Fintech Germany: Recent Episodes
Joern "Joe" Menninger
This is the fintech track of the Startuprad.io podcast from Germany. Startuprad.io has been called "The Authority on German Startups". We bring you news, interviews, and live events from the German-speaking startup scene in English.
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:
- EU Startups STARTUPRADIO20
- Artic15 startupradio
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/
Startupraven.com The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/
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
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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 https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/central-bank-digital-currency-cbdc.asp * Definition legal tender https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/legal-tender.asp * Swift https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWIFT * Bhutan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan * Stable coin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stablecoin * Tether coins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tether_(cryptocurrency) * Lender of last resort https://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/educational/explainers/tell-me-more/html/what-is-a-lender-of-last-resort.en.html * Money multiplier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_multiplier * Money Supply M1, M2, M3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_supply * Interest rates https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/interestrate.asp
DEFI is dominated by US$ since many people active in crypto calculate their net worth in US$. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert
Feedback Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA
The Interviewer This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:LinkedInTwitterEmail
Keep Up to Date Here is our publication calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=012i27ak525qi3smgjl8v9tbio%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Europe%2FBerlin
Welcome to This Month in GSA Startups - meaning Germany, Austria and Switzerland, for February 2022 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris from New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio, our partner station IBGR.Network and the Fundscene blog.
We recorded this new episode on Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022. Today we bring you everything from a new Switzerland-based unicorn to a new take on quick delivery - pardon the pun.
We start out with mega-deal in Gaming: ESL Gaming is sold for 1bn US$, 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:
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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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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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Find all links and extensive show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-december-2021/
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/support
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The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/
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/
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/support
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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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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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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!
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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/
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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:
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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
- Start with a self-assessment, good places to start are for example the book “The Four Agreements “
- 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
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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
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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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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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“It’s our ambition to be present across the entire Eurozone in the next four months,” Christian Hecker according to TechCrunch
Welcome to This Month in German Startups - A bonus episode since we have a new king in town. Trade Republic just became Germany’s most valuable startup with a 900 mn USD funding round backed by investors like Sequoia.
Chris joins Joe for this episode.
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Start in 2015 - at comdirect Startup Garage
The story of Trade Republic starts with the comdirect startup garage. comdirect is Commerzbank’s online broker, founded during the late 1990s. Commerzbank again is Germany’s 2nd largest listed bank.
So, the founding team Christian Hecker, Thomas Pischke, and Marco Cancellieri started out with the idea of a German RobinHood Trading app (What is today called a neobroker). The Garage helped at the start in 2015 but did back out at funding the startup. The team did not receive funding from comdirect Garage, because one million Euros was too much to invest in a company at a seed stage
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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
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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.
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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
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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:
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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
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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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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
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.
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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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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
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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 2021 or Q1 2022 to go live.
PaceUp on Social MediaFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/2399668980113869Instagram https://www.instagram.com/paceupinvest/LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8788895/YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3EIqAHmEF0dnPB-IAy6gPw
Venture Capital FundingPaceUp is currently funded by an angel investment in combination with a government grant of the state of Baden Wurttemberg. They will start their next fundraising soon, looking at 900k €.
When I got in a bank to get a mortgage to buy my first apartment, my bank advisor asked me “where is your husband”. … other women had similar experiences
Rukayyat Kolaw...
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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.
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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 https://buff.ly/3abVPMO
N26German regulator, stung by past failings, extends oversight of N26 - sources https://buff.ly/2Ymp88F German mobile bank N26 is thinking of making its first acquisition https://buff.ly/3ckRpVq
Trade Republic, Reddit and GameStopBerlin-based SolarisBank needed four years to get to 400k customers, but the next 600k came within half a year says their chief commercial officer Jörg Diewald, many of them have to be attributed to Trade Republic https://buff.ly/3oEKLMc Our take on this topic: https://www.startuprad.io/berlin/gamestop-reddit-and-fintech-trade-republic/ Note: There will be a follow-up on yet another blog post from our side, with hearings of Roaring Kitten and profits for hedge funds. We're nothing like Robinhood, says Berlin-based broker Trade Republic | Sifted https://buff.ly/3bAqNOq
iCarPorsche's Cayenne Boss Dr. Manfred Harrer (48) is hired by Apple. He was rumored to be one of the best engineers in the company. Is the ...
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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 out to him:
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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!” 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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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 grant their physician access https://buff.ly/3hHb3M4Berlin remains the capital of German Venture Capital in 2020. EY tracked 314 financing rounds, out of a total of 743 they found. according to their data, VC funding declined in #Germany in 2020 by 15% to 5.3 bn Euros (6.45 bn US$) https://buff.ly/3oMxaDEIn the most recent fintech ranking #Frankfurt is losing position No 3 to Hamburg and now only scores at No 4 https://buff.ly/3o5IeKU
Hubs Note: The order of news and cities is only due to the time when we discovered the news.
FrankfurtFrankfurt-based provider of high performance computing Northern Data ...
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[A Ping-Pong table, a PlayStation or a table football] don’t help that much if the [corporate culture] is broken.
Christopher Oster, CEO and Co-Founder Clark
In this interview we are talking to a previous guest. Christopher Oster is the CEO and co-founder of Frankfurt-based insurtech clark. In the past we talk to him about the appearance of Clark on Bloomberg’s list of startups to watch, back in 2017. Now they raised an 85 m US$ 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
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The Interviewer
This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:
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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
The Audio Interview is set to go live at the same timeThe Audio Podcast will be published at the same time. Please give us a bit to post the Spotify link here. In the meantime, you can subscribe to our podcasts here
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:
Follow us on Social MediaInstagram https://www.instagram.com/startuprad.io/
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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 Aachen, LMU München, Universität Mannheim, Universität Bremen, WHU, TU Berlin, TU Darmstadt and FU Berlin.~ 20% of founders have a migration backgroundThe most important technology is AI, more than 26.7% of startups had a SaaS business model68.8% of all startups focus on B2B, 26.5% on B2C, and 4.7% on B2G (Business to Government)The most important ...
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Meet epap.app, they want to re-invent receipts
In Europe you can pay with your phone or your watch, but you will still get a paper receipt.
Jannis Dust, CMO and Co-Founder epap.app
The FounderJannis (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jannisdust/, https://twitter.com/jannisdust, ) is in his early 20s, but already the co-founder of Hannover, Germany based fintech Epap (https://epap.app/). Originally Jannis was working on a freelance basis for eCommerce startups, but in 2018 he met his co-founders during a startup event.
In Germany the tax code demands to print a receipt for every transaction. This leads to a lot of waste.
Jannis Dust, CMO and Co-Founder epap.app
Affiliate LinksIs 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
With the app you could also track your spending. It is a companion of your spending. … with the app you get an evaluation on your spending.
Jannis Dust, CMO and Co-Founder epap.app
The StartupThe startup is young, it was registered in the Hannover Commercial Registry in April 2020. None-the-less epap.app (https://epap.app/) wants to digitize recipes. In Germany, the tax regulations were changed at the start of 2020. This is called “the obligation to print receipts”. So for each transaction in a store or shop, the merchant needs to provide a receipt, mostly paper-based. This leads to a lot of waste and searching if one needs to find an important receipt in order to claim the warranty. Here the digitalization of epap comes in, since one has all receipts (digital and scans of paper-based ones) in one place, even with little reminders for warranties.
The Epap AppYou can download the epap app in the Apple and Google Stores here: Google Play and App Store
With the app you can also claim the warranty, where you can use epap … we make it easier. You get little reminders for your warranty.
Jannis Dust, CMO and Co-Founder epap.app
Venture Capital FundingEpap is looking to expand to German-speaking Europe and willing to try other European countries if the opportunity presents itself.
They had their first seed investment round in April 2020 and are planning to raise the next financing round in the first half of 2021, but it will be an extended seed round, they do not plan to scale that fast.
Currently, the team is eight people strong.
Our goal is to provide you with a very comprehensive and granular analysis of your expenses. In a normal finance apps, you see the category. In our app the analysis is based on the digital receipt.
Jannis Dust, CMO and Co-Founder epap.app
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 out to him:
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/support
Meet Berlin-based Fintech Bitbond, the Company Behind Germany's First Regulated Security Token Offering
In spring 2019 we issued our tokenized bond and with that, we established tokenized securities in Germany.
Radoslav Albrecht, Founder and CEO of Bitbond
Media PartnershipThis podcast is in media partnership with the Crypto Assets Conference, an event taking place each year in spring and autumn in Frankfurt, organized by the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and their Blockchain Center.
You can learn more about the conference here: https://www.crypto-assets-conference.de/
You can learn more about Philipp Sandner, head of the Blockchain Center in our interview with him here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/the-german-bill-to-permit-crypto-securities/
What we are most interested in is to speak to companies, who are interested in tokenization. … to partner up with Bitbond to enhance their tokenization capabilities
Radoslav Albrecht, Founder and CEO of Bitbond
The InterviewFind all the links, show notes, and the automated transcript here on our blog post: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/podcast-meet-berlin-based-fintech-bitbond-the-company-behind-germanys-first-regulated-security-token-offering/
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The Fintech Review is one of the annual traditions of Joe, established in 2014. Ever since shortly before Christmas we get together with Fintech entrepreneurs, event organizers, and thought leaders to look back at the year and forward to the new one in our fintech review. You can find the ones in English here on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUbiCAQc22WsxyePUkzBI-LKh1y4yy0sq
In this Fintech Review, we talk to
Paolo Sironi, Fintech Thought Leader, Author (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thepsironi/)
Frank Schwab, Co-Founder Fintech Forum (https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankschwab/)
Luka Ivicev, Fintech Entrepreneur, Forbes 30 under 30 (linkedin.com/in/luka-ivicevic/)
Paolos Top 3 News
Ant Financial IPO
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/03/930799521/regulators-squash-giant-ant-ipo?t=1607260457756
Google Pay Relaunch https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/11/google-pay-relaunch-transforms-it-into-a-full-fledged-financial-service/#:~:text=Google%20today%20announced%20a%20major,Pay%2C%20and%20even%20some%20banks.
Singapore allows fully digital bank license
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/banking/mas-awards-digital-full-bank-licences-to-grab-singtel-and-sea-ant-gets-digital
3b
Starling digital bank posts first profit
https://www.financemagnates.com/fintech/news/starling-becomes-first-digital-bank-to-post-profits/#:~:text=UK%2Dbased%20Starling%20Bank%20has,million%20on%20an%20annualized%20basis.
Paolo's 2020 impact
Digitalization increases, evaluations declining
Franks Top 3 News
Cash is still increasing ⇒ Cash in circulation in Germany increasing ⇒ Virtual ATM Songmic
Pandemic ⇒ All becomes digital
Moving from CrowdFunding ⇒ Government Help for Startups: Capilendo
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
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This Month in German Startups - December 2020
Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City.
Welcome to the Chris-mas edition :-)
Today we are wrapping up December 2020 for you. Please keep in mind that due to the holidays and the current lockdown in Germany we are recording this news on December 15th. All news not included here will be part of our January warp-up and there will be a 2020 review 2021outlook as well.
Today we bring you news about the 10 bn investment package of the German government, the new DAX, Peter Thiel’s investments in Germany, Taxes, AI, and much more.
EnablerThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/
Find all options to subscribe here:
💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflSpotify https://spoti.fi/3kCcgoB Housekeeping - Time to brag We have only one thing to say: Stay safe everybody! Be grateful for what you have!
Affiliate LinksThe current situation with the Coronavirus-related lockdown is frequently compared to severe economic recessions including, but not limited to the 2008 Financial Crisis and the Stock Market Crash of 1929. If you want to know more, consider these books below.
“Galbraith was asked by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. if he would write the definitive work on the Great Depression that he would then use as a reference source for his own intended work on Roosevelt.” (from Wikipedia) - The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith https://amzn.to/3cl41sAEssays on the Great Depression https://amzn.to/2VvEsht by former Fed Chairmen Ben S. Bernanke “an American economist at the Brookings Institution[3] who served two terms as Chair of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, from 2006 to 2014” (from Wikipedia)From John Kenneth Galbraith as well: A Short History of Financial Euphoria https://amzn.to/2VxngbgA great book on crashes, bubbles, and economic uncertainty, in general, is “Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation” by Edward Chancellor https://amzn.to/2VaUDSlAll the news and links here
https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-december-2020/
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The BISON App Allows Uncomplicated and Reliable Trading of Cryptocurrencies on the Smartphone
We were the first to provide crypto buying and selling from an in Germany licensed institution.
Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart
Media Partnership
This podcast is in media partnership with the Crypto Assets Conference, an event taking place each year in spring and autumn in Frankfurt, organized by the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and their Blockchain Center.
You can learn more about the conference here: https://www.crypto-assets-conference.de/
You can learn more about Philipp Sandner, head of the Blockchain Center in our interview with him here:
https://www.startuprad.io/blog/the-german-bill-to-permit-crypto-securities/
The Chief Digital Officer
This time we talk to Ulli Spankowski (https://de.linkedin.com/in/ulli-spankowski-08652916, https://twitter.com/uspankowski?lang=en, https://www.crunchbase.com/person/ulli-spankowski ) a fintech and blockchain entrepreneur, who sold his company to the Stuttgart Stock Exchange, which than promoted him to be the CDO (Chief Digital Officer). He is an economist by training, who did his PhD in market microstructure. He co-founded his fintech startup with co-founders from Slovenia.
We met with the CIO of Börse Stuttgart - back then - and discussed what can be done with financial markets in the future, if you completely rethink it, based on blockchain technology.
Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart
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
Bitcoin was much bigger in Slovenia. When my co-founder told me to do something in bitcoin, I said … Bit-What?
Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart
The Startup
Back in 2013, Ulli founded his startup Sowa Labs together with co-founders from Slovenia, which he met during an EU funded project during his Ph.D. Thesis. The idea of aggregating data from across the web and social media on cryptocurrencies evolved into cryptocurrency trading. They then sold the startup to the Stuttgart Stock Exchange in 2017 and developed what has become their BISON app: https://bisonapp.com/en/ (App Store, Google Play Store). This was not a bad move, since Börse Stuttgart is the market leader in Europe as a trading venue for retail structured products and one of the 10 largest stock exchanges in Europe.
We started out with cryptocurrencies, but we are planning to move gradually into security tokens.
Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart
When I was attending conferences [at the beginning of cryptocurrencies] I always said “The biggest problem of cryptocurrencies is that no one cares about them”
Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart
Further Readings / Additional Resources
Market Microstructure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_microstructure
Börse Stuttgart: https://www.boerse-stuttgart.de/en/
Multilateral trading facility: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilateral_trading_facility
Euwax (The market for retail structured products, not related to BISON, but we talk about it as an offering of Börse Stuttgart): https://www.boerse-stuttgart.de/en/investing/euwax-segment/
OTC Trading: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/otc.asp
AML: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/aml.asp
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:
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
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Amazing Blocks can tokenize Any Asset LegallyMedia PartnershipThis podcast is in media partnership with crypto assets conference, an event taking place each year in spring and autumn in Frankfurt, organized by the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and their Blockchain Center.
