🦄 DACH Unicorn Tracker 2025: Trends, Funding, and Opportunities | Startuprad.io
- Jörn Menninger
- vor 11 Minuten
- 21 Min. Lesezeit
🚀 Management Summary
Welcome to Startuprad.io, the authority on startups from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In this definitive 2025 spring edition of the DACH Unicorn Tracker, we spotlight the region’s top-performing unicorns, key funding trends, and emerging opportunities for investors, founders, and innovation leaders.
You’ll discover which startups are scaling globally, which sectors are booming, and where the challenges lie—all backed by real data and on-the-ground insights.
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🌍 The DACH Startup Ecosystem in 2025: An In-Depth Review
The DACH region—short for Germany (D), Austria (A), and Switzerland (CH)—continues to prove itself as a startup powerhouse. This year, we tracked 48 active unicorns and former unicorns, across sectors from climate tech and fintech to AI-driven robotics and defense tech.
With global challenges mounting, DACH startups are not just adapting—they’re setting the pace for innovation.
🐣 New Unicorns on the Rise
🛸 Quantum Systems (Munich)
Sector: AI + Defense/Commercial Drones
Milestone: €100M Series B from Notion Capital and Porsche
Why It Matters: Dual-use drones are now a strategic frontier.
🚛 Logistics & Freight Tech: Europe’s Innovation Engine
Forto (Berlin)
Navigating leadership changes and layoffs
Focused on profitability and potential acquisition
Sennder (Berlin)
Acquired C.H. Robinson Europe
€1.4B revenue, operating in 20+ countries
Built the proprietary SenOS platform
🚌 Mobility & Micromobility
Flix (Munich)
Owns FlixBus, FlixTrain, and Greyhound (USA)
Revenues of €2B in 2024
Expanding to India, investing in hydrogen & solar buses
Tier (Berlin)
Merged with Dott to become Europe’s top e-scooter operator
Declining valuation but 100M+ annual rides
Volocopter (Bruchsal)
Former unicorn, sold to China’s Wang Fang Group after bankruptcy
Cautionary tale in the eVTOL sector
🤖 Deep Tech & Industrial Innovation
Agile Robots (Munich)
Germany’s first robotics unicorn, backed by SoftBank
Focus on healthcare and logistics automation
Helsing (Munich)
Defense AI powerhouse
€450M raised, €5B valuation, key to Eurofighter upgrades
🚗 Auto & Consumer Tech
Check24 (Munich)
Price comparison giant, profitable and bootstrapped
Major player in consumer tech, offering travel, insurance, loans
AutoDoc (Berlin)
Leading auto parts e-commerce firm
€1.3B revenue, €2.3B valuation
IPO planned for 2025
🧬 Biotech & Life Sciences
ADC Therapeutics (Switzerland)
Specializes in antibody drug conjugates
Despite a profitable product, valuation fell below unicorn level
🌱 Climate Tech & Renewable Energy
1Komma5 (Hamburg)
Raised €450M
AI-powered energy trading platform “Heartbeat AI”
Enpal (Berlin)
Germany’s #1 residential solar platform
Offers batteries, EV chargers, heat pumps—all AI-managed
Climeworks (Zurich)
World leader in carbon capture
Their Iceland DAC plant removes 36,000 tons of CO₂/year
💸 Fintech & Insurtech
N26 (Berlin)
250K new customers/month
Pivoted back to Europe after exiting US/Brazil
€440M revenue
Trade Republic (Berlin)
8M+ users, €100B+ in assets
Gained full banking license, but faced 2025 outages
Clark (Frankfurt)
Grew to €35M revenue
Featured in 2 Startuprad.io interviews
Scalable Capital (Munich)
€17B in assets, 600K+ clients
Facing EU scrutiny on order flow model
🧑💻 Enterprise SaaS & AI
Celonis (Munich)
Germany’s only decacorn (€13.2B)
Global leader in process mining
Delayed IPO to double down on AI
Personio (Munich)
HR SaaS for SMBs
Still expanding despite 2024 layoffs
DeepL (Cologne)
World-class AI translation tool
Now on Forbes AI 50, Cloud 100
✈️ Marketplaces & Travel
GetYourGuide (Berlin)
Leading global experiences platform
Now supported by Checkout.com and Prime Ventures
Omio (Berlin)
Formerly GoEuro, expanding across Southeast Asia
Chrono24 (Karlsruhe)
Online marketplace for luxury watches
Raised €235M+, adapting to post-COVID demand
🍔 Consumer Tech, Robotics & EdTech
Berlin Brands Group: Global portfolio of D2C brands
Shoko (Berlin): Food supply chain AI and logistics
eGym (Munich): AI fitness, wellness SaaS expansion in EU + USA
GoStudent (Vienna): Hybrid AI tutors + VR learning
Scandit (Zurich): Smart barcode tech, NHS + Carrefour clients
Commerce Tools (Munich): API-first headless commerce platform
⚠️ Former Unicorns: What Went Wrong?
Wefox: Regulatory losses, valuation collapsed
Grover: Burned through €1B+, now in stabilization
Infarm: Vertical farming dream collapsed
JOKR: Exited EU + US, now operating only in Brazil
Solaris: Valuation dropped from €1.6B to €90M
Tier & Volocopter: From leaders to distressed assets
🔑 Key Trends in 2025
✔ Logistics and freight tech remain DACH’s stronghold✔ Climate tech and energy are scaling fast✔ Fintech is back—leaner, stronger, focused✔ AI is powering deep tech and SaaS at scale✔ Micromobility consolidation is reshaping urban transport✔ Biotech remains high risk, high reward
The Hosts
The news are co-hosted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. And Christian “Chris' ' Fahrenbach, co-founder Startuprad.io, freelance reporter, lecturer, author and blogger . Reach out to them:
📈 People Also Ask
What is DACH?Germany (D), Austria (A), Switzerland (CH – Confederation Helvetica). It’s a powerful tri-nation startup hub with strong industrial and tech foundations.
