Fintech is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. In the past decade, fintech startups have raised billions of dollars in venture capital and are now worth billions of dollars. fintech startups are changing the way we bank, invest, and insure. In this track of the Startuprad.io podcast, we bring you news, interviews, and live events from the German-speaking fintech startup scene (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) in English. Our aim is to give you insights into the latest fintech trends and help you connect with the people who are shaping the future of finance. Whether you're a startup founder yourself or simply interested in keeping up with the latest fintech trends, this is the podcast for you. Learn more about us at fintech.sounder.fm | Startuprad.io™ - All rights r eserved
Welcome to the September 2024 Startup News from Startuprad.io! This episode covers the most impactful developments in the startup scenes of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Stay informed about key trends, funding rounds, and industry shifts that could influence your business or investment decisions.
Key Highlights:
Intel has halted its €30 billion chip manufacturing project in Magdeburg due to cost-cutting measures and financial challenges, despite a €10 billion investment from the German government. We discuss the implications for Europe's tech industry and startups. 2. Magic AI Secures $320M Led by Eric Schmidt
Vienna-based Magic AI has raised $320 million, led by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, elevating its valuation to $1.5 billion. Magic aims to revolutionize coding with its AI-powered developer assistance software. Learn how this could impact the European AI landscape. 3. Flink Raises $150M for Quick Commerce Expansion
Berlin's Flink secured $150 million to expand its quick-commerce services in Germany and the Netherlands. Despite a volatile market and a valuation just below $1 billion, Flink aims for profitability and growth. We explore their strategy. 4. Northvolt Faces Financial Challenges
Swedish battery maker Northvolt is experiencing financial difficulties linked to troubled partnerships with automotive giants like Volkswagen. We examine how this affects Europe's green energy goals and the startup ecosystem. 5. Germany's WIN Initiative Unveiled
Germany introduces the WIN Initiative to inject €12 billion into its startup ecosystem by 2030. Backed by major players like Deutsche Bank and Allianz, the initiative aims to improve access to capital and foster innovation. 6. DePoly Tops Swiss Startup Awards
Swiss startup DePoly wins the 2024 Top 100 Swiss Startup Awards for its innovative plastic recycling technology. We highlight what sets DePoly apart in the Swiss innovation scene.
Additional Insights:
Major VC Fundraisings:
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Welcome to the Summer 2024 Startup News Wrap-Up from Startuprad.io! In this special Labor Day episode, we cover the most crucial updates from the vibrant startup ecosystems in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, or tech enthusiast, this episode is packed with insights into the latest trends, funding rounds, and ecosystem developments shaping the future of innovation in the DACH region.
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🔍 Episode Highlights:
🇩🇪🇦🇹🇨🇭 Local Startup News:
🔗 Useful Links:
#Hashtags: #StartupNews #GermanStartups #SwissStartups #AustrianStartups #TechTrends #FundingNews #AIInnovation #DeepTech #VentureCapital #EuropeanStartups
Dive into the world of fintech with Startuprad.io as we bring you an exclusive interview with Maximilian Rofagha, CEO of Finimize. Hosted by Jörn "Joe" Menninger, this episode unravels the journey of Finimize from a WordPress blog to a global financial content powerhouse that engages nearly 2 million investors worldwide.
Maximilian Rofagha shares his insights on building a thriving investment community without relying on paid marketing, a feat few startups achieve. Learn how Finimize delivers financial content solutions for enterprises, utilizing over a billion data points annually to create engaging and relevant content in 29 languages. This episode is a treasure trove of information for entrepreneurs, investors, and anyone interested in the fintech space.
We also explore the strategic acquisition of Finimize by Aberdeen, discussing the mutual benefits and the factors to consider when evaluating acquisition offers. Maximilian offers a candid look at the challenges of scaling a fintech startup, the role of community in business growth, and the current trends in the investment climate.
If you're looking for actionable advice on scaling a business, building a community, or navigating the complexities of fintech, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in to hear from one of the most innovative minds in fintech today.
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Hashtags: #FintechPodcast #Finimize #MaximilianRofagha #CommunityBuilding #InvestmentContent #StartupStrategy #Aberdeen #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #ScalingStartups #Startupradio
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Welcome to Startuprad.io™, your go-to source for news and insights into the world of German, Austrian, and Swiss tech innovation. Join us for conversations with industry leaders, game-changing entrepreneurs, and influential investors. Our guests include Nobel Laureates, Emmy Award winners, and Forbes list luminaries. We focus on startups around Series A funding, ensuring you get exclusive insights into the rising stars of tomorrow. Tune in for inspiring discussions that drive innovation and growth. Join us at Startuprad.io, where every conversation sparks new possibilities.
Episode Summary: In this episode, host Jörn "Joe" Menninger interviews Annelise Osborne, Chief Business Officer at Kadena. Annelise discusses her journey from commercial real estate to blockchain, highlighting the inefficiencies in traditional finance and the transformative potential of blockchain technology. She covers her book on blockchain and cryptocurrencies, the benefits of stablecoins, and the regulatory challenges facing Fintech in the US. Learn about the importance of marketing, strategic partnerships, and adaptability for startups. This episode emphasizes the need for clear regulations to foster financial innovation and the vital role of networking in the Fintech space.
Key Points:
Notable Quotes:
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This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian Startups - June 2024 | Startuprad.io
Welcome to our June 2024 wrap-up, where we bring you the latest news from the startup and tech entrepreneurship scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, all in under 30 minutes!
In this episode, recorded with Chris in New York City and Joe joining from Frankfurt, we cover the top highlights from June 25th:
Check24's Massive Marketing Campaign: Check24 launched a major campaign, distributing 5 million free Puma football jerseys in Germany, costing around €100 million. This initiative has sparked vibrant online discussions and driven app downloads, despite privacy concerns.
Aviation News: Lilium seeks €300M in government aid to advance its "Lilium Jet," while Volocopter continues to vie for funding.
Insurtech Updates: WeFox faces internal strife that could significantly lower its valuation from $4.5 billion, while Clark is preparing for a substantial funding round under new leadership.
Amazon's Investment in Germany: Amazon announces an additional €10 billion investment in Germany, focusing on cloud data storage and logistics, bringing their total investment in the country this year to €17.8 billion.
DeepL's Milestone: DeepL becomes Germany’s most valuable AI startup with a $2 billion valuation, following a $300 million investment.
Black Semiconductor's Major Funding: Black Semiconductor secures €254.4 million to boost Europe's semiconductor industry, with plans to open a pilot facility in Aachen by 2026.
Cognigy's AI Advancements: Cognigy raises $100 million to enhance AI-driven customer service automation, supported by major brands like Lufthansa, Toyota, and Mercedes-Benz.
Flix's Strategic Moves: Flix considers private equity investment from EQT, potentially acquiring a 30% stake and altering Flix's path to a public offering.
Join us as we delve into these stories and more, highlighting the dynamic changes and strategic shifts in the DACH startup ecosystem. Stay informed with the latest developments in tech and entrepreneurship in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
For more in-depth coverage and analysis, visit our blog at startuprad.io/blog.
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In this episode of Startuprad.io, we dive into the world of deep tech investments with Max Narr, General Partner at Blue Forest Ventures. Max shares their strategy for bridging the gap between scientific innovation and investment by translating complex ideas into compelling equity stories. Discover how Blue Forest Ventures leverages alternative data sources and AI to evaluate markets, focusing on impactful solutions and diverse founding teams. Learn about their investment criteria, recent innovations, and commitment to combining financial success with positive impact. Join host Jörn “Joe” Menninger for an inspiring discussion on the future of deep tech investments and the unique ecosystem Blue Forest Ventures is fostering from their hub in Berlin.
Tune in to explore:
Challenges and solutions in translating scientific ideas into compelling equity stories.
The impact of avoiding heavily regulated fields like drug development on their investment strategy.
The use of alternative data sources for evaluating potential investments.
Balancing economic benefits with impactful deep-tech solutions.
The significance of heterogeneous founding teams.
Importance of technological readiness levels in attracting investments.
Exciting advancements in data transmission and storage technologies.
Integrating impact measurement into investment decisions.
Staying informed on new deep tech innovations.
Broader implications of innovations in global agriculture and sustainability.
🎧 Join us for this episode and learn how Blue Forest Ventures is transforming scientific research into marketable solutions.
📌 Learn more and support us:
🔗 Guest Information:
Max Narr, General Partner at Blue Forest Ventures
📌 About Blue Forest Ventures:
Blue Forest Ventures is a Berlin-based VC fund focusing on early-stage deep tech companies transitioning from academic research to commercial applications. Avoiding heavily regulated fields, they aim for impactful solutions with tangible economic benefits. With ticket sizes between 500,000 € and 1,000,000 €, they leverage data-driven methodologies to predict market trends and support innovative deep tech startups.
Listen now and discover the future of deep tech investments with Blue Forest Ventures! 🎙️
Interested in Working with us?Have a look here: https://www.passionfroot.me/startupradio
Welcome to our May 2024 wrap-up, delivering vital news from the startup and tech entrepreneurship scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland—all in 30 minutes or less! 🎧
Join Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt as they bring you the latest updates in the GSA region. Due to Whit Monday and travel plans, this news cut is from May 16th. Any news not covered today will be included in our next wrap-up.
Next Episode: June 27th
Summer Wrap-Up: September 2nd (Labor Day)
We'll have a lighter summer program, possibly with more frequent updates, based on listener requests.
The startup scene is roaring back in GSA, with large investments and early-stage innovations. Grab a drink and a snack—this episode is packed with positive news and is longer than usual.
New VC Funds Raised: Over $7.5 billion
Germany's Air Taxi Dilemma: Lilium and Volocopter are at a crossroads, with France offering subsidies while Germany debates state support.
Amazon's €7.8 Billion Investment: Development of a purely European cloud storage infrastructure in Brandenburg.
WeFox Challenges: Valuation setbacks amid growth challenges.
Alzheimer's Research Boost: Takeda and AC Immune's $2 billion partnership.
Biontech's Resilience: Despite Q1 losses, Biontech advances its oncology pipeline and prepares for a renewed push in COVID vaccine demand.
For detailed news and updates, visit our blog with all the latest stories. Interested in collaborations or advertising opportunities? Storefront.
Don't forget to subscribe on Spotify and Apple Podcasts to stay updated with the latest news from the GSA startup scene!
Detailed Topics:
1. Will German Air Taxis Fly?
Germany debates support for air taxi startups Lilium and Volocopter, while France offers subsidies. Lilium is in advanced talks with the French government for expansion plans and potential financial aid. Read more.
2. Amazon's Investment in Brandenburg:
Amazon's €7.8 billion investment in Brandenburg to develop purely European storage capacities highlights its commitment to data sovereignty. Read more.
3. WeFox Valuation Takes a Hit:
WeFox faces valuation woes amid growth challenges, impacting its once promising trajectory in insurtech. Read more.
4. Alzheimer's Research Collaboration:
Takeda teams up with Swiss firm AC Immune in a deal potentially exceeding $2 billion to fight Alzheimer's. Read more.
5. Biontech's Oncology Advances:
Despite significant Q1 losses, Biontech continues to advance its oncology pipeline and prepares for a renewed push in COVID vaccine demand. Read more.
Interested in Working with us?Have a look here: https://www.passionfroot.me/startupradio
In this episode of Startuprad.io, host Jörn Menninger sits down with Alireza Siadat, a seasoned lawyer and Head of Digital Assets at Annerton, to delve into the European Union’s MiCA regulation. Discover what these stringent requirements mean for stablecoin and crypto asset service providers, the distinctions between stablecoins and asset reference tokens, and the challenges of gaining regulatory approval. This episode highlights Germany's pioneering role in crypto regulation and provides essential entrepreneurial guidance on navigating this complex landscape.
Key Topics Covered:
Don't Miss Out:
Tune In and Stay Ahead: Whether you're a crypto enthusiast or an aspiring entrepreneur, this episode is packed with crucial information to help you stay ahead of the curve in the evolving world of crypto regulations. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform!
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🌟 April 2024 Startup & Tech Wrap-Up 🌟 | Germany, Austria, Switzerland | Biotech Breakthroughs, Fintech Boom & Space Innovation 🚀In just 30 minutes, get the latest on the hottest entrepreneurship news from the heart of Europe! From groundbreaking acquisitions to futuristic ventures, here's what you need to know:
🔬 Novo Nordisk's €1.025B Biotech Splash! Discover how Novo Nordisk's landmark acquisition of Cardior Pharmaceuticals is reshaping the biotech landscape.
🚁 Volocopter's €150M Boost! Despite challenges, Volocopter gets a significant funding injection for its flying taxi vision.
💡 Zolar Shines with €100M! Learn about Zolar's massive credit line and its innovative financing options.
💰 ELEMENT Scores €50M! Explore how ELEMENT is revolutionizing InsurTech with its latest funding round.
🏦 Berlin: Fintech Capital! Berlin solidifies its status as the Fintech Capital with 160 thriving startups.
🛰️ Mynaric's Space Laser Triumph! Witness Mynaric's milestone in global space development with the CONDOR Mk3.
Don't miss out on the latest tech and entrepreneurial breakthroughs! Watch now for all the details. #entrepreneurship #technews #startupscene #startupradio
Find all links and show notes here:https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-march-april-bb97d8243696
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Welcome to our March 2024 wrap-up with vital news from the startup and tech entrepreneurship scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.
Our startup news is recorded with Chris in New York City and Joe in Frankfurt. Recording date is March 25th 2024 and all news not included will be in our next news to be released on April 25th 2024.
Happy Easter!Today we publish on Holy Thursday (Gründonnerstag) in Germany. Note that the Friday before and Monday after Easter are public holidays. Many people will take off around the holidays. So don’t expect your calls to be returned promptly during this time.
A Seismic Shift in the Regional Startup SceneYou are witnessing a seismic shift in the GSA startup scene with us here and today. The headlines of our startup news used to be dominated by fintech funding. Now we have more than 7 billion € investments in green startups (battery, renewable energy) vs. “only” around 150 million in fintech funding in different forms. This is surely a foretaste of what’s to come.
Our Highlights:The European energy landscape is witnessing significant developments with key investments across sectors.
Northvolt’s Gigafactory in Northern Germany, backed by €900 million in subsidies and a €4.5 billion investment, aims to produce 1 million car batteries annually, driving electric vehicle adoption and job creation.
Enpal secured €1.1 billion in refinancing commitments, while Sunfire raised over €500 million, bolstering Europe’s green hydrogen economy.
ENVIRIA secured $200 million in capital from BlackRock, signaling confidence in the solar sector.
Solaris Bank secured €96 million in funding but faced a €6.5 million fine from BaFin, reflecting fintech regulatory challenges.
Magic gained traction with open AI’s and Tesla’s former Andrej Karpathy as investor, and Bitpanda established a €50 million VC fund for blockchain startups. However, the startup community grapples with stress, with nearly half considering quitting, underscoring the toll of rapid innovation.
Let’s talk startups: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-march-2024-a49996ca44f9
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The HostsThe news are co-hosted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. And Christian “Chris' ' Fahrenbach, co-founder Startuprad.io, freelance reporter, lecturer, author and blogger . Reach out to them:
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In this episode, we dive deep into the latest tech and startup highlights shaping the landscape of innovation. Join us as we explore groundbreaking developments and game-changing investments that are driving progress in the tech world.
🔍 Our Highlights:1. Microsoft's bold move to invest 3.3 billion euros in expanding data centers in Germany is a testament to the importance of AI and cloud computing. Chancellor Olaf Scholz applauds this commitment to progress and global openness.
Vienna-based AI startup Magic secures a whopping $117 million in funding, setting ambitious goals to surpass ChatGPT-4 with its AGI ambitions. Meanwhile, Stuttgart's Instagrid raises an impressive $95 million to expand into North America with its innovative portable battery systems.
Amidst the success stories, we also shed light on the challenges faced by fintech and MedTech sectors. Elinvar grapples with insolvency despite a hefty €50 million investment, while Sanity Group, a cannabis company, makes tough decisions by cutting staff.
But there's no shortage of triumphs! BioNTech emerges victorious in a lawsuit, Flixbus makes strides by expanding to India, and Mondu secures a massive €30 million for its expansion plans. However, changes in German insolvency regulations pose new challenges for debt-funded startups like Instafreight.
And lastly, EV charging platform Monta electrifies the scene by raising an impressive €80 million for its European expansion, signaling a bright future for sustainable transportation.
Stay ahead of the curve with Startuprad.io as we bring you the latest updates and insights from the dynamic world of tech entrepreneurship. Don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell to never miss out on our exclusive content! #technews #startupradio #entrepreneurship #innovation #techinvestments #ai #cloudcomputing #AGI #fintech #medtech #biontech #evcharging #MontaExpansion
Let's talk startups: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-february-2024-c5d6ea9a5b5c
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Tune in to the latest episode of our podcast, where we discuss the top news and trends in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) startups. From European unicorns to emerging tech companies, we cover it all in this monthly show. Don't miss out on the latest tech news and startup updates!
Our Highlights:Joe already did a 2023 review focused on valuations and investments. All publications more or less agreed that 2023 was hopefully rock bottom for startups, their valuation, funding and founding of new ones and it should get better. Thumbs pressed for that (as is German custom). Our former guest Finn raises 100 M€, unicorn 1Komma5 Grad is looking for 100 M€, Unzer loss amounts to 400 M€ and Everphone raises 270 M€. Despite the dire situation, almost 2,500 new startups were founded in Germany. Also one should take notice of Karlsruhe, a city with a world-class technical university, that is home to INTERATEC which raised 118 M€ for efuels. Please, take a moment and match again all the bad news we have gathered here and weigh it against entrepreneurs sticking their heads out and even raising hundreds of millions from investors. Congratulations to those brave ones! Let's talk startups:
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Find all links and Show Notes Here:https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-january-2024-startuprad-io-e-412-8aed840bed61
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Join us for a deep dive into the startup world of Germany in 2023! We'll recap the latest trends in startup valuations and investments, featuring top Berlin, Hamburg, and other German startups. Learn about the innovative ideas and entrepreneurs driving the German startup scene forward. Don't miss out on this valuable information for investors and aspiring entrepreneurs alike!
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All Links and Show Notes Here is our blog post:https://medium.com/startuprad-io/deep-dive-a-recap-of-2023s-startup-valuations-and-investment-trends-d0d876b4cd1e
We are talking about #Startupscene #germanstartuppodcast #germanstartups #startups #innovation #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #businessnews #insolvencies #earlystageinvestment #seed #seedfunding #preseedfunding #laterstagefunding #valuation #privateequity #venturecapital #fundraising #deeptech #biotechnology #AI #europeanstartupodcast #europeanstartup #startupeurope #ecosystem #ecosystems #scalablestartups #jobcreation #marketcapitalization #dealvolume #europeanperspective #cleantechnology #cleantech #fundingslump #biotechcompanies #entrepreneurinterviews #startupradio
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Dear Esteemed Listeners,
As the holiday season wraps us in its joyful embrace, I wanted to take a moment to extend my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you who has been a part of our incredible journey here at Startuprad.io.
This time of year is not just about the twinkling lights and merry melodies; it's about cherishing connections, celebrating accomplishments, and embracing the spirit of togetherness. Your unwavering support, insightful feedback, and enthusiasm have been the driving force behind our podcast's success.
As we reflect on the year gone by, I'm filled with immense gratitude for the enriching conversations, the wisdom shared by our remarkable guests, and the vibrant community that surrounds us. Your engagement fuels our passion to continue bringing you thought-provoking insights and valuable content.
May this season fill your hearts with warmth, your homes with laughter, and your lives with endless joy. Here's to a new year brimming with innovation, inspiration, and boundless opportunities.
Thank you for being an integral part of our journey. From the entire team at Startuprad.io, I wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season.
Warm regards,
Joe Menninger Host, Startuprad.io
The background music is Borrtex04Happy Holidays published under Creative Commons License
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Executive SummaryAs we step into the holiday season, we at Startuprad.io are excited to bring you exclusive insights from our recent Fintech Review 2023 for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Our latest episode featured prominent voices in the Fintech industry, offering valuable perspectives on the current landscape and the Fintech Outlook 2024. We talk all things digital finance, banking, and capital markets. Tune in to learn more.
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Fintech ReviewEver since Joe ventured into podcasting, Fintech has ignited tremendous interest. In 2014, he initiated the annual Fintech reviews, initially in German. For several years, Startuprad.io has proudly presented this review as the crowning piece of each year. Lately, there's been a request to shift the publication from December 25th to an earlier date, ensuring you can tune in during your Christmas travels. We're thrilled to accommodate this request, especially for our German investors eager to delve into the thriving Fintech scenes of Hamburg, Berlin, and Munich, along with the broader spectrum of German startups.