You can learn more about the conference here: https://www.crypto-assets-conference.de/
You can learn more about Philipp Sandner, head of the Blockchain Center in our interview with him here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/the-german-bill-to-permit-crypto-securities/
The asset can be located anywhere, as long as it is legally owned by the SPV.
Nicolas Weber, Amazing Blocks
The Interview PartnerWe talk to Nicolas Weber (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas97weber/), in charge of business development Germany for Amazing Blocks (https://my.amazingblocks.io/).
Blockchain has the ability to disrupt every aspect of business.
Nicolas Weber, Amazing Blocks
Affiliate 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 Liechtenstein implemented the Token Act as a complete new law, other than for examples Switzerland, which is currently looking at adding to existing laws.
Nicolas Weber, Amazing Blocks
Find all the links and show notes on our blog here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/amazing-blocks-can-tokenize-any-asset-legally/
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
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Learn from Maria – Investor in several of Germany’s renowned startupsNormally you want to invest in people who you already know.
Maria Pennanen, Startup Investor
The EnablerThis interview is part of our series of startups and investors in the startup scene in the state of Hessen. The whole series is sponsored by Hessen Trade and Invest, you can learn more about our enabler here: www.invest-in-hessen.com
Startup investment is a very risky business
Maria Pennanen, Startup Investor
The InvestorIn this interview we talk to Maria Pennanen, she is known to our established audience as co-founder of Accelerator Frankfurt, but she is also a Business Angel with more than 10 direct investments. Directly and indirectly, she is or was invested in many renowned startups like Solarisbank, Clark, Bankify, Savedo or Finance Ads.
You can learn more about Maria here:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pennanenmariaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariapennanen/Accelerator Frankfurt: https://www.acceleratorfrankfurt.com/Mindclip: https://www.mindclip.com/
The best thing to start is joining a business angel organization
Maria Pennanen, Startup Investor
The AuthorMaria is also the author of the book “how to f*ck up your startup” in which she helps entrepreneurs to learn from failures. You can find the eBook here https://amzn.to/3oa2Stw
Affiliate 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/3cjMMYnIt is very rare that you invest in an idea from people you just met, especially in seed.
Maria Pennanen, Startup Investor
Find all information and an automated transcript here:
https://www.startuprad.io/blog/learn-from-maria-investor-in-several-of-germanys-renowned-startups/
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
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This Month in German Startups - November 2020
Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City.
Today we are wrapping up November 2020 for you with an update on German startups working on corona vaccines, Flixbus, Finleap, Rocket Internet’s ongoing delisting, and a potential digital Euro
Enabler
This recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/
Find all options to subscribe here:
Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio PodcastiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflSpotify https://spoti.fi/3kCcgoB
Housekeeping - Time to brag
We have only one thing to say: Stay safe everybody! Be grateful for what you have!
Affiliated Links
Why 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/2XAENlB
· Recommended by: Jeff Bezos
“Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras” https://amzn.to/2RGKGKe
· Recommended by: Elon Musk
“Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel” https://amzn.to/2REbHhw
· Recommended by: Tony Hsieh
“Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan” https://amzn.to/34KgraQ
· Recommended by: Warren Buffet
“Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street by John Brooks” https://amzn.to/2K92z06
· Recommended by: Tim Cook
“Competing Against Time by George Stalk and Thomas Hout” https://amzn.to/3cjMMYn
Show Notes, Links and more reading
https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-november-2020/
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This Month in German Startups - October 2020Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City.
Today we are wrapping up October 2020 for you with a monster round in the making at N26, new information on the Wirecard insolvency and questions about published information of Heidelberg based insurance startup Getsafe.
You can now join us on the entrepreneur network DueDash: https://buff.ly/2R90PYp with 5 Euros a month you support our work! Or become a Patron at Patreon: https://buff.ly/32bZ4zW
Thank you!
EnablerThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/
Find all options to subscribe here:
💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflSpotify https://spoti.fi/3kCcgoB Find all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-october-2020/
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
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This Month in German Startups - Summer 2020 Wrap-UpWelcome to this month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City.
Today we are wrapping up summer 2020 for you. This is going to take a bit longer than normal, so grab a coffee and relax on the couch.
You can now join us on the entrepreneur network DueDash: https://buff.ly/2R90PYp with 5 Euros a month you support our work! Thank you!
EnablerThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/
Find all options to subscribe here:
💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflDeezer http://bit.ly/2Qbh1rlTuneIn http://bit.ly/2M8vpznStitcher http://bit.ly/34xTANO💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - VideoiTunes https://apple.co/2M8ZxKJ
Housekeeping - Time to brag We made it now in 39 Countries in the podcast charts, adding Switzerland, Zimbabwe, Israel, and Indonesia! Thank you!
[caption id="attachment_3669" align="alignleft" width="800"]Podcast Charts Appearances of Startuprad.io - Now in 39 countries[/caption]
As a premier source for startup information from Germany, Startupradio was already a part of the US launch of podcasts on Amazon Music and is now in Germany as well.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFcAK3wj3Gn/
Video News - This video will go live on Thursday, September 24th 19.00 CET (Frankfurt, Zürich, Berlin, Milan)https://youtu.be/AQBKnWmxaTY
Audio News - The audio podcast will go live at the same timeWe just need some time after the release until we can embed the Spotify player here.
Top NewsCoronavirus / Curevac Curevac was one of the biggest startup stories during the summer. They are a Tübingen, Germany-based biotech company, working on a coronavirus vaccine.
They IPOed for more than 200 mn US$ (https://buff.ly/3iUsus6)
They got visited by Elon Musk (https://buff.ly/3cjMdzf)
And we already blogged about their government investment in June (https://buff.ly/3iY0y6Q)
And they received a large investment pre-IPO by two international heavy weights:
Pre-IPO: Qatar Investment Authority takes stake in vaccine-maker CureVac https://buff.ly/3jnYZzD Glaxosmithkline (GSK) pays 142 mn Euro for 10% stake in one of #Germany's most promising candidates for a #coronavirus #vaccine Curevac from Tuebingen https://buff.ly/3homvLk Coronavirus / Potential super spreader event in the Berlin startup scene?deutsche-startups reports in their podcast, that a super-spreader event took place in the Berlin Venture Capital and startup scene on Friday, September 11th https://buff.ly/2ElAxzc
Wirecard We keep you updated, just a small selection of news here
Wirecard's liquidator sends employees into garden leave without pay via email after 20.00 o'clock. Rumors talk about 50% of the more than 1.000 employees https://buff.ly/34wB7F6
Related: Wirecard scandal fallout sees 50% of German staff laid off https://buff.ly/3hvG30vWirecard liabilities exceeding the assets by 2.8 bn Euro, only a few of the companies within the group had revenues at all says an expert assessment obtained by German media https://buff.ly/2EzLhKv Berlin-based Finleap snapped up some employees there:
Finleap starts a new unit Finleap Forward, with former Wirecard employees to help banks, insurers and SMEs with their digital transformation https://buff.ly/2QsWkra
More details emerged: Finleap hired a team of six employees of the Wirecard Innovation Labs to help banks, insurance companies, and SMEs with their digital transformation https://buff.ly/3hza2EYBerlin-based big data startup SO1 was bought shortly before the accounting scandal, now the founders bought assets back https://buff.ly/32JMcl0 More than 100 potential bidders lined up to acquire parts of #Wirecard, Germany’s erstwhile fintech darling” https:...
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Follow-Up with the Bloomberg of Crypto – CoinAnalystAfter the interview in 2018, we entered the crypto winter.
Pascal Lauria, CEO and Co-Founder CoinAnalyst
The FounderThis interview is a follow-up to our interview in July 2018. At this time we talked with Pascal about the upcoming ICO of CoinAnalyst. Pascal Lauria (https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascallauria/) is the CEO and Co-Founder of CoinAnalyst (https://coinanalyst.tech/en/insights/), the Frankfurt-based startup still wants to be the “Bloomberg for Crypto.”
The last few years for Crypto has been extremely hard.
Pascal Lauria, CEO and Co-Founder CoinAnalyst
PatreonLearn about our interviews hours before they are released, help in the selection of the startups we interview or even suggest startups to be interviewed, by becoming a Patron: https://buff.ly/32bZ4zW
DueDashIf you don’t like Patreon, there is DueDash. DueDash is a Social Network, for startups and investors. We have a group of supporters there as well. You can join the group there: https://buff.ly/2R90PYp
Affiliate LinksIs 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
During the Crypto Winter, no one wanted to talk or hear about Crypto. … I was advised to reflect that in my pitch deck.
Pascal Lauria, CEO and Co-Founder CoinAnalyst
The Startup CoinAnalyst (https://coinanalyst.tech/en/insights/), the Frankfurt-based startup still wants to be the “Bloomberg for Crypto.” They are themselves a spin-off of Frankfurt-based startup Cogia (https://www.cogia.de/de/), which was also founded by Pascal, where he is still the CEO. CoinAnalyst claims to have created a unique tool that helps crypto investors make more accurate predictions while trading. On their platform, they show Trends, Sentiment, Influencer talk about Crypto Currencies, Word Signals, Forecasts, and AI filtered high impact news.
This all together is applicable to crypto coins, stocks and forex. They also have the COY token (https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/coinanalyst), which they issued during the ICO in 2018.
Disclaimer on Coins and TokensPlease seek professional advice, before jumping into the risky crypto space. You may want to talk to your investment advisor, as well as your tax advisor. The investments in crypto-assets are always very risky and could lead to a loss of all of your investments in a very short time. Please make your research and due diligence! This podcast provides no investment advice.
Initial Exchange OfferingAt the time of publication, the COY token will have made its debut on a new crypto exchange, called an IEO (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_exchange_offering) at LaToken Exchange (https://latoken.com/).
Additionally, they are going to “burn” one billion COYs from the hard cap (https://academy.binance.com/glossary/hard-cap). In Equities, this would be called a “reverse split” (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/reversesplit.asp) two for one.
Pascals and Joe's advice - MediationJust put on your headphones and listen to a guided meditation to get you relaxed and sleep better and deeper.
For example here is one channel Joe likes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4jWo5kiyOCt4PnvF4jbaLg
The Video Interview is set to go live on September 14th 2020 19.00 CET (Frankfurt/Zürich)https://youtu.be/yynVxYW6e0M
The Audio Interview will go live at the same timeThe Audio Podcast will be published next week. Subscribe to our podcasts here
Interview form 2018You can find the interview, announcing their ICO, here
https://youtu.be/hU1hCM90xdc
According to Pascal they raised more than one million Euros in cash and did a lot of swaps (meaning the exchange of COY tokens for other tokens). None the less, they did not raise as much money as they ...
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NAIX redacts Contracts with AI for companies in M&A Transactions
“Companies tended to accept the [GDPR] fines since they are not as high as the costs of the manual redaction of data, but now we are here”
Ramin Karbalaie, CEO and Founder NAIX Technology
Media PartnershipNAIX Technology is Frankfurt Forward's (https://www.frankfurtforward.com/) Startup of the Month September 2020. Congratulations. As part of our media partnership, we are bringing you the interview with its astrophysicist CEO and Founder Ramin.
The FounderIn this interview, we are talking to Ramin Karbalaie (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramin-karbalaie-b9022a185/), CEO, and Co-Founder of Frankfurt and Cologne-based NAIX Technology (https://naix.de/en). The AI startup and legal tech help do anonymize documents for large companies and corporations, e.g. in case they need to be put in a data room. More on this later.
Ramin is highly gifted, he started to study astrophysics at university already during high school (in Germany highly gifted student can do that) and finished several semesters worth of course work before graduating from high school.
His mother is a linguist and so he was early exposed to linguistics, which sparked his interest in computer linguistic and later natural language processing (NLP). This is where the legal part, the ai, the natural language processing, and the quantitative training come together to form NAIX Technologies.
The startup counts among its mentors one of the managing directors of the private investment office of Rothschild & Co.
“When I was studying astrophysics I had to work, so I took any job. I used to work as a working student in a big international law firm. … There I talk to lawyers about their pains. … so, things evolved”
Ramin Karbalaie, CEO and Founder NAIX Technology
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“We anonymize contracts, so lawyers and consultants are not violating data protection law in due diligence”
Ramin Karbalaie, CEO and Founder NAIX Technology
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“We work for investigative committees of the German parliament, which is pretty cool at least for us”
Ramin Karbalaie, CEO and Founder NAIX Technology
The StartupThe startup is providing anonymization and pseudonymization for contracts and other legal documents. This is needed due to European data protection laws. If a company is sold, a buyer will want to look deep in the books and contracts of an entity he or she buys. Such a phase in a transaction is called Due Diligence. Due to data protection, the contracts with all personal information cannot be shared, but the buyer needs them to evaluate the company, so NAIX comes in and takes out all private information so contracts and other information can be shared, without violating the law.
The system of NAIX is based on AI technology. They are not only working for private companies, but also for the public sector like investigative committees of the German Federal Government and other high-profile bodies.
Their tools can also be used in knowledge management, so e.g. contracts can be shared in large law firms without violating data protection.
“We automatically redact contracts for M&A transactions”
Ramin Karbalaie, CEO and Founder NAIX Technology
The Video Interview is set to go live on...
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The German Bill to Permit Crypto SecuritiesIn terms of large countries, Germany is a fast mover in blockchain legislation
Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert
Labor Day SpecialSince the USA are one of our biggest markets we publish some specials on federal holidays. This is one of those occasions. Despite this we stick to our publication of Video on Thursday and podcast the following night, so you all have the content on your devices the next morning.
Our GuestCurrently, there is a piece of legislation in the law-making process, to permit securities issued on the blockchain in Germany. Due to this step, we talk to Philipp Sandner (https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippsandner/), a blockchain expert, Professor of Frankfurt School of Management and Finance, Head of the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center, Member Fintech Council (FinTechRat) of the German Federal Ministry of Finance, and member of several expert groups on the blockchain.
The Bill to become Germany's Crypto Securities LawWe are talking about a bill to revolutionize the German capital market since you could move existing securities on the blockchain, as well as emit securities completely without "paper" on the blockchain. The new system is designed so that also startups also could run blockchains for crypto securities.
You can find the proposed bill in German here: https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/Gesetzestexte/Gesetze_Gesetzesvorhaben/Abteilungen/Abteilung_VII/19_Legislaturperiode/2020-08-11-einfuehrung-elektronische-wertpapiere/0-Gesetz.html
The US is lagging behind in terms of legislation, but they have some great startups in terms of crypto trading and crypto securities.
Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert
The Video interview will go live on Labor Day 2020 (September 7th) at 19.00 CEThttps://youtu.be/uPaea39mDig
The Audio Interview is set to go live on the same daySubscribe to our podcast(s) here
Current SituationDuring our interview, Philipp refers to an already existing law in Germany, for which you can find an article here on the website of the German finance oversight body BaFin.
