief economist, she spent many years in Washington D.C., working for the international monetary fund and the world bank. She was at the world bank the lead economist for Central America and the Senior Economist for Latin America. In these functions, she also traveled quite frequently to Central and South America.

The kfw

kfw (https://www.kfw.de/kfw.de-2.html) is a wholly government-owned development bank, based in Frankfurt am Main. The bank has a public mandate to assist federal and state governments with administrating (mostly loan) programs.

According to the total size of its balance sheet, it was Germany's 3rd largest bank in 2018. The whole kfw group includes several specialized units, including kfw capital (https://www.kfw.de/microsites/Microsite/kfw-capital.de/en/) to promote innovation and growth, which also administrates multi-billion euros in VC investments, mostly as LP in other funds.

The Venture Capital and Private Equity Barometer

For the VC and PE index (https://www.kfw.de/About-KfW/Service/Download-Center/Konzernthemen/Research/Indikatoren/German-Private-Equity-Barometer/) the kfw research department surveys around 450 investors quarterly. They are members of Germany's PE and VC Association (https://www.bvkap.de/) and part of the Deutsche Börse Venture Network (https://www.venture-network.com/dbvn-en/) on many dimensions of their outlook for the next quarter and business in the last quarter.

Not all data is available on the website in English, but the index has now a history of more than 80 quarters.

The index has three main components and 12 subcategories. The main categories are business climate, (current) business situation, and business expectations (for the next quarter).

The subcategories cover areas like fundraising, entry evaluations, exit opportunities, new investment, deal-flow quantity, deal-flow quality, deal-flow innovativeness, taxation framework, write-downs, economy (overall), interest rates, and funding.

Find all blog posts with all the links on our blog https://medium.com/startuprad-io/the-only-venture-capital-data-for-germany-you-need-to-know-24aa5ac1e919

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Topics Discussed in this Interview

In this interview, we are talking about

#innovation #startup #startupstories #startupradio #entrepreneurship #entrepreneur #business #motivation #success...

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. We have also some event recommendations for you and discounts from 20% to 100% for the events listed in our show notes.

Let’s talk startups:

Our Enablers

This recording is supported by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen

Look for our dedicated sub-podcast in partnership with them: Tech Startups Germany on our https://linktr.ee/startupradio

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) 

Farewell Windeln.de

We have often talked in our news about the precarious position of windeln.de. Now it is finally liquidated 

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+ 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.

You can find his profile at 7 Global Capital here on their website as Managing Partner and Founder.

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...

Happy 2023, as well as a happy Chinese New Year of the Rabbit. 2023 Chris and Joe will again bring you startup news once a month (with a small summer break) wrapping up what was going on — and we found noteworthy — in the GSA / DACH startups scene.

Our Highlights:

WeFox is under fire for growing with acquisitions of insurance broker pools, BioNTech makes largest acquisition in its history, DeepL confirms unicorn status and snipes at Grammarly, Solarisbank in trouble with BaFin, Trade Republic has to disclose numbers and Sono Motors gets longer runway with EU money.

Let’s talk startups:

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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. Look for Tech Startups Germany here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio

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Top News

WeFox got some splaining to do 🙂

Extensive, but not favorable coverage of insurtech Wefox came out this month. The main complaints are that the growth is basically driven by acquiring existing pools of insurance brokers (not really what you would associate with an insurtech startup). They made that way 600 million Euros in revenue in 2022. But these pools do not get innovative systems from WeFox, or innovative insurance offers from them, they just keep working. Also, there has been no innovative product that really drove the growth at WeFox as an innovative unicorn

BioNTech makes the largest acquisition to date

BioNTech may be one of Germany’s most successful startup companies. We talked about it in our news before, the company alone is responsible for approximately half a percentage point of Germany’s GDP Growth in 2021 — Keep in mind that Germany is the 4th largest country in the world by nominal GDP.

Here is the new piece: Mainz-based pharma company BioNTech (famous for their corona vaccine) makes the largest acquisition in its history with UK-based AI startup Instadeep

Related: BioNTech’s founder on the future of mRNA technology

Cologne-based DeepL confirms unicorn status and snipes at Grammarly

DeepL takes aim at Grammarly with the launch of Write, to clean up your prose.

Related:

Cologne-based translation tool DeepL confirms unicorn valuation for their 2022 fundraising of 100 mn US$

Solarisbank joins N26 in Troubles with BaFin

Bafin is Germany’s bank oversight body (think FSA or SEC). They have already limited the number of customers N26 can acquire due to lapses in following regulations (especially AML), now Solarisbank is in too: “Solarisbank in Germany can now only get new partners (fintech clients) with permission of German finance oversight BaFin, due to continuing problems. BaFin also sends an “observer”

Trade Republic Updates

Trade Republic generates more than 1 bn Euros inflows of new client money with 2% interest rate offer and a lot of favorable press coverage.

Also, Trade Republic has to publish their numbers: There is a legal requirement in Germany to publish your balance sheet 12 months after your business...

Executive Summary

In this episode, we have the privilege to explore fintech and banking in 2023 alongside Paolo, Global Research Leader for Banking and Capital Markets for IBM. He offers his insight into fintech and banking twenty years from now. We examine the strategies important for capital markets, fintech, and banking and the forces shaping their future. Paolo shares with us that these players need to be cognizant of their strategy choices, as well as how different successful platforms will be in the future. Last but not least, he impresses how imperative it is to start reasonably preparing for quantum computing today. It is a must-listen episode that provides tremendous insight into fintech growth and innovation.

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The Expert

Paolo is a fintech entrepreneur and thought leader who stands out from the crowd. He has been at the forefront of innovation in banking and fintech for nearly two decades. He has served as an experienced banker and risk manager, having held senior positions in major firms. In 2008, he founded Capitecs, an innovative startup based in Frankfurt that would eventually be acquired by IBM in 2012. Since then, Sironi has continued to innovate and lead the global research efforts for the IBM consulting institute, particularly in banking, fintech, and capital markets. He has also released five bestselling books on various fintech-related topics that have further established him as an authority figure. Paolo Sironi serves as a testament to success resulting from fintech expertise gained through experience in traditional banking institutions.

His most recent one is "Banks and Fintech on Platform Economies: Contextual and Conscious Banking (The Wiley Finance Series)" you can buy it and learn more here: https://amzn.to/3XC3OIU (AL)

His other books are:

• FinTech Innovation: From Robo-Advisors to Goal-Based Investing and Gamification https://amzn.to/3IOHqrM (AL)
• MiFID II: Value-Generation for Investors https://amzn.to/3iFtQML (AL)
• Modern Portfolio Management: From Markowitz to Probabilistic Scenario Optimisation https://amzn.to/3iFtQML (AL)
• Financial Market Transparency: Essay on Financial Markets Theory https://amzn.to/3Wi7z5j (AL)
• 金融科技创新 (Fintech Innovation Mandarin Edition): https://amzn.to/3Wi7z5j (AL)

Thoughts To Ponder

Paolo, a fintech entrepreneur, banker, and thought leader in risk management, believes that banks are unable to compete on the level of volume needed to match that of tech giants. In order to stay competitive and provide value for their customers, fintech must set their sights on delivering superior service rather than chasing the same levels of scale. With his books and writing, Paolo has created a framework through which bankers and fintech entrepreneurs alike can better target value-based services in order to gain an...

Executive Summary

In this bonus episode of our expert interview series, Antonio Fatas, Professor of Economics at INSEAD, joins us to provide insights into the current situation with FTX. We've gathered a good deal of information about the collapse so far but there is still much that remains unknown. We delved into some of the known facts surrounding FTX and pondered together on what could happen in the future. It's clear from our discussion that FTX was not a regulated financial institution, and also had its own unique challenges. We'll be keeping an eye out for more developments related to FTX as time goes on to see what other lessons we can learn.

I do believe there are other places where entities are insolvent, we just have not seen it yet.

Antonio Fatas, Professor of Economics 

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FTX suffered from bad management and likely fraud as well

Antonio Fatas, Professor of Economics

Background

As crypto continues to grow into a new and important market, the digital asset industry has been rocked by the sudden collapse of one of its biggest crypto exchanges - FTX. Led by crypto personality Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX had previously been ranked as the world’s third-biggest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume, so its downfall came as quite a shock to crypto investors. This news is sure to cause ripples throughout the crypto industry for a long time, and it serves as another reminder that despite its rising popularity, crypto remains an unpredictable and high-risk gamble.

 Regulators may now have a different view on the risks and regulations of crypto.

Antonio Fatas, Professor of Economics

This event echoed Mt Gox’s downfall although the underlying problem was quite different. Unlike Mt. Gox which fell victim to hack, FTX merely could not keep up with the sudden demand for withdrawals caused by investors who were losing faith in the platform. The resulting effect sent FTT, their native token, tumbling and kicked off a domino effect causing customers to rush out of the exchange and further crippling its ability to sustain itself, leading inevitably to its demise.

I find it very revealing that these tokens that are supposed to work with high inflation, because the central banks are all crazy but this is the way to hold on to your purchasing power. Now that we have inflation, they are collapsing. That to me is a really red flag.

Antonio Fatas, Professor of Economics

Bitcoin crashed, Ethereum crashed, and almost every other major token did the same. Then Binance stepped in, with the world’s number one exchange announcing it would buy FTX and ensure everyone gets repaid. But just as soon as the market settled, Binance announced a U-turn, saying the situation at FTX was beyond recovery. 

The implications from the complase of FTX will be felt for crypto for the coming years in more an thougher regulations. That is why we will follow the story. We start with a discussion of the situation with our guest. Professor Fatas.

The Expert

Antonio is an influential professor of economics with an impressive set of credentials. With a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and a research fellowship at the Centre for Economic and Policy Research in London, he brings broad expertise to his job as a Professor of Economics...

Management Summary

Welcome to a Startuprad.io tradition, airing on December 25th. A review of the most important events in Fintech from the perspective of our guests for the 8th year in a row right now. The most important development in the fintech world was for most guests the FTX collapse. During the recordings agreed that fintech investments have seen a peak — there will be a valley behind it, but there will be new investment records achieved after the expected recession. As next hot topics emerged embedded finance and crypto. Not all crypto will be hot again, only with a sustainable business model, there is a future according to our guests. Actually, some guests welcomed a shakeout of the market — albeit it should not have been that violent and long.

Leave Us a Good Review

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Introduction to our Fintech Review

For years Startuprad.io makes an annual fintech review, where practitioners, investors, and fintech folks get to wrap up their year. The focus is on GSA, but it seems to be more and more the case that markets get more interconnected and trends follow each other in much shorter time spans. It is also a tradition that we publish it on December 25th. 

Keep in mind that since the first fintech review the field has changed and broadened a lot! Really a lot. Where it used to be only payment apps, now there are fintechs in insurance, crypto, proptech, banking, SME banking, capital markets, and much much more. So we thought we would invite guests from a diverse range of backgrounds to give you their perspective on the time of corona, the year 2022, and the outlook for next year.

Our guest this year:

• Meeri Savolainen, CEO and Co-Founder of Insurtech INZMO
• Luca Frignani, CEO and Co-Founder of Credit Platform Exaloan
• Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Crypto Custody Bank Finoa
• Frank Schwab, Co-Founder of the Fintech Forum and multiple supervisory board member

Our questions to the guests:

• What was the most important development in the fintech world in 2022?
• Do you think fintech has peaked in terms of investments — as some data suggests?
• What is the next hot topic in fintech? Is crypto making a comeback or are we all focusing on API tools for embedding finance functions?
• If you have one: What was the most interesting fintech development for you during corona?
• If you have one: What was the most important piece of news in 2022?

Thank you very much for your valuable time and insights. We wish you much success in 2023 and happy holidays!

Blog Post With Links and Show Notes

https://medium.com/startuprad-io/fintech-review-germany-switzerland-and-austria-gsa-2022-97b12122e34b

#startup #germany #austria #switzerland #fintechreview #startupradio #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #investing #venturecapital #crypto #embedded #custody

Mentioned in this episode:

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Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups, our startup news wrap-up for December 2022 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on December 19th, 2022. Keep in mind, this news episode covers everything since our last news episode.

As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode, which will be January 2023, the first news for 2023. Guys, another year is over! Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog, link below

Our Highlights:

Enpal makes huge fundraising in the current environment, more than 800 mn €. Sennder doubles its valuation in the next funding round to 2 bn US$ and has already 60 mn commitments. The funding environment may be bleak, but investors announced new funds for VC and PE investments worth 3.1 bn US$ targeting startups and scaleups in GSA or Europe. One blog asks if the time of Rocket Internet is over, Matter Labs raises 200 mn, a big heist drives a startup into insolvency and Getir buys Gorillas for 1,2 bn US$, a far cry from Gorillas' former 3 bn US$ valuation.

Let's talk startups:

Top News 

Enpal Fundraising

Enpal could double its valuation in the new funding round. Berlin-based unicorn Enpal closes €855 million in debt funding to accelerate the adoption of solar energy.

Sennder Raises New Funds At Double Valuation

Digital forwarder unicorn Sennder is raising new money, at a  2 bn US$ valuation. According to the report, they already have  60m commitments.

Fundraising For VCs Went Quite Well - More Than 3.1 bn Euros Worth of New Investment Funds Have Been Closed

The largest is EQT Ventures. It has Money if your startup needs it: EQT Ventures III closes Europe's largest venture capital fund committed to early-stage tech startups. The money will go to early-stage startups in Europe and North America. For more funds, wait for our later section with new fund announcements.

A service for our audience: Learn more and send in pitches here: https://eqtgroup.com/current-portfolio/funds/eqt-ventures-iii 

Has Rocket Internet Already Seen Its Best Years?

"Mucho trouble over at Rocket Internet," wrote Robin Wauters in his readworthy newsletter for Tech.eu. The article asks if their era is over. Staff cuts and investment stop point in that direction.