The Guests 2023Here are some of the highlights from the episode:
Kimmo Soramäki, CEO of FAN.FI, shares positive news for the upcoming year and discusses the optimization of liquidity for banks and businesses, as well as the challenges posed by the rise in digital payment fraud. - Paolo Sironi, an esteemed author and thought leader, delves into the rise of generative AI and its impact on the banking relationship, emphasizing the importance of digitalization, personalization, and simplification in communication for understanding the value proposition.
Luca Frignani, CEO of Exaloan, provides valuable insights into the challenges and successes in the Fintech lending space in 2023, while also predicting a convergence of Fintech lending, tokenization, and the digital asset ecosystem in 2024.
Ivan Maryasin, CEO of Monite, reflects on the shift of startups towards becoming real businesses and the impact of high interest rates on incumbents and startups.
We invite you to tune in to the episode for an in-depth discussion on Fintech, banking, InsurTech, embedded finance, and CBDC, offering you a comprehensive understanding of the industry's current state and future potential.
All Links and Show NotesHere is our blog post: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/fintech-review-2023-predictions-and-outlook-for-germany-austria-and-switzerland-1f147e768a87
Topics Discussed in this InterviewIn this interview we are talking about Kimmo Soramäki, Jörn "Joe" Menninger, Ivan Maryasin, Paolo Sironi, Luca Frignani, Embedded finance, Digital payments, Liquidity optimization, Rising interest rates, Fraud in digital payments, Generative AI, Open banking, Neobanks, Digital wallet usage, Fintech lending, Tokenization, Digital asset ecosystem, Risk management, Startups, Unit economics, Talent migration, Incumbents, Financial services shift, Banking relationship, Digital connectivity, Consumer priorities, Institutional investors, Economic proof
Welcome to our December 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup and tech entrepreneurship scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂. Our startup news is recorded with Chris in New York City and Joe in Frankfurt. The recording date is December 19th, 2023 and all news not included will be in our next news to be released on January 25th, 2024. Note: We will take a holiday break until January 18th, 2023, when you can expect the first publication in the new year.
Our Highlights:Aleph Alpha's AI models get bad press. Escooter Tier lays of one-fifth of the workforce. Solarisbank also fires employees, and so does the Austrian scale-up neoom. Sport Alliance gets 100 M US$ funding and Hugo Boss chips into a sustainable fashion fund. Trade Republic is now a fully licensed bank and Instafreight has to file for insolvency. In total, we have more than 30 M US$ new VC investments in Austria, more than 25 M US$ investments in Switzerland, and more than 400 M US$ investments in Germany, vs only three insolvencies. Yes at the core we are very positive :-). It feels better, at least a bit. Let's talk startups:
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All Links and Show NotesHere is our blog post: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-december-2023-startuprad-io-e-409-f30d787f0c1f
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WelcomeWelcome to our November 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.
Our HighlightsAI startup Aleph Alpha raises half a billion dollars, CMBlu raises 100 mn € for energy storage, WeFox gets 55 M US$ from Deutsche and Unicredit, and Vanguard pulls the plug on their German robo advisor. It seems that Sono Motors has found an investor to keep going at least until the end of 2024 and the German subsidiary of WeWork also has to file for insolvency.
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Top NewsAleph Alpha raises 500 mn US$Heidelberg-based Aleph Alpha raises a total investment of more than half a billion US Dollars from a consortium of industry leaders and new investors for their AI for Enterprises and Governments.
CMBlu Energy raises 100 mn €German Energy scale-up CMBlu offers „warehouses for energy", with batteries storing up to gigawatt hours. They now raised 100 million Euros, with Strabag being the sole investor, one of Europe's largest construction companies, based in Vienna.
WeFox Raises 55m US$Deutsche Bank and UniCredit back $4.5 billion insurance startup Wefox with $55 million in fresh funds. WeFox is an online insurance broker and it did not raise equity, so their valuation stayed the same.
Sono Motors May Have Found An InvestorSono Motors was once hailed as a new hope for the German startup scene, listing early in the US in November 2021. The company wanted to increase the reach of electro-cars by adding solar cells but ran into many problems while developing electro-cars. In the end, they had to file for insolvency but are now restarting with tech that allows the retrofitting of solar panels for fossil fuel busses. Sono Motors filed a 6-K form with the SEC saying that the company secured its survival for 2024, apparently most of the 250 employees can find further employment. Read more in our blog post: Sono Motors Finds Investor https://buff.ly/3Rjuo9t
Vanguard Pulls The Plug on Their Robo Advisor in GermanyVanguard's German robo advisor costs millions and scores only 4 mn assets under management (AuM) at the end of 2022. A disaster according to FinanceFWD. To put this in perspective: Scalable Capital had 11 months after launch more than 100 mn AuM
WeWork Germany Files For InsolvencyWeWork's German subsidiary filed for insolvency - the company had issues everywhere.
Find the full news with all links and show notes here:https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-november-2023-startuprad-io-e-405-99d9efb6f3ff
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Executive SummaryIn this episode of Startuprad.io, host Jörn "Joe" Menninger interviews Michael Duttlinger from Cashlink. They discuss the importance of transparency with shareholders and how communication is key during a pivot. Cashlink, a leading registrar for tokenized securities in Germany, aims to disrupt the securities market and provide a more cost-efficient and transparent alternative to traditional intermediaries. They recently raised €7 million in a fundraising round and are collaborating with major financial institutions in Germany. Cashlink is focused on growth, acquiring new issuers and clients, and building its regulated financial institution to support the growing market for tokenized securities in Germany.
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Our Enabler HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network HessenThis recording was made possible by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen. These organizations have made tremendous contributions to helping startup businesses succeed and thrive, providing a range of services from helping to find grants to ongoing partnerships. By taking advantage of these resources, startup companies can network and develop innovative strategies for success on the international stage. The dedicated support of HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen is paramount in providing startup businesses with the tools for lasting success. Learn more here: https://www.htai.de/ and https://www.een-hessen.de/
Questions Discussed in the Interview* How has transparency played a role in Cashlink's relationship with shareholders? * In what ways did the communication with shareholders intensify during the pivot period? How does Cashlink differentiate itself from traditional infrastructure providers such as Clearstream Banking Frankfurt? * What benefits does tokenization bring to participants in the securities market? * How has Germany's progressive regulation for tokenization contributed to the growth of Cashlink and the ecosystem as a whole? * What challenges did Cashlink face during its pivot from a fintech for money transfers to a tokenization market focus? * How did Cashlink navigate investor and stakeholder concerns during the pivot period? * How does increased competition in the tokenization market disrupt the traditional securities market and benefit investors? * What role does automation play in making securities handling more cost-efficient and creating new investment opportunities?
The FounderMichael Duttlinger, the founder of Cashlink, started his fintech journey with a typical garage story reminiscent of those heard in Silicon Valley.
All Links and Show Noteshttps://blog.startuprad.io/revolutionizing-securities-exploring-tokenization-and-transparency-with-cashlink-e-403-f655217533fc
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“I built the tech behind it to make it work, and, we got quite some revenue through through that, and, yeah, it was one of my first businesses that I really incorporated where it really went to the notary, Form the legal entity and all these things.” — Mario Hachemer
Executive SummaryIn this episode of Startuprad.io, we are joined by the newest co-host, Mario Hachemer, who brings a wealth of experience in technology and entrepreneurship to the table. Mario’s journey has been nothing short of fascinating, from the rise and fall of his subscription box business to his role as CTO of FastBill and later for unicorn FreshBooks in Germany, eventually leading to his exploration of the world of AI as a freelance consultant and mentor. Mario’s insights into deep tech and AI’s impact on businesses and society are both thought-provoking and enlightening. Moreover, the hosts share a passion for science fiction and discuss the works of literary giants such as Ian Banks and Terry Pratchett. They also delve into Mario’s love for spicy food and his experiences in various countries. Join us as we delve deep into the world of tech, AI, entrepreneurship, and a touch of spicy cuisine with our new co-host, Mario Hachemer.
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The Entrepreneurial Spirit: “I had trouble finding like-minded people. I studied my 1st university was in Koblenz, and it just there wasn’t that much of an entrepreneurial spirit.” — Mario Hachemer
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The New Co-HostMario Hachemer, (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahachemer/) the co-host of Startuprad.io's Deep Tech Track, was involved in the successful startup Fast Bill. During his time with Fast Bill, the company raised significant venture capital, allowing them to develop innovative technology stacks and rapidly expand their operations. The company's success eventually led to its acquisition by FreshBooks, a major player in the accounting and invoicing software industry. Fast Bill's ability to attract venture capital and subsequent successful integration into FreshBooks showcase their achievements and position them as a standout player in the technology and startup landscape. Fast Bill set itself apart from its competition through its ability to not only raise venture capital but also develop and implement groundbreaking technology stacks.
Learn more about Mario or reach out to him:https://twitter.com/MarioHachemer https://www.meetup.com/de-DE/grunderstammtisch-founders-table-frankfurtrheinmain/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahachemer/ mario@startuprad.io
All Links and Show Notes Here is our blog post: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/from-unicorn-cto-to-co-hosting-startuprad-ios-deep-tech-track-startuprad-io-e-402-073c63686fc4
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Welcome to our October 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.
This time we wrap up October 2023 in our 400th episode!
Our startup news are recorded with Chris today in Germany and Joe in Frankfurt. The recording date is October 25th and all news not included will be in our next news to be released on November 30th.
This time we made more cuts to our news here. We hope you like the lighter version of it. If you think we cut too much, feel free to let us know.
For everyone who celebrates it: Happy Halloween AAAAAAAAAAAAAAND Happy Thanksgiving!
Our Highlights:BioNTech is a very special case in Germany, but now one of their former Senior Vice Presidents (Katalin Karikó, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine 2023 for her research in mRNA). Two German companies IPOed (yes, no startups, but still a good sign). Solar startup Nexwafe starts 120 M € funding, Black Semiconductor from Aachen is looking to raise 500 M €, and there is bad news about the former unicorn Infarm.
Let's talk startups:
Subscribe HereFind all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel, or listen to our internet radio station here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio
Our EnablersThis recording is supported by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network HessenThis recording was made possible by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen. These organizations have made tremendous contributions to helping startup businesses succeed and thrive, providing a range of services from helping to find grants to ongoing partnerships. By taking advantage of these resources, startup companies can network and develop innovative strategies for success on the international stage. The dedicated support of HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen is paramount in providing startup businesses with the tools for lasting success. Look for our dedicated sub-podcast in partnership with them: Tech Startups Germany on our https://linktr.ee/startupradio
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Top NewsFormer Employee of BioNTech Receives as 13th Women Nobel Prize in MedicineBioNTech is a very special case in the German startup world. During corona, they have been assumed to be responsible for 0.5% of GDP growth of all of Germany, one of the five largest economies in the world. Now they have another very unique distinction: A former Senior Vice President (2013–2022) of the company Katalin Karikó, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine 2023 for her research in mRNA. Congratulations to her, being the 13th woman to have won a Nobel prize in medicine, she is sharing the prize with Drew Weissman.
Solar Startup Hunting for 100+ M € in Funding at 500 M ValuationFreiburg, Germany-based solar startup Nexwafe starts new funding, aiming for 120 m € in Venture Capital at a valuation of up to 500 M €
Black Semiconductor 500 M € in FundingAachen, Germany-based chip startup Black Semiconductor about to close large funding of 500 M €, with up to 70% of government funding. The founders are looking to develop a new way to connect elements on semiconductors but may need up to 7 years for the...
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Executive Summary
Welcome to Startuprad.io, the podcast that brings you the latest insights and stories from the world of startups. In today's episode, we have a special guest, Christian Noske, a Partner at NGP Capital in Berlin. Christian joins our host, Jörn "Joe" Menninger, to discuss their recent research on the startup ecosystem in the DACH region, which encompasses Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. They delve into the findings of NGP Capital's analysis, which explores the impact of COVID-19 on venture funding in the region and highlights some surprising facts about the different countries. Tune in to discover why Switzerland has emerged as a strong force in the startup scene, how Germany's diverse ecosystem mitigated the decline in funding, and the reasons behind France's larger drop in startup funding. If you want to uncover the hidden gems and thriving startups beyond the well-known hubs, this episode is a must-listen. Stay tuned for an in-depth conversation on the startup landscape in the DACH region with Christian Noske of NGP Capital.
Find all blog posts with all the links on our blog https://medium.com/startuprad-io/from-berlin-to-zurich-ngp-capitals-research-on-vc-funding-in-the-dach-region-startuprad-io-36553faace33
The Investor
Christian is a Partner at NGP Capital in Berlin. In a recent study, Christian and his team examined the post-COVID landscape in their core region, which includes Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. They found that each region had its own unique characteristics. Germany, being the largest country, was not surprising in terms of its size and activity in various sectors. However, Switzerland was a pleasant surprise, as, despite its smaller size, it had managed to build a thriving ecosystem and was demonstrating significant growth in venture funding, new creation, and deep tech software. The findings were quite astonishing and revealed the diverse and dynamic nature of the region's entrepreneurial and innovation landscape.
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Welcome to our summer 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.
This time we wrap up September 2023. There have been a lot of news sad (insolvencies, final closures, …), but also good ones (expansions, fundings, …) that we just had to make a selection in order not to bore you to death.
Our startup news is recorded with Chris live in New York City and Joe in Frankfurt. The recording date is September 26th and all news not included will be in our next news to be released on October 26th.
Our Highlights:
We track close to 500 mn Euros in newly announced investments in GSA. We have the first defense tech unicorn in Berlin and a lot of great news from Greentech startups in Germany. Some proptechs are not doing well, but not all startups associated with construction are performing poorly, as shown by the fundraising from Schüttfix. Long-distance trucking gets more autonomous with FERNRIDE and some bank news: Deutsche Bank uses Swiss DLT startup Taurus' technology and we learn more about JP Morgan's retail offering in Germany. Unicorn Flix already hired banks for their IPO in H1 next year. We also keep you updated on the bank holidays in Germany in the next weeks.
Let's talk startups:
Find all links and show notes here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-september-2023-startuprad-io-e-397-40c9c7b5fa2c
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Welcome to our summer 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in around 30 minutes sometimes less 🙂.
This time we wrap up July and August. We came up with the summer news because the September news has always been very long, overcrowded, and covered 3 months. That was a bit too much of a break and too much news in one piece. So we looked to wrap up summer and since the US is an important market and Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer it seems like a good fit.
This summer has been a bit different and there has been a lot of news, so we focus more on the most recent ones and we have cut a lot of news here.
For everybody in the US who celebrates it: Happy Labor Day!
Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-summer-2023-july-august-episode-fdb709d89fbd
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Our Highlights:Binance has not - yet - gotten permission to operate in Germany from BaFin, Nextwind raises 750 m US$, Bitpanda surpasses 1 M customers in Germany and Germany sets a new record in new founders. We also shared that SAP wants to invest in Aleph Alpha, they confirmed this and two more.
Germany's law for legalizing cannabis falls short of the expectations of cannabis entrepreneurs. Europe dominates climate fintech funding and the overall fintech funding shows a sign of life. Bafin also stopped mini VC investments - trashing the business model of some fintechs - AND we found newly closed VC funds in excess of 2.8 bn US$ that are open to European founders.
Our Enablers This recording is supported by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen
Look for our dedicated sub-podcast in partnership with them: Tech Startups Germany on our https://linktr.ee/startupradio
Startupraven.com
The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/
Top News Du kommst hier ned rein 🙂 Is the usual saying in Frankfurt if a Bouncer won't let you in a ClubFintech blog Finance Forward reports German finance oversight BaFin signals no license for Binance for Germany. So they can neither advertise nor expand in Germany. To be clear, this is not a final NO, but rather a "Binance keeps trying, but BaFin signaled a No"
750 M US$ for Wind EnergyWind Energy in Germany: StartUp Nextwind raises 750 M US$ Venture Capital investors include Sandbrook Capital, Canadian funds Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), and Imco
Bitpanda - The Austrian UnicornSurpasses 1 million customers in Germany alone https://buff.ly/44mMyKP it is not sure how many of them are really active, but that is always a tough question, even for the startups. But the question is important since one only makes money with active users.
Germany Sets a New Record in FoundersDespite the current economic situation, Germany has the highest share of founders in 24 years!!! According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Germany had a larger than 9% founder quota, meaning people from 18–64 who (co) founded a new business within the last 3,5 years (Young...
Welcome to our summer 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in around 30 minutes sometimes less 🙂.
This time we wrap up July and August. We came up with the summer news because the September news has always been very long, overcrowded, and covered 3 months. That was a bit too much of a break and too much news in one piece. So we looked to wrap up summer and since the US is an important market and Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer it seems like a good fit.
This summer has been a bit different and there has been a lot of news, so we focus more on the most recent ones and we have cut a lot of news here.
For everybody in the US who celebrates it: Happy Labor Day!
Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-summer-2023-july-august-episode-fdb709d89fbd
Like what you hear? You can tip us here: https://startupradio.captivate.fm/support
Our Sponsor StartupravenThe best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/
Our Highlights:Binance has not - yet - gotten permission to operate in Germany from BaFin, Nextwind raises 750 m US$, Bitpanda surpasses 1 M customers in Germany and Germany sets a new record in new founders. We also shared that SAP wants to invest in Aleph Alpha, they confirmed this and two more.
Germany's law for legalizing cannabis falls short of the expectations of cannabis entrepreneurs. Europe dominates climate fintech funding and the overall fintech funding shows a sign of life. Bafin also stopped mini VC investments - trashing the business model of some fintechs - AND we found newly closed VC funds in excess of 2.8 bn US$ that are open to European founders.
Our Enablers This recording is supported by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen
Look for our dedicated sub-podcast in partnership with them: Tech Startups Germany on our https://linktr.ee/startupradio
Startupraven.com
The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/
Top News Du kommst hier ned rein 🙂 Is the usual saying in Frankfurt if a Bouncer won't let you in a ClubFintech blog Finance Forward reports German finance oversight BaFin signals no license for Binance for Germany. So they can neither advertise nor expand in Germany. To be clear, this is not a final NO, but rather a "Binance keeps trying, but BaFin signaled a No"
750 M US$ for Wind EnergyWind Energy in Germany: StartUp Nextwind raises 750 M US$ Venture Capital investors include Sandbrook Capital, Canadian funds Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), and Imco
Bitpanda - The Austrian UnicornSurpasses 1 million customers in Germany alone https://buff.ly/44mMyKP it is not sure how many of them are really active, but that is always a tough question, even for the startups. But the question is important since one only makes money with active users.
Germany Sets a New Record in FoundersDespite the current economic situation, Germany has the highest share of founders in 24 years!!! According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Germany had a larger than 9% founder quota, meaning people from 18–64 who (co) founded a new business within the last 3,5 years (Young...
Like what you hear? You can tip us here: https://startupradio.captivate.fm/support
Find all blog posts with all the links on our blog https://medium.com/startuprad-io/navigating-the-insurtech-landscape-thinksurances-rise-in-the-digital-insurance-era-startuprad-io-1555e1d35e0a
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Executive SummaryIn this episode of Startuprad.io, our guest is Florian Brokamp, CEO and Co-Founder of Thinksurance. Brokamp discusses the positive economic state of the company, the importance of smart investors analyzing macroeconomic trends, and the growing industries of AI and insurtech. He emphasizes the stability of the insurance industry and the need for digitalization. He shares insights on their fundraising journey and the different parts of their company's offerings. Florian also highlights the importance of proper risk valuation, data transparency, and providing value to distributors, customers, and insurers. Overall, Thinksurance's vision is to connect insurance carriers, distributors, and customers through its technology platform.
Questions Discussed in this Interview:How did Thinksurance navigate the fundraising process and secure funding for their business?
What were some of the challenges Thinksurance faced during the fundraising process, and how did they overcome them?
How does Thinksurance differentiate itself in the B2B commercial insurance space in Germany?
How does Thinksurance use data to address the lack of transparency in the insurance industry?
What is the importance of properly pricing risks in the insurance industry, according to Thinksurance?
How does Thinksurance define their target user and how do they cater to the needs of different types of users?
How has Thinksurance's market coverage and relevance increased through onboarding large associations and brokers?
How does Thinksurance aim to streamline the consultation process and provide value to distributors, customers, and insurers?
What is Thinksurance's approach to hiring and maintaining a strong company culture?
How does Thinksurance plan to further penetrate sales channels and collaborate with partners to address their digitalization needs?
The FounderIn this episode, our guest is Florian, the CEO and Co-Founder of Thinksurance, an insurtech startup from Frankfurt, focused on revolutionizing the commercial insurance industry through their technology platform. Throughout the episode, Florian shares insights into the economic landscape, the challenges of fundraising, and the growth potential of industries like AI and insurtech. He highlights the importance of finding investors who believe in the long-term vision and emphasizes the need to update legacy systems in the insurance industry.