The small country of LiechtensteinLiechtenstein, a country of fewer than 50.000 people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein), nestled in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. The whole country of Liechtenstein is just 2.7 times larger than the Island of Manhattan (http://www.comparea.org/LIE+r2552485#:~:text=Liechtenstein%20is%202.7%20times%20larger%20than%20Manhattan%20(NYC%20borough).&text=Liechtenstein%20is%202.7%20times%20larger%20than%20Manhattan%20(NYC%20borough)). The capital Vaduz has a population of fewer than 6.000 people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaduz), but you should not underestimate them.
Liechtenstein is leading in Europe in Crypto-LegislationPhilipp takes a few minutes in our interview to bring the point home, but Liechtenstein and Switzerland are leading in Europe in Crypto Legislation, followed by countries from Baltic states. Not far behind in Germany with the bill we discuss. For further reference, here is the Liechtenstein Token Act: https://impuls-liechtenstein.li/en/blockchain-act-liechtenstein/
Future SituationThe law will likely come into force in January 2021. There are small changes to be expected, but the law should pass mostly in the current form, according to observers. This will allow for the conversion of normal securities, we assume bonds in the interview, can be converted in crypto securities early next year. Also, the issuance of crypto securities can happen early next year. We are excited about the opportunity.
EU PerspectiveIn September 2020 the European Commission is trying to catch up in digital services. There are multiple proposals and strategies on the European Level coming up. Out of those Philipp names seven landmark proposals from the European Commission this September.
There are seven landmark proposals coming from the European Commission in September 2020.
Philipp Sandne...
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NGRAVE offers the most secure end-to-end solution in the world for managing digital assetsYou cannot brute force our private keys.
You cannot predict our private keys.
The private key is generated on the spot, even we as the manufacturer do not know your private key.
There are no back-doors in our device.
Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE
The FounderThis time we talk to Ruben Merre, the CEO and Co-Founder (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruben-merre/, https://medium.com/ngrave) of NGRAVE (https://www.ngrave.io/), which offers a highly secure solution to manage one’s digital assets. Ruben originally stared out with a business engineering degree. He not only worked as a strategy consultant, contributor to Hackernoon (https://hackernoon.com/u/ruben.merre) but also is a bestseller online investment instructor at UDEMY (https://www.udemy.com/user/rubenmerre/).
This interview is part of our ongoing media partnership with Accelerator Frankfurt (https://www.acceleratorfrankfurt.com/).
In 2019 a record 4.5 bn US$ in cryptocurrencies was stolen… we still see the same trend. Hacks are increasing in size and in frequency …
Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE
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There are no solutions to own your crypto, how it should be.
Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE
The StartupOfficially the startup NGRAVE (https://www.ngrave.io/, https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ngrave´), based out of Brussels, Belgium. The story started as the former project of one of the three co-founders was hacked and approximately 10 million US$ worth in Ethereum was stolen. The old project was shut down and NGRAVE was founded to provide a secure way of storing digital or crypto assets.
Venture Capital FundingNGRAVE is looking for funding in the second half of 2020.
There are no backdoors in our product.
Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE
Indiegogo CampaignAt the time of the interview, the campaign was not yet launched. At the time of the publication the campaign already ended, but they raised more than 380.000 € (more than 450.000 US$), achieving more than 1.500% of their goal of 25.000 € (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zero-the-most-secure-easy-to-use-crypto-wallet#/).
Our device looks like a small smartphone. The device is completely disconnected from the world, so no hacker can access it. …. Nobody can ever steal the private keys, because they are never exposed.
Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE
Pre-order the Device (NGRAVE Zero)For everybody who missed the Campaign, you can buy the device here: https://www.ngrave.io/products/zero.
This is not an affiliate link.
The Video Interview is set to go live on Thursday, August 27th 19.00 CEThttps://youtu.be/NZoSbjoRJzg
You generate your private key at first activation of your NGRAVE Zero. Your biometric data like your fingerprint, but also external data like the ambient lighting at that moment. That makes statistically a unique key.
Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE
The Audio PodcastSubscribe to our podcasts here
We build our backup as a stainless-steel puzzle. It survives if your house burns down and since it is a puzzle – no one who random finds it – will know your private key
Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE
Further Readings / Additional Resources
IBAN https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/iban....
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Our founderA summer message from our founder Jörn “Joe” Menninger (LinkedIn, Twitter, Crunchbase) in times of Corona.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCGvgRhIKAw/
Hello and welcome, everybody, this is Joe – Founder and Host – of Startuprad.io. It is the beginning of July and I wanted to take the opportunity to reach out to you.
First, I wanted to wish you a great summer – as great as it can be under the current circumstances.
Second, I wanted to let you know that for July and August we take some time off. Our news is in the regular summer break – Enjoy your summer in New York Chris!
We will also publish interviews only every other week. We normally used summer to publish interviews from our backlog, but since there have been almost no events we attended in person, there is less backlog.
We will be back to a weekly publishing schedule in September. Until then, enjoy your time and thank you to all our listeners, who made us reach the podcast charts in now 35 countries across the world. The last ones added have been Hong Kong and Kuwait.
If you like our podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon.
Have a great summer and see you again in September!
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Feedback – Suggest Interview Partners and moreReach 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
Video – Enjoy the summer – As much as you can and stay safehttps://youtu.be/cmCgRkvO7xY
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Learn more about us at www.startuprad.io
This Month in German Startups - June 2020IntroToday we are going to talk about German startups, in the process of producing vaccines for Covid19, the potential accounting fraud at Wirecard, startups in Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne and Berlin, and the 110th Birthday of Konrad Zuse, the inventor of the modern-day computer.
Welcome to this month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City.
Reach out to usOur audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA Find the hosts here:Jörn “Joe” Menninger joe@startuprad.io / Twitter / LinkedIn / Video Interview (2018)Christian “Chris” Fahrenbach chris@startuprad.io / Twitter / Homepage / Video Interview (2018)PatreonIf you like our podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/startupradio
EnablerThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/
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💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflDeezer http://bit.ly/2Qbh1rlTuneIn http://bit.ly/2M8vpznStitcher http://bit.ly/34xTANO💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - VideoiTunes https://apple.co/2M8ZxKJThe Video Interview is set to go live on Thursday, June 25th 2020https://youtu.be/xRNMoOSm28Y
The Audio Interview is set to go live on June 30th, 2020The Audio Podcast will be published next week. Subscribe to our podcasts here
Housekeeping - Time to brag Now it is official, Startuprad.io passed several milestones.
We reached more than 200.000 subscribers for our podcasts alone! 206.014 as of today! We count subscribers, who return at least once in 7 days to our RSS feed over 90 days.We managed to score more than 1.000 days in podcast charts (iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and Chartable), actually, we made 1.026 days so far. https://www.startuprad.io/blog/startuprad-io-ranked-now-in-33-countries-and-1-000-days-in-podcast-charts/We now scored with PR China, Croatia, and Singapore in three more countries and now we made it in 33 countries in their respective podcast charts. We are also a steady member of chartable.com’s science and tech podcast charts, for the US as well as globally. https://www.startuprad.io/blog/startuprad-io-ranked-now-in-33-countries-and-1-000-days-in-podcast-charts/And again we have several interviews and blog posts for you. We will also have on July 1st our first live stream after corona. https://www.meetup.com/Startup-Couch-TV-Talks/events/271395382/
Coronavirus / Covid19 80% of Berlin-based startups see their very existence threatened by the coronavirus https://buff.ly/2UYMi3P CureVac is the first German biotech to receive a direct investment from the German government, an astonishing 300 mn Euros. The reason behind this is the Trump administration. You can learn in our blogpost how the story unfolded https://www.startuprad.io/blog/germanys-hope-for-coronavirus-vaccine-and-how-they-got-a-300-mn-euros-government-investment/Mainz-based BioNTech (we talk about them frequently) is the first company in Germany to start human trials for a Coronavirus vaccine: https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer_and_biontech_dose_first_participants_in_the_u_s_as_part_of_global_covid_19_mrna_vaccine_development_program Wirecard - This month’s top news in GermanyIntroWirecard is a company processing payments. The company works as an intermediary and guarantor between buyers and sellers and takes a commission on all transactions. They have about 5,000 employees and actually replaced Commerzbank (we will talk about them later) in DAX 30 (Germany's equivalent of the Dow Jon...
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Find all further Links and show notes on our blog post: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/news-wrap-up-developing-wirecard-story/
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Ginmon provides automated and personal online wealth management
We build a platform, that totally automizes the wealth management process.
Lars Reiner, CEO and Founder of Ginmon
The founderJoe from Startuprad.io talks to Lars (https://www.linkedin.com/in/larsreiner/), the CEO and Founder of the Frankfurt-based rob advisor Ginmon (https://www.ginmon.de/en/). Lars started out as a management consultant inside of Deutsche Bank, in their unit called in-house-consulting, focusing on their retail business.
Our clients are wealthy, but not wealthy enough to qualify for traditional wealth management.
Lars Reiner, CEO and Founder of Ginmon
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There was no one at my company interested in what is today robo advisors, so I started my own and do not regret it until this day.
Lars Reiner, CEO and Founder of Ginmon
Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3dLooking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye The StartupGinmon (https://www.ginmon.de/en/, https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ginmon-gmbh) is a Robo Advisor, catering to the mass affluent. They are wealthy enough to have money to invest, but in Germany, the normal threshold to enter the wealth management services of large banks is 2 million Euros, and they do not qualify yet.
Ginmon wants to be the online financial advisor for this clientele. Therefore, they became fully licensed as a wealth manager in 2017, by German financial services oversight body BaFin. They now have an investment volume of more than 100 mn Euros for approx. 5.000 clients, according to their website. According to Lars, they have approx. 15% of the share of wallet of their clients, which they aim to increase.
After our business model has been proven with a couple of hundred customers on our platform, we raised our first funding with Passion Capital from London, known for their investments e.g. in Monzo
Lars Reiner, CEO and Founder of Ginmon
Video Interview (available on June 11th 19.00 Frankfurt, 1 pm New York, 18.00 London)
The Audio Podcast will go live on June 16thThe Audio Podcast will be published next week. Subscribe to our podcasts here
Six Million Venture Capital FinancingGinmon published (at the day of the recording) a Series A funding worth 6 mn Euros, including old investors and a new investor from Russia. During the interview, we talk about what the new investor did right https://www.ginmon.de/presse/robo-advisor-ginmon-schliesst-weitere-finanzierungsrunde-ab/
Further Readings / Additional ResourcesRobo Advisor Talk (hosted by Joe, in German from October 2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akCaXmFfgMQETF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange-traded_fundStock Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market_indexModern Portfolio Theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_portfolio_theoryGerman Government Retirement System: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pensions_in_Germany
In Germany we still have a lot of commission based financial advice.
Lars Reiner, CEO and Founder of Ginmon
Feedback
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This Month in German Startups - May 2020If you are new to our podcast(s), we are wrapping up the startup news of the German-speaking area in a monthly recording from Frankfurt and New York. Have a look at our website www.startuprad.io or www.startup.radio and you will find all the links to our recordings and the articles we are quoting from there. Some of the source articles are in English, some are in German.
Reach out to usOur audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA Find the hosts here:Jörn “Joe” Menninger joe@startuprad.io / Twitter / LinkedIn / Video Interview (2018)Christian “Chris” Fahrenbach chris@startuprad.io / Twitter / Homepage / Video Interview (2018)PatreonIf you like our podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/startupradio
EnablerThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/
Together with our enabler, we are running a podcast called “Tech Startups Germany”, which will focus on startups at a Serie A stage or even more mature. You will also find all the videos we produce for this podcast on our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/startupradio. This podcast is available directly on our device as an audio and video podcast. Yes, Startuprad.io makes the first downloadable video podcast. Find all options to subscribe here:
💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflDeezer http://bit.ly/2Qbh1rlTuneIn http://bit.ly/2M8vpznStitcher http://bit.ly/34xTANO💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - VideoiTunes https://apple.co/2M8ZxKJVideo Recording - YouTube (the video will premiere on Thursday, May 28th 19.00 CET / 1 pm Eastern)https://youtu.be/Yu_rojiz9mw
Housekeeping - Time to brag The current situation looks a bit better, so we feel ok with a tiny bit of bragging :-) We made it in Russia's Apple Tech Podcast Charts (up to #121) and PR China Apple Tech Podcast Charts (up to #485). This gets the total to 30 countries! We are also now on Patreon. If you like your podcast, become a patron! (www.patreon.com/startupradio)We published again some cool interviews, where we wanted to highlight especially this month’s interview with IDA, where we talk to the CEO and Co-Founder Hamedo Ayadi of Intelligence Data Analytics. At the start of the coronavirus outbreak, 70% of their employees worked related to aviation, which was completely stopped by one phone call. He tells the story of how they changed strategy fast to survive: https://www.startuprad.io/interviews/ida-pivoted-fast-during-corona-before-70-of-their-employees-worked-with-aviation-companies/ Coronavirus / Covid19German government approves the corona aid package for startups. A two billion fund will add to private funding from the package (30% private, 70% public) this is called „Corona-Matching-Fazilität“ (CMF). The package was put together quite fast since the first announcement has been in mid-April. https://buff.ly/2zFr4jL There will be another pillar, called “Startup-Schutzschild” (startup shield), which will assist the instruments of Germany’s 16 states for startups, who have no backing by investors yet. Related we found news about two of the measures of single states: Bavaria: LfA sets up a new loan program for small and very small enterprises - Munich Startup https://buff.ly/3c3MBkp Hamburg: They call their program InnoStartup - Hamburg Startups https://buff.ly/2zPOLpp (some more information in the Hamburg Hub section)Corona cases in Amazon logistics center in Winsen, Germany: Verdi demands to close the location https://buff.ly/3dipDGbGerman unicorns like Dreamlines, Flixbus, Getyourguide, Homelike, Hometogo, Omio, Tourlane and Trivago write an open letter to Google to get 75 mn € advertisement money back https://buff.ly/3f2rF...
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We called our initial offering “Sales as a Service.”
Swen Wegner, CEO and Founder Mainstage Incubator
Mainstage Incubator helps startups to conquer EuropeWhether your startup is from India, Bangladesh, Brazil, the United States, Argentina, Korea, South Africa, or even New Zealand, you can start exploring the German and European Market with the digital program of Mainstage Incubator.
The FounderIn this interview, we are talking to Swen Wegner (https://www.linkedin.com/in/swenwegner/), Founder and CEO of Mainstage Incubator (https://www.mainstage-incubator.com/), which is a relatively new incubator headquartered in Frankfurt, in the heart of Europe. Swen is half Indian, half German, and spent parts of his life in both countries. He spent his time in India for example in Kerala (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala).
The interview was remotely recorded during a time of partial lockdown in Germany, due to Covid19.
In the past, he has worked for large multinational corporations, as well as small startups. He refers to a “founder you may know” to Emboled.io (we interviewed the founder Vishal Ray, at this time they were still called Acellere). You find both interviews, dating back to March 2019 below:
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The Incubator As a pilot we positioned some Indian startups to German corporates.
Swen Wegner, CEO and Founder Mainstage Incubator
Mainstage Incubator is a distributed company. They have offices in Frankfurt, Germany, and India. They stared out, presenting Indian startups to German corporate customers. Now they help startups from all over the world to present themselves to German customers, to bridge the cultural gap.