Startup Brand Ranking

Jung von Matt publishes their annual  GERMAN STARTUP BRAND RANKING

Some of the top 50 startup brands are known from our news: About You, Flink, Numa Group, getquin, Vivid, Flaschenpost, Tier Mobility, Zolar, Enpal, Sono Motors, Trade Republic

Matter Labs raises 200 mn US$

Matter Labs, the Berlin, Germany-based developer of zkSync, a solution that reduces the cost of Ethereum transactions, raised $200M in Series C funding https://buff.ly/3UorChp

Not Oceans Eleven, But Still BIG

Berlin-based luxury watch marketplace Watchmaster was one of the largest marketplaces of its kind. After a spectacular robbery where 10 m € worth of watches have been stolen the company has to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/3Fi3qsG 

Getir Buys Gorillas And It Is Not Going Well For the Gorillas Founder

First, this kind of news appeared: Getir will take over Gorillas soon - according to press reports. The negotiations have been dragging on for some time now.

Then, we got the confirmation: Getir acquires German competitor Gorillas in $1.2 billion deal - where Gorillas was once valued at 3 bn...

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.

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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. 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

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 $1 billion. They have been valued at their series C investment at 2.1 bn US$ 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.

Lilium Sells 100 Airtaxis

Saudi Arabia buys 100 air taxis from Munich -based startup Lilium. 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 in 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

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. 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.

Mentioned in this episode:

Our Enablers

Younium Younium is the subscription management and billing platform for B2B SaaS. Younium brings the transformative infrastructure to manage and grow your business while you focus on the things that matter. https://www.younium.com/ Tvarit Tvarit is an industrial ai startup, that helps companies to reduce rejections by 40%-60% in metal casting, as well as saving up to 18% on energy. Learn more here: https://www.tvarit.com/

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Executive Summary

We hear from Meeri, who is the co-founder of INZMO (Insurance on Mobile). She co-founded the Berlin-based insurtech which helps to make simple insurance contracts via an app. The simple approach also made them one of the fastest-growing insurtechs in Europe. In the interview we talk about her journey from a corporate lawyer to an entrepreneur, pivoting and founding INZMO. We also talk about how a simple insurance contract via an app could turn 50 bn € sitting on bank accounts productive again. Tune in to learn more.

“Our mantra is that insurance just has to be there, hidden in other products. You only realize it is there when you need it.”Meeri Savolainen, CEO and Co-Founder INZMO

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“We want to be one of the service providers, … who help you to have a fun, free and flexible live.”Meeri Savolainen, CEO and Co-Founder INZMO

Our Enablers

Younium

Younium is the subscription management and billing platform for B2B SaaS. Younium brings the transformative infrastructure to manage and grow your business while you focus on the things that matter. https://www.younium.com/

Tvarit

Tvarit is an industrial ai startup, that helps companies to reduce rejections by 40%-60% in metal casting, as well as saving up to 18% on energy. Learn more here: https://www.tvarit.com/

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Startup Raven

The Founder

Today we’re joined by Meeri, the CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based insurtech startup INZMO. Meeri is a lawyer by training, and she spent several years working in the corporate world before deciding to start her own company. Her co-founders include Risto Klausen a former professional motorcycle road racer and multiple Estonian and Baltic Champion in the Superbike class, which helped inspire the company’s focus on insurance for bikes. They pivoted from only bikes to providing more offers via the app. Since its launch in 2019, INZMO has become one of the leading apps for mobile insurance in Europe, and Meeri has been named one of the top 10 women to watch in insurtech in 2022. We’re excited to hear more about her story and her company’s success. Thanks for joining us, Meeri!

The Startup

INZMO was born out of the idea to quickly insure a bike via an app (Bike ID). During product presentations of Bike ID the team got feedback, on why they only offer insurance for a bike via their app.

This was the moment INZMO was born. The team relocated to Berlin from Estonia. The company is by now one of the fastest-growing insurtechs in Europe, with a female founder. This makes INZMO the first insurtech company in Europe that offers property insurance for e-scooters and regular bicycles through an app. The whole insurance process takes just a few minutes and is completed entirely online — from signing the contract to making a claim.

Currently available in Germany, and several other European countries with plans to expand further. And with over 30,000 users already on board, it looks like INZMO is well on its way to becoming the go-to insurance provider for two-wheeled commuters across Europe. They currently offer property insurance including to replace of a rental...

Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups in October 2022 by Startuprad.io with Chris from Essen, Germany, and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on Thursday, October 20th, 2022.

Our Highlights:

Another one of our former guests gets a Snoop Dog investment. Quick delivery startup Gorillas seems to sell itself to competitor Getir, according to Bloomberg, despite an earlier announcement they are looking for more investments. Gadget rental service Grover adds 270 m € in venture debt, getting it close to 2 billion €. Our former guest Nuri (formerly Bitwala) had to file for insolvency, now investors jump ship and the company is wound down this year. Volocopter is sued by early crowdfunding backers, Home24 has a takeover offer from a brick-and-mortar furniture retailer and BioNTech takes on cancer. Also, Munich-based travel tech Holidu raises 100 m € in a combination of 75 m equity and 25 m debt funding.

Let’s talk startups:

Our Enablers

Younium

Younium is the subscription management and billing platform for B2B SaaS. Younium brings the transformative infrastructure to manage and grow your business while you focus on the things that matter. https://www.younium.com/

Tvarit

Tvarit is an industrial ai startup, that helps companies to reduce rejections by 40%-60% in metal casting, as well as saving up to 18% on energy. Learn more here: https://www.tvarit.com/

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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:

Tech Startups Germany - Startups and Venture Capital

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Startup Raven

Top News

Europe’s Largest Cannabis Funding To Date

Europe’s largest cannabis funding to date: Snoop Dogg-backed German cannabis startup gets $37.6M Series B led by British American Tobacco

learn more about the Entrepreneur of the Year 2021 (German Startup Awards) founder Finn Age Hänsel in our interview

Gorillas May Soon Be Bought By Getir

Delivery Startup Getir in Advanced Talks to Buy Gorillas (Bloomberg). They write:

• “Proposed deal for Gorillas would be a mix of cash and equity
• The combination would give Getir, which is backed by Mubadala Investment Co. and Sequoia Capital, scale in key European markets including the UK and Germany.
• Gorillas had previously held talks with a number of competitors about the prospects for a merger or sale of its business, people familiar with the matter said previously.
• Chief Executive Officer Kagan Sumer said earlier this year that he planned to look for new financing to recalibrate the company to work toward profitability.”

Grover Takes Home 270 m €

As consumer spending tightens, yet appetites for tech remain the same, Berlin-based Grover sees an uptick in rental interest and is now bringing its debt funding to close to €2 billion to meet demand. Grover takes on more debt funding, this time €270 million from London-based M&G

Our Former Guest Nuri (Bitwala)

Will be wound down. Despite seeing interest from investors, they could not get one to sign up. So the company will be shut down until the end of the year. The last day one can use a Nuri account is in mid-December. Neobank Vivid makes...

Executive Summary

Monite is a Berlin-based embedded finance startup, which is already active in the US, UK, and major European economies, despite being at Seed Stage. With their API partners like B2B neobanks, SaaS companies & marketplaces can embed Invoicing, AP Automation, and more in 3–5 weeks. They are looking for next year for their next funding and start to offer contract management.

We really want to make sure, that anyone who wants to offer workflows with financial documents … can integrate it with us. Ivan Maryasin, CEO & Co-Founder Monite

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The revolution is yet to happen for CFO tools.Ivan Maryasin, CEO & Co-Founder Monite

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Our tool could be build by bigger players in 12–18 months, but we give them an API with which they can start earn revenue in a few weeks.Ivan Maryasin, CEO & Co-Founder Monite

The Founder

Our guest is today Ivan Maryasin the CEO and Co-Founder of embedded finance startup Monite. He worked in Moskow, Boston, and the Bay Area, and finally ended up in Berlin in the early team of Penta, as head of growth. He left Penta, when he saw the opportunity for embedded finance tools, especially for CFOs, in order to set up Monite.

The Startup

Monite is an embedded finance startup, that enables non-financial companies to add financial functions without holding a license. The tool of Monite helps startups and SMEs automate some of their finance workflows. They enter the market another way, they are not offering their services to the clients directly, but enable the service providers to offer accounting and financial services, e.g. Qonto, and Penta.

They currently offer payables automation and receivables automation. Monite is currently available in the US, UK, and major countries of the EU.

In 2023 they will focus on contract management, to integrate in their functions.

Find all the Links and Show Notes here:

https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/meet-monite-they-make-the-life-of-cfos-easier-startuprad-io-257afdc8be79

Topics discussed in this interview:

finance, treasury, embedded finance, treasury function, financial management, startup financial management, integration, saas, api, accounts payables, usa, uk, eu, germany, france, venture capital, hiring, open positions

Our highlights:

Germany is preparing for a potentially rough winter, in many ways. Now Environmental Action Germany (Deutsche Umwelthilfe): Asked Germans not to put up any Christmas lights this season. Startups in GSA keep laying off staff, but also raising significant funds. We have our usually shortened list a bit longer this month, to show that it is not all gloom and doom here. You will also notice that the M&A activity is up, totaling 55 bn US$ in summer 2022 (for all of Europe), and is still going strong.

Let’s talk startups:

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Our Enablers

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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:

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Blog Post

Find all links, news and show notes here: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-september-2022-53339fae6ca7

Top News

Berlin’s Everphone extends Series C to $232M

Everphone started with their first fundraising for Series C in December 2021 and now make an additional closing of 32 mn Euros, which totals — according to PitchBook 232 m US$ Series C for their device-as-a-service model

Crypto Boom is slowing

European crypto app downloads have almost halved from 2021 amongst the biggest drops are Blockchain.com and unicorn Bitpanda.

Sifted writes “Beleaguered Austrian crypto trading platform Bitpanda saw a 65% decrease in app downloads from 563k in H1 2021 to 197k in H1 2022. In June, the company laid off a third of its employees, admitting that it had hired too fast and needed to cut back expenditure amid the crypto market rout.” VCs keep an eye on their investments and the app downloads are a proxy for growth here for them.

Insolvencies hit household names

Yes, they are not startups, but it gives you a great overview of the current environment, also for the startups

• Automotive supplier Dr. Schneider has to file for insolvency with 4000 people employed there
• Shoe retailer Ludwig Görtz is a staple in German shopping streets founded in 1875 with their big stores and 1.800 employees, now they have to file for insolvency
• German toilet paper producer Hakle is a household staple in Germany. Now they have to file for insolvency, due to high costs of raw materials, energy, and transportation
• Traditional Austrian lighting company Kolarz, founded in 1918, has to file for insolvency

Podcast monetization is getting serious with international involvement

Lots of mergers in monetizing podcasts, the first Julep from Munich was bought by Libsyn and now London-based Auddy buys Vienna-based Audiomy

More firings :-(

Keep in mind here, that most startups are likely not in financial trouble, but they rather try to extend the money they have already raised. The consensus seems to be cutting 15–20% of the workforce for most startups.

• Berlin-based escooter company Tier fires...

Executive Summary

This episode is part of our Subject Matter Expert Interviews. It will be one in a series over time, keeping up with the development of the central banks and their digital currency. This episode is just the start! We talk to Kimmo, a regtech entrepreneur, who formerly worked at central banks of Finland, Norway, Bank of England, ECB, and the Fed in New York City. This episode is a starting point for us, from which we will dive deeper, keeping up with the developments on CBDC.

At the Federal Reserve in New York I siumlated attacks on critical infrastructure on the back of the 9/11 attacks.Kimmo Soramäki, Founder and CEO of FNA

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We work with a lof of clients with three letter acronyms. So we decided to name our company financial network analytics, FNA.Kimmo Soramäki, Founder and CEO of FNA

The Expert

This episode is part of our Subject Matter Expert Interviews. It will be one in a series over time, keeping up with the development of the central banks and their digital currency. We talk to Kimmo, a regtech entrepreneur, who founded with FNA a company that helps banks, central banks and financial institutions. He has already advisde the central banks of Finland and Norway, been a visiting researcher at the Bank of England and expert at ECB. He also spents a year as research economist at the Fed in New York City. His first software simulated for finish banks the impact of joining the euro zone.

When the financial crisis 2008 came, we realized that we don’t need an outside attack on the symstem to destabilize it. Kimmo Soramäki, Founder and CEO of FNA

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Find all links and show notes here: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/fintech-opportunities-in-cental-bank-digital-currency-part-1-839a35c2a1be

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

central banks, central bank digital currency, digital currency, bank of english, federal bank, federal bank of new york, bank of england, currency, timeline, cbdc, stable coin, usd coin, us dollar stable coin, euro stable coin, cny, chinese yuan, chinese stable coin, yuan stable coin

Our Highlights

Startups in GSA did better than expected. We had a few insolvency filings, but also amazing fundraisings like Celonis 1 bn US$ combination of equity and debt funding. Insuftech Wefox raises 400 m. One can already see the signs of a downturn, M&A activity going up, as well as the news about insolvencies or job cuts/ hiring freezes. But — according to a Bikcom survey — 8 out of 10 startups are still hiring. Deal time our recent guest Qonto buys former guest Penta and there was more in a B2B neobank deal week. Even Allianz had to learn, that one can not buy fintech success and there is more news on Wirecard.

We will also bombard you with funding data on Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as global numbers. Keep in mind you can read all our news on our blog https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-summer-2022-wrap-up-603e2c1939ae

Top News

Celonis Secures 1 bn US$ Funding

Celonis remains a success story with a 400 million Series D extension and a 600 mn US$ credit facility, at a valuation of nearly 13 bn US$. They are cementing their spot as Germany’s most valuable startup as well as its only decacorn. They do process mining and help to identify unrealized efficiencies. Right now, they’re helping with supply chain issues, for example.