The StartupThinksurance is a German insurtech company that provides digital insurance solutions for businesses and brokers. As mentioned by Florian Brokamp, the CEO and Co-Founder of Thinksurance, the company focuses on updating the legacy systems of the insurance industry, enabling a seamless and efficient consultation process between customers, insurers, and brokers. They offer a comprehensive suite of services including core consultation, Consult Direct service, and a data suite that collects and analyzes market...
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Executive SummaryIn this episode, our guest Kimmo discusses the concept and potential of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) in part two of our series. We highlight the need for government control of the monetary system and the risks posed by private currencies. We explore various use cases and mechanisms that can encourage the adoption and success of CBDCs, including simplifying cross-border transactions and optimizing liquidity. We also dive into the idea of purpose-bound money and the importance of simplicity and convenience in utilizing CBDCs. As always we emphasize the role of entrepreneurs in developing new use cases and analyzing consumer behavior to drive CBDC adoption. Analytical approaches and network analysis play a crucial role in this process.
The Potential of Programmable Money: “I think these new use cases and thinking about new use cases of programmable money, for example, is definitely something that I think there’ll be loads of different opportunities for companies to start to provide new ideas, new services to people.” — Kimmo Soramäki
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The Importance of CBDC for Financial Stability: “But the crypto showed that, hey. Actually, you can run this in a distributed multi multi-asset international environment relatively smoothly. So I think that was an enabler for the conversation.” — Kimmo Soramäki
Three Key Developments in CBDC in The Last YearWe had our last update with Kimmo almost a year ago and since there have been three important developments:
1) CBDC does not have to be on blockchain anymore, the discussion has shifted to other cryptographic means.
2) The conversation has also shifted to tokenization for bank deposits and inter-bank lending for Central Bank Digital Currencies
3) CBDCs have been launched in other countries, especially in China. We do not see a large-scale adoption there yet, since there is a real use case missing.
Central Bank Digital Currencies: “In many countries, the driver has, of course, also been, like, in the Euro system or in China, the sovereign control of money. So if you think of emperors, they always wanted to put their heads on the coins. So, like, that’s been a goal of the government or an objective for a long time to have control of the monetary system.”
— Kimmo Soramäki
Questions Discussed In This Interview:How successful do you think the speaker's experiment of living a cashless life has been so far?
Do you believe that Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) will become widely adopted in the future? Why or why not?
What are some potential advantages of using CBDCs over traditional payment methods like cash or credit cards?
How do you think purpose-bound money could simplify consumers' lives and improve payment processes?
What are some potential use cases for CBDCs that have not yet been explored by entrepreneurs in the fintech industry?
How can CBDCs help drive financial inclusion, especially in countries with large unbanked populations?
What role do you think consumer behavior and payment networks play in the adoption of CBDCs?
How might the integration of distributed ledger technology (DLT) or other cryptographic methods impact the success of CBDCs?
What are some potential challenges that central banks and governments may face in implementing CBDCs?
How can network analysis and modeling of consumer behavior help guide the successful adoption of CBDCs?
The Future of Central Bank Digital Currency: “Even if there was a little bit of...
Welcome to our June 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.
We follow our top-down structure in the news.
Welcome to our startup news wrap-up for June 2023 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on June 27th, 2023. All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode. Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog link below.
Note: We will now go into the summertime: In July and August we will only publish content every other week AND the next startups news will be our summer wrap-up, to be published on September 4th, in the US celebrated as Labor Day.
Our Highlights:1 Komma 5, a Greentech startup, becomes a unicorn after only 23 months. We are wondering if this is the rise of climate tech startups already? Switzerland has a record funding with Teylor of 275 m €. GetYourGuide shows travel tech is back in favor of VCs with 194 m US$ funding. Germany and Intel agree on subsidies and investments for a new mega chip factory worth more than 30 bn Euros. Fernride, a pioneer of autonomous electric trucks, gets a 30 M US$+ Series A funding.
Let’s talk startups:
Top News The Rise of Climate Tech Startups Has Begun, So It SeemsHamburg’s 1KOMMA5° has raised €430 million — and just become a unicorn at just 23 months old
Related: 1KOMMA5 buys danish solar company Viasol
Related: 430 mn debt funding
A Record Funding for SwitzerlandSwiss-based SME lending fintech Teylor raises 275 m Euro, gaining Barclays as a new investor. Other investors include M&G Investments …
Traveltech Startups Seem to Be BackGetYourGuide raises $194 million to fuel curated travel experiences and global expansion
30 bn For a New Chip FactoryIntel, Germany strike record €30B deal for chip mega-factory
Do You Know Fernride?FERNRIDE a German pioneer of autonomous, electric trucks, raises 31 M USD in Series A funding
Find all Links and Show Notes herehttps://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-june-2023-episode-388-960515c65b87
Startups, Venture Capital, Unicorn, New Unicorn, Europe, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scaleups, Tech News, Venture Capital News, Startup News,
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Executive SummaryIn this episode of Startuprad.io, Joe Menninger interviews Philip Jonitz, co-founder of Klink Finance, who talks about his company's mission to encourage the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. Offering an easy-to-use investment wallet with an interest-generating-like feature, Klink combines gamification into personal finance by providing liquidity to different players in the crypto space and generating random prizes for its users. Jonitz also speaks about the impact of regulation and institutional adoption on the crypto image problem and shares his experiences and lessons learned from investing in cryptocurrencies. They are also planning to set up a decentralized insurance company. Tune in to learn more ….
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Main Themes Discussed1. Crypto Image Problem: regulation, institutional adoption
Crypto Investing: diversification, multiple wallets/exchanges
Clink Finance: gamification, easy entry to crypto markets
Price-Linked Savings: incentivizing holding assets, gamification
Crypto Insurance: a decentralized, new type of insurance.
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The FounderPhilip is a fintech entrepreneur with a passion for innovation and solving problems with technology. He has extensive experience in the fintech space, venture capitalism, and working with accelerators. Philip noticed the lack of gamification in the personal finance space and decided to explore the possibility of incorporating gamification to make personal finance more engaging and accessible for consumers. In 2016/17, Philip got involved with the crypto space, initially attracted to the potential of becoming wealthy quickly. However, he ended up losing most of his funds due to his lack of education about the market. This experience has taught him to be wiser about crypto investing and motivated him to build his own crypto project, Clink. Through Clink, Philip aims to provide an easy entry into the crypto markets by generating interest in users' deposited funds and incorporating gamification to incentivize users to hold onto their assets. He hopes to make investing in cryptocurrency more accessible and understandable for everyone.
The StartupKlink Finance is a company that aims to bring gamification to the world of personal finance and accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrencies. The company provides an easy-to-use wallet application that allows users to invest and earn interest on their deposited funds. Klink Finance generates interest on the users' funds by providing liquidity to other players in the crypto space through decentralized lending and tokenized treasury bills. The interest generated powers prices paid back to users and insurance for the jackpot prize. The company plans to expand and offer additional currencies with prices powered through staking, where users can provide liquidity to validate transactions and earn interest.
Klink Wants to Start a Decentralized Insurance CompanyKlink Finance is also pioneering a new type of crypto insurance space with decentralized ways of generating and selecting winners fully on chain, ensuring the jackpot prize. Overall, their vision and innovative solutions have the potential to change the way people perceive and invest in personal finance.
All Links and Show NotesHere is our blog post:
Welcome to our May 2023 wrap-up with important news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.
We follow our top-down structure in the news: First, the top news, then we look with a bird's eye view at the startup ecosystem in the German language countries, dig deeper by looking at exciting startup cities and end with general news. And for those serious about startups, there is even a collection called: "Stay Ahead of the Curve," where we share in-depth reads, articles, studies, and podcasts.
Our next news episode will be published on June 29th, and then we are - for the news - in summer break.
Our Highlights:Germany is now officially in a recession, but one with barely any unemployment. Also, we still track many startups going out of business, BUT the overall picture is improving. The German VC and PE Barometer - which captures the mood of many German investors - is showing an uptick. This shows especially in the massive amount of new funds raised; they promise a bright future for startups! We tracked at least 3,4 bn Euros of newly raised funds, which will be invested entirely or partially in startups in Europe and GSA. Look at our medium blog; we have more information on what the investors are looking for and how to pitch them. We also have investments and exits worth at least 5,4 bn Euros and news in this episode, including WeFox, Tier Mobility, Infarm, Blinkist, Bitpanda, Aleph Alpha, Sono Motors, and many more.
Let's talk startups:
Find all links and the other news here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-may-2023-episode-385-87fd564d483a
Tune in to our 24/7 Tech Entrepreneurship Internet Radio Station here:www.startup.radio
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Top NewsDeal or No Deal?Getir is in talks to take over German grocery app rival Flink | Financial Times
But then: Flink's sale to Getir fell through. Now Flink is raising 150 M € from investors, including grocery giant Rewe and Doordash
Tier Mobility to Merge with CompetitorEuropean e-scooter giant Tier Mobility maps route to merger
Will Infarm Be Soon Outfarm?Infarm keeps shrinking and is leaving Europe, reports Handelsblatt. The greenhouse startup reportedly has only 80 employees in Europe left and will get an investment at an unknown valuation for their relocation - likely to the Middle East with low energy prices
Blinkist Makes a Large Exit!Berlin-based startup Blinkist is sold to Australian education startup Go1 for an undisclosed amount, reported to be "hundreds of millions." Blinkist offers short wrap-ups of nonfiction books as text or audio
Large Drops in Valuations are Not Only for the Small CompaniesBitpanda boss admits his company may now be worth only 2.5–3 bn US$, vs 4.1 bn US$ valuation at their August 2022 funding
Germany Will Have Another Gigafactorybut not from Tesla. Swedish unicorn Northvolt builts Gigafactory in the north of Germany for 4.5 bn Euros - thanks in part to large subsidies
Heidelberg-based AI Startup Aleph Alpha is Seen as a Promising Competitor of ChatGPT, and Big Names Line Up to InvestSAP CEO indirectly confirms their investment in German AI startup Aleph Alpha, rumored to be up to 100 m Euros
Related news later emerged: We reported that SAP wants to invest in Heidelberg-based ChatGPT competitor Aleph Alpha, now Intel also shows interest in investing
WeFox closed large fundingwefox raises $110M in Debt and Equity Funding to become profitable: Wefox secures new funding at $4.5 billion valuation as it aims for profitability. The company sells insurance products through in-house and external insurance brokers.
Sono Motors has to file for bankruptcyFor now, this is the end of a dream. Sono Motors wanted to bring with the Sion a solar roof charging car to the market. They raised several crowdfunding rounds and got external investors. They eventually made it to a NASDAQ listing in 2021 but could not finish the development of the car with the money at hand, even the down payments of many enthusiasts.
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Executive SummaryThe Startuprad.io podcast and YouTube blog covers the German-speaking startup scene and in this episode, Joe interviews Paulina Jänsch, co-founding partner at Leanox Impact Capital. Paulina discusses her seven-step approach to evaluating startups and fundraising as storytelling, emphasizing the importance of a financial model that reflects the startup's value drivers. She also talks about Leanox Impact Capital's investment criteria, which focus on impact innovation and solving environmental or social problems. The company invests in early-stage startups in Europe, with a focus on industry-agnostic but always impact-driven ventures, and prioritizes investing in female founders and LPs.
EU Startups SummitThis interview was recorded outside of the EU Startups Summit 2023 on April 20th in Barcelona. Thank you EU Startups for the great event.
The Founding PartnerPaulina is one of two founding partners at Leanox Impact Capital and a TOP 100 most influential women in the European VC and startup space. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Maastricht University School of Business and Economics and a Master of Science from Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, as well as a Master of Science from EADA Business School. She also spent time in Singapore (Nanyang) for an exchange semester.
Paulin also worked at EY Analytics, immostore, and participated in the CFA Research Challenge by Caixa Bank. Amongst being GP at Leanox, she is also invested as Business Angel in nine companies.
The InvestorLeanox.eu is looking to raise a new fund with not only 50% female (co)founded startups, but also 50% female LPs. Leanox is also looking for parity in itself, they have 50/50 GPs in Leanox. The VC is motivated to disrupt inequalities, to tackle social and environmental issues as an opportunity to improve the world we all live in.
Find the email to pitch Leanox in our blog post (link below).
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Blog Post and Show Notes:Find all links and show notes here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/the-seven-step-approach-to-evaluating-startups-a-storytelling-perspective-episode-382-a0cec4da3cb8
Chapters:00:00:00 Intro
00:00:20 Sponsoring Message by ExpressVPN
00:01:04 Paulina Jänsch - Co-Founding Partner at Leanox Impact Capital
00:01:50 Paulina’s Seven-Step Approach to Valuation Impact Startups
00:09:30 How to Pitch Leanox - Investing in Impact Innovation
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Welcome to our April 2023 wrap-up with important news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.
Our Highlights:Considerable funding made headlines last month. We have more than 600 M euros in funding in our highlights alone. A potential large exit: Software AG, the Darmstadt-based listed software company, is close to a 2.4 bn US$ exit with an offer from Silverlake Partners. Also, Berlin-based Blinkist may be close to a 200 M € exit. Hundreds of millions of raised funds were announced by Enpal (via ABS), Isar Aerospace, IntegrityNext, Razor Group, and Tado. Also, SAP is close to investing in Germany’s hottest AI startup Aleph Alpha from Heidelberg. Diverging picture in Airtaxi space: Lilium is looking for new investors; Volocopter builds the taxis and expects them to fly in less than 500 days at the Paris Olympics.
Let’s talk startups:
Top NewsSoftware AG Close to a Multi-Billion AcquisitionPrivate-equity firm Silver Lake Partners, based in Menlo Park, is close to buying Germany’s Software AG in $2.42 billion deal. The offer is already public, reported Reuters. Shares of listed Software AG jumped 53% at the announcement. The investor already knows the company: In February 2022, Silver Lake had invested 344 million euros in the software developer’s convertible bond, which upon conversion would represent nearly 9% of issued Software AG shares.
Enpal Raises More Than 300 M€Enpal raises up to €356 million via Securitization of Solar Receivables with first German residential solar ABS. ABS are asset-backed securities, that means if Enpal can not pay interest or pay back the final sum, the investors have the collateral (assets) backing the security
Blinkist Close to 200 M € ExitReports blog Deutsche-Startups, with an offer from an — yet unnamed — American company. The blog, with its founder Alexander Hüsing is usually pretty well informed and has been right before.
Isar Aerospace Closes €155 Million FundingIsar Aerospace closes €155 million Series C funding round, ignition sequence start, all engine running. Investors are 7-Industries Holding, Bayern Kapital via its Scale Up Fund Bavaria, Earlybird Venture Capital, HV Capital, Lakestar, Lombard Odier Investment Managers, Porsche Automobil Holding SE (Porsche SE), UVC Partners, and Vsquared Ventures
100 m € for IntegrityNextThe company has been bootstrapped for seven years, but now IntegrityNext takes €100 million from EQT Growth fund.
Razor Group Raises 88 M US$Berlin-based Razor Group, an e-commerce aggregator, closes Series C at $88M at $1.2B valuation, acquires Stryze to consolidate.
Tado Raises Money, As IPO Plans FalterSmart thermostat startup Tado wanted to IPO but then came Corona and Ukraine. They originally wanted to explore a sale or IPO after their 2021 fundraising, but the SPAC deal faltered and they needed to adapt. So they raised 46.9 M US$. Their existing investors already include Siemens, Amazon, and EON.
SAP To Invest In AI Startup Aleph AlphaGerman press reports that the software giant SAP is about to invest in German ChatGPT competitor Aleph Alpha, which also claims to have eliminated fake news from its software. As yet, the valuation and investment are not known.
Related: Heidelberg-based startup, a competitor of ChatGPT, claims to have eliminated fake news from its tool Luminous
Airtaxi Lilium is Looking for New Money, and Volocopter is Planning to FlyAirtaxi Lilium: 0 Euro revenue, 253 mn € losses. They are looking for new investors. Volocopter on the other hand, wants to start operating their drones as taxis ASAP. They also pledged to operate their air taxis in Paris, during the Olympic Games, in less than 500 days.
Related: Volocopter starts production — founders magazin
All Links and Show NotesHere is our blog post: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-april-2023-episode-380-88b68d4bd32d
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Executive SummaryLearn how CreditShelf, a leading German fintech company, secured 100 million euros of investment from Goldman Sachs and what that means for businesses seeking credit.
CreditShelf recently received 100 mn € from Goldman Sachs to lend out via their platform; Goldman joins other investors like the European Investment Fund. The fintech works with Raisin Bank to get SMEs loans within four weeks. They IPOed already in 2018 in Frankfurt as the first pure-play fintech in Germany.
The FounderDaniel is a returning guest. We interviewed CrediShelf shortly after their IPO in 2018 (link below). Daniel holds an MBA from the University of Mannheim and a Ph.D. from the University of Düsseldorf. He has experience s a management consultant from Kienbaum and Bain & Company. He has also been an executive director for Swiss banking giant UBS for eight years in their investment bank (Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC)) in Zürich and Singapore. He is one of the three co-founders of CreditShelf, which was set up in 2016, and currently acting as the CFO of the company.
The StartupCreditShelf is a credit platform connecting institutional investors and German Mittelstand (German small and medium enterprises). They provide corporate loans using a licensed bank (Raisin Bank). The loans work as a fast stand-alone solution (can be paid out within 4 weeks) or part of a more significant credit, involving other parties and banks. The company has successfully developed an online credit marketplace platform whose processes are supported by proprietary, data-driven risk analysis software. On their platform, they offer loans for companies located in Germany from 100.000 € to 5 M €, stretching up to 5 years for supplies, scale-up, real estate, and M&A. The CreditShelf platform models the entire credit process, from the loan application through credit analysis and risk management to loan disbursement and servicing.
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All Links and Show NotesHere is our blog post: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-fintech-got-100-mn-from-goldman-sachs-to-invest-creditshelf-782d9f2223b7
Chapters:
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:50 Daniel Bartsch, CFO - Former Management Consultant and Investment Banker
00:03:16 The Company - CreditShelf
00:13:42 Loan Demand in Germany Outstripping Supply
00:23:44 CreditShelf’s Outlook on the Economy in 2023
00:25:18 Hessen and Frankfurt as Startup Hub
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IntroWelcome to our March 2023 wrap-up with important news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.
We follow our top-down structure in the news: The top news, followed by a bird’s eye view at the startup ecosystem, next deeper looking at fascinating startup cities, and we end with general information. And for those serious about startups, there is a collection called: Stay ahead of the curve, where we share exciting reads, articles, studies, and podcasts.
Welcome to our startup news wrap-up for March with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on March 27th, 2023. A little disclaimer: You may have noticed a lot of stress in February here at Startuprad.io. We should have remembered a few news items in our backlog and added them to this episode.
All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode for April, to be published on April 27th. Find all links to the quoted information on our Medium blog link below.
If you celebrate it: Happy Easter! We also try to bring you a bit of culture from Germany here.
Our Highlights:Good news and bad news for Fintechs Raisin and N26. Raisin gets its unicorn status back and gets a lot of new business, so much in fact that the complaints at Bafin are mounting. N26 generated 200 mn € revenue in 2021 but has to deal with a senior employee uprising. Neobank Ruuky is saved last minute. Startup Bonify reportedly makes a 20 mn € exit, but employees only get invited to a barbeque. GoStudent is a no-go with courts, and the first Goldman-backed fintech in Germany struggles. Bavarian Airlines may be just a hoax, and Grover shows the first signs on their way to an IPO.
Let’s talk startups:
Tune in to our Internet Radio Station here:www.startup.radio
Subscribe HereFind all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel, or listen to our internet radio station here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio
Our EnablersThis recording is supported by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen.This recording was made possible by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen. These organizations have made tremendous contributions to helping startup businesses succeed and thrive, providing a range of services from helping to find grants to ongoing partnerships. By taking advantage of these resources, startup companies can network and develop innovative strategies for success on the international stage. The dedicated support of HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen is paramount in providing startup businesses with the tools for lasting success. Look for our dedicated sub-podcast in partnership with them: Tech Startups Germany on our https://linktr.ee/startupradio
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Find Us on NewslyNewsly gathers the most trending web articles, reads them in a natural human voice, and showcases trending podcasts from over 80 countries. Newsly was recently selected by BestStartup.ca as one of the top 15 consumer apps in Canada and got to the top 3 daily products on Product Hunt.
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Top NewsGood News and Bad News at RaisinThe rising interest rates are good for deposit broker Raisin. They were driving an increase in business and helped them to get a unicorn valuation with their most recent fundraising. It seems they even got a bit overwhelmed by the new business. Let’s have a look at the news:
We reported about Raisin’s (then) ongoing fundraising and that they are about to get their unicorn horn back. This is now confirmed: Deposit broker, fintech Raisin, raises 60 m Euros in VC funding, reclaiming its formerly lost unicorn status
The bad news: It seems complaints are piling up so that BaFin takes notice
N26 Good News and Bad News — As wellIn February 2022, six high-ranking managers of N26 wrote an email warning the founders the company was turning dysfunctional. This became news about a year later when the Chief Risk Officer stepped down. Most of the managers backing the email left already.