Their goals are
To find clients in Germany, and from here in EuropeThe ultimate goal is to bring international startups physically to Germany, so they can expand all over Europe.Bring startup from Germany to IndiaThe Mainstage Incubator already signed partnership agreements with Argentina, Columbia, Japan Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and now the United States.
Apply here for the Mainstage IncubatorYou can apply to the Mainstage Incubator right here https://bit.ly/ApplyMainstage
The Video Interview is set to go live on May 5th, 19.00 Frankfurt Local time (18.00 London, 1 pm New York, 10 am San Francisco)
We are still experimenting with time zones. Let us know which publication time you like best in the feedback link at the bottom end of this post.
https://youtu.be/Djd8wp8gC10
We give the Indian startups hints on how to wrap up a meeting with a German corporate in 30 minutes with a sale.
Swen Wegner, CEO and Founder Mainstage Incubator
Here you find the audio-only podcast of our interview - Subscribe so you won't miss another episodeThe interview will be published across our podcasts during the early morning of May 7th, so you have your episode on your device for your commute or morning coffee the next morning.
You can subscribe to Startuprad.io here:
YouTube http://bit.ly/2LK14oWiTunes http://apple.co/2xsHdaESpotify http://spoti.fi/2DfIt1OThe interview ill be published in our Sub-Podcasts below:
💢 Fintech Germany by Startuprad.ioiTunes: http://apple.co/2lLRlpGSpotify: http://spoti.fi/2m8HWsb💢 Security Sutra by Startuprad.ioiTunes: https://apple.co/2K0qLlHSpotify: https://spoti.fi/33rrlAD💢 Deeptech GermanyiTunes: https://apple.co/2oWO3SlSpotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8Further ListeningInterviews with Swen's former boss, he refers to Vishal during the interview. At the time of posting this interview, the startup has still been called Acellere, now it is known as embold.io
Part 1
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1zRYH6BiIpt11q1VMmZijc
Part 2https://open.spotify.com/epis...
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This Month in German Startups - April 2020
If you are new to our podcast(s), we are wrapping up the startup news of the German-speaking area in a monthly recording from Frankfurt and New York. Have a look at our website www.startuprad.io or www.startup.radio and you will find all the links to our recordings and the articles we are quoting from there. Some of the source articles are in English, some are in German.
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
Find the hosts here:
Jörn “Joe” Menninger joe@startuprad.io / Twitter / LinkedIn / Video Interview (2018)
Chris Fahrenbach chris@startuprad.io / Twitter / Homepage / Video Interview (2018)
EnablerThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/
Together with our enabler we are running a podcast called “Tech Startups Germany”, which will focus on startups at a Serie A stage or even more mature. You will also find all the videos we produce for this podcast on our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/startupradio. This podcast is available directly on our device as audio and video podcast, yes, Startuprad.io makes the first downloadable video podcast. Find all options to subscribe here:
💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflDeezer http://bit.ly/2Qbh1rlTuneIn http://bit.ly/2M8vpznStitcher http://bit.ly/34xTANO💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - VideoiTunes https://apple.co/2M8ZxKJ
Housekeeping - Time to bragA tiny bit of hope is back, so we do a bit a of bragging again:
Wow, the days around Easter have been AMAZING for Startuprad.io. We retained our position in Chartable's Global Top 100 Technology and Global Top 100 Science Charts, but we also entered the iTunes Technology Charts in Vietnam for the first time. Again in the US and UK welcomed us to their Apple Technology Podcast Charts again in the Top 200 https://twitter.com/startuprad_io/status/1252523750123352066
You can subscribe to Startuprad.io here:
YouTube http://bit.ly/2LK14oWiTunes http://apple.co/2xsHdaESpotify http://spoti.fi/2DfIt1OOur Sub-Podcasts:
💢 Fintech Germany by Startuprad.io iTunes: http://apple.co/2lLRlpG Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2m8HWsb💢 Security Sutra by Startuprad.ioiTunes: https://apple.co/2K0qLlHSpotify: https://spoti.fi/33rrlAD💢 Deeptech GermanyiTunes: https://apple.co/2oWO3Sl Spotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8💢 Blockchain GermanyiTunes: https://apple.co/2O2jwLxSpotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8German Startup News (Video)iTunes https://apple.co/3agUim9 German Startup News (Audio)iTunes https://apple.co/2Jg2fMw Spotify https://spoti.fi/2UeZ3ah
Housekeeping - tracking startups we interviewed
InvestSuite snaps up €2 million to grow its investment tools for banks and brokers https://buff.ly/3dQLGoy
Learn more about them in the Startuprad.io interview here: https://buff.ly/2X960cG (the interview was published on 18th of December 2018)
The video will go live on Thursday, April 30th, 19.00 CEThttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpGddRwUqoo
Coronavirus / Covid19__________________
We are working with Startup Genome to quantify the impact of the crisis on startups and push for adapted policy action now. They’re doing it all over the world so they’ll be able to prove how good policy action is saving startups—and lack of policy is disastrous.
If you had an ongoing startup before the crisis, please take 5 min. to contribute right now:
If you since had to close it click hereOtherwise, if your startup is ongoing and even if you paused operations, click hereWe need hundreds of founders to do so–and you know it’s not easy.
__________________
Funding in times of Corona#Government aid and direct loansGe...
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Sono Motors Raised Money with it and the tool is now freeWe challenged ourselves how we can help … as a small software developer in the current crisis for struggling companies…. So, we reduced the price of the funding tool to ZERO.
Johannes Laub, CEO and Co-Founder CrowdDesk
Covid19This interview is part of our ongoing coverage of Covid19 for the German startup scene. We talk to the startup CrowdDesk since we found their tool very helpful. Please note that CrowdDesk is neither paying for the interview nor are there affiliated links to sign up for their service.
The founderIn this interview, Joe from Startuprad.io talks again to Johannes Laub, CEO, and Co-Founder of CrowdDesk, the financing startup from Frankfurt. You can learn more about him in our other interview here: https://www.startuprad.io/interviews/the-fintech-crowddesk-offers-funding-as-a-service/
You only need a website and our software. Even our law firm is giving away the contract for free, for everyone affected by the Covid19 crisis.
Johannes Laub, CEO and Co-Founder CrowdDesk
Affiliate LinksThe current situation with the Coronavirus related lockdown is frequently compared to severe economic recessions including, but not limited to the 2008 Financial Crisis and the Stock Market Crash of 1929. If you want to know more, consider these books below.
“Galbraith was asked by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. if he would write the definitive work on the Great Depression that he would then use as a reference source for his own intended work on Roosevelt.” (from Wikipedia) - The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith https://amzn.to/3cl41sAEssays on the Great Depression https://amzn.to/2VvEsht by former Fed Chairmen Ben S. Bernanke “an American economist at the Brookings Institution[3] who served two terms as Chair of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, from 2006 to 2014” (from Wikipedia)From John Kenneth Galbraith as well: A Short History of Financial Euphoria https://amzn.to/2VxngbgA great book on crashes, bubbles and economic uncertainty in general is “Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation” by Edward Chancellor https://amzn.to/2VaUDSl
The StartupThe fintech CrowdDesk offers Funding-As-A-Service. With the go-fund-me Button a company placed on its website, any company sticking to the local rules could raise funds this way.
ONE StarterCrowdDesk gives away the ONE Starter package, with which startups can raise up to 400.000 Euros from friends, customers, fans, network and, website visitors: https://www.crowddesk.de/crowdvscorona/
Note: The tool is only available in Germany right now, due to legal constraints.
The Munich-based startup Sono Motors raised more than 50 mn Euros in total and out of that they raised more than 2.5 mn Euros with the tool of CrowdDesk.
We all share the same fate at the moment.
Johannes Laub, CEO and Co-Founder CrowdDesk
The ONE Starter is a software tool, which startups can use to raise funds in Germany
The startup has to activate their own network … so everybody knows about your campaign.
Johannes Laub, CEO and Co-Founder CrowdDesk
Observations in Fundraising during Covid19 When you come to the VCs when you need the money, you are too late.
Johannes Laub, CEO and Co-Founder CrowdDesk
CrowdDesk is also currently raising venture capital. So Johannes also shares some insights on how fundraising is working right now:
An urge to need the money now hurts your valuationVCs safe their cash for follow-up investments of their current portfolioMost VCs can’t lookout for new deals, as they did in the last few monthsIt is very hard to start fundraising right nowIf you return to fundraising in fall, you may find the VCs unable to raise VC funds and add new investments.Only some investors try to push down startup valuationsStartups raising for shorter time periods to get better valuations further down the road
Once you started to work with Ve...
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Meet Berlin-based cryptocurrency challenger bank Bitwala“We let people buy and sell bitcoin directly from their bank account”
Benjamin Jones, CEO/CTO and Co-Founder of Bitwala
This interview is our Easter Special. Keep safe, stay at home and enjoy the video. Please note at the very bottom of this post, there is a link where you can give us direct feedback.
The founderIn this interview, Joe from Startuprad.io talks to Benjamin Jones (https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminpeterjones/), CEO/CTO and Co-Founder of Bitwala (https://www.bitwala.com/). Bitwala is a challenger bank, based in Berlin which offers shifting from fiat currency (Euro) into Bitcoin and Ethereum on their app.
Benjamin is originally from Bristol and studied Philosophy and Economics in London. He traveled one year in South America and became …as he says, “became a hippie.” An internship than took him to Berlin, where he worked in a startup. He tried out many things, including a company builder which aimed to become the “Rocket Internet of Cryptocurrencies.”
“Core banking is relatively unexciting. That’s not where the innovation is happening”
Benjamin Jones, CEO/CTO and Co-Founder of Bitwala
______________________________________________
Affiliate LinksLooking for a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Sign up with Bitwala here. Due to regulations, Bitwala can only accept customers resident in the European Economic Area (EU plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Lichtenstein), with a few exceptions like US citizens.
____________________________________________________
The Startup“A [bitcoin to cash] transaction takes usually 20 minutes”
Benjamin Jones, CEO/CTO and Co-Founder of Bitwala
The name Bitwala comes from a computer bit, and wallah. In India, you call someone who brings the, for example, the tea a chai wallah (https://chaipilgrimage.com/blogs/journal/8413337-what-is-a-chai-wallah). The company wants to be “the bringer of bits.” Bitwala is describing itself as a challenger bank. As is typical for many challenger banks, they don’t have a banking license, but rather work together with licensed banks.
“All startups need to focus in an extreme way”
Benjamin Jones, CEO/CTO and Co-Founder of Bitwala
Bitwala is a challenger bank, founded in Berlin. Their USP is the ability to shift between Euros, Bitcoin and Ethereum in their app, without the need for a cryptocurrency exchange.
“What most people got excited about crypto currencies in the earlier times was their application in the developing world. …there is 1.7 bn unbanked.”
Benjamin Jones, CEO/CTO and Co-Founder of Bitwala
Right now Bitwala does not have a third-party custodian for the crypto assets, they are offering non-custodian wallets. So the client has to take care of their crypto assets by themselves, but the client also holds her/his private keys.
During the interview, we also talk about their former product, a bitcoin credit card, which they had to drop. This put Bitwala in a difficult position, in which they decided to build the world’s first cryptocurrency bank account.
After the interview Bitwala published their number of customers, they had (at release) more than 50.000 clients in 32 countries (Link opens PDF).
The Video Interview is Our Easter Special – It is set to go live on April 10th 15.00 CET (10 am East Coast Time, 14.00 London)https://youtu.be/DuomByTCLKk
Venture Capital Funding
Bitwala is looking to raise a Series B in Q3 2020 of 15-20 million Euros (up to 22 mn USS). Keep in mind this interview was recorded before the Corona Virus Outbreak.
“In our last funding round, we have been in this [notary] room together for 19 hours … but I understand why. It is just good for everybody to hear the contract one last time”
Benjamin Jones, CEO/CTO and Co-Founder of Bitwala
Bitwala has already raised several financing rounds, totaling 21.8 mn US$, accord...
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How to lure corporate talent in a Startup?
I think most entrepreneurs will know that it never goes right … you see stories in the media of overnight successes … but most founders will know this is not the case.
William Laitinen, CEO and Founder Exige
The FounderWe talk to William Laitinen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-laitinen-93282/, https://twitter.com/WilliamLaitinen), co-founder of Exige International an executive search agency (https://www.exigeinternational.com/).
During this interview, we are talking to him not only as a founder, who bootstrapped his company, sleeping on his cousins’ couch, but also who survived the global financial crisis starting in 2008.
A lesson to learn - from early on as possible - is: You are going to be facing problems in your team and your organization.
William Laitinen, CEO and Founder Exige
Affiliate LinksThe hard thing about hard things
https://amzn.to/2S62X30Ben Horowitz tells his story from an employee, afraid to lose his job to CEO of a company caught in the dotcom bubble to VC investorZero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future https://amzn.to/37H2MSpPeter Thiels, the famous investor tells you his mental framework to think about innovationBlitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies https://amzn.to/2Ob0xySReid Hoffmans, the founder of LinkedIn, advice on scale fast
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
https://amzn.to/2v97KZG
Read-worthy book to familiarize yourself with economic theory, or learn more about how to apply it.Need a bank account? Try our partner Pentahttp://bit.ly/3bdHX3dNeed space to work? Try our partner WeWorkhttps://we.co/2GYbxvSLooking for someone to design a logo, do a transcript or a voice-over? Find all of it and more at our partner Fiverrhttp://bit.ly/2S0f2YFYou can listen to Venture Capital books or entertainment on your way to work with an audible subscription – you get the first month for free
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00NTQ6K7E?tag=startupradi0e-21
The Startup William started headhunting in financial services (Mergers and Acquisitions) and strategy consultancies during the early 2000s, with a laptop and a phone. He classically bootstrapped his company, starting crashing on the couch of his cousin and working his way up from there. He called it “the golden age of headhunting,” and like many others he thought it would always go on like this. So, he was in a great spot, just before the bankruptcy of Lehmann Brothers which almost froze hiring in Investment Banking and strategy consulting.
I was in the worst place you could be in the financial crisis … I didn’t do a deal for 18 months.
William Laitinen, CEO and Founder Exige
William used the global financial crisis to change his focus and now is working primarily with insurance companies in Western Europe, specifically in Switzerland, as well as with insurtechs.
You will face a whole heap of problems and challenges starting a company … Who you want to hire is really really important in overcoming the problems you will be facing.
William Laitinen, CEO and Founder Exige
Advice in Hiring
People leave their job for just two reasons: Logic and emotions.
William Laitinen, CEO and Founder Exige
William talks about hiring for startups, especially about the importance of the first hires. He is recommending looking for four core values in the new hires:
IntegrityHumilityAssertiveResilienceYou could add curiosity
I love hiring people smarter than me! You turbo charge your environment.
William Laitinen, CEO and Founder Exige
William also encourages founders to look for cognitive differences, especially in the first employees. Ideally, you hire someone smarter than you with different thinking, so he/she will be able to attack problems in another way. He is recommending a different gender, ethnicity or different demographics.