Despite Market Conditions, WeFox Closes 400 m US$ Funding

Wefox, the Berlin-based insurtech, closes USD 400 million Series D round at 4.5 bn Dollar valuation

One Former Guest Has to File for Insolvency

• German crypto startup Nuri had a streak of bad luck. First, they announce to cut almost 20% of their headcount, then millions of their client’s money is frozen with Celsius and now a blog claimed it all hit during fundraising
• Eventually followed by an insolvency filing https://medium.com/startuprad-io/berlin-based-crypto-bank-nuri-formerly-known-as-bitwala-with-500-000-b4953e15dbfa
• Berlin-based crypto neoborker Nuri had to file for insolvency. Now the insolvency administrator says there are parties interested in buying the company

Neobrokers Facing Headwinds

• Neobrokers close to the edge: No good news from the SEC report on the poster child of all neo-brokers. Unfortunately, there is no report for Germany mentioning e.g. Trade Republic
• Robinhood almost imploded during GameStop meme stock chaos — TechCrunch
• Bankman-Fried’s FTX Is Seeking a Path to Buy Robinhood — BloombergWhat does this mean for BitPanda, Trade Republic, Scalable Capital, and N26? Do they also need to look for a strategic buyer rather than an IPO?

B2B Neobanks Had a pretty big Deal Week

Qonto Announces Plan to Acquire Penta https://buff.ly/3zwPCI3 as we have predicted two weeks before https://buff.ly/3zxUSeH we have extensive coverage of Penta from the past linked in the article, as well as an interview with Qonto’s head of Germany. Also Kontist was selling itself at a pretty hefty discount https://buff.ly/3c9pmuF

Viability of Quick Delivery Business Model still Questioned

• After only one year: Gorillas is closing shop in Belgium. Efarmz is taking over parts
• Gorillas wants to save itself with advertising from consumers and food giants of the world, the producer of the products they are delivering every day
• More signs of the current economic environment for startups: Munich-based quick delivery startup arive delivers tech gadgets and lifestyle products. They just had...

Executive Summary

French neobank unicorn Qonto announced their 486 m Euros in Series D funding at 4.4 bn Euro valuation in January 2022, with a global Who-is-Who of investors. 100 m Euros of this record funding will go into their expansion in the German market, competing with Penta, N26, Holvi, or Deutsche Bank’s Fyrst. So we talked to Torben Rabe Qonto’s Country Director for Germany about how they want to compete and reach their goal of 1 million customers by 2025.

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Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups in June 2022 by Startuprad.io. My co-host is again Chris from New York. 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 station IBGR.Network.

We recorded this new episode on Monday, June 27th, 2022. Keep in mind, that we will have a summer break and be back for you with another news episode on Labor Day, which is 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 September.

We will also slightly change our publication schedule for this July and August, mostly going to one publication every two weeks. You can keep up to date with our Google Calendar for all publications.

Our highlights:

Startups in GSA also shedding headcount, including unicorns that recently raised money. All signs point towards them extending their runway, expecting a recession. Some startups face a challenging fundraising environment, but others like WeFox want to almost double their valuations. Also, Personio and Trade Republic raise additional funds.

In our “stay ahead of the curve” section, we have a lot of articles an entrepreneur should read to prepare for the potential downturn.

German economic minister Habeck is unveiling his new startup strategy, considering even a minimum investment in VC Funds for German insurers and pension funds.

The fast delivery startups seem to hit a wall and even formerly mighty Gorillas now explores strategic options.

Let’s talk startups: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-june-2022-2651b2b64fe

Executive Summary

AlphaQ is a new fund of VC funds, headquartered in Berlin. They are not only raising money to invest in VC funds, but they also swap shares in existing VC funds for shares in their Fund of Funds. In our interview Stephan, the founding partner also elaborates on their investment strategy.

Over the last years venture capital has outperformed most other investment classes, but now we see a correction in valuations. Stephan Heller, Founding Partner AlphaQ 

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The goal of one billion is only the minimum size for us to list. Our earliest listing window is in 2026.Stephan Heller, Founding Partner AlphaQ 

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We want digital debt to be registered, issued, transferred and eventually traded on our infrastructure. Benedikt Schuppli, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FQX

Executive Summary

FQX is a Zürich, Switzerland-based fintech with great aspirations. They want to digitize company debt and this digital debt to be registered, issued, transferred, and eventually traded on their infrastructure.

Promissory notes are known around the financial world. These instruments are fairly standardized. So, if you put this on a blockchain, you have an extremely powerful financing tool. Benedikt Schuppli, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FQX

The Founder

This time we interview Benedikt Schuppli (https://www.linkedin.com/in/benedikt-schuppli/), a founder from Switzerland. He is the co-founder and co-CEO of FQX (https://fqx.ch/), a fintech startup from Switzerland offering electronic IOUs. Benedikt is a lawyer by training but took his first job after graduating with a Swiss fintech pioneer named Lykke as Chief Legal Officer. He there realized he wanted to be an entrepreneur and co-founded a smart contract startup called Lexon.

The Startup

FQX (https://fqx.ch/) is based in Zürich, Switzerland. Promissory notes, a version of IOUs is a stable of company funding in the German speaking area. Now with digitalization they get the ability to become much more widely used and listed on capital markets globally. A single issuance of promissory notes by one issuer is normally between 50-150 million Euros each. According to a recent statistic Q2 2021 alone saw the issuance of promissory notes worth 2,5 bn Euros in Germany, compared to 3,2 bn Euros in Q2 2020. Right now, they have a premium for not being tradable, but this is about to change with FQX.

Learn more here: We want digital debt to be registered, issued, transferred and eventually traded on our infrastructure. Benedikt Schuppli, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FQX

Executive Summary

FQX is a Zürich, Switzerland-based fintech with great aspirations. They want to digitize company debt and this digital debt to be registered, issued, transferred, and eventually traded on their infrastructure.

Promissory notes are known around the financial world. These instruments are fairly standardized. So, if you put this on a blockchain, you have an extremely powerful financing tool. Benedikt Schuppli, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FQX

The Founder

This time we interview Benedikt Schuppli (https://www.linkedin.com/in/benedikt-schuppli/), a founder from Switzerland. He is the co-founder and co-CEO of FQX (https://fqx.ch/), a fintech startup from Switzerland offering electronic IOUs. Benedikt is a lawyer by training but took his first job after graduating with a Swiss fintech pioneer named Lykke as Chief Legal Officer. He there realized he wanted to be an entrepreneur and co-founded a smart contract startup called Lexon.

The Startup

FQX (https://fqx.ch/) is based in Zürich, Switzerland. Promissory notes, a version of IOUs is a stable of company funding in the German speaking area. Now with digitalization they get the ability to become much more widely used and listed on capital markets globally. A single issuance of promissory notes by one issuer is normally between 50-150 million Euros each. According to a recent statistic Q2 2021 alone saw the issuance of promissory notes worth 2,5 bn Euros in Germany, compared to 3,2 bn Euros in Q2 2020. Right now, they have a premium for not being tradable, but this is about to change with FQX.

Learn more here:

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

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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:

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:

Tech Startups Germany This is Tech StartUps Germany by Startuprad.io, a global top 125 Tech Podcast. You will find interviews with all sorts…techstartups.sounder.fm

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Find all news and show notes here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-may-2022-de23cf4942e3

Executive Summary

Exaloan started out as a rating agency for digital assets. They developed into a global platform to connect crowdlending platforms and institutional investors. They started out with the rating of digital assets. Soon they realized that it makes more sense for them to help investors with the access to lending platforms and building of their portfolio in crowdlending assets using tokenization.

Our mission is to close the global financing gap, which is a staggering 5.2 trillion US$, which means there are more than 100 m SMEs that are lacking financing.  Luca Fignani, co-founder and CEO of ExaloanWith our partners we have created a tokenization engine, a digital asset platform, on which we can create a digital token for the loans, we have sourced from crowdlending. This is really a step to the next level. We are joining digital assets with digital lending.  Luca Fignani, co-founder and CEO of Exaloan

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The Founder

Our guest today is Luca Frignani (https://www.linkedin.com/in/luca-andre-frignani/), the CEO and co-founder of Frankfurt based fintech Exaloan (https://www.exaloan.com/). He is an original Frankfurt boy, with roots in Italy and Czech Republic. Since he is already very international, he spent quite a bit of time studying in France Lille and Nizza. He also spent time in London and Zürich. At one time he also worked as a quant analyst, developing investment strategies.

Development banks are seeing crowdlending platforms are a very important tool.Luca Fignani, co-founder and CEO of Exaloan

The Startup

Exaloan (https://www.exaloan.com/) is a Frankfurt-based fintech company. They are a rating agency for digital assets. It is also working with its clients to give them access to international crowdlending platforms and help them to build a portfolio. They are cooperating with platforms in Germany, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines, just to name a few.

Venture Capital Funding

... learn more on our blogpost at www.medium.com/startuprad-io

"Klana is all built beautifully around the consumer. … but many merchants also want a B2B checkout and here Klana decided to partner with the leading provider in the space [Billie.io]."Matthias Knecht, Co-Founder Billie.io

The Founder

“I was raised in Germany, with a stint at Columbia University before moving to McKinsey. After working for them,” says Matthias (https://de-DE_.linkedincom/in/-matthiasknecht), “I left and started Zencap.” This company was eventually acquired by Funding Circle where he spent only one year of his time there; then on into Billie — together with cofounder Christian.

"Hiring is currently one of our main challenges. Our doors are wide open."Matthias Knecht, Co-Founder Billie.io

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The Startup

Billie’s business is disrupting the B2B market by allowing consumers to buy now and pay later. Their investors include Klana — one of Europe’s largest Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) companies for this sector with over 50 million clients across 500+ brands worldwide!The company also integrates seamlessly into Klana’s systems so that all client transactions can be done through Billie's platform while still enjoying advanced features such as payment encryption and loan pre-payment options which not only make financial services more accessible but give buyers peace of mind when making large purchases or taking out short term loans.

Website: https://www.billie.io/

Crunchbase: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/billie-io

Twitter: https://twitter.com/billiegmbh

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/billie.io/

Venture Capital Funding

Billie is one of the most successful startups in Germany and they have raised more than 140 m US$ from investors like Creadum, Global Founders Fund (Rocket Internet), Dawn Capital, Speedinvest, Klana, Tencent, and Picus Capital. It sounds like Billie may become soon a unicorn with all these hints being dropped about their future success.

Learn more at www.medium.com/startuprad-io

Welcome to This Month in GSA Startups in April 2022 by Startuprad.io — in a news recording with Christian Fahrenbach ”Chris” from New York City today and me Jörn Menninger “Joe”, from Frankfurt am Main. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in radio syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio, the blog Fundscene, and our partner IBGR.Network.

We recorded this new episode on Monday, April 25th, 2022. The next news will go live on the 26th of May, the day we celebrate fathers day in Germany. For this reason, we have at this date two publications: the news and an episode on men’s health.

As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode.

We also partner with the EU-Startups Summit and Artic 15 you get a discount at both events with our codes in the show notes www.medium.com/startuprad-io. You can meet Joe in person in Barcelona at the EU Startups Summit on May 12th and 13th.

The discount codes are:

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Our highlights:

Despite slightly declining global VC investments GSA still generates Unicorns. This time we welcomed Grover and Choco officially into the league. Swiss Beqom is not confirmed, but also a massive investment. Apple and Porsche are rumored to work together on joint projects. Gorillas is looking for funding again, after raising a billion US$ (850 m Euros) in September 2021. Germany’s second most valuable fintech Mambu had to publish numbers. The corona patron registration app Luca first boomed during the lockdown, then their data protection was questioned, now they pivot to a fintech with the backing of investors including the Wefox founder.

Let’s talk startups:

Find all the links and show notes on our blog www.medium.com/startuprad-io

Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss and Austrian (GSA) Startups in March 2022 by Startuprad.io — in a news recording with Chris — not from New York City today and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. 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 new episode on Monday, March 21st, 2022. The recording is one week earlier than usual, due to the travel schedules of Chris and me.

As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode.

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: https://techstartups.sounder.fm/

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Our highlights:

We have the 100 most influential women in startup and venture capital in Europe. There are two new unicorns to announce in GSA. Unicorn Personio set up a charity fund and Germany’s largest fintech exit (at approx 1 bn US$) is in the making. We have an exclusive interview with the CEO in charge for almost 40 minutes from July 2021. We try to touch on the Russian invasion in Ukraine as lightly as possible, only when it impacts the GSA startup scene since you get more than enough news about this tragedy on ANY OTHER outlet. Please note that this does not mean we don’t care, but it is not our area of coverage. We are also talking about delivery startups and again Wirecard. Not surprisingly, Wirecard will keep the German courts busy for years to come.

Let’s talk startups:

Find all links and show notes here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io

People talk today about the crypto winter, but I went through the time after the Dotcom Bubble burst and there are a lot of similarities here. Wolfgang Männel, Blockchain Investor

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A few years ago, I was attracted by the opportunities the blockchain offers. Wolfgang Männel, Blockchain Investor

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As a blockchain investor I am currently looking at … 1) Everything that is happening in the DeFi space, especially the new ways of money transfer. 2) The Gaming Sector. It is a market with 3 bn people 3) Metaverse… it maybe a big failure or a big success. There is a fair chance it becomes huge 4) IoT security. For example, a car currently has more than 200 IoT devices. 5) The whole world of financial services, including insurance. Just look at the back offices of asset managers.

Wolfgang Männel, Blockchain Investor

The Investor

Wolfgang Männel (https://www.linkedin.com/in/wolfgang-maennel/) has been working for 30+ years. He was born and raised in Franconia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franconia), close to Nürnberg in Germany. Wolfgang started out in sales, started an agency and joined a consultancy (today Capgemini Invent). Surprisingly he had also a stint at a radio station, focused on classical music called Klassik Radio (https://www.klassikradio.de/). Klassik Radio is also the only public listed radio station in Germany. In between he was also an investor with 3i Group, at the time active in venture capital and private equity. He has also been an investor in turn-around cases during the subprime crisis.