First: N26’s top executives warned co-founders over ‘dysfunctional’ leadership
Second: Thomas Grosse, our guest from the past, became Chief Risk Officer and reportedly sent the email to the N26 founders. This month he stepped down: Thomas Grosse steps down for personal reasons, reports Börsenzeitung. Note also that his position was required by BaFin, to get N26 out of regulatory troubles.
Third: Some Good News: N26 increases revenues due to rising interest rates. They are looking at 200 mn € income for 2022 (+67%)
Neobank Ruuky Saved Last MinuteFirst, we told you: Bad news for Hamburg-based neobank Ruuky first had to file for insolvency. Now the service will be terminated
We shared that the insolvent neobank Ruuky was supposed to be liquidated. Now it appears they have found a buyer
Millions or just a BBQ?Germany’s largest credit bureau bought German startup Bonify SCHUFA, for 20 m €, and the employees only go to a BBQ. The problem was the company did a down round, and with the liquidation preferences (meaning who gets paid first) there was nothing left for the employees with stock option plans.
GoStudent gets Legal HeadwindsGoStudent gets another court ruling against them. First, a Cologne court agreed GoStudent showed anti-competitive behavior. Now they get a setback with an Austrian ruling against them for automated contract extensions.
Related: Austrian unicorn Gostudent partially sentenced by Cologne Regional Court in a competition dispute.
Goldman Sach’s Backed Startup has to FightWe had them as a guest in 2017, and they made headlines as Germany’s first startup investment by Goldman. Now they have to fight: Fintech Elinvar loses a third reference customer. MM Warburg ends the cooperation after five years. They also lost since September Fürstlich Castellsche Bank and DKB.
Bavarian Airlines Crashed Before First Flight?We have shared reports of an upcoming new airline called Bavarian Airlines — Now, questions arise. For example, the founder claimed to be 18 but is only 15 years old. The required paperwork to establish German companies has yet to be filed. The (not so long past) of the founder is littered with websites of financial services companies that are offline now. … It seems nothing of the story was true. Also, a complaint with the legal authorities has been filed.
Unicorn Grover Preparing for an IPO?Grover, the unicorn gadget renting company, lures the experienced CFO away from Lilium. Such a move could be a first step towards an IPO a few years down the road
Links, Show Notes and Source Linkshttps://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-march-2023-81bb4a4956fa
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Executive SummaryGermany has adopted a startup strategy for the first time. One should pay attention if Europe's largest economy makes such a step. The ten bn € Future Fund and others are part of the program, which channels billions in investments to startups in Europe and especially Germany. Therefore, this episode has a special guest, the Commissioner for Startups and Digital Economy for Germany, Dr. Anna Christmann, a Bundestag (the German federal parliament ) member (MdB). We touch on some of the ten points of the strategy and their criticism. The money comes from the ten bn € startup program (aka Future Fund) we covered with her predecessor in June 2021 (YouTube: https://youtu.be/kZxoEUa_6Uk) during the Merkel government. We also brush the topics of the German Deep Tech and Climate Fund, worth one bn €, and the European Tech Champion Initiative, a fund of funds worth four bn €, and how they fit into the programs.
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The Commissioner for Startups and Digital EconomyOur special guest is the Commissioner for Startups and Digital Economy for Germany, Dr. Anna Christmann, a Bundestag (the German federal parliament) member. This video follows her predecessor's interview from June 2021, where we explored how Germany will spend ten bn € in the newly set up startup program (YouTube: https://youtu.be/kZxoEUa_6Uk). She is a Green Party (Die Grünen) member, one of the three parties forming Germany's coalition government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The Startup StrategyIn broad terms, the strategy has 10 points in our show notes, links to further readings, and the full policy document in English. (Link below).
Ten Billion Euro Future FundWe already covered the ten bn € startup program (aka Future Fund) with the predecessor of Mrs. Christmann in June 2021. This fund is the source of money to be invested in different initiatives, some mentioned in the interview and shortly covered below (DTCF and ETCI). You can learn more in this interview here on YouTube https://youtu.be/kZxoEUa_6Uk.
Deep Tech and Climate Fund (DTCF)The one bn € deep tech and climate fund is newly set up as part of the government program.
European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI)Germany also invests one bn € in the European Tech Champions Initiative. Five EU Member States launched the European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI), a Fund of Funds that will channel much-needed late-stage growth capital to promising European innovators. At the time of the recording, four bn € have been committed to the initiative.
Links and Show NotesFind all links and show notes in our blog post here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/exploring-germanys-startup-strategy-with-digital-commissioner-anna-christmann-365c677be259
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Executive SummaryThe European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) is a venture capital fund consisting of both public and private investors. It focuses on driving the transformation to a bio-based, sustainable economy throughout Europe. This venture underlines the EU's commitment to its Green New Deal and sets higher standards for venture capital projects. Backed by venture capital, those companies funded must not only demonstrate economic growth potential but also uphold principles of environmental, social, and governance through their work. This fund stands as one part of a larger and definitive effort by the EU to become carbon neutral by 2050.
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The General PartnerMichael is one of the three founders and General Partners of the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF). The German entrepreneur wrote and executed the business plan of High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), the most active early-stage fund in Europe, investing in innovative technologies and business models since 2005. As the first managing director, he led HTGF until 2019. Michael has 25 years of experience in investment and management in the venture capital industry.
The ECBFThe European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) is an impact investment fund. Initiated by the European Union, it contributes alongside others as a financial instrument to achieve the goals of the European Commission's (EC) EU Green Deal.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the main investor in the ECBF with EUR 100 million. Additional funds were invested by another public investor, NRW.BANK, as well as numerous private investors such as Nestlé, Neste, Corbion, BÜFA, Koehler Group, Volkswohlbund, Hettich, Invest NL, Telos, Heino, and more.
The fund invests the available capital of 300 Mio. euros in ambitious and visionary companies that advance the bio-economy and circular economy with innovative technologies or business models and thus have a sustainable impact on the European economy. The goal is to accelerate the growth of bio-economy companies and create pan-European, global players. The goal of generating a very high return on investment is directly linked to this and is on the same level as the impact goal.
The regional focus of the investments includes the EU-27 countries and the 16-Horizon2020 associated countries.
Current PortfolioThe current portfolio includes (amongst others) the following companies:
Peel Pioneers
ProLupin
Aphea.Bio
Nuritas
Elicit Plant
InOvo
Protix
Biosyntia
Trapview
Pitch the ECBFECBFs Vision is to build up a prosperous economy realigned with nature. To get there they aim to identify the most promising investment targets in the European Bioeconomy, with both good financial returns and a huge impact on the environment. Thus, ECBF is interested in connecting with entrepreneurs, investors, and business promotion stakeholders with robust business networks in the bioeconomy. Find all requirements and the email to pitch in our show notes on our medium blog.
Hiring!You can learn more about the investor, that is still hiring (link on our blog).
Find all links, show notes, and the email to pitch them on our medium blog here: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/meet-one-of-the-investors-investing-300-m-for-europes-green-deal-to-become-reality-b6b0fa27a01
Topics Discussed in this Interview
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Executive SummaryWe are back with quarterly cooperation with DEEP Ecosystems research from Munich. Today we talk about a few highlights of their extensive 2022 report. Our current impression is that the VC market could start a new cycle from the lows of Q4 2022. We already see a new uptick in seed investments in Barcelona, London, Paris, Berlin, and Stockholm. Also, London is losing some of its edge as a European Startup Ecosystem compared to the other hubs. For VCs, the next hot sector to invest in Europe is cleantech. Despite the job cuts in 2022, at the year's end, there still have been more employees at startups across Europe than before Corona.
"The mood is down in the venture capital market. Startups definitely feel the crunch, but there is still dry powder available."
Thomas Kösters - DEEP Ecosystems
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About the Pulse of the European Startup EcosystemThe European startup scene is changing fast. There are new players, old ones fading away, and even more to come in their place- all vying for a piece of this growing pie! To avoid getting left behind, you need regular updates on what’s going on so that our entrepreneurs can stay one step ahead when building or investing in companies here. That’s why we started the “Pulse of the European Startup Ecosystem” which will provide you with quarterly podcasts chronicling different aspects related to startup activity across European Hubs, supported by the data from the specialized analytics company DEEP Ecosystems.
"Berlin is the European Capital of Meetups. "
Thomas Kösters - DEEP Ecosystems
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Some HighlightsStartup funding took a hit on a European Level across the board regarding total investments, especially in Q4 2022. This matches what we have seen in our interview with kfw covering their VC and PE barometer.
On the excellent news site, there is a substantial uptick towards the end of the year 2022 in announced seed funding rounds. All large European Hubs, Barcelona, London, Paris, Berlin, and Stockholm, showed more seed funding rounds. Only Amsterdam did show a decline, which may be due to the available data.
Exits and large fundraisings have filled the coffers of VCs, who build up their teams during the good years. This leads to increasing pressure to invest on the VCs by their investors, called LPs (think insurance companies and pension funds).
Cleantech has also emerged as a new growth sector for VC investments - on a European level. In the last 6 months, compared to the last 3 years, cleantech investments have increased disproportionally.
Classic sectors for VC investments remained sexy in the 2nd half of 2022, including fintech, media, health, and AI & big data.
Hardware is also a sector - along with consumer apps - just on the edge of becoming a growth story for VC investments.
Despite the job cuts announced in recent weeks or months, there is still net positive job growth in the European Startup Ecosystem - compared to before corona.
Meetup participation shows strong interest in startups and tech topics across Europe. Here Berlin took over London in the process.
2022 London in decline- Q3 London lost its prime position to Stockholm - for the first time, they are tracking the cities.
London is losing its edge
Connection to the entrepreneur survey. London is less popular than Berlin. Investments are a lagging factor
The Full Report For The Startuprad.io Audience & Blog Post is Here:https://medium.com/startuprad-io/2022-the-start-of-a-new-vc-cycle-european-startup-pulse-1d570b908066
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Executive SummaryThe kfw surveys each quarter around 450 investors for this barometer, so it is one of the broadest and most reliable indicators of the current mood of private market investors in Europe's largest economy. In this episode, we have Dr. Fritzi Köhler-Geib, the chief economist of kfw, as a guest. She introduces us to the barometer that has 3 main components: business climate, (current) business situation, and business expectations (for the next quarter). There are also 12 subcategories covering areas like fundraising, entry evaluations, exit opportunities, new investment, deal-flow quantity, deal-flow quality, and even the taxation framework. Tune in to learn more.
The Chief EconomistDr. Friederike "Fitzi" Köhler-Geib is the chief economist (https://www.kfw.de/About-KfW/KfW-Research/KfW-Chief-Economist/Koehler-Geib-vita.html) of kfw. Dr. Köhler-Geib has studied at HEC in Paris, the University of Michigan in the US, the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, and Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona in Spain. She is still a fan of Michigan's Wolverines by the way. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Ludwig Maximilian University Munich and Pompeu Fabra University. Before becoming the chief economist, she spent many years in Washington D.C., working for the international monetary fund and the world bank. She was at the world bank the lead economist for Central America and the Senior Economist for Latin America. In these functions, she also traveled quite frequently to Central and South America.
The kfwkfw (https://www.kfw.de/kfw.de-2.html) is a wholly government-owned development bank, based in Frankfurt am Main. The bank has a public mandate to assist federal and state governments with administrating (mostly loan) programs.
According to the total size of its balance sheet, it was Germany's 3rd largest bank in 2018. The whole kfw group includes several specialized units, including kfw capital (https://www.kfw.de/microsites/Microsite/kfw-capital.de/en/) to promote innovation and growth, which also administrates multi-billion euros in VC investments, mostly as LP in other funds.
The Venture Capital and Private Equity BarometerFor the VC and PE index (https://www.kfw.de/About-KfW/Service/Download-Center/Konzernthemen/Research/Indikatoren/German-Private-Equity-Barometer/) the kfw research department surveys around 450 investors quarterly. They are members of Germany's PE and VC Association (https://www.bvkap.de/) and part of the Deutsche Börse Venture Network (https://www.venture-network.com/dbvn-en/) on many dimensions of their outlook for the next quarter and business in the last quarter.
Not all data is available on the website in English, but the index has now a history of more than 80 quarters.
The index has three main components and 12 subcategories. The main categories are business climate, (current) business situation, and business expectations (for the next quarter).
The subcategories cover areas like fundraising, entry evaluations, exit opportunities, new investment, deal-flow quantity, deal-flow quality, deal-flow innovativeness, taxation framework, write-downs, economy (overall), interest rates, and funding.
Find all blog posts with all the links on our blog https://medium.com/startuprad-io/the-only-venture-capital-data-for-germany-you-need-to-know-24aa5ac1e919
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Welcome to our February 2023 wrap-up with the important news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.
We follow our top-down structure in the news: First the top news, then we look with a bird’s eye view at the startup ecosystem in the German language countries, dig deeper by looking at interesting startup cities and end with general news. And for those of you who are really serious about startups, there is even a collection called: Stay ahead of the curve where we share interesting reads, articles, studies, and podcasts.
Welcome to our startup news wrap-up for February 2023 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on February 21st, 2023.
All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode. Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog, link below.
Our Highlights:Rising interest rates are leading to an interest rate war between the neobrokers. We covered the troubled company Windeln.de, which is now liquidated. Farewell! Moonfare extended it’s Series C funding to more than 130 m US$, but we are not sure who invested in the last batch, since a fund is mentioned, that was also founded by Moonfare’s founder. The City of Mainz goes live with its quest to become a world-class biotech hub. N26 was reportedly in advanced talks to buy dutch broker Bux, but buxed out shortly before the closing. AAAAAAnd, we like to end on a high note: Raising is in the process of reclaiming its unicorn status with new funding. We have also some event recommendations for you and discounts from 20% to 100% for the events listed in our show notes.
Let’s talk startups:
Our EnablersThis recording is supported by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network HessenLook for our dedicated sub-podcast in partnership with them: Tech Startups Germany on our https://linktr.ee/startupradio
Top NewsNeobrokers Just Started — What May Be An Interest Rate War (Chris)After german unicorn Trade Republic had a smashing success with offering 2% interest for money deposited there now also fellow unicorn Scalable offers even 2,3%, BUT only from 100k € on and only if you are a subscriber (4.99/month)
Farewell Windeln.deWe have often talked in our news about the precarious position of windeln.de. Now it is finally liquidated
Who Extended Moonfare’s Series C?Moonfare is a fintech from Germany, allows individuals to invest in Private Equity Funds, founded by former KKR Germany Head Steffen Pauls. They cap their Series C extension round at about $15M, bringing its Series C funding to $130 million+the Berlin-based fintech allows HNWI, family offices, banks, and their advisor's access to top-tier private markets investments. BUT German business magazin Manager Magazin reports that for this extension the only investor mentioned by name is one that Mr. Pauls has co-founded.
You can find his profile at 7 Global Capital here on their website as Managing Partner and Founder.
City of Mainz Starts to Invest some of Their Billions in the BioTech HubYou may remember that we told you the story of Mainz? A lovely city with a normal annual budget of 100 million Euros, the capital of one of Germany’s states. Since they are also the headquarters of BioNTech they got flooded with tax revenues as soon as the corona vaccine was rolled out. They showed more than 1 bn € profit as a city in 2021 alone and they want to invest the money to become a world-class biotech hub. Now the company they want to use to drive this initiative is operational: biomindz | Newly established company to promote Mainz as hub for life science and biotechnology now operational and supporting the city of Mainz.
Here is the interview with the person in charge of the BioTech Hub:
The City of Mainz Just Started on Its Way to Becoming a World-Class BioTech Hub
N26 Bux(ed) Out?According to a press report, N26 was in discussions to acquire Dutch broker Bux, but backed out shortly before the deal was closed. The price tag is also reported as around 100 m €, but N26 feared too much complexity with the deal and the post-merger integration.
Raisin Get It’s Horn BackNot everybody is suffering from higher interest rates. The deposit broker fintech Raisin is in the process of raising 50 m € venture capital at a 1,5 bn € valuation reports Boersenzeitung. We talked about them losing narrowly their unicorn status in our news before, but apparently, they are on their way back to reclaim it.
We had Raisin in an interview before many people outside of Germany knew they existed. Have a listen at our interview form 2017 here (https://buff.ly/3IrLDQc)
Find all Links and Show Notes on our Medium Blog: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-february-2023-7f8c6b9920bc
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Happy 2023, as well as a happy Chinese New Year of the Rabbit. 2023 Chris and Joe will again bring you startup news once a month (with a small summer break) wrapping up what was going on — and we found noteworthy — in the GSA / DACH startups scene.
Our Highlights:WeFox is under fire for growing with acquisitions of insurance broker pools, BioNTech makes largest acquisition in its history, DeepL confirms unicorn status and snipes at Grammarly, Solarisbank in trouble with BaFin, Trade Republic has to disclose numbers and Sono Motors gets longer runway with EU money.
Let’s talk startups:
Subscribe HereFind all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio
Our EnablersInvest-in-HessenThis show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Look for Tech Startups Germany here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio
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Top NewsWeFox got some splaining to do 🙂Extensive, but not favorable coverage of insurtech Wefox came out this month. The main complaints are that the growth is basically driven by acquiring existing pools of insurance brokers (not really what you would associate with an insurtech startup). They made that way 600 million Euros in revenue in 2022. But these pools do not get innovative systems from WeFox, or innovative insurance offers from them, they just keep working. Also, there has been no innovative product that really drove the growth at WeFox as an innovative unicorn
BioNTech makes the largest acquisition to dateBioNTech may be one of Germany’s most successful startup companies. We talked about it in our news before, the company alone is responsible for approximately half a percentage point of Germany’s GDP Growth in 2021 — Keep in mind that Germany is the 4th largest country in the world by nominal GDP.
Here is the new piece: Mainz-based pharma company BioNTech (famous for their corona vaccine) makes the largest acquisition in its history with UK-based AI startup Instadeep
Related: BioNTech’s founder on the future of mRNA technology
Cologne-based DeepL confirms unicorn status and snipes at GrammarlyDeepL takes aim at Grammarly with the launch of Write, to clean up your prose.
Related:
Cologne-based translation tool DeepL confirms unicorn valuation for their 2022 fundraising of 100 mn US$
Solarisbank joins N26 in Troubles with BaFinBafin is Germany’s bank oversight body (think FSA or SEC). They have already limited the number of customers N26 can acquire due to lapses in following regulations (especially AML), now Solarisbank is in too: “Solarisbank in Germany can now only get new partners (fintech clients) with permission of German finance oversight BaFin, due to continuing problems. BaFin also sends an “observer”
Trade Republic UpdatesTrade Republic generates more than 1 bn Euros inflows of new client money with 2% interest rate offer and a lot of favorable press coverage.
Also, Trade Republic has to publish their numbers: There is a legal requirement in Germany to publish your balance sheet 12 months after your business year ends. Now it was the Republic’s turn: Berlin-based neobroker unicorn Trade Republic triples revenue and losses
Sono Motors gets more runwayemobility startup Sono Motors gets additional 1,4 million Euros from EU Horizont Program reports Der Spiegel
Blog Post with Show Notes and Linkshttps://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-january-2023-555a513fdd6c
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Executive SummaryIn this episode, we have the privilege to explore fintech and banking in 2023 alongside Paolo, Global Research Leader for Banking and Capital Markets for IBM. He offers his insight into fintech and banking twenty years from now. We examine the strategies important for capital markets, fintech, and banking and the forces shaping their future. Paolo shares with us that these players need to be cognizant of their strategy choices, as well as how different successful platforms will be in the future. Last but not least, he impresses how imperative it is to start reasonably preparing for quantum computing today. It is a must-listen episode that provides tremendous insight into fintech growth and innovation.
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The ExpertPaolo is a fintech entrepreneur and thought leader who stands out from the crowd. He has been at the forefront of innovation in banking and fintech for nearly two decades. He has served as an experienced banker and risk manager, having held senior positions in major firms. In 2008, he founded Capitecs, an innovative startup based in Frankfurt that would eventually be acquired by IBM in 2012. Since then, Sironi has continued to innovate and lead the global research efforts for the IBM consulting institute, particularly in banking, fintech, and capital markets. He has also released five bestselling books on various fintech-related topics that have further established him as an authority figure. Paolo Sironi serves as a testament to success resulting from fintech expertise gained through experience in traditional banking institutions.