Lay down your value...
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This Month in German Startups - March 2020If you are new to our podcast(s), we are wrapping up the startup news of the German-speaking area in a monthly recording from Frankfurt and New York. Have a look at our website www.startuprad.io or www.startup.radio and you will find all the links to our recordings and the articles we are quoting from there. Some of the source articles are in English, some are in German.
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
Find the hosts here:Jörn “Joe” Menninger joe@startuprad.io / Twitter / LinkedIn / Video Interview (2018)
Chris Fahrenbach chris@startuprad.io / Twitter / Homepage / Video Interview (2018)
Note that Chris decided to stay in New York to be able to report from there, which is the epicenter of the US corona outbrake! Thank you for that!
EnablerThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/
Together with our enabler, we are running a podcast called “Tech Startups Germany”, which will focus on startups at a Serie A stage or even more mature. You will also find all the videos we produce for this podcast on our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/startupradio. This podcast is available directly on our device as audio and video podcast, yes, Startuprad.io makes the first downloadable video podcast. Find all options to subscribe here:
💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflDeezer http://bit.ly/2Qbh1rlTuneIn http://bit.ly/2M8vpznStitcher http://bit.ly/34xTANO💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - VideoiTunes https://apple.co/2M8ZxKJ______________________________________
Our affiliate partners:Startup in need of a bank account? Try our partner Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d
Looking for a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala: http://bit.ly/2w01Zye
Need office space? Co-Working at WeWork https://we.co/2GYbxvS
Need something done fast? SEO / Graphics / Sounds / Transcript look at Fiverr: http://bit.ly/2S0f2YF
You can listen to many of the books from our recommendations with an audible subscription: https://amzn.to/2pGzseh
______________________________________HousekeepingNo bragging this time.
Now there is
💢 Fintech Germany by Startuprad.io iTunes: http://apple.co/2lLRlpG Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2m8HWsb💢 Security Sutra by Startuprad.ioiTunes: https://apple.co/2K0qLlHSpotify: https://spoti.fi/33rrlAD💢 Deeptech GermanyiTunes: https://apple.co/2oWO3Sl Spotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8💢 Blockchain GermanyiTunes: https://apple.co/2O2jwLxSpotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8German Startup News (Video)iTunes https://apple.co/3agUim9 German Startup News (Audio)iTunes https://apple.co/2Jg2fMw Spotify https://spoti.fi/2UeZ3ah
Coronavirus / Covid19We will bring you weekly short updates, called Corona Flash. This is meant to keep you updated on the most recent developments, relevant for startups.
German Government in Talks With Startups on Survival Package - Bloomberg https://buff.ly/2vB6zmu
Related
Covid19 response by the German Government
50 bn € aid for freelancers and SMEs
400 bn € guarantees and 100 bn € for equity stakes
100 bn € for liquidity aid via KfW
DER SPIEGEL https://buff.ly/3bnrc54
Important Knowledge Sources for Startups on Covid19 and policy responsesSARS-CoV-2/COVID-19: Collected Best Practices of the German Startup Scene - German Startups Association - The only English source we could find:
They launched a specific website”The Startup Corona Handbook” https://buff.ly/2J4UOI0 There is a German only checklist by the Frankfurt Chamber of Commerce to make sure you don’t forget anything https://twitter.com/IHK_FFM/status/1240975669695315969Corona Information for...
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Covid 19 Coverage of Startuprad.io
Our affiliate partners:Startup in need of a bank account? Try our partner Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d
Looking for a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala: http://bit.ly/2w01Zye
Need office space? Co-Working at WeWork https://we.co/2GYbxvS
Need something done fast? SEO / Graphics / Sounds / Transcript look at Fiverr: http://bit.ly/2S0f2YF
You can listen to many of the books from our recommendations with an audible subscription: https://amzn.to/2pGzseh
WelcomeWelcome to the 2nd episode of our special covid19 coverage for the German startup scene. This is a special issue with an attorney at law Tim, focusing on special legislation in Germany for the shutdown of public life and the consequences for a business.
Our GuestTim Wullbrandt (Attorney at Law) http://www.wullbrandt-rechtsanwaelte.de/heidelberg-based-law-firm-experienced-attorneys-for-criminal-defense-family-law-insolvency-law-in-germany/
Article by Tim (German) about the new legal rules:
Neue Gesetze wegen Corona-Krise - was ändert sich? https://buff.ly/2xltPp4
Our ScopeEverything we discuss here only holds true in GERMANY since Startuprad.io is focused here. The rules, laws, and regulations do not apply anywhere else.
Give us 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
Find the host here:
Jörn “Joe” Menninger joe@startuprad.io / Twitter / LinkedIn / Video Interview (2018)
Keep in mind, there are many people out there looking for help AND THERE WILL BE SCAMMERS, so validate your sources, start from associations and government pages. Be wary of potential scams.
There is an explicit warning on the official portal for insolvency filings in Germany - Insolvenzbekanntmachungen https://buff.ly/2J7RM62
Normal insolvency filings and proceedingsReasons for insolvencyInsolvency / IlliquidityImminent illiquidity (time frame unclear)Overextension, you have more depth than assets Insolvency applicationExamination of applicationOpening of insolvency proceedings
Upfront tax payments / prepaid taxes https://www.sapling.com/8419090/prepaid-taxes
Shareholder loans https://www.financierworldwide.com/shareholder-loans-under-german-insolvency-law#.Xno2T4hKhhE
Special about this situation with Covid19, as of March 2020Here is the link to the current bill/draft law on the homepage of the German Federal Ministry of Justice https://www.bmjv.de/SharedDocs/Gesetzgebungsverfahren/DE/FH_AbmilderungFolgenCovid-19.html
Content:
Under certain conditions, there is no obligation to file for insolvency until September 30th, 2020.
There is a restriction for termination of rental contracts (think offices)
There is also relaxation for decision making for legal entities
⇒ Talk to your lawyer about it!
The Video Interview (published March 24th)https://youtu.be/0vnA4SoSADc
Top Book Picks by 28-year-old serial entrepreneur Peter (AL)Principles by Ray Dalio https://amzn.to/38ZgmB7
The man who solved the market https://amzn.to/2SZ6Jgw
What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture https://amzn.to/2SYi00x
The little prince https://amzn.to/3c6hWDm
Friedrich Nietzsche’s Books:
Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One is https://amzn.to/2HSuAYDThus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None https://amzn.to/37W2qGLHerman Hesse’s Books
Siddhartha https://amzn.to/2PpJzO3Steppenwolf https://amzn.to/32pSPqI Further readings and helpful linksThis is the only reliable English source we could find so far: SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19: Collected Best Practices of the German Startup Scene - German Startups AssociationThey launched a specific website” The Startup Corona Handbook” https://buff.ly/2J4UOI0
There is also a helpful page by the challenger bank Penta: https://getpenta.com/de/unt...
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Acomodeo helps companies to find serviced apartments worldwideThe EnablerThis is a video interview from our podcast Tech Startups Germany. All the recordings on this channel are made possible by Invest in Hessen (learn more here https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/home).
Our first clients know us and trust us, and they do these bookings [28.000 – 35.000 Euros] on a cell phone.
Eric-Jan Krausch during his Startuprad.io interview
The PodcastsWe will post this interview and all others as podcast(s) next Tuesday night Central European Time. Subscribe here and have them on our device when you wake up:
💢 Audio only - Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io
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Deezer http://bit.ly/2Qbh1rl
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Stitcher http://bit.ly/34xTANO
💢 Video - Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io
iTunes https://apple.co/2M8ZxKJ
We see that there are a lot of professional suppliers in the market and we digitize them. We make them online bookable.
Eric-Jan Krausch during his Startuprad.io interview
The FounderIn this interview for Invest-in-hessen.com we are talking to Eric-Jan Krausch (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ejkrausch/), Founder and CEO of Frankfurt-based proptech and business travel startup ACOMODEO (https://www.acomodeo.com/en-us/). Eric is born in Frankfurt and originally worked in a radio station. He even studied music business in Mannheim (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popakademie_Baden-W%C3%BCrttemberg). He also worked for innovation departments at large and established companies. After that Eric became a freelancer, working as consultant for several companies.
Our global footprint is supported by our location in Frankfurt.
Eric-Jan Krausch during his Startuprad.io interview
Our affiliate partners:Startup in need of a bank account? Try our partner Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d
Looking for a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala: http://bit.ly/2w01Zye
Need office space? Co-Working at WeWork https://we.co/2GYbxvS
Need something done fast? SEO / Graphics / Sounds / Transcript look at Fiverr: http://bit.ly/2S0f2YF
You can listen to many of the books from our recommendations with an audible subscription: https://amzn.to/2pGzseh
The StoryEric developed the idea of Acomodeo together with his roommate, during his graduate studies. The company provides on its platform multinational companies with apartments all around the world. This is a great service for multinationals since they must provide housing for their employees on international assignments. One can book apartments on Acomodeo from four days to two years. The goal is to get the client a seamless travel experience, so the startup sees itself more like a startup in the travel industry (traveltech), rather than a property startup (proptech).
For a B2B startup this [Frankfurt] is a better location.
Eric-Jan Krausch during his Startuprad.io interview
Acomodeo vets the suppliers before they get on their platform. They focus on other points that a hotel platform would like the question: Is there a fully equipped kitchen, including a toaster?
Joe’s Tip (AL)The hard thing about hard things https://amzn.to/2Tjx4pt
The Video Interview (this interview will go live on Thursday, March 19th 15.00 CET, 14.00 UK, 10 am ET)https://youtu.be/s25u8VrKw6Y
Further ReadingsCity of Mannheim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannheim
Napster (in case you never have heard of it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzbrVpG90yc
Deutsche Telekom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Telekom
German Accelerator Program (helped Acomodeo to start their New York Office): https://www.germanaccelerator.com/
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This Month in German Startups - Corona Flash - March 19th, 2020This is a special format for our startup news. We will keep you updated on the developing Covid19 story and its impact on the German startup scene.
If you are new to our podcast(s), we are wrapping up the startup news of the German-speaking area in a monthly recording from Frankfurt and New York. Have a look at our website www.startuprad.io or www.startup.radio and you will find all the links to our recording and the articles we are quoting from there. Some of the source articles are in English, some are in German.
Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners share links or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA
_____________
Our affiliate partners:
Startup in need of a bank account? Try our partner Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d
Looking for a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala: http://bit.ly/2w01Zye
Need office space? Co-Working at WeWork https://we.co/2GYbxvS
Need something done fast? SEO / Graphics / Sounds / Transcript look at Fiverr: http://bit.ly/2S0f2YF
You can listen to many of the books from our recommendations with an audible subscription: https://amzn.to/2pGzseh
____________
Find the host here:Jörn “Joe” Menninger joe@startuprad.io / Twitter / LinkedIn / Video Interview (2018)
IntroHi there,
This is Joe from Startuprad.io. Since the Corona outbreak in Europe, we surpassed 150.000 subscribers. I would like to thank you all and keep you up to date with the current development.
Public life in Germany is now greatly reduced. In most of Germany’s sixteen states the opening hours of bars and restaurants are severely limited and only selected stores (think groceries, pharmacies, …) remain open during normal hours.
This has a great impact on startups in Germany, from changing to remote-only work, to a heavy drag on revenues, to finding emergency funding. We thought we would give you an overview, as a short flash update.
We want to provide you with collections of links and reports, that point you where to find information, help and can read more.
German Startup Association's Link Collection“This is a list of public coronavirus // Covid-19 communications/measures and resources.
Disclaimer: The content below is crowdsourcing content, so it is not independently verified. It is intended as a resource for founders and management teams who are currently discussing their own actions on SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 and want to learn from the ecosystem. “
SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19: Collected Best Practices of the German Startup Scene - German Startups Association
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UKRxxg3SiOH7hBUnS8Tn81zAqoG4KcWBpSPBTpfidzk/preview
Some highlights from the document:
Guide to support measures for startups affected by coronavirus | Sifted https://buff.ly/2QqjAXhCOVID-19 Symptoms and what to do, incl. list of links and phone numbers in relevant geographies - 15.3.20Kurzarbeit is in Germany short term measures to support companies, where part of the employees pay is taken over by the government. Find more information here: Very Detailed Frequently Asked Questions on Kurzarbeit - 17.3.2020Obligation to file for insolvency due to corona suspended for companies in Germany - 16.3.2020Global collection of VC resources, measurement lists, blog posts and other communications - 18.3.2020
Other Link CollectionsWhat to consider?
Time to plan now. Consider this situation going on for weeks, even months and make plans accordingly. For all startups cash is king!
Here are examples of measures put together by the German government.
Measures of the German Federal Ministry of Economics: https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Downloads/S-T/schutzschild-fuer-beschaeftigte-und-unternehmen.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=12Employment law, what to consider in Germany https://www.bmas.de/DE/Presse...
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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 - February 2020If you are new to our podcast(s), we are wrapping up the startup news of the German-speaking area in a monthly recording from Frankfurt and New York. Have a look at our website www.startuprad.io or www.startup.radio and you will find all the links to our recording and the articles we are quoting from there. Some of the source articles are in English, some are in German.
Find the hosts here:
Jörn “Joe” Menninger joe@startuprad.io / Twitter / LinkedIn / Video Interview (2018)
Chris Fahrenbach chris@startuprad.io / Twitter / Homepage / Video Interview (2018)
This February our news is quite short. This is due to the fact that we try to shrink them, as well as that we had only approx. 3 weeks since the last news.
Affiliated LinksThe hard thing about hard things
https://amzn.to/2S62X30Ben Horowitz tells his story from an employee, afraid to loose his job to CEO of a company caught in the dotcom bubble to VC investorZero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future https://amzn.to/37H2MSpPeter Thiels, the famous investor tells you his mental framework to think about innovationBlitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies https://amzn.to/2Ob0xySReid Hoffmans, the founder of LinkedIn, advice on scale fast
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
https://amzn.to/2v97KZG
Read worthy book to familiarize yourself with economic theory, or learn more about how to apply it.Need a bank account? Try our partner Pentahttp://bit.ly/3bdHX3dNeed space to work? Try our partner WeWorkhttps://we.co/2GYbxvSLooking for someone to design a logo, do a transcript or a voice-over? Find all of it and more at our partner Fiverrhttp://bit.ly/2S0f2YFYou can listen to Venture Capital books or entertainment on your way to work with an audible subscription – you get the first month for free
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00NTQ6K7E?tag=startupradi0e-21
EnablerThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/
Together with our enabler, we are running a podcast called “Tech Startups Germany”, which will focus on startups at a Serie A stage or even more mature. You will also find all the videos we produce for this podcast on our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/startupradio. This podcast is available directly on our device as audio and video podcast, yes, Startuprad.io makes the first downloadable video podcast. Find all options to subscribe here:
💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflDeezer http://bit.ly/2Qbh1rlTuneIn http://bit.ly/2M8vpznStitcher http://bit.ly/34xTANO💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - VideoiTunes https://apple.co/2M8ZxKJ Find all the links to our sources on our Blog here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-february-2020-video/
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The fintech CrowdDesk offers Funding-As-A-ServiceThis interview is in media cooperation with Frankfurt Forward (https://www.frankfurtforward.com/news/). We talk to Johannes Laub (https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannes-laub/), one of three Founders and Managing Partner of CrowdDesk (www.crowddesk.de), a Frankfurt-based fintech. They started out as a crowdfunding tool for municipalities and developed into a white-label solution for crowdfunding platforms, as of January 2020 running 56 crowdfunding platforms. They developed the tool further into a point at which startups can raise funds e.g. by integrating their “Go fund me” button on their website.