If you have seen many crises before, you know how to react. I remember the 1987 Russian crisis, the Dotcom Crash, and more. … It was always followed by a long phase where it as difficult for startups to get any kind of financing. It took years to recover … but the only way after all the crisis was up. The valuations always went up after the recovery Wolfgang Männel, Blockchain Investor

He is the co-founder (senior partner) of Blockchain Founders Group BFG, a company builder and venture capital investor. You can apply here: https://www.f6s.com/ look for block rocket.

We are looking to be the first or second money in, even pre-revenue. Most companies we invest in have an MVP. Wolfgang Männel, Blockchain Investor

Further Readings / Additional Resources

· 1987 Dissolution of the Soviet Union: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

· Dot-com bubble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble

· Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis

· Here is the personality test 16 personalities: https://www.16personalities.com/

I turned to turn-around investing at the time of the sub-prime crisis. Wolfgang Männel, Blockchain Investor

Feedback

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Nobody knows what a digital euro will look like. ECB is in the process of exploring the possibility. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert

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China is with its digital Yuan ahead of Europe or the US. The ECB is investigating the possibility, with the aim of having a digital Euro 2025. We will see China launching the digital Yuan this year. That is almost 5 years ahead.Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert

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CBDC is a variant how the Euro will run on a modern infrastructure.Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert

The Expert

This interview is part of our series with subject matter experts. Our guest today is Philipp Sandner (https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippsandner/), Professor at Frankfurt School of Management and Finance. There he is head of the Blockchain Center. He is also a member of the fintech advisory council to the German federal government (FinTechRat), Chairman of the International Toke Association, as well as a contributor to Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/philippsandner/).  According to one of Germany’s largest newspapers Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Philipp is also one of the 30 most influential economists in the German-speaking area in their ranking for 2018 and 2019. He is also co-founder of the German Blockchain Association.

• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippsandner/
• Twitter https://twitter.com/philippsandner
• Wiki https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Sandner

The situation of the Federal Reserve in developing a digital central bank Dollar is like the ECB. Both are early in exploring the topic. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert

The Digital Euro

Central banks take inspiration from cryptocurrencies and are actively thinking about introducing their own cryptos, called central bank digital currency (CBDC). There are many podcasts out there talking about CBDC, especially US$, but Startuprad.io is headquartered in the city of the Euro, Frankfurt. So, we thought we shed some light on the perspective from Europe. The European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve are both in the first steps of exploring the possibilities and implications of CBDCs for the Euro and the US Dollar. But there is already a growing market in US$ stable coins, where stable coins in Euro have to stomach losses, due to the negative interest rates in the European Monetary Union (EMU). Tune in to learn more...

The difference in the US is that there is already a working alternative, the US$ stable coins. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert

Further Readings / Additional Resources

• Here is the link to the blockchain master program of Frankfurt School https://www.frankfurt-school.de/home/programmes/master/blockchain-digital-assets
• The central bank digital currency tracker of the Atlantic Council: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/
• CBDC definition

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:

https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-gsa-startups-february-2022-44520c52b1eb

When I started in crypto, I had to manage so many wallets and platforms, that I could not imagine how complicated it would be for an institutional investor. We started FINOA to help with that.

Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA

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We want to be the No 1 crypto custodian for institutional investors in Europe. Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA

The Founder

In this interview we speak to Henrik Gebbing (https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrik-gebbing-finoa/), the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Finoa, a Berlin-based crypto fintech, which is already one of the hidden champions. They are a global top 5 crypto custodian for institutional investors. Henrik attended Golden Gate University in San Francisco as a Fulbright Scholar and got his MBA at IE Business School in Madrid. He later worked as a consultant with McKinsey, but after 4 years jumped ship to start Finoa. He developed the idea, that would later become Finoa with his roommate (and now co-founder) on the kitchen table in Madrid while studying for his MBA.

Globally we want to maintain one of the top 5 spots for crypto custody.Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA

The Startup

The co-founders started Finoa (https://www.finoa.io/) in Berlin. Their driving idea was – and still is – to support institutional investors to go into crypto. They also support wealthy individuals, who hold substantial amounts of crypto assets of more than 100.000US$. Finoa is a custodian, meaning they keep - on behalf of their clients - their crypto assets save. At the time of the interview, they have around 400 customers. Their clients include the crypto holdings of Rocket Internet, T-Systems, US-based VCs, and hedge funds.

In April 2021 they announced a 22 mn US$ Series A funding, which is sizeable for Germany, as well as for crypto at the time.

We hold assets for entities in Asia and Silicon Valley, but our focus market is the European Union. Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA

Venture Capital Funding

FINOA announced their Series A funding of 22 mn US$ in April 2021(LINK). FINOA is open to discussions with investors, but they are not actively looking for new investors.

Fintech is fast, but crypto is warp-speed. Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA

A Joint Audio-Only Podcast

This is the first joint radio program and podcast of IBGR and the Startuprad.io podcast with its radio program Startup.Radio. You may know that IBGR and Startup.Radio are syndication partner, almost from the start of Startup.Radio. I, therefore, welcome William Eastman, founder of the IBGR Network, everybody calls Bill.

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What we have learned

Today we bring you insights from Atomico’s State of European Tech 2021 - an annual survey of startups all over Europe taking place annually since 2015. This survey may be the most comprehensive, repeated overview of the European startup and tech scene. This survey is a joint endeavor by Atomico, a London-based VC and PE fund, as well as the annual Slush tech festival in Helsinki, Finland. And, guys, you know a tech festival has to be good, if it can lure people to the freezing cold Helsinki in December. They also add data from providers like S&P and Dealroom in the mix. Startuprad.io had Dealrooms Founder in an interview btw.

This is just a start

This is just a starting point for you to discover the whole report on your own. It spans more than 350 pages, so we can not give you all the information here. The bottom line is … I would say: The whole continental ecosystem all over Europe has been lacking behind the US and China for quite some time. It looks like they have started to catch up in a big way, despite corona. We see this in increases in the number of investors, startups, fundings (number and size), and the increase in the uni/decacorn herds. The authors see a potential for the whole ecosystem that is now worth 3 Trillion US$ to be worth 24 Trillion US$ in 2030.

Learn More here:

https://www.startuprad.io/blog/what-we-have-learned-from-atomicos-state-of-european-tech-survey-audio-only/

Feedback is always welcome:

Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” Google Form for Feedback

This Month in German Startups - January 2022

Happy New Year guys! Welcome to This Month in German Startups in January 2021 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 radio syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio and our partner IBGR.Network.

We recorded this new episode on Monday, January 24th, 2022. All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode. There will also be a special episode on Atomico’s State of European Tech 2021 together with Bill, the founder of the IBGR Network, as an audio-only podcast.

This is a new year with 365 blank new pages, so let's write the best story possible.

Our highlights: The last year was amazing for the German startup scene, there are now officially 25 unicorns and we feel that there will be more. 60 mn for sunfire from the federal government, Go Student’s tutors and students start to critique the company, Tado is looking to IPO via a SPAC. Also Cherry Ventures had been good in snatching up stakes in unicorns early. Now Cherry raises their 4th fund.

Let's talk startups:

Tune in to our Internet Radio Station here:

www.startup.radio

Startuprad.io is globally a Top 75 Science Podcast, Top 125 Tech Podcast, and Top 650 Business Podcast (Chartable.com)

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Our EnablersInvest-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: https://anchor.fm/techstartupsgermany

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All show notes and news links are here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-germany-austria-switzerland-january-2022/

“For banks the pandemic meant that they had to digest 10 years of digitalization in only two years.” Paolo Sironi - Thought Leader and Author Hello and welcome everyone to our 2021 Fintech Review for the German Speaking Area - Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, also called GSA. This is an annual tradition started in 2014, first in German, now in English. You can find the older reviews in the blog post below: “Crypto is coming, no question. The metaverse is coming and exciting for me is the question how we will pay in the metaverse” Oliver Oster - CMO and Founder OptioPay “What struck me the most in 2020 is Crypto. It is sooo much more popular today than one or two years ago” Janis Dust - CMO and Co-Founder Epap Subscribe Here

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“As people are going from in-person to remote a lot of [banking] processes have to be updated. It is basically a huge accelerator for the whole banking industry.” Frank Schwab - Co-Founder Fintech Forum Our Sponsor Startupraven

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“[Venture] Capital becomes more concentrated. It will get harder for the new kids on the block” Frank Schwab - Co-Founder Fintech Forum

Our Guests

Today I welcome our guests:

• Janis Dust - A young fintech entrepreneur, co-founder and CMO of epap (https://de.linkedin.com/in/jannisdust)
• Paolo Sironi - A fintech entrepreneur, turned global research leader in banking and financial markets as well as a book author (Website: https://www.thepsironi.com/, https://www.linkedin.com/in/thepsironi/)You can buy his newest book here: https://amzn.to/30MLgOy
• Frank Schwab - Co-founder of Fintech Forum (http://fintechforum.de/) and multiple board member (https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankschwab/)
• Oliver Oster - Fintech entrepreneur, founding partner AQVC, founder and COO OptioPay (https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliver-oster-37611063/)

“10 years ago adding the valuation and market capitalization of the global top 500 banks and fintech unicorns plus the payment providers: 10 years ago banks represented 97% of that value, today they are down to almost 70%.” Paolo Sironi - Thought Leader and Author “The most obvious impact [of corona] for me was, that here in Berlin people have stopped paying cash and now pay by card or digital [cell phone or wrist watch]” Oliver Oster - CMO and Founder OptioPay Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/fintech-review-2021-germany-austria-and-switzerland-gsa/

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HoHoHo Welcome to This Month in German Startups in December 2021 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris from New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main.

We recorded this new episode on Monday, December 20th. All news not included here will be published in our next news episode. There will also be our annual Fintech Review on December 25th and we will be back with an AI startup interview on January 13th. So we take a few weeks off around the holidays. Happy Holidays!

We are not there yet, so let's get started:

Today we bring you another new unicorn, a monster funding of 266 mn US$ at Mambu, Volocopter calls off its SPAC IPO and gets a backlash from its early crowd investors, also Jokr is now the 3rd quick delivery unicorn - in record time - and we have an update on Sono Motors. We also take a look at the State of European Tech survey by Atomico and several news pieces on the German Venture Capital Market, as well as VC in general.

Let's talk startups:

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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: https://anchor.fm/techstartupsgermany

Startupraven

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Find all links and extensive show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-december-2021/

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The Survey

Hey guys, this is Joe from Startuprad.io. Today we bring you an audio-only episode. We know this is uncommon, but there is a special occasion for this. The most comprehensive startup survey is Germany was published, so we wanted to bring you some highlights. This extensive survey is conducted by the German Startup Association in cooperation with partners annually since 2013.

Feedback

Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA

The Host

This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email

Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/germanys-most-extensive-annual-startup-survey/

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Welcome to This Month in German Startups in November 2021 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris from New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main.

We recorded this new episode on Friday, November 19th. All news not included here will be published in our December News (to be published on December 23rd). There will also be our annual Fintech Review on December 25th and we will be back with an AI startup interview on January 13th. So we take a few weeks off around the holidays. We are not there yet, so let's get started:

Today we have escooter Tier’s newest funding and acquisition, N26 pulling the plug on their US operations already in January 2022, and the amazing IPO of Sono Motors on NASDAQ. There are also new unicorns, we proudly present Frankfurt’s first unicorn, the insurtech Clark.de. Also, Razor Group (an Amazon shop buyer) becomes a unicorn with a 125 mn US$ fundraising. In November, there is no unicorn tracker. We will keep our eyes open and maybe the next news will have a unicorn tracker companion.

Happy Thanksgiving to our US audience!

Let's talk startups:

Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-november-2021/

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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: https://anchor.fm/techstartupsgermany

Startupraven

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News Text and Show Notes

Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-november-2021/

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The Enabler

This interview 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: https://anchor.fm/techstartupsgermany

We started serveral early SaaS Platforms and Fastbill was one of them. We just solved our problems at the time. René Maudrich, MD Germany FreshBooks The Founder

In this interview, we talk to one of the most experienced fintech founders in the greater Frankfurt area. René Maudrich (https://www.linkedin.com/in/renemaudrich/) is the CEO and founder of Frankfurt-based accounting and invoicing fintech Fastbill. They have been bought by Toronto, Canada-based, fintech unicorn Freshbooks (https://www.freshbooks.com/). He now holds the position of managing director of FreshBooks Germany.

Want to be found by Business opportunities or contacted by new investors?

Get scouted by us, when we a have matching mandate and enroll your startup in our database: https://forms.gle/DmPtBKJH7MMmJoYo8 We don’t sell your data or spam you. We will even reach out to you before we include you in a scouting mandate.

We became a top 3 provider in GSA (Germany, Switzerland and Austria), but we also have clients in 13 other countries. René Maudrich, MD Germany FreshBooks The Startup

Fastbill (https://www.fastbill.com/) was one of the early fintech startups, that have been around, before fintech was a thing. They help small companies and freelancers with their invoicing and accounting. They are a top 3 provider for this kind of software in Germany. You can learn more about them here:

Also, Mario (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahachemer/), the CTO of Fastbill has been a frequent guest. Mario is also part of the frequent crew of our annual fintech review. You can learn more about the company, him, and René in our interviews linked below.

We bootstrapped for six years before we took VC money. That was a bit too late. I would recommend it later. René Maudrich, MD Germany FreshBooks The Exit

FreshBooks already knew Fastbill from events. FreshBooks was interested in purchasing a stake in Fastbill with their next investment round. During the conversation, they decided on an outright takeover. FreshBooks now owns all equity in Fastbill and the core team with René, Mario and Benjamin stay on board. All former Fastbill shareholders are now FreshBooks shareholders.

The Fastbill team is not permitted to speak about the transaction price. We can make estimates about the price range:

In 2019 they had approx. 2.5 mn Euros revenue (according to estimates in several databases). Assuming a growth to 3 or even 5 mn Euros annualized revenue in 2021 one can estimate the range of the transaction volume with normal multiples from 45 mn Euros at the low end to 110 mn € at the higher end, adding an “earn-out clause” of approx. 10% over the next few years.