His most recent one is "Banks and Fintech on Platform Economies: Contextual and Conscious Banking (The Wiley Finance Series)" you can buy it and learn more here: https://amzn.to/3XC3OIU (AL)
His other books are:* FinTech Innovation: From Robo-Advisors to Goal-Based Investing and Gamification https://amzn.to/3IOHqrM (AL) * MiFID II: Value-Generation for Investors https://amzn.to/3iFtQML (AL) * Modern Portfolio Management: From Markowitz to Probabilistic Scenario Optimisation https://amzn.to/3iFtQML (AL) * Financial Market Transparency: Essay on Financial Markets Theory https://amzn.to/3Wi7z5j (AL) * 金融科技创新 (Fintech Innovation Mandarin Edition): https://amzn.to/3Wi7z5j (AL)
Thoughts To PonderPaolo, a fintech entrepreneur, banker, and thought leader in risk management, believes that banks are unable to compete on the level of volume needed to match that of tech giants. In order to stay competitive and provide value for their customers, fintech must set their sights on delivering superior service rather than chasing the same levels of scale. With his books and writing, Paolo has created a framework through which bankers and fintech entrepreneurs alike can better target value-based services in order to gain an advantage over tech giants. With his books, Paolo tries to come up with a definition of value to enable banks and fintechs to target it.
Some of his thoughts:- Banks and fintechs often start from the wrong end when it comes to helping their clients solve problems. Rather than start with isolating the actual issue of the client (which may or may not have anything to do with finances), they focus on transactions alone without considering other factors, rendering many solutions ineffective. Instead, they should start by formulating a strategic impetus - focusing on what the client needs in order to achieve their desired future objectives - and only then move forward to transactional solutions that best fit the strategic plan. Such an approach, where financial solutions are shaped around a client's problem-solving needs rather than vice versa, is essential for them to succeed in the future.
Find all blog posts with all the links on our blog https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/fintech-and-banking-2023-and-beyond-strategy-a998b24ab096
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Executive SummaryIn this bonus episode of our expert interview series, Antonio Fatas, Professor of Economics at INSEAD, joins us to provide insights into the current situation with FTX. We've gathered a good deal of information about the collapse so far but there is still much that remains unknown. We delved into some of the known facts surrounding FTX and pondered together on what could happen in the future. It's clear from our discussion that FTX was not a regulated financial institution, and also had its own unique challenges. We'll be keeping an eye out for more developments related to FTX as time goes on to see what other lessons we can learn.
I do believe there are other places where entities are insolvent, we just have not seen it yet.
Antonio Fatas, Professor of Economics
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FTX suffered from bad management and likely fraud as well
Antonio Fatas, Professor of Economics
BackgroundAs crypto continues to grow into a new and important market, the digital asset industry has been rocked by the sudden collapse of one of its biggest crypto exchanges - FTX. Led by crypto personality Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX had previously been ranked as the world’s third-biggest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume, so its downfall came as quite a shock to crypto investors. This news is sure to cause ripples throughout the crypto industry for a long time, and it serves as another reminder that despite its rising popularity, crypto remains an unpredictable and high-risk gamble.
Regulators may now have a different view on the risks and regulations of crypto.
Antonio Fatas, Professor of Economics
This event echoed Mt Gox’s downfall although the underlying problem was quite different. Unlike Mt. Gox which fell victim to hack, FTX merely could not keep up with the sudden demand for withdrawals caused by investors who were losing faith in the platform. The resulting effect sent FTT, their native token, tumbling and kicked off a domino effect causing customers to rush out of the exchange and further crippling its ability to sustain itself, leading inevitably to its demise.
I find it very revealing that these tokens that are supposed to work with high inflation, because the central banks are all crazy but this is the way to hold on to your purchasing power. Now that we have inflation, they are collapsing. That to me is a really red flag.
Antonio Fatas, Professor of Economics
Bitcoin crashed, Ethereum crashed, and almost every other major token did the same. Then Binance stepped in, with the world’s number one exchange announcing it would buy FTX and ensure everyone gets repaid. But just as soon as the market settled, Binance announced a U-turn, saying the situation at FTX was beyond recovery.
The implications from the complase of FTX will be felt for crypto for the coming years in more an thougher regulations. That is why we will follow the story. We start with a discussion of the situation with our guest. Professor Fatas.
The ExpertAntonio is an influential professor of economics with an impressive set of credentials. With a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and a research fellowship at the Centre for Economic and Policy Research in London, he brings broad expertise to his job as a Professor of Economics at INSEAD. His influence reaches beyond academia, working as a consultant for international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the World Bank. Thanks to his insight and knowledge, Dr. Fatas has been able to shape economic policies on a global scale.
All Links and Show NotesHere is our blog post:
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Management SummaryWelcome to a Startuprad.io tradition, airing on December 25th. A review of the most important events in Fintech from the perspective of our guests for the 8th year in a row right now. The most important development in the fintech world was for most guests the FTX collapse. During the recordings agreed that fintech investments have seen a peak — there will be a valley behind it, but there will be new investment records achieved after the expected recession. As next hot topics emerged embedded finance and crypto. Not all crypto will be hot again, only with a sustainable business model, there is a future according to our guests. Actually, some guests welcomed a shakeout of the market — albeit it should not have been that violent and long.
Leave Us a Good ReviewWe would be more than happy if you rate and review us either on YouTube, your podcast app of choice, or on the internet radio station you are listening to us right now.
Introduction to our Fintech ReviewFor years Startuprad.io makes an annual fintech review, where practitioners, investors, and fintech folks get to wrap up their year. The focus is on GSA, but it seems to be more and more the case that markets get more interconnected and trends follow each other in much shorter time spans. It is also a tradition that we publish it on December 25th.
Keep in mind that since the first fintech review the field has changed and broadened a lot! Really a lot. Where it used to be only payment apps, now there are fintechs in insurance, crypto, proptech, banking, SME banking, capital markets, and much much more. So we thought we would invite guests from a diverse range of backgrounds to give you their perspective on the time of corona, the year 2022, and the outlook for next year.
Our guest this year:
Our questions to the guests:
Thank you very much for your valuable time and insights. We wish you much success in 2023 and happy holidays!
Blog Post With Links and Show Noteshttps://medium.com/startuprad-io/fintech-review-germany-switzerland-and-austria-gsa-2022-97b12122e34b
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Younium is the Subscription Management Hub for B2B SaaS Companies. Whether you’re looking to expand to new markets, experimenting with pricing models, or simply want a streamlined quote to cash process - Younium got your back. On top of that, Younium Insights provides the SaaS metrics you need for reporting to the board and for future company valuation. It gives you the key figures needed to drive your business forward and take strategic decisions. Learn more at https://www.younium.com/
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Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups, our startup news wrap-up for December 2022 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on December 19th, 2022. Keep in mind, this news episode covers everything since our last news episode.
As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode, which will be January 2023, the first news for 2023. Guys, another year is over! Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog, link below
Our Highlights:Enpal makes huge fundraising in the current environment, more than 800 mn €. Sennder doubles its valuation in the next funding round to 2 bn US$ and has already 60 mn commitments. The funding environment may be bleak, but investors announced new funds for VC and PE investments worth 3.1 bn US$ targeting startups and scaleups in GSA or Europe. One blog asks if the time of Rocket Internet is over, Matter Labs raises 200 mn, a big heist drives a startup into insolvency and Getir buys Gorillas for 1,2 bn US$, a far cry from Gorillas' former 3 bn US$ valuation.
Let's talk startups:
Top News Enpal FundraisingEnpal could double its valuation in the new funding round. Berlin-based unicorn Enpal closes €855 million in debt funding to accelerate the adoption of solar energy.
Sennder Raises New Funds At Double ValuationDigital forwarder unicorn Sennder is raising new money, at a 2 bn US$ valuation. According to the report, they already have 60m commitments.
Fundraising For VCs Went Quite Well - More Than 3.1 bn Euros Worth of New Investment Funds Have Been ClosedThe largest is EQT Ventures. It has Money if your startup needs it: EQT Ventures III closes Europe's largest venture capital fund committed to early-stage tech startups. The money will go to early-stage startups in Europe and North America. For more funds, wait for our later section with new fund announcements.
A service for our audience: Learn more and send in pitches here: https://eqtgroup.com/current-portfolio/funds/eqt-ventures-iii
Has Rocket Internet Already Seen Its Best Years?"Mucho trouble over at Rocket Internet," wrote Robin Wauters in his readworthy newsletter for Tech.eu. The article asks if their era is over. Staff cuts and investment stop point in that direction.
Startup Brand RankingJung von Matt publishes their annual GERMAN STARTUP BRAND RANKING
Some of the top 50 startup brands are known from our news: About You, Flink, Numa Group, getquin, Vivid, Flaschenpost, Tier Mobility, Zolar, Enpal, Sono Motors, Trade Republic
Matter Labs raises 200 mn US$Matter Labs, the Berlin, Germany-based developer of zkSync, a solution that reduces the cost of Ethereum transactions, raised $200M in Series C funding https://buff.ly/3UorChp
Not Oceans Eleven, But Still BIGBerlin-based luxury watch marketplace Watchmaster was one of the largest marketplaces of its kind. After a spectacular robbery where 10 m € worth of watches have been stolen the company has to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/3Fi3qsG
Getir Buys Gorillas And It Is Not Going Well For the Gorillas FounderFirst, this kind of news appeared: Getir will take over Gorillas soon - according to press reports. The negotiations have been dragging on for some time now.
Then, we got the confirmation: Getir acquires German competitor Gorillas in $1.2 billion deal - where Gorillas was once valued at 3 bn US$
Housekeeping & Time to Brag We will be back in the new year 2023 with the first new episode towards the end of January, as far as we can tell right now. Our schedule got a bit screwed up. Sorry!
Joe got featured on TopTierStartups.com: Want To Know About German-Language Startups? Joe Menninger Is Your Guy | https://buff.ly/3gJtbZB
Oh, one more thing: We got our wrap-up from Spotify and it turns out that we are in the global top 5% of most shared podcasts on Spotify. Thank you audience!
News Links and Show Notes on our Medium Blog:https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-december-2022-wrap-up-3dbea94ff37
Mentioned in this episode:
Startupraven.com
The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/
Learn more at https://www.younium.com/
Younium is the Subscription Management Hub for B2B SaaS Companies. Whether you’re looking to expand to new markets, experimenting with pricing models, or simply want a streamlined quote to cash process - Younium got your back. On top of that, Younium Insights provides the SaaS metrics you need for reporting to the board and for future company valuation. It gives you the key figures needed to drive your business forward and take strategic decisions. Learn more at https://www.younium.com/
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
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Executive SummaryFilip is a founding partner of Cherry Ventures, one of Germany’s most important seed investors. Their portfolio includes unicorns like Flixbus, Auto1 Group, Forto, Infarm, and well-known startups like Amorelie, Kitchen Stories, Flaschenpost, Spryker, and Superlist. Their portfolio also includes our former guests: Qualifyze, Sanity Group, and Rows. Filip has a background as an entrepreneur himself, so he and Cherry approach startup investing differently. Tune in to learn more about him and the VC.
“We have software helping us to find good startups, for example, if you are head of product at a good startup and change your title to ‘working on something new’ we get notified.”
Filip Dames, Founding Partner Cherry Ventures
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“I really believe an investor should be stage focused”
Filip Dames, Founding Partner Cherry Ventures
The FounderFilip Dames has had an accomplished career, starting out as an intern in Malaysia with DaimlerChrysler, at BCG, and Sony BMG in New York City. Following his venture into the corporate world, he then founded a collectible marketplace called Tamundo. There he went on to oversee the international expansion of Zalando and become the founder and CEO of Zalando Lounge (Zalando’s shopping club). The venture was a success, helping Zalando to go public in 2014. He decided to leave the company, making his 30th birthday also his Zalando farewell party.
From there Filip decided to venture off and focus on venture capital; so it came as no surprise when he started Cherry Ventures in 2013 in Berlin as business angel and startup investor. With tickets of 10.000–50.000€ they are dedicated to helping Germany, Europe, and beyond with investments for entrepreneurs wanting to make their visions reality.
“We invest almost exclusively in Europe”
Filip Dames, Founding Partner Cherry Ventures
Cherry VenturesCherry Ventures (https://www.cherry.vc/) is an early-stage venture capital fund founded and led by former entrepreneurs. They are focusing on European seed-stage companies in the B2B and B2C space. Cherry invests there at the pre-seed- and seed stage with initial tickets between €500k and €5M.
“Founders first and investors second” is the motto of Cherry Ventures
They started out with their first fund with their own money and the money of close friends, much less than 10 m €. From there they build a portfolio of 30 companies, of which some did really well. This in turn enabled them to raise an institutional fund, worth 150 m Euros. In the second fund, successful entrepreneurs from the first fund invested like the founder of Amorelie or the founders of Flixbus.
Their portfolio is already pretty impressive and includes names our frequent followers will recognize, unicorns like Flixbus, Auto1 Group, Forto, Infarm. But they are also investors in well-known startups like Amorelie, Kitchen Stories, Flaschenpost, Spryker, and Superlist.
Their portfolio also includes former guests, Qualifyze, Sanity Group, and Rows, for which you can find the interview link in the show notes.
Further Readings / Additional ResourcesQualifyze (audio only) https://player.captivate.fm/episode/220f49cc-2ef1-471a-bd5b-504d9235e892
Sanity Grouphttps://player.captivate.fm/episode/6c8572f9-ef9c-43c0-9bd1-3641a787a3bc
Rowshttps://player.captivate.fm/episode/9beec601-bfc6-4921-b1ec-05ca641d7959
Links and Show NotesFind all links and show notes here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/meet-filip-one-of-germanys-most-successful-early-stage-vcs-cherry-ventures-gsa22-b344a9169b89
Mentioned in this episode:
Kickstart your Entrepreneurial Journey with Next Big Thing
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Startupraven.com
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This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podder - https://www.podderapp.com/privacy-policy
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Our Highlights: FTX may be history, BUT a German Blog reports there are several parties interested in buying the European Entity of FTX. FTX also triggered Bitpanda to order a special audit from KPMG. We have some more job cuts, this time the 2nd round. Gorillas may sell itself at 1 bn USD even though they have raised 1.3 bn USD in venture capital already. Air taxis are still hot, Volocopter raises more than 180 m US$ to get closer to certification and Lilium sells 100 Airtaxis to Saudi Arabia. The German VC market is stabilizing, according to KfW Research. Our former guest Creditshelf partners with Goldman Sachs and pockets 100 m Euros. Gitpod, a startup from Kiel convinces the founders of GitHub and Shopify to invest.
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Top News FTX may soon be History, BUTA German blog Finance Forward reports there are several parties interested in buying the European Entity of FTX, which is headquartered in Switzerland. Their information has been spot-on in other cases in the past.
Job Cuts Keep Coming - 2nd Round NowProptechs Homeday and McMakler enter the second round of job cuts. Homeday cuts 20 jobs (60 before) and McMakler again 100 employees
Gorillas May Sell Itself at a Huge DiscountSequoia-backed grocery startup Getir is close to buying its troubled rival Gorillas in a heavily discounted deal said to be worth less than $1 billion. They have been valued at their series C investment at 2.1 bn US$ and to date they raised more than 1.3 bn US$.
Related: Deutsche-Startups uncovered that Gorillas (which is in the process of selling itself) paid 300 m € this year for french competitor Frichti.
Lilium Sells 100 Airtaxis Saudi Arabia buys 100 air taxis from Munich -based startup Lilium. The delivery is expected 2025. Before the deal, they also hired former Airbus executive Klaus Roewe. Fingers crossed for them, they did not generate revenue yet, but 841 m Euros in losses so far.
Volocopter Raises 182 M US$Volocopter raises $182M to bring air taxi closer to certification, as part of their Series E funding
The company is currently testing its two-seater VoloCity air taxi for the requirements set by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Volocopter is looking to certify its aircraft in H2 2023 and generate revenue with rides in 2024.
Creditshelf Partners with Goldman SachsOur former guest Creditshelf partners with Goldman Sachs and hits profitability - Goldman Sachs is providing the German alternative lender for SMEs with up to €100m of secured funding. Learn more in our interview with Creditshelf here https://buff.ly/3NVANo1
Creditshelf is Germany’s only listed pure-play fintech, offering a credit platform, where investors can grant credit to German small and medium enterprises.
Mentioned in this episode:
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Younium Younium is the subscription management and billing platform for B2B SaaS. Younium brings the transformative infrastructure to manage and grow your business while you focus on the things that matter. https://www.younium.com/ Tvarit Tvarit is an industrial ai startup, that helps companies to reduce rejections by 40%-60% in metal casting, as well as saving up to 18% on energy. Learn more here: https://www.tvarit.com/
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Executive Summary We hear from Meeri, who is the co-founder of INZMO (Insurance on Mobile). She co-founded the Berlin-based insurtech which helps to make simple insurance contracts via an app. The simple approach also made them one of the fastest-growing insurtechs in Europe. In the interview we talk about her journey from a corporate lawyer to an entrepreneur, pivoting and founding INZMO. We also talk about how a simple insurance contract via an app could turn 50 bn € sitting on bank accounts productive again. Tune in to learn more.
“Our mantra is that insurance just has to be there, hidden in other products. You only realize it is there when you need it.”Meeri Savolainen, CEO and Co-Founder INZMO
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“We want to be one of the service providers, … who help you to have a fun, free and flexible live.”Meeri Savolainen, CEO and Co-Founder INZMO
Our Enablers Younium Younium is the subscription management and billing platform for B2B SaaS. Younium brings the transformative infrastructure to manage and grow your business while you focus on the things that matter. https://www.younium.com/
Tvarit Tvarit is an industrial ai startup, that helps companies to reduce rejections by 40%-60% in metal casting, as well as saving up to 18% on energy. Learn more here: https://www.tvarit.com/
Startupraven.com The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early stage startups. Sign up for early access here:
Startup Raven
The Founder Today we’re joined by Meeri, the CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based insurtech startup INZMO. Meeri is a lawyer by training, and she spent several years working in the corporate world before deciding to start her own company. Her co-founders include Risto Klausen a former professional motorcycle road racer and multiple Estonian and Baltic Champion in the Superbike class, which helped inspire the company’s focus on insurance for bikes. They pivoted from only bikes to providing more offers via the app. Since its launch in 2019, INZMO has become one of the leading apps for mobile insurance in Europe, and Meeri has been named one of the top 10 women to watch in insurtech in 2022. We’re excited to hear more about her story and her company’s success. Thanks for joining us, Meeri!
The Startup INZMO was born out of the idea to quickly insure a bike via an app (Bike ID). During product presentations of Bike ID the team got feedback, on why they only offer insurance for a bike via their app.
This was the moment INZMO was born. The team relocated to Berlin from Estonia. The company is by now one of the fastest-growing insurtechs in Europe, with a female founder. This makes INZMO the first insurtech company in Europe that offers property insurance for e-scooters and regular bicycles through an app. The whole insurance process takes just a few minutes and is completed entirely online — from signing the contract to making a claim.
Currently available in Germany, and several other European countries with plans to expand further. And with over 30,000 users already on board, it looks like INZMO is well on its way to becoming the go-to insurance provider for two-wheeled commuters across Europe. They currently offer property insurance including to replace of a rental...
Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups in October 2022 by Startuprad.io with Chris from Essen, Germany, and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on Thursday, October 20th, 2022.
Our Highlights: Another one of our former guests gets a Snoop Dog investment. Quick delivery startup Gorillas seems to sell itself to competitor Getir, according to Bloomberg, despite an earlier announcement they are looking for more investments. Gadget rental service Grover adds 270 m € in venture debt, getting it close to 2 billion €. Our former guest Nuri (formerly Bitwala) had to file for insolvency, now investors jump ship and the company is wound down this year. Volocopter is sued by early crowdfunding backers, Home24 has a takeover offer from a brick-and-mortar furniture retailer and BioNTech takes on cancer. Also, Munich-based travel tech Holidu raises 100 m € in a combination of 75 m equity and 25 m debt funding.
Let’s talk startups:
Our Enablers Younium Younium is the subscription management and billing platform for B2B SaaS. Younium brings the transformative infrastructure to manage and grow your business while you focus on the things that matter. https://www.younium.com/
Tvarit Tvarit is an industrial ai startup, that helps companies to reduce rejections by 40%-60% in metal casting, as well as saving up to 18% on energy. Learn more here: https://www.tvarit.com/
Invest-in-Hessen This show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Find it all here:
Tech Startups Germany - Startups and Venture Capital
Startupraven.com The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early stage startups. Sign up for early access here:
Startup Raven
Top News Europe’s Largest Cannabis Funding To Date Europe’s largest cannabis funding to date: Snoop Dogg-backed German cannabis startup gets $37.6M Series B led by British American Tobacco
learn more about the Entrepreneur of the Year 2021 (German Startup Awards) founder Finn Age Hänsel in our interview
Gorillas May Soon Be Bought By Getir Delivery Startup Getir in Advanced Talks to Buy Gorillas (Bloomberg). They write:
Grover Takes Home 270 m € As consumer spending tightens, yet appetites for tech remain the same, Berlin-based Grover sees an uptick in rental interest and is now bringing its debt funding to close to €2 billion to meet demand. Grover takes on more debt funding, this time €270 million from London-based M&G
Our Former Guest Nuri (Bitwala) Will be wound down. Despite seeing interest from investors, they could not get one to sign up. So the company will be shut down until the end of the year. The last day one can use a Nuri account is in mid-December. Neobank Vivid makes...