In the interview, we talk about how he went from an apprenticeship in a bank selling mutual funds, to university, had some experiences with starting a music label. He even experienced sales cycles in municipalities and found startup funding as a lucrative market.
With the go-fund-me Button a company placed on its website, any company sticking to the local rules could raise funds this way.
Affiliate Links
The hard thing about hard things
https://amzn.to/2S62X30Ben Horowitz tells his story from an employee, afraid to lose his job to CEO of a company caught in the dotcom bubble to VC investorZero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future https://amzn.to/37H2MSpPeter Thiels, the famous investor tells you his mental framework to think about innovationBlitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies https://amzn.to/2Ob0xySReid Hoffman's, the founder of LinkedIn, advice on scale fast
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
https://amzn.to/2v97KZG
Readworthy book to familiarize yourself with economic theory, or learn more about how to apply it.Need a bank account? Try our partner Pentahttp://bit.ly/3bdHX3dNeed a space to work? Try our partner WeWorkhttps://we.co/2GYbxvSLooking for someone to design a logo, do a transcript or a voice over? Find all of it and more at our partner Fiverrhttp://bit.ly/2S0f2YFYou can listen to Venture Capital books or entertainment on your way to work with an audible subscription – you get the first month for free
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00NTQ6K7E?tag=startupradi0e-21
Video Interview:Find the links and video interview here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/the-fintech-crowddesk-offers-funding-as-a-service/
During the interview we are talking about:Mutual Funds https://www.investopedia.com/articles/mutualfund/08/foreign-mutual-funds.asp
MS Dos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bKNts8liWI
Johannes (is as Joe from Startuprad.io) hailing from Rheinhessen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinhessen_(wine_region)), a very nice area and the largest wine growing region in Germany. It is just one-hour drive away from Frankfurt.
European Business School (EBS): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBS_University_of_Business_and_Law
CrowdDesk Blog (in German only) including the crowdfunding from Quickborn: https://blog.crowddesk.de/die-crowdfunding-pioniere-eine-erfolgreiche-gr%C3%BCnderstory
BaFin (German finance oversight body): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Financial_Supervisory_Authority
Mezzanine Capital (Between equity and debt): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mezzanine_capital
KfW: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KfW
Freakonomics Podcast: http://freakonomics.com/archive/
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
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Find all the links to our source articles and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-january-2020/
This Month in German Startups - January 2020 - by Startuprad.ioIf you are new to our podcast(s), we are wrapping up the startup news of the German-speaking area in a monthly recording from Frankfurt and New York. Have a look at our website www.startuprad.io or www.startup.radio and you will find all the links to our recording and the articles we are quoting from there. Some of the source articles are in English, some are in German.
Find the hosts here:
Jörn “Joe” Menninger joe@startuprad.io / Twitter / LinkedIn / Video Interview (2018)
Chris Fahrenbach chris@startuprad.io / Twitter / Homepage / Video Interview (2018)
Affiliated LinksThe hard thing about hard things https://amzn.to/2S62X30
Ben Horowitz tells his story from an employee, afraid to loose his job to CEO of a company caught in the dotcom bubble to VC investorZero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future https://amzn.to/37H2MSpPeter Thiels, the famous investor tells you his mental framework to think about innovationBlitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies https://amzn.to/2Ob0xySReid Hoffmans, the founder of LinkedIn, advice on scale fast
You can listen to Venture Capital books or entertainment on your way to work with an audible subscription – you get the first month for free
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00NTQ6K7E?tag=startupradi0e-21
EnablerThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/
Together with our enabler we are running a podcast called “Tech Startups Germany”, which will focus on startups at a Serie A stage or even more mature. You will also find all the videos we produce for this podcast on our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/startupradio. This podcast is available directly on our device as audio and video podcast, yes, Startuprad.io makes the first downloadable video podcast. Find all options to subscribe here:
💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflDeezer http://bit.ly/2Qbh1rlTuneIn http://bit.ly/2M8vpznStitcher http://bit.ly/34xTANO💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - VideoiTunes https://apple.co/2M8ZxKJhttps://youtu.be/aIngva0lCWo
Housekeeping - Time to brag South Korea is Country No 26 which welcomed us to their iTunes podcast (tech) charts! Thank you very much!
Now there is
💢 Fintech Germany by Startuprad.io iTunes: http://apple.co/2lLRlpG Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2m8HWsb💢 Security Sutra by Startuprad.ioiTunes: https://apple.co/2K0qLlHSpotify: https://spoti.fi/33rrlAD💢 Deeptech GermanyiTunes: https://apple.co/2oWO3Sl Spotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8💢 Blockchain GermanyiTunes: https://apple.co/2O2jwLxSpotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/support
The EnablerThis is a video interview from our podcast Tech Startups Germany. All the recordings on this channel are made possible by Invest in Hessen (learn more here https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/home).
The digitalization game is never ever a game won by a single company
Marc Gille, Founder and CEO THING TECHNOLOGIES during his Startuprad.io interview
The FounderIn this interview, we talk to the serial entrepreneur Marc Gille (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-gille-2165946/), Founder and CEO of THING TECHNOLOGIES.
Marc founded his first startup, a business process management platform, in Frankfurt in 2000. He sold this startup in 2006 to SunGard, now part of FIS (https://www.fisglobal.com/about-us). Marc went on to work for FIS in New York as Senior Vice President for more a decade, before founding his current startup THING TECHNOLOGIES (https://www.thing-it.com/) in Brooklyn. He later moved with his startup’s headquarter from Brooklyn to Frankfurt, leaving some operations in New York.
If you want something more hip, certain places in Offenbach will do
Marc Gille, Founder and CEO THING TECHNOLOGIES during his Startuprad.io interview
The StartupTHING TECHNOLOGIES is a proptech startup, owner of the Thing-it platform. The Thing-it Platform allows configuring digitalization solutions for all participants (real estate developers, tenants, co-workers, residents, guests, properties managers, facilities managers, service providers) using and operating a building.
Venture CapitalTHING TECHNOLOGIES already raised a Series A venture capital round with coparion and PropTech 1 Ventures (https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/thing-technologies-llc#section-lists-featuring-this-company). They are still looking to raise more money, in a second closing of their Series A round.
They are also looking for international investors for a Series B Round since THING has a good footprint in the US (founded in New York, still has a team in Birmingham Alabama).
If you want to get in, feel free to reach out, we get you connected.
The VideoFind the video interview here: https://youtu.be/DZ8oFEx91tU
Building Technology 1988As recommended by Marc, here is the trailer of Die Hard 1 (Stirb Langsam 1) from 1988 to familiarize yourself with the capabilities of large buildings already in the 1980s. Please note the buildings explosion resistance in the movie may be exaggerated 😊 https://youtu.be/gYWvwkXreaI
Further ReadingsGmbH (a German version of an Ltd): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Companies_with_limited_liability_in_German_speaking_countries
Marc’s example of the Cube in Berlin http://www.cube-berlin.de/en/
Nebenkostenabrechnung (Utilities Statement, which is tightly regulated in Germany, especially which costs a landlord can pass on to it’s tenants) https://www.iamexpat.de/housing/german-housing-market/home-utilities
Marc is hinting at the BER Airport towards the end of the interview (https://www.dw.com/en/new-berlin-airport-to-finally-open-next-october/a-51471371), as opposed to the well-functioning, international connected airport Frankfurt (https://www.aviation24.be/airports/frankfurt-fra/fraport-traffic-figures-2019-frankfurt-airport-serves-more-than-70-5-million-passengers-1-5/). This is more a joke for Germans. Yes, you Americans viewing this, now you know how this feels if you are not getting a cultural reference 😉 …
Frankfurt Railway connectivity to Vienna, Paris, Zurich, Lyon, Amsterdam, Brussels, even (via Paris) to London, and many more: https://www.raileurope.com/place/frankfurt-hauptbahnhof
Frankfurt is home to the busiest internet knot in the world: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/dynasite.cfm?dsmid=506534
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/support
This Month in German Startups - Review 2019 and 2020 OutlookIf you are new to our podcast(s), we are wrapping up the startup news of the German-speaking area in a monthly recording from Frankfurt and New York. Have a look at our website www.startuprad.io or www.startup.radio and you will find all the links to our recording and the articles we are quoting from there. Some of the source articles are in English, some are in German.
Find the hosts here:
Jörn “Joe” Menninger joe@startuprad.io / Twitter / LinkedIn / Video Interview (2018)
Chris Fahrenbach chris@startuprad.io / Twitter / Homepage / Video Interview (2018)
Publication ScheduleThis episode will … substitute the June News. This year startuprad.io’s news wrap-ups will have a summer break from the May News until the end of September. We are sorry, but there is no other way to fit the podcast around Chris and Joe's busy lives.
About this OutlookNonetheless, we are now giving you the review of a decade and the preview of a decade! We mostly stick to top-level stuff, especially since the deeper you dig, the more material we would have to cover.
Recommended Readings (Affiliated Links)The Fire Starter Sessions by Danielle LaPortehttps://amzn.to/38Ug3rUThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
https://amzn.to/2sGDy78
The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness
by Stephen R. Covey
https://amzn.to/34DYbOCThe $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeauhttps://amzn.to/2PEoFetOutliers by Malcolm Gladwellhttps://amzn.to/36U41g6Grit – The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworthhttps://amzn.to/2SbuEcj
EnablerThis recording was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest. Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/
Together with our enabler, we are running a podcast called “Tech Startups Germany”, which will focus on startups at a Serie A stage or even more mature. You will also find all the videos we produce for this podcast on our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/startupradio. This podcast is available directly on our device as audio and video podcast, yes, Startuprad.io makes the first downloadable video podcast. Find all options to subscribe here:
💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflDeezer http://bit.ly/2Qbh1rlTuneIn http://bit.ly/2M8vpznStitcher http://bit.ly/34xTANO💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - VideoiTunes https://apple.co/2M8ZxKJHousekeeping - Time to brag We had more than 165.000 unique listeners to our audio podcast(s), keep in mind, most of them are only live since Q3. We had almost 350.000 views on Youtube and more than 2 mn impressions on social media.
You can find our top videos here on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7GcEC6IZd7/
Thank you very much for sticking with us, we greatly appreciate you guys!
Our sub-podcasts
💢 Fintech Germany by Startuprad.io iTunes: http://apple.co/2lLRlpG Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2m8HWsb💢 Security Sutra by Startuprad.ioiTunes: https://apple.co/2K0qLlHSpotify: https://spoti.fi/33rrlAD💢 Deeptech GermanyiTunes: https://apple.co/2oWO3Sl Spotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8💢 Blockchain GermanyiTunes: https://apple.co/2O2jwLxSpotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8
Tadadadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
2020 will be the year of Beethoven, which is a safe bet!
There will be a lot going on since Beethoven turns 250 this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59ZrMEjktsA
Ode to Joy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdWyYn0E4Ys
He made it in pop culture some time ago e.g. Two and a Half Men:
https://youtu.be/EE6V3hoIZj8
Find all further links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/german-startups-2019-review-2020-outlook/
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/support
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
GoContract is like Google Docs for Contracts by Startuprad.ioThis is a special publication on January 6th 2020, a public holiday in some states of Germany, to commemorate the Three Kings. Learn more about the day below. (at the bottom you will find the Link to the video interview)
The InterviewIn this interview we are talking to Lucas Weiper (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-weiper-0828a6167/), CEO and Co-Founder of the “almost legaltech” GoContract (https://go-contract.com/). GoContract is headquartered in the beautiful city of Koblenz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koblenz), which is located between Frankfurt and Cologne. They offer end to end contract management.
“Lower Salary for startups is not an issue, if you can work with vision” Lucas Weiper, CEO and Co-Founder GoContract
A very brief startup historyIn the past, Lucas worked for a digital agency and the (also) Koblenz-based startup Sdui (https://www.sdui.de/). He learned a lot about startups, digital marketing and even recruiting there. Actually, he even encountered the problem, GoContract is now trying to solve. The startup helps startups and corporates with the tracking and management of their contracts. They offer end to end contract management.
“I can not advise to outsource software development. You will need the IP in later VC funding rounds” Lucas Weiper, CEO and Co-Founder GoContract
Recommended Holiday Readings (Affiliated Links)The Fire Starter Sessions by Danielle LaPortehttps://amzn.to/38Ug3rUThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
https://amzn.to/2sGDy78
The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness
by Stephen R. Covey
https://amzn.to/34DYbOCThe $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeauhttps://amzn.to/2PEoFetOutliers by Malcolm Gladwellhttps://amzn.to/36U41g6Grit – The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworthhttps://amzn.to/2SbuEcj
Learn more about our Affiliated Marketing here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/affiliate-marketing-at-startuprad-io/
Note on German customs: Normally Christmas is considered over after January 6th, which is a public holiday in Bayern, Baden-Württemberg, and Sachsen-Anhalt, where the Three Kings (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Magi) are commemorated.
Startup weekendThey started their company at Startup Weekend Koblenz (http://communities.techstars.com/germany/koblenz/startup-weekend) and found there their remaining co-founders. They set up the company with 6 people, where only three founders actually hold equity. The other three hold sub-shares.
Venture Capital RoundGoContract is currently raising its seed round in Q2 2020. If you are interested in investing, reach out to us, we will get you connected.
Further Readings:Vocational training in Germany: https://www.make-it-in-germany.com/en/study-training/training/vocational/system/
Techboost Telekom: https://telekomhilft.telekom.de/t5/TechBoost-EN/ct-p/TechBoost_en
Mittelstand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittelstand
Netflix Series Skyline, to which Lucas referred (taking place and recorded in Frankfurt)
Official Trailer in German with English subtitles:https://youtu.be/e5bE-8n0_5Q
One of the songs (in German) Skylines Kalifa - Rose im Beton ( Official Full Music)https://youtu.be/8xLCUg6pvPM
Agile Method (Blog): https://www.wrike.com/project-management-guide/faq/what-is-agile-methodology-in-project-management/
Agile Method (affiliated links):
Agile Methodology: A Beginner’s Guide to Agile Method and Principles https://amzn.to/36olKwIKanban: The Ultimate Guide to Kanban Methodology for Agile Software Development https://amzn.to/35jvfLYKeep up to date with GoContractAs Lucas said in the last minutes of our interview, you can follow them here:
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Cnh5wXg7zb56w0u6Z5YCA
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company...
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/support
If you are new to our podcast(s), we are wrapping up the startup news of the German-speaking area in a monthly recording from Frankfurt and New York. Have a look at our website www.startuprad.io or www.startup.radio and you will find all the links to our recording and the articles we are quoting from there. Some of the source articles are in English, some are in German.