Find all links, show notes and further readings here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/fastbills-exit-to-canada-based-unicorn-freshbooks/

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Meet TIS the world’s leading SaaS-B2B outbound payment platform The problems we are solving for our clients now are the problems I had in my former corporate job. Jörg Wiemer, Co-Founder and CSO at TIS Subscribe Here

Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: Link https://linktr.ee/startupradio

Want to be found by Business opportunities or contacted by new investors?

Get scouted by us, when we have a matching mandate and enroll your startup in our database: https://forms.gle/DmPtBKJH7MMmJoYo8

We don’t sell your data or spam you. We will even reach out to you before we include you in a scouting mandate.

Our goal is for the topline 3x in the last three years. Jörg Wiemer, Co-Founder and CSO at TIS The Founder

In this interview, we talk to Jörg Wiemer (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joerg-wiemer/) the co-founder, former CEO and current CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) of the grown-up tech company TIS (https://www.tis.biz/). Jörg had already an extensive corporate background with stops at Deutsche Bank and Douglas Holding (a beauty retailer). Was Senior Vice President and Head of Global Treasury at SAP, where he saw an opportunity and took a leap into entrepreneurship. In 2010 he co-founded TIS.

Joe always wanted to interview them, because they have been an important early success story that made startups sexy again. Also, any current or aspiring entrepreneur can learn a lot from Jörg in the interview.

Jörg has a lot of good advice from his early times starting TIS. You will find it in the last 1/3rd of the interview.

For us … getting venture capital early was a good decision. Jörg Wiemer, Co-Founder and CSO at TIS You don’t want to optimize your shareholdings in the company, you want to maximize your chances of success. Jörg Wiemer, Co-Founder and CSO at TIS The Tech Company

TIS has been part of FT 100 Europe’s fastest-growing companies in 2019, 2020, and 2021.

TIS stands for Treasury Intelligence Solutions (https://www.tis.biz/) and is headquartered in Walldorf. Yes, the Walldorf is also home to SAP. The company has routes within SAP but is by now an independent grown tech company with more than 200 employees worldwide and a strong presence in Europe and North America. Startuprad.io always aims to bring you interesting founder stories, so it was about time to bring you the founder of a successful tech company.

Founders first have to do the hard work and then hire someone. Jörg Wiemer, Co-Founder and CSO at TIS The Interviewer

This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email

Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/meet-tis-the-worlds-leading-saas-b2b-outbound-payment-platform/

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This Month in German Startups - October 2021

Welcome to This Month in German Startups in October 2021 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris (Back Home in New York) and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main.

We recorded this new episode on October 25th. Note that there is also another episode of our unicorn tracker, getting published along with this episode in order to keep the news brief.

Today we have to announce that N26 reclaimed the title of Germany’s most valuable fintech (but not startup, that is still Celonis), Sono Motors is filing for an IPO in the US - ahead of even delivering their first car -, corona is leaving the first traces in the startup scene, fewer startups, but more funding for the surviving ones.

Subscribe Here

Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio

Want to be found by Business opportunities or contacted by new investors?

Get scouted by us, when we have a matching mandate and enroll your startup in our database: https://forms.gle/DmPtBKJH7MMmJoYo8

We don’t sell your data or spam you. We will even reach out to you before we include you in a scouting mandate.

Find our extensive collection of links, sources and the whole show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-october-2021/

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Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io – in a news recording with Chris (from New York City) and me Joe (from Frankfurt am Main).

Guys, it is October, it is getting colder outside and cozier inside, so we bring you another “Doppelpack” of our news recording! We bring you another bonus news episode as part of our news coverage of the German startup scene. We recorded this episode on October 25th, 2021, wrapping up October. This is a Bonus Episode following our special coverage of the unprecedented creation of unicorn startups in the German-speaking startup scene!

Subscribe Here

Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: Link https://linktr.ee/startupradio

Want to be found by Business opportunities or contacted by new investors?

Get scouted by us, when we have a matching mandate and enroll your startup in our database: https://forms.gle/DmPtBKJH7MMmJoYo8 We don’t sell your data or spam you. We will even reach out to you before we include you in a scouting mandate.

Find all the links to our sources and the show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/gsa-unicorn-tracker-october-2021/

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Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io – in a news recording with Chris (from New York City) and me Joe (from Frankfurt am Main).   

Guys, it is fall and we are back from the summer break! We bring you another bonus news episode as part of our news coverage of the German startup scene. We recorded this episode on September 28th, 2021, wrapping up July, August, and September. This is a Bonus Episode following our special coverage from June!   

Get scouted by us, when we have a matching mandate and enroll your startup in our database: https://forms.gle/DmPtBKJH7MMmJoYo8 We don’t sell your data or spam you. We will even reach out to you before we include you in a scouting mandate. Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-september-2021-unicorn-tracker-bonus/

Want to be found by Business opportunities or contacted by new investors?

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This Month in German Startups - Summer Wrap-Up (July, August, September) 2021

Welcome to This Month in German Startups in September 2021 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris (Back Home in New York) and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main.  We recorded this new episode on September 28th. Not that there is also another episode of our unicorn tracker, getting published along with this episode. Have a look. This will be a bit longer recording. Best get a snack and a drink right now.  The summer was hot here in Germany in terms of startups, but not so much in terms of temperature. Since we have the weather out of the way. Let's talk startups:     

Want to be found by Business opportunities or contacted by new investors?

Get scouted by us, when we have a matching mandate and enroll your startup in our database: https://forms.gle/DmPtBKJH7MMmJoYo8 We don’t sell your data or spam you. We will even reach out to you before we include you in a scouting mandate. 

Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-summer-wrap-up-july-august-september-2021/

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Meet Austria-Based Monkee – A fintech with more than 80% Women as Clients With Monkee I am combining my passions for finance and what I learned in the area of habit forming technology Martin Granig, CEO and Co-Founder Monkee Subscribe Here

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The Founder

This is one of our interviews, covering a startup from Tirol, Austria, the fintech Monkee (https://monkee.rocks/). We have Martin Granig (https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-granig-52775054/) in the interview, CEO and co-founder of the fintech. Martin is an engineer by training, having worked more than a decade at Swarovski, in his last position he was leading the global innovation department. He is also currently working on a Ph.D. in savings behavior. It may not surprise you now that Monkee is a startup helping you to save money and with vouchers on the spending as well. During his studies, he also attended 北大 BeiDa (Peking University), Fudan University 復旦大學, London Business School, SDA Bocconi, Ashridge Business School and many more.

Nudges are only slight tips in the right direction if someone is already in the process of making the right decision to form habits. Martin Granig, CEO and Co-Founder Monkee The Startup

The startup Monkee is based in Tyrol, one of the states of Austria (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrol). The goal of Monkee is to improve the financial well-being of its clients. The app works with small nodes in order to help you save money, either for your rainy-day fund or towards an actual goal like a vacation, a laptop or another large purchase.

The Monkee-App also helps with (retail)-partners to save money with discounts to get your actual savings goals cheaper. They are also in the process of getting partners for daily necessities.

What really differentiates Monkee from other fintechs is that they have 84% women as active clients. That turns the normal client base of fintechs upside down. On the other hand, their female clients also like to interact more frequently with the app.

The Monkee App

Apples App Store

Google Play Store

Money worries are already the No 1 worry for most people. Martin Granig, CEO and Co-Founder Monkee Venture Capital Funding

Monkee is currently raising a new round of venture capital, they are currently planning to close the round end of 2021.

There are many things coming together for Monkee so we could attract more women as clients. Martin Granig, CEO and Co-Founder Monkee

Find all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/meet-austria-based-monkee-a-fintech-with-more-than-80-female-clients/

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Entrepreneur Tools #6 – How to Start Thinking About Your Corporate Culture You, as a founder will impact the culture, which than becomes a brand. Michelle Tsing, Entrepreneur, Investor, Mentor, Podcast/Radio Host Entrepreneur Tools

This is a new series, within Startuprad.io’s YouTube Blog. We meet a lot of people and of course, we talk with some of them about the typical entrepreneur problems. Sometimes an entrepreneur solves known problems in a very systematic way, which we find great, or has great insights. In both cases, we will talk to him or her and bring you these recordings as entrepreneur tools.

We are looking forward to your feedback.

I learned that humans are basically good. Michelle Tsing, Entrepreneur, Investor, Mentor, Podcast/Radio Host The Entrepreneur

Michelle Tsing (https://www.linkedin.com/in/laptopradio/) is an investor and entrepreneur. She hosts a weekly show on the Stanford University Campus radio, called Laptop Radio. She used to work at PayPal, Samsung, Cisco, and eBay. She is also a podcast host at Starting Y, based in Silicon Valley. In addition to that Michelle works with several startups as an advisor. She shares in our 6th episode of entrepreneur tools her thoughts about company culture and how to start thinking about it. Company culture is a very complex topic and we are just scratching the surface here, but it is a good point to start.

The culture is usually the founder … think about your vision, your mission, and the values you care about. Michelle Tsing, Entrepreneur, Investor, Mentor, Podcast/Radio Host Further Readings / Additional Ressources

1. Start with a self-assessment, good places to start are for example the book “The Four Agreements “
2. Look around examples for values

Great examples

• Paypal – Practise detachment
• Ebay – Humans are basically good
• Google - Don’t do evil
• Zappos your culture is your brand – Pursuit of happiness https://www.huffpost.com/entry/zappos-founder-tony-hsieh_1_b_783333

Every aspect of your company should correlate to your values. Embrace it not only in words but also in action. Michelle Tsing, Entrepreneur, Investor, Mentor, Podcast/Radio Host Helpful Books (Affiliate Links)

• The Four Agreements https://amzn.to/3B8B3bD
• The Gift of Imperfection https://amzn.to/2WfTj3I
• Daring Greatly https://amzn.to/2Wnie5h

Links and Show Notes

https://www.startuprad.io/blog/entrepreneur-tools-6-how-to-start-thinking-about-your-corporate-culture/

Feedback

Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA

The Interviewer

This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email

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We started with 2-3 employees. Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest At the start we wanted to build a robo advisor. Now we have a platform on which our clients, the banks, can customize their own robo advisor. Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest The CEO

Olaf Zeitnitz is also kind of a returning interview guest (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-olaf-zeitnitz-722b0a1b/). He was part of our Robo Advisor talk, dating back to October 2016, when not every video was turned into an audio podcast. VisualVest is not an average Robo Advisor, it is a white-label company, integrated into a much larger group of cooperative banks in Germany. Olaf studied physics and his Ph.D. studies took him to the CERN particle accelerator, where he was one of the first users of the newly invented internet. He also attended the first www conference.

Not one robo advisor startup was ever able to become profitable in a few years … VCs have to invest for the long term. If you invest for two to three years, a robo advisor is the wrong VC investment. Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest The Corporate Startup

VisualVest (https://www.visualvest.de/) is part of the cooperative banking group, a group of independent banks – known as Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken - (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VolksbankenundRaiffeisenbanken), working closely together on many services, including asset management. Their asset manager is called Union Investment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Investment) and VisualVest is a corporate startup of Union Investment and the DZ Bank, the central bank of the cooperative banks in Germany.

VisualVest is a SaaS platform. They are basically a toolbox where the different banks within the group can choose their features to create their own robo advisor.

I was there at [CERN], when they invented the internet. Our experiment was one of the first users. Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest Youtube Video from October 2016

Olaf has been a guest in our robo advisor talk back in 2016, together with other returning guests. You can find it here:

https://youtu.be/akCaXmFfgMQ

Investing is the opposite of sexy. Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest I was positively surprised that BaFin did not try to kill robo advice from the start. Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest The Interviewer

This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email

Keep Up to Date

Here is our publication calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=MDEyaTI3YWs1MjVxaTNzbWdqbDh2OXRiaW9AZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ

Find all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/meet-visualvest-the-white-label-robo-advisor-with-e-2-6-bn-client-assets-under-management/

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The Founder

This interview is an overdue follow-up with ottonova, the first German health insurer founded in almost 20 years.

Roman Rittweger (https://www.linkedin.com/in/romanrittweger/) is the CEO and Founder of ottonova, not an insurtech, but a fully licensed insurer (https://www.ottonova.de/).

Roman had a long and successful career, before founding ottonova. As he says in the interview, in insurance everything takes longer.

Roman is a doctor by training, with a Ph.D. in medicine, as well as an MBA from INSEAD. He also served as Platoon Leader in the German mountain troopers and was a consultant with ATKearney and McKinsey, before starting his own companies. He is also a member of the supervisory board of naontek AG, a corporate startup offering digital services to health professionals.

When you are a private health insurer in Germany, you basically live forever. Roman Rittweger, CEO and Founder of ottonova We do not report all our funding rounds instantly. We raised more money than is on CrunchBase. Roman Rittweger, CEO and Founder of ottonova Venture Capital Funding

So far ottonova has raised more than 90 mn US$ up to Series D (https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ottonova-holding-ag) and is a licensed health (re-) insurer in Germany. ottonova will start new talks for a growth equity talks end of 2021.

We are a full stack insurer, but we also have a re-insurance license. Roman Rittweger, CEO and Founder of ottonova The Audio Interview from 2017

The original interview – the first English interview of ottonova – was published on September 14th, 2017.

https://www.startuprad.io/interviews/exclusive-first-english-interview-newly-founded-digital-health-insurer-ottonova/

Links and Show Notes

Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/follow-up-with-the-all-digital-health-insurer-ottonova/

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We are not only spending 10 bn € on startups, but we also have 5-6 bn € from older programs. … we will spend in total 15 – 16 bn Euros Thomas Jarzombek, MdB, Commissioner for Digital and Startups

Startups with a significant presence in Germany – from abroad – also can receive money from the funds. Thomas Jarzombek, MdB, Commissioner for Digital and Startups The Commissioner for Digital and Startups

In this interview we talk to Thomas Jarzombek (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-jarzombek-a4227183/) a member of the German Parliament Bundestag, also the Commissioner for Digital and Startups of Germany and in charge of the newly started 10 bn startup program. Thomas is a member of the CDU, Christian Democratic Union, the party of chancellor Merkel.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Democratic_Union_of_Germany). Thomas has also been an entrepreneur before he was an elected official. He started out with implementing Windows 95.