Executive Summary Monite is a Berlin-based embedded finance startup, which is already active in the US, UK, and major European economies, despite being at Seed Stage. With their API partners like B2B neobanks, SaaS companies & marketplaces can embed Invoicing, AP Automation, and more in 3–5 weeks. They are looking for next year for their next funding and start to offer contract management.
We really want to make sure, that anyone who wants to offer workflows with financial documents … can integrate it with us. Ivan Maryasin, CEO & Co-Founder Monite
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The revolution is yet to happen for CFO tools.Ivan Maryasin, CEO & Co-Founder Monite
Our Sponsor Younium Younium is the subscription management and billing platform for B2B SaaS. Younium brings the transformative infrastructure to manage and grow your business while you focus on the things that matter. https://www.younium.com/
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Our tool could be build by bigger players in 12–18 months, but we give them an API with which they can start earn revenue in a few weeks.Ivan Maryasin, CEO & Co-Founder Monite
The Founder Our guest is today Ivan Maryasin the CEO and Co-Founder of embedded finance startup Monite. He worked in Moskow, Boston, and the Bay Area, and finally ended up in Berlin in the early team of Penta, as head of growth. He left Penta, when he saw the opportunity for embedded finance tools, especially for CFOs, in order to set up Monite.
The Startup Monite is an embedded finance startup, that enables non-financial companies to add financial functions without holding a license. The tool of Monite helps startups and SMEs automate some of their finance workflows. They enter the market another way, they are not offering their services to the clients directly, but enable the service providers to offer accounting and financial services, e.g. Qonto, and Penta.
They currently offer payables automation and receivables automation. Monite is currently available in the US, UK, and major countries of the EU.
In 2023 they will focus on contract management, to integrate in their functions.
Find all the Links and Show Notes here: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/meet-monite-they-make-the-life-of-cfos-easier-startuprad-io-257afdc8be79
Topics discussed in this interview: finance, treasury, embedded finance, treasury function, financial management, startup financial management, integration, saas, api, accounts payables, usa, uk, eu, germany, france, venture capital, hiring, open positions
Our highlights: Germany is preparing for a potentially rough winter, in many ways. Now Environmental Action Germany (Deutsche Umwelthilfe): Asked Germans not to put up any Christmas lights this season. Startups in GSA keep laying off staff, but also raising significant funds. We have our usually shortened list a bit longer this month, to show that it is not all gloom and doom here. You will also notice that the M&A activity is up, totaling 55 bn US$ in summer 2022 (for all of Europe), and is still going strong.
Let’s talk startups:
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Our Enablers Invest-in-Hessen This show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Find it all here:
Tech Startups Germany
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Blog Post Find all links, news and show notes here: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-september-2022-53339fae6ca7
Top News Berlin’s Everphone extends Series C to $232M Everphone started with their first fundraising for Series C in December 2021 and now make an additional closing of 32 mn Euros, which totals — according to PitchBook 232 m US$ Series C for their device-as-a-service model
Crypto Boom is slowing European crypto app downloads have almost halved from 2021 amongst the biggest drops are Blockchain.com and unicorn Bitpanda.
Sifted writes “Beleaguered Austrian crypto trading platform Bitpanda saw a 65% decrease in app downloads from 563k in H1 2021 to 197k in H1 2022. In June, the company laid off a third of its employees, admitting that it had hired too fast and needed to cut back expenditure amid the crypto market rout.” VCs keep an eye on their investments and the app downloads are a proxy for growth here for them.
Insolvencies hit household names Yes, they are not startups, but it gives you a great overview of the current environment, also for the startups
Podcast monetization is getting serious with international involvement Lots of mergers in monetizing podcasts, the first Julep from Munich was bought by Libsyn and now London-based Auddy buys Vienna-based Audiomy
More firings :-( Keep in mind here, that most startups are likely not in financial trouble, but they rather try to extend the money they have already raised. The consensus seems to be cutting 15–20% of the workforce for most startups.
Executive Summary This episode is part of our Subject Matter Expert Interviews. It will be one in a series over time, keeping up with the development of the central banks and their digital currency. This episode is just the start! We talk to Kimmo, a regtech entrepreneur, who formerly worked at central banks of Finland, Norway, Bank of England, ECB, and the Fed in New York City. This episode is a starting point for us, from which we will dive deeper, keeping up with the developments on CBDC.
At the Federal Reserve in New York I siumlated attacks on critical infrastructure on the back of the 9/11 attacks.Kimmo Soramäki, Founder and CEO of FNA
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We work with a lof of clients with three letter acronyms. So we decided to name our company financial network analytics, FNA.Kimmo Soramäki, Founder and CEO of FNA
The Expert This episode is part of our Subject Matter Expert Interviews. It will be one in a series over time, keeping up with the development of the central banks and their digital currency. We talk to Kimmo, a regtech entrepreneur, who founded with FNA a company that helps banks, central banks and financial institutions. He has already advisde the central banks of Finland and Norway, been a visiting researcher at the Bank of England and expert at ECB. He also spents a year as research economist at the Fed in New York City. His first software simulated for finish banks the impact of joining the euro zone.
When the financial crisis 2008 came, we realized that we don’t need an outside attack on the symstem to destabilize it. Kimmo Soramäki, Founder and CEO of FNA
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Blog Post Find all links and show notes here: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/fintech-opportunities-in-cental-bank-digital-currency-part-1-839a35c2a1be
Topics Discussed in This Episode: central banks, central bank digital currency, digital currency, bank of english, federal bank, federal bank of new york, bank of england, currency, timeline, cbdc, stable coin, usd coin, us dollar stable coin, euro stable coin, cny, chinese yuan, chinese stable coin, yuan stable coin
Our Highlights Startups in GSA did better than expected. We had a few insolvency filings, but also amazing fundraisings like Celonis 1 bn US$ combination of equity and debt funding. Insuftech Wefox raises 400 m. One can already see the signs of a downturn, M&A activity going up, as well as the news about insolvencies or job cuts/ hiring freezes. But — according to a Bikcom survey — 8 out of 10 startups are still hiring. Deal time our recent guest Qonto buys former guest Penta and there was more in a B2B neobank deal week. Even Allianz had to learn, that one can not buy fintech success and there is more news on Wirecard.
We will also bombard you with funding data on Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as global numbers. Keep in mind you can read all our news on our blog https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-summer-2022-wrap-up-603e2c1939ae
Top News Celonis Secures 1 bn US$ Funding Celonis remains a success story with a 400 million Series D extension and a 600 mn US$ credit facility, at a valuation of nearly 13 bn US$. They are cementing their spot as Germany’s most valuable startup as well as its only decacorn. They do process mining and help to identify unrealized efficiencies. Right now, they’re helping with supply chain issues, for example.
Despite Market Conditions, WeFox Closes 400 m US$ Funding Wefox, the Berlin-based insurtech, closes USD 400 million Series D round at 4.5 bn Dollar valuation
One Former Guest Has to File for Insolvency * German crypto startup Nuri had a streak of bad luck. First, they announce to cut almost 20% of their headcount, then millions of their client’s money is frozen with Celsius and now a blog claimed it all hit during fundraising * Eventually followed by an insolvency filing https://medium.com/startuprad-io/berlin-based-crypto-bank-nuri-formerly-known-as-bitwala-with-500-000-b4953e15dbfa * Berlin-based crypto neoborker Nuri had to file for insolvency. Now the insolvency administrator says there are parties interested in buying the company
Neobrokers Facing Headwinds * Neobrokers close to the edge: No good news from the SEC report on the poster child of all neo-brokers. Unfortunately, there is no report for Germany mentioning e.g. Trade Republic * Robinhood almost imploded during GameStop meme stock chaos — TechCrunch * Bankman-Fried’s FTX Is Seeking a Path to Buy Robinhood — BloombergWhat does this mean for BitPanda, Trade Republic, Scalable Capital, and N26? Do they also need to look for a strategic buyer rather than an IPO?
B2B Neobanks Had a pretty big Deal Week
Qonto Announces Plan to Acquire Penta https://buff.ly/3zwPCI3 as we have predicted two weeks before https://buff.ly/3zxUSeH we have extensive coverage of Penta from the past linked in the article, as well as an interview with Qonto’s head of Germany. Also Kontist was selling itself at a pretty hefty discount https://buff.ly/3c9pmuF
Viability of Quick Delivery Business Model still Questioned
Executive Summary French neobank unicorn Qonto announced their 486 m Euros in Series D funding at 4.4 bn Euro valuation in January 2022, with a global Who-is-Who of investors. 100 m Euros of this record funding will go into their expansion in the German market, competing with Penta, N26, Holvi, or Deutsche Bank’s Fyrst. So we talked to Torben Rabe Qonto’s Country Director for Germany about how they want to compete and reach their goal of 1 million customers by 2025.
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Learn more and find all links and show notes here: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/learn-how-french-fintech-unicorn-qonto-wants-to-conquer-the-german-market-fdab1f1d3aa4
Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups in June 2022 by Startuprad.io. My co-host is again Chris from New York. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in radio syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio, and our partner station IBGR.Network.
We recorded this new episode on Monday, June 27th, 2022. Keep in mind, that we will have a summer break and be back for you with another news episode on Labor Day, which is September 5th, 2022. In this episode, we will wrap up July, and August.
As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode in September.
We will also slightly change our publication schedule for this July and August, mostly going to one publication every two weeks. You can keep up to date with our Google Calendar for all publications.
Our highlights: Startups in GSA also shedding headcount, including unicorns that recently raised money. All signs point towards them extending their runway, expecting a recession. Some startups face a challenging fundraising environment, but others like WeFox want to almost double their valuations. Also, Personio and Trade Republic raise additional funds.
In our “stay ahead of the curve” section, we have a lot of articles an entrepreneur should read to prepare for the potential downturn.
German economic minister Habeck is unveiling his new startup strategy, considering even a minimum investment in VC Funds for German insurers and pension funds.
The fast delivery startups seem to hit a wall and even formerly mighty Gorillas now explores strategic options.
Let’s talk startups: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-june-2022-2651b2b64fe
Executive Summary AlphaQ is a new fund of VC funds, headquartered in Berlin. They are not only raising money to invest in VC funds, but they also swap shares in existing VC funds for shares in their Fund of Funds. In our interview Stephan, the founding partner also elaborates on their investment strategy.
Over the last years venture capital has outperformed most other investment classes, but now we see a correction in valuations. Stephan Heller, Founding Partner AlphaQ
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The goal of one billion is only the minimum size for us to list. Our earliest listing window is in 2026.Stephan Heller, Founding Partner AlphaQ
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Find all links and show notes on our blog post here: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/meet-alpahaq-they-are-on-their-way-to-becoming-a-one-billion-euros-fund-of-vc-funds-1b182c1319cc
We want digital debt to be registered, issued, transferred and eventually traded on our infrastructure. Benedikt Schuppli, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FQX
Executive Summary FQX is a Zürich, Switzerland-based fintech with great aspirations. They want to digitize company debt and this digital debt to be registered, issued, transferred, and eventually traded on their infrastructure.
Promissory notes are known around the financial world. These instruments are fairly standardized. So, if you put this on a blockchain, you have an extremely powerful financing tool. Benedikt Schuppli, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FQX
The Founder This time we interview Benedikt Schuppli (https://www.linkedin.com/in/benedikt-schuppli/), a founder from Switzerland. He is the co-founder and co-CEO of FQX (https://fqx.ch/), a fintech startup from Switzerland offering electronic IOUs. Benedikt is a lawyer by training but took his first job after graduating with a Swiss fintech pioneer named Lykke as Chief Legal Officer. He there realized he wanted to be an entrepreneur and co-founded a smart contract startup called Lexon.
The Startup FQX (https://fqx.ch/) is based in Zürich, Switzerland. Promissory notes, a version of IOUs is a stable of company funding in the German speaking area. Now with digitalization they get the ability to become much more widely used and listed on capital markets globally. A single issuance of promissory notes by one issuer is normally between 50-150 million Euros each. According to a recent statistic Q2 2021 alone saw the issuance of promissory notes worth 2,5 bn Euros in Germany, compared to 3,2 bn Euros in Q2 2020. Right now, they have a premium for not being tradable, but this is about to change with FQX.
Learn more here: We want digital debt to be registered, issued, transferred and eventually traded on our infrastructure. Benedikt Schuppli, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FQX
Executive Summary FQX is a Zürich, Switzerland-based fintech with great aspirations. They want to digitize company debt and this digital debt to be registered, issued, transferred, and eventually traded on their infrastructure.
Promissory notes are known around the financial world. These instruments are fairly standardized. So, if you put this on a blockchain, you have an extremely powerful financing tool. Benedikt Schuppli, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FQX
The Founder This time we interview Benedikt Schuppli (https://www.linkedin.com/in/benedikt-schuppli/), a founder from Switzerland. He is the co-founder and co-CEO of FQX (https://fqx.ch/), a fintech startup from Switzerland offering electronic IOUs. Benedikt is a lawyer by training but took his first job after graduating with a Swiss fintech pioneer named Lykke as Chief Legal Officer. He there realized he wanted to be an entrepreneur and co-founded a smart contract startup called Lexon.
The Startup FQX (https://fqx.ch/) is based in Zürich, Switzerland. Promissory notes, a version of IOUs is a stable of company funding in the German speaking area. Now with digitalization they get the ability to become much more widely used and listed on capital markets globally. A single issuance of promissory notes by one issuer is normally between 50-150 million Euros each. According to a recent statistic Q2 2021 alone saw the issuance of promissory notes worth 2,5 bn Euros in Germany, compared to 3,2 bn Euros in Q2 2020. Right now, they have a premium for not being tradable, but this is about to change with FQX.
Learn more here:
Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups in May 2022 by Startuprad.io — in a news recording with Christian Fahrenbach from New York City and Jörn Menninger, from Frankfurt. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in radio syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio, and our partner IBGR.Network.
We recorded this news episode on Thursday, May 19th, 2022. The next news will go live on June 30th. Keep in mind, that we will have a summer break afterward and be back for you with another news episode on Labor Day September 5th, 2022. In this episode, we will wrap up July, and August.
As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode in June.
We will also slightly change our publication schedule in the summer — as we have done before. For July and August, we will only post a new episode every other week (July 14th, 28th, and August 11th, as well as August 25th). We will be back to normal at the start of September.
We also partner with Artic 15 you get a discount with our code in the show notes at www.medium.com/startuprad-io
Our Highlights: We can proudly announce unicorn No 29 Taxfix, No 30 Onefootball and on the downside, RaisinDS loses its unicorn valuation. Really bad news for car sharing: BMW and Mercedes pull the plug on their joint venture. Our 2018 guest ProGlove is sold in a 500 m € deal (525 m US$) and Orderbird is sold in a 100 m € deal (105 m US$). Other unicorns are currently on the hunt for new capital and feel the heat of the current funding environment.
Let’s talk startups:
Our Enablers Invest-in-Hessen This show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Find it all here:
Tech Startups Germany This is Tech StartUps Germany by Startuprad.io, a global top 125 Tech Podcast. You will find interviews with all sorts…techstartups.sounder.fm
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Find all news and show notes here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-may-2022-de23cf4942e3
Executive Summary Exaloan started out as a rating agency for digital assets. They developed into a global platform to connect crowdlending platforms and institutional investors. They started out with the rating of digital assets. Soon they realized that it makes more sense for them to help investors with the access to lending platforms and building of their portfolio in crowdlending assets using tokenization.
Our mission is to close the global financing gap, which is a staggering 5.2 trillion US$, which means there are more than 100 m SMEs that are lacking financing. Luca Fignani, co-founder and CEO of ExaloanWith our partners we have created a tokenization engine, a digital asset platform, on which we can create a digital token for the loans, we have sourced from crowdlending. This is really a step to the next level. We are joining digital assets with digital lending. Luca Fignani, co-founder and CEO of Exaloan
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The Founder Our guest today is Luca Frignani (https://www.linkedin.com/in/luca-andre-frignani/), the CEO and co-founder of Frankfurt based fintech Exaloan (https://www.exaloan.com/). He is an original Frankfurt boy, with roots in Italy and Czech Republic. Since he is already very international, he spent quite a bit of time studying in France Lille and Nizza. He also spent time in London and Zürich. At one time he also worked as a quant analyst, developing investment strategies.
Development banks are seeing crowdlending platforms are a very important tool.Luca Fignani, co-founder and CEO of Exaloan
The Startup Exaloan (https://www.exaloan.com/) is a Frankfurt-based fintech company. They are a rating agency for digital assets. It is also working with its clients to give them access to international crowdlending platforms and help them to build a portfolio. They are cooperating with platforms in Germany, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines, just to name a few.
Venture Capital Funding ... learn more on our blogpost at www.medium.com/startuprad-io
"Klana is all built beautifully around the consumer. … but many merchants also want a B2B checkout and here Klana decided to partner with the leading provider in the space [Billie.io]."Matthias Knecht, Co-Founder Billie.io
The Founder “I was raised in Germany, with a stint at Columbia University before moving to McKinsey. After working for them,” says Matthias (https://de-DE_.linkedincom/in/-matthiasknecht), “I left and started Zencap.” This company was eventually acquired by Funding Circle where he spent only one year of his time there; then on into Billie — together with cofounder Christian.
"Hiring is currently one of our main challenges. Our doors are wide open."Matthias Knecht, Co-Founder Billie.io
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The Startup Billie’s business is disrupting the B2B market by allowing consumers to buy now and pay later. Their investors include Klana — one of Europe’s largest Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) companies for this sector with over 50 million clients across 500+ brands worldwide!The company also integrates seamlessly into Klana’s systems so that all client transactions can be done through Billie's platform while still enjoying advanced features such as payment encryption and loan pre-payment options which not only make financial services more accessible but give buyers peace of mind when making large purchases or taking out short term loans.
Website: https://www.billie.io/
Crunchbase: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/billie-io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/billiegmbh
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/billie.io/
Venture Capital Funding Billie is one of the most successful startups in Germany and they have raised more than 140 m US$ from investors like Creadum, Global Founders Fund (Rocket Internet), Dawn Capital, Speedinvest, Klana, Tencent, and Picus Capital. It sounds like Billie may become soon a unicorn with all these hints being dropped about their future success.
Learn more at www.medium.com/startuprad-io
Welcome to This Month in GSA Startups in April 2022 by Startuprad.io — in a news recording with Christian Fahrenbach ”Chris” from New York City today and me Jörn Menninger “Joe”, from Frankfurt am Main. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in radio syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio, the blog Fundscene, and our partner IBGR.Network.
We recorded this new episode on Monday, April 25th, 2022. The next news will go live on the 26th of May, the day we celebrate fathers day in Germany. For this reason, we have at this date two publications: the news and an episode on men’s health.
As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode.
We also partner with the EU-Startups Summit and Artic 15 you get a discount at both events with our codes in the show notes www.medium.com/startuprad-io. You can meet Joe in person in Barcelona at the EU Startups Summit on May 12th and 13th.
The discount codes are:
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.
The situation of the Federal Reserve in developing a digital central bank Dollar is like the ECB. Both are early in exploring the topic. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert
The Digital Euro Central banks take inspiration from cryptocurrencies and are actively thinking about introducing their own cryptos, called central bank digital currency (CBDC). There are many podcasts out there talking about CBDC, especially US$, but Startuprad.io is headquartered in the city of the Euro, Frankfurt. So, we thought we shed some light on the perspective from Europe. The European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve are both in the first steps of exploring the possibilities and implications of CBDCs for the Euro and the US Dollar. But there is already a growing market in US$ stable coins, where stable coins in Euro have to stomach losses, due to the negative interest rates in the European Monetary Union (EMU). Tune in to learn more...
The difference in the US is that there is already a working alternative, the US$ stable coins. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert
Further Readings / Additional Resources * Here is the link to the blockchain master program of Frankfurt School https://www.frankfurt-school.de/home/programmes/master/blockchain-digital-assets * The central bank digital currency tracker of the Atlantic Council: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/ * CBDC definition
Welcome to This Month in GSA Startups - meaning Germany, Austria and Switzerland, for February 2022 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris from New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio, our partner station IBGR.Network and the Fundscene blog.
We recorded this new episode on Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022. Today we bring you everything from a new Switzerland-based unicorn to a new take on quick delivery - pardon the pun.