Talk to the hosts: Jörn “Joe” Menninger joe@startuprad.io Chris Fahrenbach chris@startuprad.io
Find all the links here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-december-2019-by-startuprad-io/
Recommended Holiday Readings (Affiliated Links)
The Fire Starter Sessions by Danielle LaPorte
https://amzn.to/38Ug3rU
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
https://amzn.to/2sGDy78
The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness
by Stephen R. Covey
https://amzn.to/34DYbOC
The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
https://amzn.to/2PEoFet
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
https://amzn.to/36U41g6
Grit – The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
https://amzn.to/2SbuEcj
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/support
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
The InterviewIn this interview, we talk to an international entrepreneur, of which we try to bring you approx. 30% of our content. This time we have the pleasure to interview a member of “Forbes Asia 30 Under 30” Lucy Yueting Liu (https://www.linkedin.com/in/awxlucy/), co-founder of Hongkong-based fintech unicorn Airwallex (https://www.airwallex.com/). Airwallex is simplifying international payments for companies.
“Valuation is the result of what you did well. It is not really a milestone itself. Valuation means nothing if there is no growth” Lucy Liu, Co-Founder fintech unicorn Airwallex
ContextDuring the interview, Joe and Lucy talk about her past as an investment consultant and intern at banks. She jumped pretty young into the startup world. The idea of Airwallex is to offer a cheaper better and more convenient alternative to SWIFT, which was invented in the 70s (see details below).
“The average time a CEO of a startup stays as CEO is 3 years. Many people cannot grow in a way that helps their business” Lucy Liu, Co-Founder fintech unicorn Airwallex
Affiliated LinksBretton Woods,
Global Perspectives on the Bretton Woods Conference and the Post-War World Order (The World of the Roosevelts) https://amzn.to/2WSalRCThe Bretton Woods Agreements: Together with Scholarly Commentaries and Essential Historical Documents (Basic Documents in World Politics) https://amzn.to/2Nrj8agMore books here: https://amzn.to/2JZO7YEFX Trading BooksThe Art of Currency Trading: A Professional's Guide to the Foreign Exchange Market https://amzn.to/2PVAAoRA Foreign Exchange Primer https://amzn.to/2WTEq3lAudibleOr listen to interesting audio books on Audible. You get the first month free https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00NTQ6K7E?tag=startupradi0e-21
Further LinksDuring the interview, Lucy and Joe touch on different topics. Learn more here:
Link Video all New Zealand Rugby team “All Blacks” and their Māori war dance Hakka https://youtu.be/I3gbneDt-S4
FX or forex spreads https://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/090914/understanding-spread-retail-currency-exchange-rates.asp
A short explanation video what SWIFT is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxaa9GDIOE4 or here on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Worldwide_Interbank_Financial_Telecommunication
Single euro payments area (SEPA): https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/banking-and-finance/consumer-finance-and-payments/payment-services/single-euro-payments-area-sepa_en
Non-convertible currencies: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/nonconvertiblecurrency.asp
The Intern https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2106015/ trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU3Xban0Y6A
https://www.startuprad.io/blog/interview-with-lucy-liu-co-founder-of-hongkong-based-fintech-unicorn-airwallex/
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The traditionThis is a Startuprad.io tradition. Every year close to Christmas Joe gets together with smart people from the German fintech scene and talks about what was going on. Usually, the discussion drifts fast in a talk show and does not stick to the usual news format. None the less it is very informative and there are great ideas for fintech entrepreneurs and investors here.
Trust is repeated positive experience – Frank Schwab during Startuprad.io’s 2019 Fintech Review
This episode was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest, learn more at www.invest-in-hessen.de Find the video and more content here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/2019-fintech-review-germany-talkshow-by-startuprad-io-video/
The traditionThis is a Startuprad.io tradition. Every year close to Christmas Joe gets together with smart people from the German fintech scene and talks about what was going on. Usually, the discussion drifts fast in a talk show and does not stick to the usual news format. None the less it is very informative and there are great ideas for fintech entrepreneurs and investors here.
Trust is repeated positive experience – Frank Schwab during Startuprad.io’s 2019 Fintech Review
This episode was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest, learn more at www.invest-in-hessen.de To digitize the relationship with clients in banking, that will be the unicorn – Paolo Sironi during Startuprad.io’s 2019 Fintech Review
Our Guests(in alphabetic order)
Mario Hachemer, CTO Fastbill (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahachemer/)
Luka Ivicevic, Co-Founder / Chief of Staff at Penta (https://www.linkedin.com/in/luka-ivicevic/)
Frank Schwab, Co-Founder Fintech Forum (https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankschwab/)
Paolo Sironi , Author and Thought Leader IBM (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thepsironi/)
Host:
Jörn “Joe” Menninger, Founder and Host Startuprad.io
joe@startuprad.io / Twitter / LinkedIn / Video Interview (2018)
To succeed in Fintech you need to digitize the client relationship – Paolo Sironi during Startuprad.io’s 2019 Fintech Review
Further ReadingDuring the discussion we are touching:
Challenger Bank / Neo Bank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_bank
Share of Wallet https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/share-of-wallet.asp
Tiktok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQEGJMmqBTw
Mortgage: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mortgage.asp
related:
Mortgage market shares in Germany. Statista has only numbers for 2015, but online banks had a 40% market share: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/661264/umfrage/entwicklung-der-marktanteile-der-vertriebskanaele-in-der-deutschen-baufinanzierung/
Goldman Sachs’ Marcus: https://www.marcus.com/us/en
Related:
https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/12/09/why-is-goldman-sachs-investing-in-marcus.aspx
Having a good user experience is ok, but it will not lead to a transformation people will do banking – Paolo Sironi during Startuprad.io’s 2019 Fintech Review
https://youtu.be/fFxCiGsnD48
RegulationPSD2Was Lukas forecast a spot on, or will it take more time?
In an article published in Heise, the author argues that the biggest winners of PSD2 will be the large internet companies like Google, Facebook or Apple https://buff.ly/2Pg1ZkG Given the recent success of Apple Pay in Germany, he may not be too far off.Companies / Fintechs / Banks
Established Credit Rating Bureau Schufa buys into the core of banking with FinAPI:
(Jan) Established German credit scoring agency Schufa takes over munich-based fintech FinAPI. FinAPI allows to access current accounts http://ow.ly/P7RR30n4x1M
MarketsMarket / GlobalSubjective point Joern: It feels like the blurring of fintech and banking continues. There are now cross mergers all over, admittedly more fintechs investments by banks than otherwise, but it ...
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BackgroundPublic blockchains, like Ethereum and Bitcoin, can only perform ten transactions per second. If you only want to put one percent of global financial markets on the blockchain, you would have to do hundreds of thousands more. That is where Perun comes in. They are a B2B startup and work with other companies who are interested in blockchain or already working with it. Perun generates an additional layer on the original blockchain, their protocol (2nd layer off-blockchain) is more secure and much faster by enabling transactions to be sent peer to peer in separate channels without confirmation of thousands of blockchain miners. In each channel, thousands of transactions per second are possible with current technology.
Perun’s channel technology could also be used by centralized financial networks like credit card companies or other payment providers (think PayPal). Their channel technology also allows machine-to-machine-payments on blockchains.
During the interview, we also talk about their technology’s theoretical limit.
They will soon release their protocol as an open-source developer kit. Find more information on that on their website.
Interview PartnerIn this interview, Joe is talking to Sebastian Stammler – Implementation Lead (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebstar/) and Hendrik Amler Scrum Master (https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-amler-932506191/) at Darmstadt based Blockchain startup PERUN (https://perun.network/). At the time of the interview (October 2019), the company was not yet incorporated.
Perun is part of a research group jointly of TU Darmstadt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technische_Universit%C3%A4t_Darmstadt) and University of Warsaw (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Warsaw). TU Darmstadt is one of the great starting points for many deep-tech startups (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_tech) here in Germany. You might also want to pay a visit to HIGHEST, the startup and innovation center of the university: https://www.highest.tu-darmstadt.de/highest/index.en.jsp.
Tune in to learn more.
Blockchain Germany by Startuprad.ioIf you are interested in German Blockchain startups, you can find our audio-only podcast "Blockchain Germany by Startuprad.io" here:
iTunes: https://apple.co/2O2jwLx
Spotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8
DISCLAIMER:As opposed to the usual Youtuber or Podcaster in the Blockchain space my guests don’t pay thousands of Euros to be here. AND neither am I invested in you guys. I am also getting NO kickback.
For everyone who is surprised about that, many channels work like this. Just pay attention to the people in Telegram Chats who ask for admin emails and “business proposals” they usually sent an offer with a price tag of several thousands of Euros, sometimes upwards of 50.000 Euros, just to be on their channel. Oh, and before I forget: They usually only want cash, they don’t take crypto.
Make sure you vet your main blockchain information source before you fall into those traps.
Further reading:We are talking during the interview:
Vobis was a – now-defunct – computer hardware retailer in Germany, in the late 1990s. Some years they were showing the largest revenue for computer hardware in Germany. Learn more here in Wikipedia (article only in German): https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vobis
Diploma degree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diploma#Germany_and_the_German_academic_education_system_in_Europe
Prof. Dr. Sebastian Faust of TU Darmstadt: https://www.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/cac/start_cac/mitarbeiter_cac/personendetails/index.en.jsp
Prof. Stefan Dziembowski, PhD of University of Warsaw https://www.crypto.edu.pl/Members/Dziembowski
Technical Papers for further reading:- General State Channel Networks https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/320
- Virtual Payment Channel Hubs http://eprint.iacr.org...
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If you are new to our podcast(s), we are wrapping up the startup news of the German-speaking area in a monthly recording from Frankfurt and New York. Have a look at our website www.startuprad.io or www.startup.radio and you will find all the links to our recording and the articles we are quoting from there. Some of the source articles are in English, some are in German.
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Housekeeping - Time to brag We set up sub-podcast for special interest and our Fintech Germany made it up to No 72 in the iTunes Business Charts of Qatar. Thank you!
Now there is
💢 Fintech Germany by Startuprad.io iTunes: http://apple.co/2lLRlpG Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2m8HWsb💢 Security Sutra by Startuprad.ioiTunes: https://apple.co/2K0qLlHSpotify: https://spoti.fi/33rrlAD💢 Deeptech GermanyiTunes: https://apple.co/2oWO3Sl Spotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8💢 Blockchain GermanyiTunes: https://apple.co/2O2jwLxSpotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8Find all the links we are talking about, as well as the show notes on our website https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-november-2019/
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This is the first video of our new podcast Tech Startups Germany. All the recordings from this channel are made possible by Invest in Hessen (learn more here https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/home).
You can find this specific channel here as an audio and video stand-alone podcast or via all channels of Startuprad.io.
Frankfurt as a location is good from an international recruiting standpoint, since Frankfurt has a really really great reputation.
VC FundingIn this interview, Joe from Startuprad.io is talking to Florian Brokamp (https://www.linkedin.com/in/florian-brokamp-5a329876/), CEO of Thinksurance (https://thinksurance.de/en/start/), a Frankfurt-based insurtech startup. The fintech just raised 13 mn venture capital (https://www.policendirekt.com/en/thinksurance-raises-e13m-in-series-b-funding/) so Startuprad.io took the opportunity and stop by on short notice to ask one of the founders what they will do with all the money.
Startup is not about the events, it is not about “raising big”… its more important to believe in yourself, be happy and create your vision.
ThinksuranceFirst some information on the startup: Thinksurance is the leading commercial insurance distribution platform in Germany. Its technology connects insurers, distributors from all sales channels and business customers on its intelligent analytics and distribution platform. The company was founded in Frankfurt, Germany, first entered the market in 2016 under the brand “Gewerbeversicherung24” and was rebranded in 2019. By now, the insurtech has almost 50 employees and is led by its two founders Florian Brokamp and Christopher Leifeld as well as Vasil Vasilev and Timm Weitzel.
The insurtech is looking to increase headcount considerably and expand to other countries like France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. As second priority they are looking to the USA and Asia.
Tune in the interview to learn more.
We would hope that in Germany in general and Frankfurt in specific there would be more support from the Government …
Learn more here:
https://www.startuprad.io/blog/thinksurance-connects-brokers-and-insurance-companies-on-their-platform/
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This is the fintech track of Startuprad.io.
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This is from the archives of Startuprad.io. The podcast was originally published on April 4th, 2019.
In this interview, we talk to Dr. Daniel Bartsch, COO, and Co-Founder of Frankfurt-based creditshelf. It is a novelty since it IPOed successfully in Frankfurt in summer 2018 with a volume of 16.5 m Euros and so became (as of October 2018) the first - and for now, the only - listed pure-play fintech from Germany to be listed. Creditshelf is a credit market place, where small and medium businesses can lend money up to 5 mn Euros.
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During this interview we talk about the startup, the IPO process and Daniel describes why the preparations for an IPO need as long as a baby.
In the interview, you will also learn why they are different from LendingClub or FundingCircle. If you speak German, you can also listen to the first interview from Joern with the CTO of creditshelf in the Fall of 2016 here: https://hearthis.at/startup/f09f948ainterviews-mit-3-gruendern-von-startups-auf-dem-letzten-coden-new-new-festival-in-karlsruhemp3refdown/
or here the interview with ZenCap, a Rocket Internet-backed startup, now part of FundingCircle: https://podtail.com/podcast/startupradio-de/zencap-im-interview/
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/GdY2pJeh1tE
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This talk show is from the archives of Startuprad.io, originally published on December 25th, 2018
“When central banks use the technology behind Crypto to transform fiat money, that will be truly revolutionary” Paolo Siroin – at Startuprad.io’s 2018 fintech review
This is the audio track of a Google Hangout. You can find the video on our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/startupradio
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Welcome to the 2018 Fintech Review Germany by Startuprad.io. In the stream you will hear:
Paolo Sironi – Crunchbase – LinkedIn – Website – Twitter – InstagramYassin Hankir - Crunchbase – LinkedIn – Website – TwitterJörn “Joe” Menninger Crunchbase – LinkedIn – Website – TwitterHere you can find the 2017 fintech review: https://www.startuprad.io/news/2017-fintech-review-germany-2018-outlook/
Here is the 2016 interview with DWINS, the company behind Finanz Guru: https://www.startuprad.io/interviews/dwins-db-hackathon-winner/
Yassin talks about co-branding, for example, Finanz Guru (co-branded with Deutsche Bank, who owns 25% in the startup) https://finanzguru.de/
Paolo talks about regulations (referring to the last year).