Note: In the name tag in the YouTube video, we shorted this to “Digital commissioner”, due to the available space.

How the money will be invested Note: There is a general election coming up in Germany on September 26th, 2021. This will lead to a new government since chancellor Merkel will retire. Therefore, another government may change this allocation. We also invest in rocket technology. We have been looking at what Elon Musk does with SpaceX and adapted some of his strategies. Thomas Jarzombek, MdB, Commissioner for Digital and Startups Investing Indirectly (as LP)

The new investment program is looking to invest 50% together with private investors, who also chip in the other half.

The program will invest in European VCs, focusing on Germany. They are looking for VCs, investing in Germany approx. the money they receive from the program.

The largest single investment will be as LP of the European Investment Fund, which will get 3 bn Euros (https://www.eif.org/).

HTGF will start the 4th fund with money from the program. Look in our show notes below for the interview with the CEO of HTGF. They raise funds with half of the money coming from the Government and half from private investors, which include already household names like Bosch, BASF, B. Braun, Boehringer, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Post DHL, Lanxess, RWE, SAP, and many others. You can learn more about HTGF in our interview, see links below.

We have patient money and I expect the money to be spent over the next 10 years. Thomas Jarzombek, MdB, Commissioner for Digital and Startups Investing Directly: Deep Tech Future Fund

The Deep Tech Future Fund (https://deeptech-future-fonds.de/) is aiming to commercialize innovations from Germany. They are even investing in startups directly, who do not have a business model yet, for example working in quantum computing.

2 bn Euros will be managed by KfW in discretionary accounts to set up specific investment vehicles and their subsidiary Coparion (https://www.coparion.vc/). Part of the money will be managed in discretionary accounts. These vehicles can invest directly in startups.

https://www.startuprad.io/blog/meet-the-person-in-charge-of-germanys-e10-bn-startup-program/

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(BONUS) German Institutional Funds Will Not Invest Big Bugs in Cryptocurrencies

This is another bonus episode, where we cover interesting – behind the scenes – development in the larger German-speaking tech space. Recently there was a wave of excitement sweeping across the crypto blogs, due to an update in the German Investment Law (https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/kagb/). The reason: Investments of German institutional funds, since they could – theoretically – invest up to 20% in cryptocurrencies, starting on August 2nd, 2021. Joe gets together with Marco; a specialist lawyer and they talk about what is realistic. Instead of a large wave (theoretical max of ~400 bn €), as many blogs forecast, there may be only a small trickle (likely only millions over time).

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The Specialist

Marco Zingler (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marco-zingler-14b2a390/) is a seasoned lawyer, with almost 10 years of experience in capital markets legislation. He also holds a degree in Finance. He, therefore, spent most of his career as a specialist for regulatory and investment law, covering for example the changes to the new German investment Law.

Is your Startup in Need of A bank Account? - Affiliate Links

• Try the account of our Affiliate Partner Penta: http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d

The Interviewer

This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email

Keep Up to Date

Here is our publication calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=MDEyaTI3YWs1MjVxaTNzbWdqbDh2OXRiaW9AZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ

Find all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/bonus-the-german-institutional-funds-will-not-invest-big-bugs-in-cryptocurrencies/

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IDnow talks about their acquisition of Ariadnext We are growing organically 50-60% year over year right now organically. Andreas Bodczek, CEO IDnow

Media Partnership with Munich Startup

Munich Startup is the official startup portal for Munich and the surrounding region. It was developed by the City of Munich, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Munich and Upper Bavaria and the four entrepreneurship centers of the Munich universities within the framework of the Entrepreneurship Strategy Munich. You can learn more here: https://en.munich-startup.de/

The CEO

This time we have a rarity on our channel because Andreas Bodczek (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasbodczek/) is not a founder, but an early investor in the company, which became later the CEO of IDnow. Andreas has been an early business angel, investing in IDnow. So he has been involved in the company for quite some time before he took the job as external CEO.

Andreas has been with Bertelsmann, where he worked with dial-up internet connections, building one of the broadest platforms for broadband and Voice-over-IP services in Germany. He later moved to become the CEO of Telefonica Germany (https://www.telefonica.de/) and co-founded Fyber (https://www.fyber.com/ ), which they build up in Germany, the US, and several more companies. They sold the company in 2014.

Andreas is also a board partner with Point Nine Capital (https://www.pointnine.com/), a Berlin-based VC fund focused on platforms and SaaS.

We will conclude most of the integration work streams of Identity TM at the end of this year. Andreas Bodczek, CEO IDnow The Startup

IDnow (https://www.idnow.io/products/idnow-videoident/) is an online identification service provider, that helps banks, insurance companies, and other companies to verify the identity of their clients remotely. This has not always been the case in Germany, but IDnow was one of the early companies providing this service.

Today IDnow has amongst their clients some well-known names like N26, Solaris Bank or Sixt, Western Union, Tier Mobility, and WeFox.

The startup grew early with a strong focus on financial services companies, starting when the German regulator moved to allow so-called “video idents.”

Now IDnow extends its services across industries, products, and countries. The acquisition of France-based Ariadnext (https://www.ariadnext.com/) fits in the category of extending in countries, to expand their footprint in France.

SPAC Deal?

From our conversation, we took that IDnow has SPAC offers at hand, still evaluating their options.

Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/exclusive-idnow-talks-about-their-acquisition-of-ariadnext/

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Welcome to This Month in German Startups June 2021 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris (Back Home in New York) and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main.

We are reporting live from Germany’s largest unicorn wave ever. We announce two new unicorns (Scalable Capital and Forto (formerly FreightHub)) and Germany’s first Decacorn Celonis, valued at more than 11 bn US$. The 2019 Unicorn Wefox raises large funding of 536 mn € (650 mn US$). About You IPOs for 23 €/share at 4 bn Euro (4.85 bn US$) AND Austria becomes a new most valuable startup with GoStudent (1.4 bn €, 1.67 bn US$), after they had their first unicorn only last month.

Plus SolarisBank is rumored to be in talks of a 100 mn Euro VC Deal, which would make them a unicorn as well, to buy up a competitor. Especially active in this frenzy of unicorn creation is Softbank from Japan and Tencent from China.

We have a special episode on the unparalleled unicorn creation, which is available on the same channels. If you want to know more about the new Decacorn and unicorns in Germany and Austria you want to listen to this episode as well. We keep here the coverage of unicorns to a minimum.

Note: This will be the last news recording before the summer break. There will be no regular news in July or August, but we will be back with news at the end of September, wrapping up the summer news.

We are soooooooooo looking forward to the summer that Joe even wears a Hawaii shirt. Be happy for your eyes if you are only listening to this podcast :-)

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Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: Linkhttps://linktr.ee/startupradio

Find all links, texts, and show notes here on our blog post: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-june-2021/

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Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io – in a news recording with Chris (from New York City) and me Joe (from Frankfurt am Main).

This is a Bonus Episode covering the Unicorn Stampede in German-speaking countries. This recording is from June 29th, 2021 and all-new unicorns, formed afterward will be covered in our next news podcast, to be published End of September!

You may remember that we had another bonus episode last month covering the rise of Berlin-based fintech Trade Republic to become Germany’s most valuable startup? There is already a new king in the country with Celonis becoming Germany’s first Decacorn (valuation above 10 bn US$, here even 11bn US$). We also see that all of these monster fundings are driven by international investors, especially Softbank from Japan and Tencent from China.

Find all links and show notes on our blog post here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/bonus-this-month-in-german-startups-unicorn-stampede/

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Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris (Back Home in Germany) and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main.

Today we are wrapping up May 2021 for you. We talk about the massive Trade Republic funding, making them Germany's most valuable startup. We are talking about SPACs again, Germany’s institutional funds investing in crypto, and 3 bn shots of the corona vaccine. As always, we have a great show for you!

Housekeeping - Time to brag

Stay safe everyone!

• We are very happy to have been      listed as No 4 on the Welp      Magazine list of "20 Best Start-ups Podcasts of      2021" https://welpmagazine.com/20-best-start-ups-podcasts-of-2021/
• Station Frankfurt featured our      newest internet radio station in an article https://station-frankfurt.de/2021/05/07/das-steckt-hinter-dem-24-7-startupradio-startuprad-io/
• Italy-based Startup.info      covered our internet radio station as well: The World’s First Internet      Radio Station Dedicated to Startups and Tech Companies Just Launched https://buff.ly/3upGZte

Top News

Trade Republic is now Germany’s most valuable startup with 5.3 bn US$

SPACs

In the US the largest wave of SPAC IPOs is already behind us, but in Europe, it is just gaining speed. Frankfurt Stock Exchange expects up to 20 SPAC IPOs in 2021. In all of Europe, they expect more than 30 https://buff.ly/3h0mMqS

Amazon Shops are still HOT

Berlin’s Razor Group raises $400M to buy and scale Amazon Marketplace merchants – TechCrunch https://buff.ly/2PVJULY

Germany rumored to open flood gates to Crypto Investments - Think again

'Damn Huge': Germany Opens Up to Institutional Crypto Funds - Decrypt https://buff.ly/3vvX3dU

Joe will talk about this soon - as soon as he gets to it - but the main point one has to understand in German institutional funds is that the investors are regulated and not so much the vehicles.

3bn Shots are coming

Corona vaccine producer BioNTech is looking to produce 3bn shots https://buff.ly/2RHzXlA

We just passed a small moment in History

80 years ago, on May 11th, 1941 german inventor Konrad Zuse started his Z3. This was one of today's first - maybe The first - modern-day computer. He developed it, to take over statistical calculation he found tiresome https://buff.ly/3eEJ3sB

Find all other show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-may-2021/

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Welcome to Startuprad.io,

we cover the German-speaking startup scene since 2015 with our franchise. Since 2019, we eased access to the German-speaking startup scene further with our special interest podcasts Fintech Germany, Blockchain Germany, Deeptech Germany, and German Startup News.

We have been called "The Authority on German Startups" and are a Top 0.5% global podcast, according to Listen Notes. Chartable.com scored us in 2020 a global Top 100 Science Podcast, a global Top 150 Tech Podcast, and a global Top 750 Business Podcast.

You can learn more here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio 

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Enabler

This recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/

The Finish company later stopped all their activities in Central Europe. This is where I started crossinx. Marcus Laube, Founder and CEO of crossinx The Founder

In this interview, we are talking to Marcus Laube (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcus-laube/) , the founder and CEO of one of the largest fintech exits this year. He sold the company, he founded in 2007 in 2021 for 100 mn Euros to Unifiedpost Group from Belgium (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210411005030/en/Unifiedpost-Group-and-Crossinx-Join-Forces-to-Create-a-Unique-European-Business-Network).

Marcus has been the chairman of the European Fintech Alliance (https://eufintechs.com/) and the co-chairman of the European E-Invoice Service Provider Association (EESPA https://eespa.eu/)

The story of Marcus as an entrepreneur is totally fascinating: He was helping one of Lufthansa’s businesses (AirPlus) to get their first website and digitize Germany’s Flag Carrier. This brought him in contact with lots of electronic business ideas, with which he ventured out on his own. His first company was sliding into insolvency. He bought the company out of insolvency and this company stayed afloat by selling chairs and tables. This company was bought later by a company from Finland. This Finnish company stopped their business in Germany and Marcus decided to start over again with founding crossinx in 2007. He now sold this company in a 100 mn Euro plus deal (the deal includes a clause of up to 13 mn € further conditional earn-out payments according to the press statement).

Tune in to our exclusive content.

We call what we do the financial supply chain. Marcus Laube, Founder and CEO of crossinx Affiliate Links

• Learn how to grow your business using the numbers in your profit and loss and balance sheet: https://www.learndesk.us/class/5571076509663232/growth-by-the-numbers-real-small-business-finance-for-real-small-business-owners use our promo code: Access

The Startup

crossinx (https://www.crossinx.com/en/) is the leading provider of e-invoicing based service solutions in Germany, working with the largest companies and institutions, such as Nestle, Bayer, TNT, Sixt and the German national government. The company was founded back in 2007 by Marcus Laube.

The Exit

On April 12 Unifiedpost Group announced to acquire crossinx for 100 mn Euros (up to 113 mn €): https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210411005030/en/Unifiedpost-Group-and-Crossinx-Join-Forces-to-Create-a-Unique-European-Business-Network

The connection came from Marcu’s work in EESPA, where he met Unifiedpost. There has been interest to acquire crossinx 3 years before, but the deal was sealed after the IPO of Unifiedpost at Euronext (Euronext: UPG).

https://www.startuprad.io/blog/meet-the-fintech-behind-the-100-mn-e-exit-nobody-talks-about/

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The Upcoming Changes to EU Crowdfunding Rules for Startups

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The Expert

We talk to a former guest, Jamal El Mallouki (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamalelmallouki/), Managing Director (MD) and Co-Founder of Crowdfunding SaaS tech company CrowdDesk. He is also chairman of the board of directors of Germany’s Crowdfunding Association (https://www.bundesverband-crowdfunding.de/about-the-german-crowdfunding-association-bundesverband-crowdfunding-ev/).

He talks with us about the upcoming rules, which will harmonize crowdfunding for startups across the European Union.

Affiliate Links

• Learn how to grow your business using the numbers in your profit and loss and balance sheet: https://www.learndesk.us/class/5571076509663232/growth-by-the-numbers-real-small-business-finance-for-real-small-business-owners use our promo code: Access

The new Rules / European Crowdfunding Service Provider (ECSP)

Currently, Germany has national rules, getting retail investors without any prospectus to invest in startups. Each retail investor can invest up to 25.000 € in total. This limit does not exist for professional investors.  A startup can now raise up to 6 million Euros with crowdfunding.