We start out with mega-deal in Gaming: ESL Gaming is sold for 1bn US$, Munich-based Fintechsystems is sold for 120 mn € and Aachen-based Next Ego may accomplish THE turnaround of the whole year, coming out of insolvency, they are looking to list via SPAC, valued at 1.5 bn €. Switzerland has a new unicorn, congratulations to Scandit, Gorillas wants to buy a french competitor and is thinking about a SPAC deal. Also, we have a large update on neobanks in Germany, and they are not all doing well.
Let's talk startups:
https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-gsa-startups-february-2022-44520c52b1eb
When I started in crypto, I had to manage so many wallets and platforms, that I could not imagine how complicated it would be for an institutional investor. We started FINOA to help with that.
Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA
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We want to be the No 1 crypto custodian for institutional investors in Europe. Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA
The Founder In this interview we speak to Henrik Gebbing (https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrik-gebbing-finoa/), the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Finoa, a Berlin-based crypto fintech, which is already one of the hidden champions. They are a global top 5 crypto custodian for institutional investors. Henrik attended Golden Gate University in San Francisco as a Fulbright Scholar and got his MBA at IE Business School in Madrid. He later worked as a consultant with McKinsey, but after 4 years jumped ship to start Finoa. He developed the idea, that would later become Finoa with his roommate (and now co-founder) on the kitchen table in Madrid while studying for his MBA.
Globally we want to maintain one of the top 5 spots for crypto custody.Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA
The Startup The co-founders started Finoa (https://www.finoa.io/) in Berlin. Their driving idea was – and still is – to support institutional investors to go into crypto. They also support wealthy individuals, who hold substantial amounts of crypto assets of more than 100.000US$. Finoa is a custodian, meaning they keep - on behalf of their clients - their crypto assets save. At the time of the interview, they have around 400 customers. Their clients include the crypto holdings of Rocket Internet, T-Systems, US-based VCs, and hedge funds.
In April 2021 they announced a 22 mn US$ Series A funding, which is sizeable for Germany, as well as for crypto at the time.
We hold assets for entities in Asia and Silicon Valley, but our focus market is the European Union. Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA
Venture Capital Funding FINOA announced their Series A funding of 22 mn US$ in April 2021(LINK). FINOA is open to discussions with investors, but they are not actively looking for new investors.
Fintech is fast, but crypto is warp-speed. Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA
A Joint Audio-Only Podcast This is the first joint radio program and podcast of IBGR and the Startuprad.io podcast with its radio program Startup.Radio. You may know that IBGR and Startup.Radio are syndication partner, almost from the start of Startup.Radio. I, therefore, welcome William Eastman, founder of the IBGR Network, everybody calls Bill.
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What we have learned Today we bring you insights from Atomico’s State of European Tech 2021 - an annual survey of startups all over Europe taking place annually since 2015. This survey may be the most comprehensive, repeated overview of the European startup and tech scene. This survey is a joint endeavor by Atomico, a London-based VC and PE fund, as well as the annual Slush tech festival in Helsinki, Finland. And, guys, you know a tech festival has to be good, if it can lure people to the freezing cold Helsinki in December. They also add data from providers like S&P and Dealroom in the mix. Startuprad.io had Dealrooms Founder in an interview btw.
This is just a start This is just a starting point for you to discover the whole report on your own. It spans more than 350 pages, so we can not give you all the information here. The bottom line is … I would say: The whole continental ecosystem all over Europe has been lacking behind the US and China for quite some time. It looks like they have started to catch up in a big way, despite corona. We see this in increases in the number of investors, startups, fundings (number and size), and the increase in the uni/decacorn herds. The authors see a potential for the whole ecosystem that is now worth 3 Trillion US$ to be worth 24 Trillion US$ in 2030.
Learn More here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/what-we-have-learned-from-atomicos-state-of-european-tech-survey-audio-only/
Feedback is always welcome: Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” Google Form for Feedback
This Month in German Startups - January 2022
Happy New Year guys! Welcome to This Month in German Startups in January 2021 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris from New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in radio syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio and our partner IBGR.Network.
We recorded this new episode on Monday, January 24th, 2022. All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode. There will also be a special episode on Atomico’s State of European Tech 2021 together with Bill, the founder of the IBGR Network, as an audio-only podcast.
This is a new year with 365 blank new pages, so let's write the best story possible.
Our highlights: The last year was amazing for the German startup scene, there are now officially 25 unicorns and we feel that there will be more. 60 mn for sunfire from the federal government, Go Student’s tutors and students start to critique the company, Tado is looking to IPO via a SPAC. Also Cherry Ventures had been good in snatching up stakes in unicorns early. Now Cherry raises their 4th fund.
Let's talk startups:
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Startuprad.io is globally a Top 75 Science Podcast, Top 125 Tech Podcast, and Top 650 Business Podcast (Chartable.com)
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This show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Find it all here: 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:
“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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Find all links and extensive show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-december-2021/
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The Survey
Hey guys, this is Joe from Startuprad.io. Today we bring you an audio-only episode. We know this is uncommon, but there is a special occasion for this. The most comprehensive startup survey is Germany was published, so we wanted to bring you some highlights. This extensive survey is conducted by the German Startup Association in cooperation with partners annually since 2013.
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Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA
The Host
This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email
Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/germanys-most-extensive-annual-startup-survey/
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Welcome to This Month in German Startups in November 2021 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris from New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main.
We recorded this new episode on Friday, November 19th. All news not included here will be published in our December News (to be published on December 23rd). There will also be our annual Fintech Review on December 25th and we will be back with an AI startup interview on January 13th. So we take a few weeks off around the holidays. We are not there yet, so let's get started:
Today we have escooter Tier’s newest funding and acquisition, N26 pulling the plug on their US operations already in January 2022, and the amazing IPO of Sono Motors on NASDAQ. There are also new unicorns, we proudly present Frankfurt’s first unicorn, the insurtech Clark.de. Also, Razor Group (an Amazon shop buyer) becomes a unicorn with a 125 mn US$ fundraising. In November, there is no unicorn tracker. We will keep our eyes open and maybe the next news will have a unicorn tracker companion.
Happy Thanksgiving to our US audience!
Let's talk startups:
Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-november-2021/
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Enablers Invest-in-Hessen
This show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Find it all here: https://anchor.fm/techstartupsgermany
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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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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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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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We don’t sell your data or spam you. We will even reach out to you before we include you in a scouting mandate.
Find our extensive collection of links, sources and the whole show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-october-2021/
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Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io – in a news recording with Chris (from New York City) and me Joe (from Frankfurt am Main).
Guys, it is 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:
Want to be found by Business opportunities or contacted by new investors?
Get scouted by us, when we have a matching mandate and enroll your startup in our database: https://forms.gle/DmPtBKJH7MMmJoYo8 We don’t sell your data or spam you. We will even reach out to you before we include you in a scouting mandate.
Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-summer-wrap-up-july-august-september-2021/
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Meet Austria-Based Monkee – A fintech with more than 80% Women as Clients With Monkee I am combining my passions for finance and what I learned in the area of habit forming technology Martin Granig, CEO and Co-Founder Monkee Subscribe Here
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The Founder
This is one of our interviews, covering a startup from Tirol, Austria, the fintech Monkee (https://monkee.rocks/). We have Martin Granig (https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-granig-52775054/) in the interview, CEO and co-founder of the fintech. Martin is an engineer by training, having worked more than a decade at Swarovski, in his last position he was leading the global innovation department. He is also currently working on a Ph.D. in savings behavior. It may not surprise you now that Monkee is a startup helping you to save money and with vouchers on the spending as well. During his studies, he also attended 北大 BeiDa (Peking University), Fudan University 復旦大學, London Business School, SDA Bocconi, Ashridge Business School and many more.
Nudges are only slight tips in the right direction if someone is already in the process of making the right decision to form habits. Martin Granig, CEO and Co-Founder Monkee
The Startup
The startup Monkee is based in Tyrol, one of the states of Austria (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrol). The goal of Monkee is to improve the financial well-being of its clients. The app works with small nodes in order to help you save money, either for your rainy-day fund or towards an actual goal like a vacation, a laptop or another large purchase.
The Monkee-App also helps with (retail)-partners to save money with discounts to get your actual savings goals cheaper. They are also in the process of getting partners for daily necessities.
What really differentiates Monkee from other fintechs is that they have 84% women as active clients. That turns the normal client base of fintechs upside down. On the other hand, their female clients also like to interact more frequently with the app.
The Monkee App
Apples App Store
Google Play Store
Money worries are already the No 1 worry for most people. Martin Granig, CEO and Co-Founder Monkee
Venture Capital Funding
Monkee is currently raising a new round of venture capital, they are currently planning to close the round end of 2021.
There are many things coming together for Monkee so we could attract more women as clients. Martin Granig, CEO and Co-Founder Monkee
Find all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/meet-austria-based-monkee-a-fintech-with-more-than-80-female-clients/
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Entrepreneur Tools #6 – How to Start Thinking About Your Corporate Culture You, as a founder will impact the culture, which than becomes a brand. Michelle Tsing, Entrepreneur, Investor, Mentor, Podcast/Radio Host Entrepreneur Tools
This is a new series, within Startuprad.io’s YouTube Blog. We meet a lot of people and of course, we talk with some of them about the typical entrepreneur problems. Sometimes an entrepreneur solves known problems in a very systematic way, which we find great, or has great insights. In both cases, we will talk to him or her and bring you these recordings as entrepreneur tools.
We are looking forward to your feedback.
I learned that humans are basically good. Michelle Tsing, Entrepreneur, Investor, Mentor, Podcast/Radio Host The Entrepreneur
Michelle Tsing (https://www.linkedin.com/in/laptopradio/) is an investor and entrepreneur. She hosts a weekly show on the Stanford University Campus radio, called Laptop Radio. She used to work at PayPal, Samsung, Cisco, and eBay. She is also a podcast host at Starting Y, based in Silicon Valley. In addition to that Michelle works with several startups as an advisor. She shares in our 6th episode of entrepreneur tools her thoughts about company culture and how to start thinking about it. Company culture is a very complex topic and we are just scratching the surface here, but it is a good point to start.
The culture is usually the founder … think about your vision, your mission, and the values you care about. Michelle Tsing, Entrepreneur, Investor, Mentor, Podcast/Radio Host Further Readings / Additional Ressources
Great examples
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)
Links and Show Notes
https://www.startuprad.io/blog/entrepreneur-tools-6-how-to-start-thinking-about-your-corporate-culture/
Feedback
Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA
The Interviewer
This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email
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We started with 2-3 employees. Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest At the start we wanted to build a robo advisor. Now we have a platform on which our clients, the banks, can customize their own robo advisor. Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest The CEO
Olaf Zeitnitz is also kind of a returning interview guest (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-olaf-zeitnitz-722b0a1b/). He was part of our Robo Advisor talk, dating back to October 2016, when not every video was turned into an audio podcast. VisualVest is not an average Robo Advisor, it is a white-label company, integrated into a much larger group of cooperative banks in Germany. Olaf studied physics and his Ph.D. studies took him to the CERN particle accelerator, where he was one of the first users of the newly invented internet. He also attended the first www conference.
Not one robo advisor startup was ever able to become profitable in a few years … VCs have to invest for the long term. If you invest for two to three years, a robo advisor is the wrong VC investment. Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest The Corporate Startup
VisualVest (https://www.visualvest.de/) is part of the cooperative banking group, a group of independent banks – known as Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken - (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VolksbankenundRaiffeisenbanken), working closely together on many services, including asset management. Their asset manager is called Union Investment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Investment) and VisualVest is a corporate startup of Union Investment and the DZ Bank, the central bank of the cooperative banks in Germany.
VisualVest is a SaaS platform. They are basically a toolbox where the different banks within the group can choose their features to create their own robo advisor.
I was there at [CERN], when they invented the internet. Our experiment was one of the first users. Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest Youtube Video from October 2016
Olaf has been a guest in our robo advisor talk back in 2016, together with other returning guests. You can find it here:
https://youtu.be/akCaXmFfgMQ
Investing is the opposite of sexy. Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest I was positively surprised that BaFin did not try to kill robo advice from the start. Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest The Interviewer
This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email
Keep Up to Date
Here is our publication calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=MDEyaTI3YWs1MjVxaTNzbWdqbDh2OXRiaW9AZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ
Find all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/meet-visualvest-the-white-label-robo-advisor-with-e-2-6-bn-client-assets-under-management/
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The Founder
This interview is an overdue follow-up with ottonova, the first German health insurer founded in almost 20 years.
Roman Rittweger (https://www.linkedin.com/in/romanrittweger/) is the CEO and Founder of ottonova, not an insurtech, but a fully licensed insurer (https://www.ottonova.de/).
Roman had a long and successful career, before founding ottonova. As he says in the interview, in insurance everything takes longer.
Roman is a doctor by training, with a Ph.D. in medicine, as well as an MBA from INSEAD. He also served as Platoon Leader in the German mountain troopers and was a consultant with ATKearney and McKinsey, before starting his own companies. He is also a member of the supervisory board of naontek AG, a corporate startup offering digital services to health professionals.
When you are a private health insurer in Germany, you basically live forever. Roman Rittweger, CEO and Founder of ottonova We do not report all our funding rounds instantly. We raised more money than is on CrunchBase. Roman Rittweger, CEO and Founder of ottonova
Venture Capital Funding
So far ottonova has raised more than 90 mn US$ up to Series D (https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ottonova-holding-ag) and is a licensed health (re-) insurer in Germany. ottonova will start new talks for a growth equity talks end of 2021.
We are a full stack insurer, but we also have a re-insurance license. Roman Rittweger, CEO and Founder of ottonova The Audio Interview from 2017
The original interview – the first English interview of ottonova – was published on September 14th, 2017.
https://www.startuprad.io/interviews/exclusive-first-english-interview-newly-founded-digital-health-insurer-ottonova/
Links and Show Notes
Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/follow-up-with-the-all-digital-health-insurer-ottonova/
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We are not only spending 10 bn € on startups, but we also have 5-6 bn € from older programs. … we will spend in total 15 – 16 bn Euros Thomas Jarzombek, MdB, Commissioner for Digital and Startups
Startups with a significant presence in Germany – from abroad – also can receive money from the funds. Thomas Jarzombek, MdB, Commissioner for Digital and Startups The Commissioner for Digital and Startups
In this interview we talk to Thomas Jarzombek (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-jarzombek-a4227183/) a member of the German Parliament Bundestag, also the Commissioner for Digital and Startups of Germany and in charge of the newly started 10 bn startup program. Thomas is a member of the CDU, Christian Democratic Union, the party of chancellor Merkel. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Democratic_Union_of_Germany). Thomas has also been an entrepreneur before he was an elected official. He started out with implementing Windows 95.
Note: In the name tag in the YouTube video, we shorted this to “Digital commissioner”, due to the available space.
How the money will be invested Note: There is a general election coming up in Germany on September 26th, 2021. This will lead to a new government since chancellor Merkel will retire. Therefore, another government may change this allocation. We also invest in rocket technology. We have been looking at what Elon Musk does with SpaceX and adapted some of his strategies. Thomas Jarzombek, MdB, Commissioner for Digital and Startups Investing Indirectly (as LP)
The new investment program is looking to invest 50% together with private investors, who also chip in the other half.
The program will invest in European VCs, focusing on Germany. They are looking for VCs, investing in Germany approx. the money they receive from the program.
The largest single investment will be as LP of the European Investment Fund, which will get 3 bn Euros (https://www.eif.org/).
HTGF will start the 4th fund with money from the program. Look in our show notes below for the interview with the CEO of HTGF. They raise funds with half of the money coming from the Government and half from private investors, which include already household names like Bosch, BASF, B. Braun, Boehringer, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Post DHL, Lanxess, RWE, SAP, and many others. You can learn more about HTGF in our interview, see links below.
We have patient money and I expect the money to be spent over the next 10 years. Thomas Jarzombek, MdB, Commissioner for Digital and Startups Investing Directly: Deep Tech Future Fund
The Deep Tech Future Fund (https://deeptech-future-fonds.de/) is aiming to commercialize innovations from Germany. They are even investing in startups directly, who do not have a business model yet, for example working in quantum computing.
2 bn Euros will be managed by KfW in discretionary accounts to set up specific investment vehicles and their subsidiary Coparion (https://www.coparion.vc/). Part of the money will be managed in discretionary accounts. These vehicles can invest directly in startups.
https://www.startuprad.io/blog/meet-the-person-in-charge-of-germanys-e10-bn-startup-program/
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(BONUS) German Institutional Funds Will Not Invest Big Bugs in Cryptocurrencies
This is another bonus episode, where we cover interesting – behind the scenes – development in the larger German-speaking tech space. Recently there was a wave of excitement sweeping across the crypto blogs, due to an update in the German Investment Law (https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/kagb/). The reason: Investments of German institutional funds, since they could – theoretically – invest up to 20% in cryptocurrencies, starting on August 2nd, 2021. Joe gets together with Marco; a specialist lawyer and they talk about what is realistic. Instead of a large wave (theoretical max of ~400 bn €), as many blogs forecast, there may be only a small trickle (likely only millions over time).
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The Specialist
Marco Zingler (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marco-zingler-14b2a390/) is a seasoned lawyer, with almost 10 years of experience in capital markets legislation. He also holds a degree in Finance. He, therefore, spent most of his career as a specialist for regulatory and investment law, covering for example the changes to the new German investment Law.
Is your Startup in Need of A bank Account? - Affiliate Links
The Interviewer
This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email
Keep Up to Date
Here is our publication calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=MDEyaTI3YWs1MjVxaTNzbWdqbDh2OXRiaW9AZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ
Find all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/bonus-the-german-institutional-funds-will-not-invest-big-bugs-in-cryptocurrencies/
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IDnow talks about their acquisition of Ariadnext We are growing organically 50-60% year over year right now organically. Andreas Bodczek, CEO IDnow
Media Partnership with Munich Startup
Munich Startup is the official startup portal for Munich and the surrounding region. It was developed by the City of Munich, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Munich and Upper Bavaria and the four entrepreneurship centers of the Munich universities within the framework of the Entrepreneurship Strategy Munich. You can learn more here: https://en.munich-startup.de/
The CEO
This time we have a rarity on our channel because Andreas Bodczek (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasbodczek/) is not a founder, but an early investor in the company, which became later the CEO of IDnow. Andreas has been an early business angel, investing in IDnow. So he has been involved in the company for quite some time before he took the job as external CEO.
Andreas has been with Bertelsmann, where he worked with dial-up internet connections, building one of the broadest platforms for broadband and Voice-over-IP services in Germany. He later moved to become the CEO of Telefonica Germany (https://www.telefonica.de/) and co-founded Fyber (https://www.fyber.com/ ), which they build up in Germany, the US, and several more companies. They sold the company in 2014.
Andreas is also a board partner with Point Nine Capital (https://www.pointnine.com/), a Berlin-based VC fund focused on platforms and SaaS.
We will conclude most of the integration work streams of Identity TM at the end of this year. Andreas Bodczek, CEO IDnow The Startup
IDnow (https://www.idnow.io/products/idnow-videoident/) is an online identification service provider, that helps banks, insurance companies, and other companies to verify the identity of their clients remotely. This has not always been the case in Germany, but IDnow was one of the early companies providing this service.
Today IDnow has amongst their clients some well-known names like N26, Solaris Bank or Sixt, Western Union, Tier Mobility, and WeFox.
The startup grew early with a strong focus on financial services companies, starting when the German regulator moved to allow so-called “video idents.”
Now IDnow extends its services across industries, products, and countries. The acquisition of France-based Ariadnext (https://www.ariadnext.com/) fits in the category of extending in countries, to expand their footprint in France.
SPAC Deal?
From our conversation, we took that IDnow has SPAC offers at hand, still evaluating their options.
Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/exclusive-idnow-talks-about-their-acquisition-of-ariadnext/
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Welcome to This Month in German Startups June 2021 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris (Back Home in New York) and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main.
We are reporting live from Germany’s largest unicorn wave ever. We announce two new unicorns (Scalable Capital and Forto (formerly FreightHub)) and Germany’s first Decacorn Celonis, valued at more than 11 bn US$. The 2019 Unicorn Wefox raises large funding of 536 mn € (650 mn US$). About You IPOs for 23 €/share at 4 bn Euro (4.85 bn US$) AND Austria becomes a new most valuable startup with GoStudent (1.4 bn €, 1.67 bn US$), after they had their first unicorn only last month.
Plus SolarisBank is rumored to be in talks of a 100 mn Euro VC Deal, which would make them a unicorn as well, to buy up a competitor. Especially active in this frenzy of unicorn creation is Softbank from Japan and Tencent from China.
We have a special episode on the unparalleled unicorn creation, which is available on the same channels. If you want to know more about the new Decacorn and unicorns in Germany and Austria you want to listen to this episode as well. We keep here the coverage of unicorns to a minimum.
Note: This will be the last news recording before the summer break. There will be no regular news in July or August, but we will be back with news at the end of September, wrapping up the summer news.