"The regulatory storm hitting 2018
PRIIPs – A regulation, forcing asset managers to disclose more of the content of their products in a more simplified way.GDPR – A regulation on the usage of customer dataMifid II – A regulation on the transparency of investments.PSD2 – A regulation, which forces banks to open up via API to other companies, including fintechs"
Joe refers to the dot-com company Pets.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pets.com
Cost of capital for banks https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/costofcapital.asp
Wealth Management https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/wealthmanagement.asp
Interview with CreditShelf, which is Germany’s only listed pure-play: https://www.startuprad.io/exclusive/do-you-know-creditshelf-it-is-germanys-only-listed-pure-play-fintech/
As Paolo said, we have been to the Christmas Market and celebrated 10 years of fintech in Frankfurt:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrVqaH4HsXl/
“It will be really tough to bring Crypto to the masses” Yassin Hankir – at Startuprad.io’s 2018 fintech review
Find all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/featured-stories/talk-show-fintech-review-2018-germany-audio-rip/
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You are listening to the audio track of a YouTube interview. Find all the interviews at YouTube.com/Startupradio
Startuprad.io brings you in a Frankfurt-to-New-York recording the startup news Germany for October 2018. We wrap-up the news of the German-speaking startup scene (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Liechtenstein) of October in our recording.
Find all the links and show notes on our website: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-by-startuprad-io-october-2019/
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This is from the archives of Startuprad.io. It was originally published on December 29th, 2017.
40 minutes a must-hear for every fintech executive and bank executives alike
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The fintech review Germany is one of the traditions of Startuprad.io. We started it in German back in 2014, when fintech first appeared. Since Startupradio.de will be shut down the end of 2017, we moved our tradition to the English channel. If you speak German, you will find the old shows here:
2014 Fintech Review German 2015 Fintech Review German2016 Fintech Review GermanOur guests:
Luka – CrunchBase – LinkedIn
Our interviews with Luka in the past:Interview No1 was split into two parts: Part I Part IIInterview 2Paolo – CrunchBase – LinkedIn
Interviews Joern mentions:
Deutsche Bank
Dwins
The regulatory storm hitting 2018
PSD2 – A regulation, which forces banks to open up via API to other companies, including fintechs
Mifid II – A regulation on the transparency of investments.
PRIIPs - A regulation, forcing asset managers to disclose more of the content of their products in a more simplified way.
GDPR - A regulation on the usage of customer data
Mentioned article by Joern Financial Crisis shape the financial markets
Article from Paolo on innovation
Other terms used:
UCITS investment funds
Wealth Management
Find all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/news/2017-fintech-review-germany-2018-outlook/
Our sponsors:
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Learn more about us at www.startuprad.io
This is from the archives of Startuprad.io. We published this interview originally on December 14th 2017
In this interview, we talk with Luka co-founder and head of growth at Berlin-based fintech Get Penta, who is in the process of re-thinking banking for small and medium businesses. Penta went live with their account, what they call open beta, this week and we have the exclusive podcast interview here for you. Tune in to learn more.
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Our listeners know Luka from his two extensive interviews, where he told about his entrepreneur live before Penta. You find them both here:
https://www.startuprad.io//interviews/interview-penta-mobile-banking-app-small-medium-companies/https://www.startuprad.io//interviews/interview-penta-part-ii/CrunchBase profile
Learn more about Penta on their website.
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This is from the archives of Startuprad.io. Originally published October 26th 2017.
In this interview we talk to Dr. Tamaz Giorgadze, who came to Germany from his native Georgia, eventually becoming a partner at the German office of McKinsey & Company. During the financial crisis, he saw a demand for retail deposits by banks and decided to jump ship to set up his own company. The company is operating as weltsparen.de in Germany and raisin.com internationally. Joern talks to Tamaz and you get a quick overview of what banks actually do, where they get their money from and how retail investors in Europe profit from this.
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We are talking during the interview about those topics:
Wholesale funding
Bank’s transformation function
Duration
Regulatory measures of a bank’s liquidity
Liquidity coverage ratio
Net Stable Funding Ratio
Deposit
KYC – Know your customer
AML – Anti Money Laundry
TÜV – A German association of mostly technical auditors
Payment topics we touch
-
SEPA
-
TARGET 2
-
And a correspondent bank system (all money transfer used to be done this way)
Deposit insurance schemes (how saver’s money is insured)
- Harmonized scheme in Europe
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From our archives. Originally published on September, 14th 2017.
For the first time in 17 years, a new health insurance company was founded in Germany, called ottonova. It just received their permission to operate from the German financial oversight BAFin. Due to this special occasion, we wanted to bring you a world premiere, their first English interview. We, therefore, talk to Yvonne Gründler, Chief Product Officer. ottonova aims to be an all-digital insurance company, who wants to partner with their insurance buyers.
Learn more in the interview about the differences to get a full insurance company off the ground and why they need forecasts of up to 120 years.
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This is from the archives of Startuprad.io. The original interview was published on April 4th, 2019.
This is the audio track of a video interview: https://youtu.be/kSukV8PUrk4
In this interview, we talk to Yoram Wijngaarde, founder of the data platform Dealroom.co (https://blog.dealroom.co/). He is a former employee of Lehmann Brothers New York (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehman_Brothers), and during the interview, we talk about his experience of the collapse from the inside.
“Germany is more restraint – conservative – with publishing [Venture Capital] numbers”
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After some stops in investment banking in New York, he went on to become employee No 2 of Noah Advisors, a boutique for startups in Berlin. During all of his work, he bumped into problems finding good data on the valuation of startups in Europe. Data for startups from the UK and US is easy to come by, but continental Europe was still a problem. He then set out to solve this problem with the founding of Dealroom.co.
“Where venture capital ends and private equity begins or public markets begin, these lines are really blurring … this is what we are seeing and this is why the rounds get larger and larger”
During the interview Yoram and Joe talk about:
Mergers and Acquisition (Investment Banking – Takeovers, Mergers or Buyouts) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mergers_and_acquisitions
A small overview of company valuations
Multiples https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/multiplesapproach.asp
DCF https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dcf.asp
Real Options https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/realoption.asp
You can learn more about the valuation of options here (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/riskrewardratio.asp)
February Numbers 2019 https://blog.dealroom.co/february-broke-all-time-vc-investment-record-e2-9b-in-europe-e3-2b-including-israel/
“Are we in a bubble? Well, only time will tell … the market is still disciplined, with some exceptions … but we don’t see DotCom-Bubble Craze”
RhineMain.vc, the project Joern initiated, which publishes venture funding on an aggregated basis for the greater Rhine-Main area: https://rheinmain.vc/ (the URL RhineMain.vc will redirect you to the same page)
© Startuprad.io - All right reserved // Photo Yoram courtesy of Dealroom.co
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Published 2017/03/28
In this interview, we talk to Joris Hensen and Frank Pohlgeers from the Digital Factory of Deutsche Bank. We talk about the intention of Deutsche Bank to help build an ecosystem, by granting fintechs access via their API, but also for non-fintechs. Deutsche Bank is interested in cooperating with startups from fintech, what they call “near-banking” and “beyond banking” and is opening itself up to them. The bank is even working on a partnership program to help start an ecosystem.
If you want to know more about the API of Deutsche Bank, you can learn more in the Developer Portal of DB.
The interview was conducted by Joern and Gaurav from the startuprad.io team in Frankfurt, inside the Digital Factory of Deutsche Bank.
During the interview, we talk about the winners of Deutsche Bank Hackathon API/OPEN. You can find our interviews with three of them here:
DWINSFinchildWireAffiliated Links
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This is the fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter: Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany
Startuprad.io brings you in a Frankfurt-to-New-York-Live-Hangout the startup news Germany.
Find the hosts here:
Joe Menninger joe@startuprad.io / Twitter / LinkedIn / Video Interview (2018)
Chris Fahrenbach chris@startuprad.io / Twitter / Homepage / Video Interview (2018)
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Startups.observer supports this program. Startups.observer is like online dating for startups and investors. It is by far the easiest and most efficient way to research potential investment candidates or look for potential investors. Learn more here: http://startups.observer/
Find all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/startup-news-germany-summer-july-august-september-2019/
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This is the third and last episode in a small series, where we introduce our listeners to the winners of Deutsche Bank Hackathon.
This time we talk to real twins: Ben and Alex, who are FinTech entrepreneurs and of course winners of Deutsche Bank Hackathon. They founded their company dwins in Cologne but relocated to Frankfurt after a pivot. They offer a smart analytics API for analyzing current accounts and credit card transactions, currently getting into machine learning. During the hackathon, they coded the so-called Finanzguru (Finance Guru), for personal finance.
You can learn more by tuning into the interview and follow DWINS on Social Media:
LinkedInTwitterFacebookLear more about the other two interviews with winners of Deutsche Bank Hackathon here:
Finchild – A pocket money app who want to further the financial education for children.Wire – A chatbot platform, who coded a client service chat bot during the hackathon.PS: Here is the promised view from Deutsche Börse Fintech Hub (on a cloudy, rainy day): https://www.facebook.com/startupradio.de/photos/a.1569447969949281.1073741828.1427450964148983/1853651681528907/?type=3&theater
And picture added from the comments: https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/13147328_576116012554002_1840556866369125770_o.jpg?oh=fb788b1ef058a22455f2836f773950e3&oe=58F4A46C
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© Startuprad.io - All right reserved
Originally published 2016/12/29
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This is the fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter: Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany
Originally published on September 5th 2019 on Startuprad.io. Find the original interview here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/bita-allows-the-calculation-of-tailored-indices/
This interview is a Labor Day Special.
We talk to Victor Hugo Gomez (https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-hugo-gomez-2b65a719/) who is the founder of Frankfurt-based fintech BITA (https://www.bitadata.com/). Victor is originally from Venezuela, but his education and jobs brought him to Frankfurt. He is also an MBA alumnus of WHU (https://www.whu.edu/) and Northwestern Kellogg (https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/). Big high five to the guys from Tech.eu, where we found the publication of BITAs 1.25 mn VC round (https://tech.eu/brief/german-fintech-startup-bita-raises-e1-25-million-to-bolster-its-indexation-software/).
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BITA is a “deep fintech” so to speak, it allows the calculation of tailored indices. Any investor, asset manager, bank, wealth manager, pension fund or insurance company can pay BITA to calculate indices, which they are putting together (given the data is available). You can learn more about him, the company and ideas in our interview.
We are sorry for the sometimes-blurry video, but we are sure you can get the important information anyways.
During the interview Victor and Joe are talking about:
Asset allocation / Asset selection (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/assetallocation.asp)
Pension fund (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pensionplan.asp)
Financial Index (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/index.asp)
DAX – Germany’s leading stock market index (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dax.asp)
“Dow Jones” – Dow Jones Industrial Average (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/djia.asp)
S&P500 (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sp500.asp)
MSCI Emerging Markets (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/emergingmarketsindex.asp)
ETFs (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/etf.asp)
Lehman Aggregated Bond Indices / Now Bloomberg Barclays Aggregate Bond Index (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomberg_Barclays_US_Aggregate_Bond_Index)
Commodity Index (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_price_index)
Weather Derivatives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_derivative)
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This is the second episode in a small series, where we introduce our listeners to the winners of Deutsche Bank Hackathon.
We talk in the second interview with Christopher from Finchild, which is an app for parents to reward children, pay them pocket money or assign tasks to them so they can earn money. The team, therefore, wants to contribute to the financial education of children from a very early age on. During the hackathon, the team developed the Finchild app.
You can learn more by tuning in to the interview and follow Finchild on Social Media:
FacebookTwitterInstagramHomepage
More interviews from the winners of Deutsche Bank Hackathon:
Chatbot platform wire.com, which developed a client service chatbot during the hackathon.Affiliated Links
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© Startuprad.io - All right reserved
Originally published 2016/12/18
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Originally published on March 24th 2017
This is the first episode in a small series, where we introduce our listeners to the winners of Deutsche Bank Hackathon.
We talk in the first interview with Helena and Gregor from wire.com, which is an end-to-end encrypted messaging service on which you can run chatbots. During the hackathon the team developed a chatbot for client interactions for Deutsche.
Tune in to learn more.
We touch the following topics during the interview:
Wire’s API for developersYou can find the code for the presentation at the Hackathon here:Web App User Interface https://github.com/wireapp/wire-webapp/tree/api_openCommunications part https://github.com/gregor/generic-message-proto/tree/api_openAffiliated Links
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© Startuprad.io - All right reserved
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Originally published 2016/09/23
We kept track of Penta for quite some time. Learn more here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/finleap-bought-penta-but-we-kept-track-of-them-since-2016/
John and Joe talk again with Luka in our second part of the interview with Penta, the banking app for small and medium enterprises. If you missed it, here is the interview part one, in which we talk about Luka (aka Luke) and the company he co-founded: Penta.
This time Luka talks mainly about raising venture capital and his experiences, since he did it already in the US and is right now in the process in Berlin. So he compares the environment in Germany (Europe) and the US. He also points out some important points about raising venture capital.
During the interview we touch:
Seed fundingPost seed fundingSeries A financingAnd here is your link to the (a bit edgy) interview with Edwina from Startupbootcamp Fintech London.
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© Startuprad.io - All right reserved
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Find all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/interviews/interview-penta-mobile-banking-app-small-medium-companies/. We kept track of Penta for quite some time. Learn more here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/finleap-bought-penta-but-we-kept-track-of-them-since-2016/
John and Joe together interview our guest Luka from Penta, located in Berlin. It wants to be the digital bank interface for German and French Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). Right now they don't have a banking license.
In the first interview of two interviews, Luka tells us also about his previous ventures. Together with him, we take a trip through his life. He tells us how he sold shoes on the streets of New York and about studying in Paris. We learn how he ended up in Berlin and how he approached the idea of Penta. Finally, we talk of course about Penta, who is in the current batch of Startupbootcamp Fintech (London). (Disclaimer, Joern is a regular mentor at the SBC Fintech pitch day in Frankfurt)
In the interview, Luka also talks about mondo in the UK and N26 in Berlin and his article of things he did wrong, which you can find here
In the second part of the interview, we talk with Luka about raising venture capital and his experiences in Europe and the US doing so: https://www.startuprad.io/interviews/interview-penta-part-ii/
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© Startuprad.io - All right reserved
Originally published 2016/09/09
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Originally published on Mar 24, 2017
Find all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/interviews/clark-de-startup-germany-bloombergs-list-50-promising-startups/
These Are the 50 Most Promising Startups You’ve Never Heard Of said Bloomberg in March 2017. Now we want to change that for one of these startups! Clark.de the only startup from Germany, who made it on the list and it is headquartered here in lovely Frankfurt am Main.
Our guest is Dr. Christopher Oster, who founded www.clark.de (Crunchbase profile) in 2015. We had Christopher before in an interview when he newly founded Clark, which was published in November 2015. Before Clark he co-founded Rocket Internet’s version of Airbnb, called Wimdu.
This time we talk to him, since Clark is the only startup from Germany, on Bloomberg's List of "50 most promising startups, one has never heard of" and an extremely good example of the increasing importance of Frankfurt, as a startup and fintech hub.
Learn more about Frankfurt as a Fintech Hub here.
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This is a welcome message from our founder Jörn "Joe" Menninger to welcome you to the fintech channel.You can find him:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeMenninger
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joernmenninger/
Email: joe@startuprad.io
Of course, you will still find all the video content on the Startuprad.io podcast on our YouTube Blog Youtube.com/startupradio.
Follow this dedicated fintech channel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany
Learn more about us here: www.startuprad.io
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
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