These rules are about to change with upcoming EU rules. You can dig deeper in the rules with the links below. The main points are:

• Crowdfunding campaigns can now target retail investors across the EU. They can now scale up to the whole EU market.
• (Crowd)Fundraising startups can now target directly online retail investors across the EU
• Crowdlending in Germany is now possible, directly via the crowdfunding platform, the need for an intermediate bank is gone. This also means that crowdfunding is competing with classical bank credit here.
• EU Startups, running a crowdfunding campaign can now raise funds in the German market, the largest in the EU with 6.7 trn € (8.14 trn US$) in private household wealth (according to Bundesbank, as the end of 2020).
• Fundraising without prospectus is possible, up to 5 mn Euros

Affiliate Links

• Is your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d
• Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye

Find all the links and further show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/how-crowdfunding-for-eu-startups-will-change-this-fall/

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Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City and Joe, from Frankfurt am Main.

Today we are wrapping up April 2021 for you. We talk about SPACs, which have been all the rage, but now they get to work. We bring you news about potential SPAC deals with Solarisbank, Infarm, Lilium, and Volocopter. The first three eying a valuation of more than one billion. Also, we have a Gorilla Unicorn.

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Find all our social media channels, our podcasts, and our internet radio station here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio

Housekeeping - Time to brag

Stay safe everyone!

• Startuprad.io is working tirelessly towards our internet radio station. Now we could onboard Laptop Radio, a Stanford Campus Radio Show covering bleeding edge technology, as well as Radio Free Enterprise.
• Our friends from IBGR have also completed their show syndication for our internet radio called AgileRad.io
• Tune in to our radio station to learn more:

Affiliate Links

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All Links and show notes this way please: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-april-2021/

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"Tech in insurance … is not on the cutting-edge of technology, but what one does has a great impact on a lot of people."

Benny Bennet Jürgens, CEO & Co-Founder NECT

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"We thought video ident is great but let us put in some AI magic."

Benny Bennet Jürgens, CEO & Co-Founder NECT

The Founder

We talk to Hamburg-based Founder Benny Bennet Jürgens (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennybennet/), the CEO and Co-Founder of NECT (https://nect.com/de/) Germany’s most downloaded self-identification app in 2020. Benny has a past history with insurance companies and found their need for self-identification – required by law – to be a major pain point for them. So he set out to provide a convenient solution, which turned out to be NECT.

"My co-founder and I pushed our children in strollers, and we talked about what is next in life for us." Benny Bennet Jürgens, CEO & Co-Founder NECT

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"We got accepted at Insurrect Accelerator Munich and we had to start two weeks later, which did not give us a lot of time to think twice." Benny Bennet Jürgens, CEO & Co-Founder NECT

https://www.startuprad.io/blog/meet-nect-germanys-most-downloaded-self-identification-app/

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The Founder

This time we talk to Sebastian Wuerz (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastianwuerz/) the founder and CEO of the co-living startup homefully (https://homeful.ly/), a proptech headquartered in Frankfurt, offering furnished apartments across Germany and Switzerland. This trend is called co-living and offers a convenient way for ex-pats to relocate to a new city and have instant social connections. Sebastian graduated with an international MBA, which took him to Warsaw University, DUFE (Dongbei University of Finance and Economics 东北财经大学), and the University of North Florida.

Before starting homefully Sebastian also had stints in wealth management in Singapore and investment banking in Frankfurt.

We have roughly 50% international tenants. Sebastian Würz, CEO and Founder homefully Subscribe Here

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We started homefully as a side business, but it grew and grew. So, I had to make a decision. And I went all in. Sebastian Würz, CEO and Founder homefully Enabler

This recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/ You can also find the podcast we run together here:

iTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bfl Spotify https://spoti.fi/3wUshwv Deezer http://bit.ly/2Qbh1rl TuneIn http://bit.ly/2M8vpznWe started homefully as a side business, but it grew and grew. So, I had to make a decision. And I went all in. Sebastian Würz, CEO and Founder homefully

https://www.startuprad.io/blog/homefully-offers-co-living-in-germany-and-switzerland-and-is-looking-to-expand/

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How to keep your Cryptos Safe? I recommend to be always a bit paranoid. Alessandro Avagliano, Head of Security at Bitwala Subscribe Here

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If you have a considerable amount of money in crypto, make sure the least number of people knows about it. Alessandro Avagliano, Head of Security at Bitwala The Head of Security

In this interview, we walk to Alessandro Avagliano, the Head of Security and Infrastructure at Berlin-based crypto challenger bank Bitwala (https://www.linkedin.com/in/aavagliano/). Allesandro has been with companies like Sun Microsystems, Oracle, or Rocket Internet before, but joined Bitwala 2019 as head of security.

One of the safest solutions is still a paper wallet, stored in a safe place, … maybe even across locations. Alessandro Avagliano, Head of Security at Bitwala Affiliate Links

• Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye

For retail investors, the safest way may be paper-based storage, with some liquidity in a wallet. Alessandro Avagliano, Head of Security at Bitwala The Challenge

In this interview, we are talking about best practices on how to keep your cryptocurrencies and crypto-assets safe as a private investor. We talk about different levels of safekeeping and even have an idea how Elon Musk could keep his cryptos safe. You can learn more in the blog post here: https://www.bitwala.com/blog/knowledge/

Other Interview

We already published our interview with Bitwala’s founder in April 2020. We talk to Benjamin about his life, the idea behind Bitwala, and solve the secret behind its name. Learn more in this interview here:

https://www.startuprad.io/blog/meet-berlin-based-cryptocurrency-challenger-bank-bitwala/

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The Subject Matter Expert

This is one of our Subject Matter Expert interviews, where we try to bring you some specialized knowledge. Christian Flasshoff (https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-flasshoff/)  was a founding member of the International Token Standardization Association (https://itsa.global/). In this interview, we talk to him about what NFTs are and how they may impact the music industry, the art market, and many more aspects of life.

Tune in to learn more … 

https://www.startuprad.io/blog/what-are-non-fungible-tokens-nfts/

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Today we are wrapping up March 2021 for you. We talk about Austria’s first unicorn Bitpanda, a Samwer attempt at a German Tesla, SPACs, indoor farming, open positions at N26, and much more.

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We are nothing like Greensill says Frankfurt-based TraxpaySupply chain financing became a bit shady with Greensill, but it is totally not. It supports the whole economy.

Markus Rupprecht, CEO Traxpay

The FounderIn this interview, we talk to Markus Rupprecht, (https://www.linkedin.com/in/markusrupprecht/, https://www.crunchbase.com/person/markus-rupprecht) CEO of Frankfurt-based supply chain financing fintech Traxpay.

Markus has vast experience, even before his time at Traxpay, for example, he has been with Deutsche Bank, Software AG, or Hitachi Consulting.

This is kind of a follow-up because one of the first interviews of Startuprad.io was with Markus’s Co-CEO (at the time) and one of their investors, published in October 2014 here on Startuprad.io.

You have on the supplier and buyer side ERP systems, but in payments, many of the information is lost.

Markus Rupprecht, CEO Traxpay

https://www.startuprad.io/blog/we-are-nothing-like-greensill-says-frankfurt-based-traxpay/

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Learn more about us at www.startuprad.io

Flash Update

Hey guys, we are posting this short podcast just to keep you up to date on what Startuprad.io is doing.

You may know that we have special interest podcast (link to subscribe below) like Fintech, Deep Tech, Blockchain and for our Startup News? We are also a YouTube Blog (link below).

We also launched with our friends from Starting Y, Laptop Radio, Radio Free Enterprise and the IBGR Network the worlds first internet radio station dedicated to startups and tech companies on February 18th 2021. We are currently still in beta, but our Alexa Skill should be ready soon, as well as our listing on several radio directories.

Subscribe Here

Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: Link https://linktr.ee/startupradio

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·         Is your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d

·         Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye 

Feedback 

Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA

The InterviewerThis interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:

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Follow usInstagram https://www.instagram.com/startuprad.io/

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Keep Up to DateHere is our publication calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=MDEyaTI3YWs1MjVxaTNzbWdqbDh2OXRiaW9AZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ

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Learn more about us at www.startuprad.io

PaceUp Invest Helps Women to Create and Manage Wealth – Founded by a Woman90% of the clients of robo advisors in Germany are still men. This has not changed. The interfaces look all the same. They are not targeting women properly.

Rukayyat Kolawole, Founder and CEO PaceUP Investment

 Don’t Miss Any Blog Post, Video, or Audio PodcastSubscribe to our newsletter on Substack here: https://startupradio.substack.com/subscribe

 The FounderRakuyyat Kalowole (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rukayyat-modupe-kolawole-cfa/) is originally from Nigeria but had already very interesting life. Since her regular visits to her grandmother, who was an active trader, she is fascinated with the fast pace of trading in capital markets. She studied at Georgetown University in the US, Tongji University in China, as well as Mannheim Business School in Germany. Being fascinated by capital markets all her life, it comes as no surprise, that she joined Goldman Sachs in London, as well as Bloomberg in Reuters in London as well.

When she relocated to Germany, to study in Mannheim, she also set up a shop there with her hybrid Robo advisor for women.

Affiliate LinksWhy not learn from entrepreneurs and executives who are open to sharing their favorite books. We skimmed through some recommendations and that is what we found.

Recommended by: Bill Gates

“Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker” https://amzn.to/2XAENlBRecommended by: Jeff Bezos

“Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras” https://amzn.to/2RGKGKeRecommended by: Elon Musk

“Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel” https://amzn.to/2REbHhwRecommended by: Tony Hsieh

“Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan” https://amzn.to/34KgraQRecommended by: Warren Buffet

“Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street by John Brooks” https://amzn.to/2K92z06Recommended by: Tim Cook

“Competing Against Time by George Stalk and Thomas Hout” https://amzn.to/3cjMMYn 

On our platform there will be a lot of impact investing, so women can choose how they want to invest according to their values and needs.

Rukayyat Kolawole, Founder and CEO PaceUP Investment

 The StartupPaceUp Investment (https://www.paceupinvest.com/) is a hybrid Robo advisor headquartered in Mannheim Germany. We have talked about Mannheim before, but a short wrap-up: It is the only city in Germany set up in squares. Mannheim is the first city in the world, where a car drove (Carl Benz lived close by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Benz) and the place where the world’s first electric elevator was installed here in 1880 (Werner von Siemens).

Rakuyyat set up her company PaceUP here to help women build wealth with a hybrid approach, combining remote investment advice with a Robo advisor. PaceUp provides women the tools to understand the basics. Then they offer advisory and coaching, before investing with their Robo advisor.

Full service with LicensePacUp will be able to offer its full service only after regulatory approval. They are currently looking at Q4...

This Month in German Startups - February 2021Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. 

Today we are wrapping up February 2021 for you. There is great news in the German startup scene, the much anticipated Auto1 IPO generated two new tech billionaires, Europe’s first Tech SPAC lists in Frankfurt, more Wirecard details, we talk about Trade Republic and Gamestop, as well as the billion exit of Berlin-based AdJust.

Follow us on Social MediaInstagram https://www.instagram.com/startuprad.io/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/4837115/

Twitter https://twitter.com/startuprad_io

Keep Up to DateHere is our publication calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=MDEyaTI3YWs1MjVxaTNzbWdqbDh2OXRiaW9AZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ

Affiliated LinksWhy not learn from entrepreneurs and executives who are open to share their favorite books. We skimmed through some recommendations and that is what we found.

Recommended by: Bill Gates

“Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker” https://amzn.to/2XAENlBRecommended by: Jeff Bezos

“Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras” https://amzn.to/2RGKGKeRecommended by: Elon Musk

“Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel” https://amzn.to/2REbHhwRecommended by: Tony Hsieh

“Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan” https://amzn.to/34KgraQRecommended by: Warren Buffet

“Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street by John Brooks” https://amzn.to/2K92z06Recommended by: Tim Cook

“Competing Against Time by George Stalk and Thomas Hout” https://amzn.to/3cjMMYn Housekeeping - Time to brag Stay safe everyone! 

In the meantime you can tune in to our internet radio station, the worlds first 24/7 dedicated to startups and tech companies! https://s2.radio.co/sb16d65602/listen - We will soon be available on many platforms, for now:

https://raddio.net/373202-startupradio/ https://radio.streamitter.com/station/startupradio-89HNV  

Top NewsWe have two new tech billionairesThe IPO of Auto1 went spectacularly well and skyrocketed on the first day of trading on February 4th, surging 45%. We took a look at the data and realized that this was the first tech IPO in a long time that generated new tech billionaires in Germany. Bloomberg: SoftBank-Backed Auto1 Soars in Debut After $2.2 Billion IPO https://buff.ly/2YLTm5jReuters: UPDATE 2-AUTO1 shares go into top gear in Frankfurt debut https://buff.ly/3pLaOSmRead more in our blogpost here: At recording this Auto1 IPO turns founders into billionaires https://buff.ly/3oY45EA  Related: The story from the side of one of their first investors: How VC fund DN Capital invested in car marketplace Auto1 8 years ago and landed an $8 billion IPO winner 

This is the fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany

Learn more about us at www.startuprad.io

Iconic holding wants to be the largest Crypto Asset Manager in Europe 

The idea for Iconic Funds came from investor demand, to invest in cryptocurrencies with more traditional vehicles.

Maximilian Lautenschläger, COO and Co-Founder Iconic Holding

 The FounderMaximilian Lautenschläger (https://www.linkedin.com/in/maximilian-lautenschl%C3%A4ger/) grew up in the beautiful city of Heidelberg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg). He stayed in the Rhein-Neckar Metropolitan Area (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine-Neckar) to study in Ludwigshafen and took every opportunity to study abroad. After university he started out working in consulting and found his passion in alternative investments. He started as analyst of private equity funds, moving to a venture developer position. Before joining Iconiq Lab, he has been a startup investor himself.