We are soooooooooo looking forward to the summer that Joe even wears a Hawaii shirt. Be happy for your eyes if you are only listening to this podcast :-)
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Find all links, texts, and show notes here on our blog post: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-june-2021/
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Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io – in a news recording with Chris (from New York City) and me Joe (from Frankfurt am Main).
This is a Bonus Episode covering the Unicorn Stampede in German-speaking countries. This recording is from June 29th, 2021 and all-new unicorns, formed afterward will be covered in our next news podcast, to be published End of September!
You may remember that we had another bonus episode last month covering the rise of Berlin-based fintech Trade Republic to become Germany’s most valuable startup? There is already a new king in the country with Celonis becoming Germany’s first Decacorn (valuation above 10 bn US$, here even 11bn US$). We also see that all of these monster fundings are driven by international investors, especially Softbank from Japan and Tencent from China.
Find all links and show notes on our blog post here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/bonus-this-month-in-german-startups-unicorn-stampede/
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“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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Find the whole story here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/bonus-episode-trade-republic-becomes-germanys-most-valuable-startup-with-5-3-bn-us-valuation/
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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!
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
The Startup
crossinx (https://www.crossinx.com/en/) is the leading provider of e-invoicing based service solutions in Germany, working with the largest companies and institutions, such as Nestle, Bayer, TNT, Sixt and the German national government. The company was founded back in 2007 by Marcus Laube.
The Exit
On April 12 Unifiedpost Group announced to acquire crossinx for 100 mn Euros (up to 113 mn €): https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210411005030/en/Unifiedpost-Group-and-Crossinx-Join-Forces-to-Create-a-Unique-European-Business-Network
The connection came from Marcu’s work in EESPA, where he met Unifiedpost. There has been interest to acquire crossinx 3 years before, but the deal was sealed after the IPO of Unifiedpost at Euronext (Euronext: UPG).
https://www.startuprad.io/blog/meet-the-fintech-behind-the-100-mn-e-exit-nobody-talks-about/
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The Upcoming Changes to EU Crowdfunding Rules for Startups
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The Expert
We talk to a former guest, Jamal El Mallouki (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamalelmallouki/), Managing Director (MD) and Co-Founder of Crowdfunding SaaS tech company CrowdDesk. He is also chairman of the board of directors of Germany’s Crowdfunding Association (https://www.bundesverband-crowdfunding.de/about-the-german-crowdfunding-association-bundesverband-crowdfunding-ev/).
He talks with us about the upcoming rules, which will harmonize crowdfunding for startups across the European Union.
Affiliate Links
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:
Affiliate Links
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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Housekeeping - Time to brag
Stay safe everyone!
Affiliate Links
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
Affiliate Links
"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
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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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
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...
This Month in German Startups - February 2021Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main.
Today we are wrapping up February 2021 for you. There is great news in the German startup scene, the much anticipated Auto1 IPO generated two new tech billionaires, Europe’s first Tech SPAC lists in Frankfurt, more Wirecard details, we talk about Trade Republic and Gamestop, as well as the billion exit of Berlin-based AdJust.
Follow us on Social MediaInstagram https://www.instagram.com/startuprad.io/
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/4837115/
Twitter https://twitter.com/startuprad_io
Keep Up to DateHere is our publication calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=MDEyaTI3YWs1MjVxaTNzbWdqbDh2OXRiaW9AZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ
Affiliated LinksWhy not learn from entrepreneurs and executives who are open to share their favorite books. We skimmed through some recommendations and that is what we found.
Recommended by: Bill Gates
“Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker” https://amzn.to/2XAENlBRecommended by: Jeff Bezos
“Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras” https://amzn.to/2RGKGKeRecommended by: Elon Musk
“Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel” https://amzn.to/2REbHhwRecommended by: Tony Hsieh
“Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan” https://amzn.to/34KgraQRecommended by: Warren Buffet
“Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street by John Brooks” https://amzn.to/2K92z06Recommended by: Tim Cook
“Competing Against Time by George Stalk and Thomas Hout” https://amzn.to/3cjMMYn Housekeeping - Time to brag Stay safe everyone!
In the meantime you can tune in to our internet radio station, the worlds first 24/7 dedicated to startups and tech companies! https://s2.radio.co/sb16d65602/listen - We will soon be available on many platforms, for now:
https://raddio.net/373202-startupradio/ https://radio.streamitter.com/station/startupradio-89HNV
Top NewsWe have two new tech billionairesThe IPO of Auto1 went spectacularly well and skyrocketed on the first day of trading on February 4th, surging 45%. We took a look at the data and realized that this was the first tech IPO in a long time that generated new tech billionaires in Germany. Bloomberg: SoftBank-Backed Auto1 Soars in Debut After $2.2 Billion IPO https://buff.ly/2YLTm5jReuters: UPDATE 2-AUTO1 shares go into top gear in Frankfurt debut https://buff.ly/3pLaOSmRead more in our blogpost here: At recording this Auto1 IPO turns founders into billionaires https://buff.ly/3oY45EA Related: The story from the side of one of their first investors: How VC fund DN Capital invested in car marketplace Auto1 8 years ago and landed an $8 billion IPO winner
This is the fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany
Learn more about us at www.startuprad.io
Iconic holding wants to be the largest Crypto Asset Manager in Europe
The idea for Iconic Funds came from investor demand, to invest in cryptocurrencies with more traditional vehicles.
Maximilian Lautenschläger, COO and Co-Founder Iconic Holding
The FounderMaximilian Lautenschläger (https://www.linkedin.com/in/maximilian-lautenschl%C3%A4ger/) grew up in the beautiful city of Heidelberg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg). He stayed in the Rhein-Neckar Metropolitan Area (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine-Neckar) to study in Ludwigshafen and took every opportunity to study abroad. After university he started out working in consulting and found his passion in alternative investments. He started as analyst of private equity funds, moving to a venture developer position. Before joining Iconiq Lab, he has been a startup investor himself.
I am not the guy who said in 2014 Bitcoin is the thing.
Maximilian Lautenschläger, COO and Co-Founder Iconic Holding
The StartupIconic Holding is the parent company of Iconic Funds. Iconic Holding originally started out as Iconiq Lab, an accelerator for ICOs, based in Frankfurt. After the end of the ICO craze, they decided what to do next and so they evolved into a crypto asset manager and Blockchain VC. The new structure was renamed to Iconic Holding (no more q).
The crypto asset manager is called Iconic Funds (https://funds.iconicholding.com/invest/) and the blockchain venture capital arm is called Iconic Lab (https://lab.iconicholding.com/, https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/iconiq-lab).
You can find their blog on Medium here (https://iconicholding.medium.com/). Iconic Funds offers to accredit investors hedge funds, a fund domiciled in Malta and also exchange-traded notes, to get exposure to cryptocurrency.
There was this craze about a thing we have never heard before, an ICO.
Maximilian Lautenschläger, COO and Co-Founder Iconic Holding
Venture Capital FundingIconic Holding is currently preparing the series B round.
Bitcoin for me is digital gold
Maximilian Lautenschläger, COO and Co-Founder Iconic Holding
The Audio InterviewYou can subscribe to our podcasts here
Further Readings / Additional ResourcesUCITS https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/ucits.asp
WM Daten is a financial service provider, a competitor of Bloomberg and S&P, amongst others, with a strong focus on the German-speaking area: https://www.wmdaten.de/index.php
Asset Manager https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asset_management_firms
Custodian https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/custodian.asp
FeedbackReach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA
The InterviewerThis interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder and host of Startuprad.io. Reach...
This is the fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany
Learn more about us at www.startuprad.io
Tangany Offers a White-Label Custody Solution for Crypto AssetsOur clients do not need to apply for a license to become a custodian, we already are and offer our service.
Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany
Media PartnershipThis podcast is in media partnership with the FinTech Forum (http://www.fintechforum.de/). The FinTech Forum - launched 2013 in Frankfurt am Main - is the first and largest hub for FinTechs in Continental Europe, with a community of more than 12.000 companies. With more than 17 events, with more than 270 startups on stage, and more than 1.000 investors and financial institutions. FTF alumni have raised $310mn+ in funding and resulted in exits worth $300mn+ .
Our level of paranoia level is right at the top. The security for crypto assets must be even on a higher level than for banks.
Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany
The FounderWe talk to the CEO and Co-Founder Martin Kreitmair (https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-kreitmair). He is not only with Tangany, but also a member of the Board of Germany’s blockchain association called Bundesblock (https://bundesblock.de/). He has a master’s in computer science and has been working at a startup for more than seven years, where he was hired as the 7th employee and saw the company grow.
First, we were two founders, …joined by former colleagues from an agency.
Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany
Martin became interested early in Blockchain and Bitcoin but was no miner – which he partly regrets now 😊. He felt like it was the right time to start his company after many years as a startup employee.
Security is key for crypto custody.
Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany
The StartupTangany (https://tangany.com/) is the all-in-one cloud suite to easily offer crypto and digital asset custody to your clients and customers. They do not offer services for retail customers, but rather to fintechs and financial institutions for save keeping of digital and crypto assets (including, but not limited to cryptocurrencies). They are a regulated custodian.
The product of Tangany is a white-label tool (via API) to enable their customers like startups, so they can offer crypto wallets to their (retail)-clients. The big advantage of Tangany for their clients is that they don’t need to get a license since the company is already regulated under German law to be a custodian.
It took us a very very long time to design our architecture … to the highest thinkable level of security.
Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany
Excited about a Digital EuroTangany would be quite happy if a digital Euro, based on Blockchain is realized, this would be a huge opportunity for them. Since every citizen would need a digital wallet as Tangany could provide.
I am very convinced that a digital Euro will come, one way or another.
Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany
Venture Capital FundingTangany raised a venture capital round in January 2020 and currently, they are in preparation for another round.
Further Readings / Additional Resources
Custodian https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/custodian.asp
Feedback
Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!”
This Month in German Startups - January 2021
Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City. This is the first news episode of 2021, but you can have a look at our 2020 review.
Today we are wrapping up January 2021 for you. There is great news in the German startup scene, from two new unicorns to a much anticipated IPO of Auto1 (will be raising at least 1.5 bn Euros), Delivery Hero goes VC and there may be Amazon TV/Radio in Germany.
Housekeeping - Time to brag Just a bit of bragging today: Listen Up! Here’s Your Guide To European Tech And Startup Podcasts In English https://buff.ly/39S3qyR
Top NewsWe have two new unicornsMambu - Germany’s newest Fintech Unicorn offers Banking Software as SaaS https://buff.ly/3oNEHC2 - Without them, no N26. They provide the software, which enables challenger banks like them.Munich-based HR scaleup Personio lands €103.5 million Series D funding and a €1.4 billion valuation https://buff.ly/35QYn0pRelated: Start-Up Personio Joins Circle of Unicorns - Technical University of Munich - School of Management https://buff.ly/2YgKm7W
Delivery Hero raises 1.2 bn in fresh capitalDelivery Hero raises 1.2 bn Euros (1.47 bn US$) in new funding, selling "in hours" 9.44 mn new shares for 132 Euros each https://buff.ly/394ZFFQRelated:Delivery Hero starts their own Corporate Venture Fund called DX Ventures with 50 m Euros https://buff.ly/2MPUt11
Auto1 IPOAuto1 IPO will be raising a minimum of 1.5 bn Euros (2.2 bn US$) https://buff.ly/3plC62nOlder articles related to this IPO - you can see the fundraising went up 500 million More details of the planned IPO of Auto1 Group emerge. They want to list in 2021 Q1 in Frankfurt in Prime Standard. Out of 1 bn € to be raised 250 m will pay back convertibles, 750 m will be invested in further growth https://buff.ly/38Hq0uz Used-car platform AUTO1 to float in Frankfurt, looking to raise 1 bn Euros from selling new shares, with a valuation of 6-8 bn Euros https://buff.ly/3bxbWWx
Amazon TV or Radio Station in Germany?Amazon has filed paperwork in Germany to get a broadcast license. The filing dates to November 2020 https://buff.ly/3bW0Mur
Wirecard We keep you updated, just a small selection of news here.
Keep in mind there is still an investigative committee ongoing.
Oliver Samwer from Rocket Internet gave a private loan to Markus Braun from Wirecard of 75 mn Euros (91 m US$), which he demanded back rather harshly, shortly before Wirecard filed for insolvency https://buff.ly/3bW2ITUIn Austria, an investigation against former Wirecard COO Marsalek is ongoing in potential bribery of an employee of Austrian constitution protection (like their NSA). He is supposed to have checked the solvency of porn site hosts for Mr. Marsalke https://buff.ly/39eVNDz
Ecosystem Slack users in Germany were greeted in the new year with a big outage covering most of the first working day of the new year 2021 https://buff.ly/3972zd0 January 4thTech workers want to relocate to Germany more than any other country in the world https://buff.ly/2Jims8n Germany starts with the test of a countrywide patient file, called "E-Patientenakte." The users can carry around all their medical files (x-rays, reports ...) on their smartphone and...
This is the fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany
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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
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:
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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/
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/4837115/
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This is the fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany
Learn more about us at www.startuprad.io
This Month in German Startups - 2020 Review
Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City. This is an annual tradition, where we look at the past year and forward into the coming one. Not to mention, we have been totally wrong last year with the outlook, so we are more sticking to the review this year.
Today we bring you an overview of the German startup corona aid, an overview of the German startup scene, lists of top startup stories, a few outlooks on 2021, and a bit of wine :-)
Ecosystem European Startup Scene 2020 - Snapshothttps://2020.stateofeuropeantech.com/chapter/state-european-tech-2020/article/exec-sum/
8 crucial takeaways from Atomico's recently-launched The State of European Tech 2020 report | via Silicon Canals https://buff.ly/3m6MxVg
‘Megarounds’ helped European Tech ecosystem growWhile many founders found it more challenging to get funding, 2020 is on track to be a record year, with potential to surpass $41B invested, driven by more $100M+ deals.Germany is projected 23 bn US$Low capital, pivoting the product, and sales decline hit founders hardest in 2020International investment hasn’t dried upFrance is the only one of Europe’s three largest markets to grow in 2020. London remains the biggest investment hub in 2020Travel sector gets notably low investmentsInvestment in purpose-driven tech companies soarsGender and racial inequality still prevails in the European tech ecosystem
List: 10 biggest healthtech stories of 2020 https://buff.ly/3aQlnjv
The guinea pigs of Germany’s new healthcare revolutionBioNTech: the German biotech startup behind the coronavirus vaccine
Hot or not: Where European VC funding went in 2020 by Pitchbook https://buff.ly/3nMSzf7 - Difference to Atomico ⇒ Different source for data ...
UK still has the largest VC market in total (13.7 bn $), but Germany (6.8 bn $) grew three times as fast with 10.9% vs UK’s +1.7% BUT this may also be due to Brexit. We will see what 2021 brings. According to Pitchbook France grew by an astonishing 25.4% to a total of 6.1 bn $. The other markets in Europe surpassing 1 bn $ are Sweden (3.2 bn$), Spain (1.4 bn$), and Finland (1.2 bn$).
These are the 10 largest funding rounds of Europe in 2020 https://buff.ly/2W1KGX8
including AUTO1 Group, Tier Scooters and Lilium from Germany
German Startup Scene 2020 - Snapshot Deutscher Startup Monitor https://deutscherstartupmonitor.de/
This is an annual survey by the German startup association, this year more than 1.900 startups participated.The largest share of the - participating startups - (note, there is a bias here) have been inBerlin 17,7%Rhein-Rhur (Cologne, Düsseldorf, …) 12.8%Munich 6.5%Hamburg 5.8%This is one of the reasons we try to highlight so many startups from different areas, since not only every 5th startup is in Berlin. Please note that we try to have approx. 20% of our interviews from Berlin, to give these startups also a fair representation.On average a startup in the survey employed 14.3 employees, up from 13.3 in 2019 and 12.3 in 2018. Despite Corona, 90% were planning to hire people. 15.9% of founders are female in this survey, slightly up from the previous years (15.7% in ‘19 and 15.1% ‘18)Universities play a central role as a core for a startup cluster, especially Germany’s Technische Hochschule (technical universities aka TU) e.g. TU München, KIT, RWTH...
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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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
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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/
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💢 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:
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/
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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/
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 - 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
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 -...
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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DueDashDueDash is a Social Network, for startups and investors. As one of the best places investors could hunt for startups, we have a group of supporters there as well. You can join the group here https://buff.ly/2R90PYp
“We anonymize contracts, so lawyers and consultants are not violating data protection law in due diligence”
Ramin Karbalaie, CEO and Founder NAIX Technology
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
“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...
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
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
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
PatreonYou can now support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=35246148 if you like what you see and hear consider to support us, so we can keep bringing you great content.
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
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...
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!
PatreonYou can now support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=35246148 if you like what you see and hear consider to support us, so we can keep bringing you great content.
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
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
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
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/
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/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...
Find all further Links and show notes on our blog post: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/news-wrap-up-developing-wirecard-story/
PatreonYou can now support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=35246148 if you like what you see and hear consider to support us, so we can keep bringing you great content.
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
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
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
PatreonYou can now support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=35246148 if you like what you see and hear consider to support us, so we can keep bringing you great content.
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
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...
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:
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
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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
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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
Covid 19 Coverage of Startuprad.io
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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)
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:
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💢 Video - Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io
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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
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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?
...
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:
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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
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/
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast.
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:
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
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 (
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...
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:
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
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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
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:
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 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:
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
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...
This is the fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany
Find 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/
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.
EnablerThis recording was made possible by Invest in Hessen. Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/home
Affiliated Links
Our Affiliate PartnerCo-WorkingWeWorkMarketing / SEO / Graphics / Sounds and moreFiverrEmail service?G-SuiteLooking for a bank account for your startup? Have a look at our partner PentaPenta Bank AccountAudible subscription: You can listen to Venture Capital books or entertainment on your way to work with an audible subscriptionhttps://amzn.to/2pGzsehLearn more about our Affiliated Marketing here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/affiliate-marketing-at-startuprad-io/
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 fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany
Learn more about us at www.startuprad.io
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.
Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany
Learn more about us at www.startuprad.io
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:
Slack.com
Startups.Observer
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This is the fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany
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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 the fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany
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)
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This is the fintech track of Startuprad.io. Find us on Twitter:: https://twitter.com/fintech_germany
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
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast.
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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© Startuprad.io - All right reserved
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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)
Affiliated Links
GlobalUSAEuropeGermanyCo-WorkingWeWorkWeWorkWeWorkWeWorkMarketing / SEO / Graphics / Sounds and moreFiverrFiverrFiverrFiverrEmail service?G-SuiteG-SuiteG-SuiteG-SuiteLooking for a bank account for your startup? Have a look at our partner Penta Penta Bank AccountPenta Bank AccountLearn more about our Affiliated Marketing here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/affiliate-marketing-at-startuprad-io/
Sponsoring Message
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/
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
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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
Affiliated Links
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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/).
Affiliated Links
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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 (
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
GlobalUSAEuropeGermanyCo-WorkingWeWorkWeWorkWeWorkWeWorkMarketing / SEO / Graphics / Sounds and moreFiverrFiverrFiverrFiverrEmail service?G-SuiteG-SuiteG-SuiteG-SuiteLearn more about our Affiliated Marketing here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/affiliate-marketing-at-startuprad-io/
© 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
GlobalUSAEuropeGermanyCo-WorkingWeWorkWeWorkWeWorkWeWorkMarketing / SEO / Graphics / Sounds and moreFiverrFiverrFiverrFiverrEmail service?G-SuiteG-SuiteG-SuiteG-SuiteLearn more about our Affiliated Marketing here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/affiliate-marketing-at-startuprad-io/
© Startuprad.io - All right reserved
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
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.
Affiliated Links
GlobalUSAEuropeGermanyCo-WorkingWeWorkWeWorkWeWorkWeWorkMarketing / SEO / Graphics / Sounds and moreFiverrFiverrFiverrFiverrEmail service?G-SuiteG-SuiteG-SuiteG-SuiteLearn more about our Affiliated Marketing here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/affiliate-marketing-at-startuprad-io/
© Startuprad.io - All right reserved
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
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/
Affiliated Links
GlobalUSAEuropeGermanyCo-WorkingWeWorkWeWorkWeWorkWeWorkMarketing / SEO / Graphics / Sounds and moreFiverrFiverrFiverrFiverrEmail service?G-SuiteG-SuiteG-SuiteG-SuiteLearn more about our Affiliated Marketing here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/affiliate-marketing-at-startuprad-io/
© 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.
Affiliated Links
GlobalUSAEuropeGermanyCo-WorkingWeWorkWeWorkWeWorkWeWorkMarketing / SEO / Graphics / Sounds and moreFiverrFiverrFiverrFiverrEmail service?G-SuiteG-SuiteG-SuiteG-SuiteLearn more about our Affiliated Marketing here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/affiliate-marketing-at-startuprad-io/
© Startuprad.io - All right reserved
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 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
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fintechgermany/support