I am not the guy who said in 2014 Bitcoin is the thing.

Maximilian Lautenschläger, COO and Co-Founder Iconic Holding

 The StartupIconic Holding is the parent company of Iconic Funds. Iconic Holding originally started out as Iconiq Lab, an accelerator for ICOs, based in Frankfurt. After the end of the ICO craze, they decided what to do next and so they evolved into a crypto asset manager and Blockchain VC. The new structure was renamed to Iconic Holding (no more q).

The crypto asset manager is called Iconic Funds (https://funds.iconicholding.com/invest/) and the blockchain venture capital arm is called Iconic Lab (https://lab.iconicholding.com/, https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/iconiq-lab).

You can find their blog on Medium here (https://iconicholding.medium.com/). Iconic Funds offers to accredit investors hedge funds, a fund domiciled in Malta and also exchange-traded notes, to get exposure to cryptocurrency.

There was this craze about a thing we have never heard before, an ICO.

Maximilian Lautenschläger, COO and Co-Founder Iconic Holding

Venture Capital FundingIconic Holding is currently preparing the series B round.

Bitcoin for me is digital gold

Maximilian Lautenschläger, COO and Co-Founder Iconic Holding

The Audio InterviewYou can subscribe to our podcasts here

Further Readings / Additional ResourcesUCITS https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/ucits.asp

WM Daten is a financial service provider, a competitor of Bloomberg and S&P, amongst others, with a strong focus on the German-speaking area: https://www.wmdaten.de/index.php

Asset Manager https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asset_management_firms

Custodian https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/custodian.asp

FeedbackReach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA

The InterviewerThis interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder and host of Startuprad.io. Reach...

This is the fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany

Learn more about us at www.startuprad.io

Tangany Offers a White-Label Custody Solution for Crypto AssetsOur clients do not need to apply for a license to become a custodian, we already are and offer our service.

Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany

Media PartnershipThis podcast is in media partnership with the FinTech Forum (http://www.fintechforum.de/). The FinTech Forum - launched 2013 in Frankfurt am Main - is the first and largest hub for FinTechs in Continental Europe, with a community of more than 12.000 companies. With more than 17 events, with more than 270 startups on stage, and more than 1.000 investors and financial institutions. FTF alumni have raised $310mn+ in funding and resulted in exits worth $300mn+ .

Our level of paranoia level is right at the top. The security for crypto assets must be even on a higher level than for banks.

Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany

The FounderWe talk to the CEO and Co-Founder Martin Kreitmair (https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-kreitmair). He is not only with Tangany, but also a member of the Board of Germany’s blockchain association called Bundesblock (https://bundesblock.de/).  He has a master’s in computer science and has been working at a startup for more than seven years, where he was hired as the 7th employee and saw the company grow.

First, we were two founders, …joined by former colleagues from an agency.

Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany

Martin became interested early in Blockchain and Bitcoin but was no miner – which he partly regrets now 😊. He felt like it was the right time to start his company after many years as a startup employee.

Security is key for crypto custody.

Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany

The StartupTangany (https://tangany.com/)  is the all-in-one cloud suite to easily offer crypto and digital asset custody to your clients and customers. They do not offer services for retail customers, but rather to fintechs and financial institutions for save keeping of digital and crypto assets (including, but not limited to cryptocurrencies). They are a regulated custodian.

The product of Tangany is a white-label tool (via API) to enable their customers like startups, so they can offer crypto wallets to their (retail)-clients. The big advantage of Tangany for their clients is that they don’t need to get a license since the company is already regulated under German law to be a custodian.

It took us a very very long time to design our architecture … to the highest thinkable level of security.

Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany

Excited about a Digital EuroTangany would be quite happy if a digital Euro, based on Blockchain is realized, this would be a huge opportunity for them. Since every citizen would need a digital wallet as Tangany could provide.

I am very convinced that a digital Euro will come, one way or another.

Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany

 Venture Capital FundingTangany raised a venture capital round in January 2020 and currently, they are in preparation for another round.

Further Readings / Additional Resources 

Custodian https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/custodian.asp

Feedback 

Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” 

This Month in German Startups - January 2021 

Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City. This is the first news episode of 2021, but you can have a look at our 2020 review. 

Today we are wrapping up January 2021 for you. There is great news in the German startup scene, from two new unicorns to a much anticipated IPO of Auto1 (will be raising at least 1.5 bn Euros), Delivery Hero goes VC and there may be Amazon TV/Radio in Germany.

 Housekeeping - Time to brag Just a bit of bragging today: Listen Up! Here’s Your Guide To European Tech And Startup Podcasts In English https://buff.ly/39S3qyR 

Top NewsWe have two new unicornsMambu - Germany’s newest Fintech Unicorn offers Banking Software as SaaS https://buff.ly/3oNEHC2 - Without them, no N26. They provide the software, which enables challenger banks like them.Munich-based HR scaleup Personio lands €103.5 million Series D funding and a €1.4 billion valuation https://buff.ly/35QYn0pRelated: Start-Up Personio Joins Circle of Unicorns - Technical University of Munich - School of Management https://buff.ly/2YgKm7W  

Delivery Hero raises 1.2 bn in fresh capitalDelivery Hero raises 1.2 bn Euros (1.47 bn US$) in new funding, selling "in hours" 9.44 mn new shares for 132 Euros each https://buff.ly/394ZFFQRelated:Delivery Hero starts their own Corporate Venture Fund called DX Ventures with 50 m Euros https://buff.ly/2MPUt11  

Auto1 IPOAuto1 IPO will be raising a minimum of 1.5 bn Euros (2.2 bn US$) https://buff.ly/3plC62nOlder articles related to this IPO - you can see the fundraising went up 500 million More details of the planned IPO of Auto1 Group emerge. They want to list in 2021 Q1 in Frankfurt in Prime Standard. Out of 1 bn € to be raised 250 m will pay back convertibles, 750 m will be invested in further growth https://buff.ly/38Hq0uz Used-car platform AUTO1 to float in Frankfurt, looking to raise 1 bn Euros from selling new shares, with a valuation of 6-8 bn Euros https://buff.ly/3bxbWWx   

Amazon TV or Radio Station in Germany?Amazon has filed paperwork in Germany to get a broadcast license. The filing dates to November 2020 https://buff.ly/3bW0Mur 

Wirecard We keep you updated, just a small selection of news here. 

Keep in mind there is still an investigative committee ongoing.

Oliver Samwer from Rocket Internet gave a private loan to Markus Braun from Wirecard of 75 mn Euros (91 m US$), which he demanded back rather harshly, shortly before Wirecard filed for insolvency https://buff.ly/3bW2ITUIn Austria, an investigation against former Wirecard COO Marsalek is ongoing in potential bribery of an employee of Austrian constitution protection (like their NSA). He is supposed to have checked the solvency of porn site hosts for Mr. Marsalke https://buff.ly/39eVNDz  

Ecosystem Slack users in Germany were greeted in the new year with a big outage covering most of the first working day of the new year 2021 https://buff.ly/3972zd0 January 4thTech workers want to relocate to Germany more than any other country in the world https://buff.ly/2Jims8n Germany starts with the test of a countrywide patient file, called "E-Patientenakte." The users can carry around all their medical files (x-rays, reports ...) on their smartphone and...

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Learn more about us at www.startuprad.io

[A Ping-Pong table, a PlayStation or a table football] don’t help that much if the [corporate culture] is broken.

Christopher Oster, CEO and Co-Founder Clark

In this interview we are talking to a previous guest. Christopher Oster is the CEO and co-founder of Frankfurt-based insurtech clark. In the past we talk to him about the appearance of Clark on Bloomberg’s list of startups to watch, back in 2017. Now they raised an 85 m US$ series C venture capital round, with noteworthy investor Tencent from China. We talk to him about the funding, the way to the funding and their plans. 

Insurance has still not really penetrated by technology … you have unhappy customers … this is a great opportunity for a founder.

Christopher Oster, CEO and Co-Founder Clark

Enabler

This recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/

In 2015 there was almost no funding for insurtech startups, it all started in 2016

Christopher Oster, CEO and Co-Founder Clark

The Founder

In this interview we are talking to Christopher (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-christopher-oster-3158802/) the CEO and co-founder of Frankfurt-based insurtech clark. In the past we talk to him about the appearance of Clark on Bloombergs list of startups to watch, back in 2017.

You have a paper folder with your insurance policies, but nobody checks if the insurance policies still matches your life.

Christopher Oster, CEO and Co-Founder Clark

The Startup

The startup was built by a group of four friends, who to together, since they could not find the help they wanted with their insurance needs. The whole founding team is still on board, more than 5 years after the company was set up Crunchbase (https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/clark-2), company website (https://www.clark.de/).  

An average German has six insurance policies with 4 different insurance carriers.

Christopher Oster, CEO and Co-Founder Clark

The Interview from 2017

The whole blog post is here: https://www.startuprad.io/interviews/clark-de-startup-germany-bloombergs-list-50-promising-startups/

Or just tune in to the interview here:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3xryTBqaxncpSrnXO3L3QQ?si=2qC09ZDDTJ6XnewH7_LMvg

For our series a, we talked to 300 VCs or so. There was a lot of uncertainty and many other companies started as well.

Christopher Oster, CEO and Co-Founder Clark

Feedback

Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA

The Interviewer

This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:

LinkedIn

Twitter

Email

Follow us on Social Media

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This is the fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany

Learn more about us at www.startuprad.ioMedia PartnershipThis podcast is in media partnership with the FinTech Forum (http://www.fintechforum.de/). The FinTech Forum - launched 2013 in Frankfurt am Main - is the first and largest hub for FinTechs in Continental Europe, with a community of more than 12.000 companies. With more than 17 events, with more than 270 startups on stage, and more than 1.000 investors and financial institutions. FTF alumni have raised $310mn+ in funding and resulted in exits worth $300mn+.

The FounderIn this interview, we talk to Friedrich von Jagow (https://www.linkedin.com/in/friedrich-von-jagow-9778bbb8/), a lawyer by training. He also holds a degree (LL.M.) in Law & Economics, since he was always interested in economics. During his training as a lawyer, he also chooses a station at the German Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, China. After his final examination, he started with Wirecard but then left to set up his own company. This company turned out to be Commnex, the idea which he has developed with a friend and a professor over a glass of wine.

The StartupThe Munich-based FinTech CommneX (https://www.commnex.de/, https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/commnex-gmbh) established the digital platform as an online-marketplace for the Public Finance market. Public entities such as municipalities, cities, districts, or enterprises such as utility works or public transport may tender their financial needs on CommneX. Banks and other financial partners submit offers and the best match is found. CommneX provides an all-in-one platform for all financial needs from loans and credits to fund deposits of any size and term, saving products, and public subsidy programs.

Commnex on Social MediaLinkedIn

Xing

Twitter

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This is the fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany

Learn more about us at www.startuprad.io

This Month in German Startups - 2020 Review 

Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City. This is an annual tradition, where we look at the past year and forward into the coming one. Not to mention, we have been totally wrong last year with the outlook, so we are more sticking to the review this year.

Today we bring you an overview of the German startup corona aid, an overview of the German startup scene, lists of top startup stories, a few outlooks on 2021, and a bit of wine :-) 

Ecosystem  European Startup Scene 2020 - Snapshothttps://2020.stateofeuropeantech.com/chapter/state-european-tech-2020/article/exec-sum/

8 crucial takeaways from Atomico's recently-launched The State of European Tech 2020 report | via Silicon Canals https://buff.ly/3m6MxVg

‘Megarounds’ helped European Tech ecosystem growWhile many founders found it more challenging to get funding, 2020 is on track to be a record year, with potential to surpass $41B invested, driven by more $100M+ deals.Germany is projected 23 bn US$Low capital, pivoting the product, and sales decline hit founders hardest in 2020International investment hasn’t dried upFrance is the only one of Europe’s three largest markets to grow in 2020. London remains the biggest investment hub in 2020Travel sector gets notably low investmentsInvestment in purpose-driven tech companies soarsGender and racial inequality still prevails in the European tech ecosystem 

List: 10 biggest healthtech stories of 2020 https://buff.ly/3aQlnjv 

The guinea pigs of Germany’s new healthcare revolutionBioNTech: the German biotech startup behind the coronavirus vaccine 

Hot or not: Where European VC funding went in 2020 by Pitchbook https://buff.ly/3nMSzf7 - Difference to Atomico ⇒ Different source for data ...

UK still has the largest VC market in total (13.7 bn $), but Germany (6.8 bn $) grew three times as fast with 10.9% vs UK’s +1.7% BUT this may also be due to Brexit. We will see what 2021 brings. According to Pitchbook France grew by an astonishing 25.4% to a total of 6.1 bn $. The other markets in Europe surpassing 1 bn $ are Sweden (3.2 bn$), Spain (1.4 bn$), and Finland (1.2 bn$).

These are the 10 largest funding rounds of Europe in 2020 https://buff.ly/2W1KGX8 

including AUTO1 Group, Tier Scooters and Lilium from Germany

German Startup Scene 2020 - Snapshot Deutscher Startup Monitor https://deutscherstartupmonitor.de/

This is an annual survey by the German startup association, this year more than 1.900 startups participated.The largest share of the - participating startups - (note, there is a bias here) have been inBerlin 17,7%Rhein-Rhur (Cologne, Düsseldorf, …) 12.8%Munich 6.5%Hamburg 5.8%This is one of the reasons we try to highlight so many startups from different areas, since not only every 5th startup is in Berlin. Please note that we try to have approx. 20% of our interviews from Berlin, to give these startups also a fair representation.On average a startup in the survey employed 14.3 employees, up from 13.3 in 2019 and 12.3 in 2018. Despite Corona, 90% were planning to hire people. 15.9% of founders are female in this survey, slightly up from the previous years (15.7% in ‘19 and 15.1% ‘18)Universities play a central role as a core for a startup cluster, especially Germany’s Technische Hochschule (technical universities aka TU) e.g. TU München, KIT, RWTH...