What are DACH’s startup strengths?Deep tech, logistics, enterprise SaaS, and emerging leadership in climate tech.
What are the key risks?Late-stage funding gaps, regulatory scrutiny (especially in fintech), and market saturation in some verticals.
How does DACH compare to London or Paris?DACH offers stronger industrial roots, more bootstrapped success stories, and is a rising global innovation hub—less flash, more depth.
Outlook for 2025-2026?Expect major growth in AI, SaaS, and sustainable tech. DACH unicorns will continue to scale and go global—especially those in logistics, climate, and fintech.
📺 Watch & Listen: DACH Unicorn Tracker 2025
🎥 Video goes live Good Friday, April 18th, 2025
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💬 Drop your thoughts in the comments!
👉 What startup surprised you most on this list?👉 Which unicorns will rise or fall in 2025?💡
Automated Transcript
Narrator Dorsey Jackson [00:00:05]:
Welcome to startuprad.io, your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startup scene with news, interviews, and live events.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:00:20]:
Hello, and welcome, everybody. This is Joe from startuprate.io, the authority on German, Swiss, and Austrian startups. And today, we are bringing you something very special, our update on the 2025 unicorn tracker for the DACH region. We ran a regular unicorns tracker in parallel to our start up news during corona since there were so many newly coined unicorns. So for all of you, we bring the format back here on God Friday. If you celebrate it, happy Easter. And we have a plan to get together to do a new unicorn tracker towards the end of the year. Chris, how would a new unicorn tracker for Thanksgiving sound to you?
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:01:02]:
Oh, yes. Let's do it. I mean, so much is changing. Let's do it.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:01:06]:
Let's do it. Think of this episode as kind of status update. Keep in mind that no one is required to report either reaching or losing unicorn status, so there's always some guesswork involved as we always rely on other sources here and correlate them. On most unicorns list, there's an agreement, but not all. We'll also follow this episode with extensive blog posts where you can learn more about the unicorns we mentioned here. We've done the legwork together unicorns, former unicorns, and some overlooked champions in German speaking startup scene. With east around the corner, what better time to bring you a shiny new unicorn? And as we're already speaking of we, Chris, hey. Welcome, my man.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:01:50]:
Today, not in New York. Right?
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:01:52]:
I snuck into it already. No. I'm, talking to you today from Dusseldorf in Western Germany, where I am actually on my little Easter break and traveling through the country. Yeah. And looking ahead today, we got a great episode. We are talking fresh unicorns, cautionary tales, a few stealth giants that rarely make headlines but are a bit in in the background and nevertheless are hugely successful. And we are giving you our aim is to give you, like, a complete state of play for the DACH startup ecosystem. As always, we explain that DACH is, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Austria, Switzerland.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:02:31]:
With most of these, we cannot give you more than just a few sentences due to the number of companies and the sheer amount of data each company generates. In 2024 there was only eGymned sorry, eGym coined as a new unicorn. That makes us hope that for 2025, probably we have more to talk about and we probably already have the first new unicorn with quantum systems. We are covering 48 unicorns in total, so let's go. Yes. We are calling out those who lost unicorn status too. It's no judgment, just fact. Let's dive in back to you.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:03:05]:
Elle, and I have a reply for Martha from, Ohio. She reached out to us and asked why DACH, why the CH at the end. It's, the Swiss call themselves something like Confederation Helvetica, Helvetica being their own name for Switzerland here. That's why it's DACH.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:03:23]:
And I think in German in German, we just say it because dach rolls more easily off the tongue than d c h a.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:03:31]:
Yeah. And dach also means roof in German. So that's a that's about it. So let's kick things off with the news edition to list, the one that actually tracked this Unicorn tracker or started it, Quantum Systems from Gilshing, Germany. I do believe that's, pretty close to Munich AI drones. The Munich based drone tech innovator hit unicorn status in 2025 after the securing 100,000,000 in series b funding from Notion Capital and Porsche. The recent acquisition of Air Robot and expansion to Ukraine solidifies their lead dual use defense and commercial AI drones. Talking a little bit about logistics and freight tech unicorns here.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:04:20]:
We kick off with logistics tech, one of the region's quite powerhouses. First up is Forto in Berlin. By the way, also an interview we did by the founder and CEO that is now part of the supervisory board. They've modernized global freight forwarding with real time digital platform simplifying cross border trade. But 2025 brought major changes. Layoffs hit a third of their team and founder, Michel Max, moved to chairman. The new CEO oh, it's a French name?
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:04:53]:
Guillaume Petit Pervan. Guillaume Petit Pervan.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:04:56]:
Ah, okay. As he said, is steering the ship towards profitability while exploring, possible sales.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:05:05]:
Yes. Right. And then there's Ascender, with a two n, also Berlin based shaking up, full truckload freight across Europe. They have acquired CHA Robinson's European arm and now send a doubled revenue it's doubled its revenue to €1,400,000,000. They've upgraded leadership, expand expanded their tech stack with the SenOS platform and are now, competing in 20 plus countries. It's a logistics unicorn scaling like a rocket, one could say. And, so by now, you can probably tell we are giving you an overview of the German unicorns, by industry. So moving on from logistics and freight tech to mobility and micromobility.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:05:53]:
Yes. From freight to people. Let's talk mobility. Flix. By the way, also an interview we did, link in the show notes, in Munich is a standout. Not only are they behind FlixBus and Flix Train, but they also own Greyhound in The US. Their 2024 revenues hit €2,000,000,000 with EQT and Kuna Holding backing them. They're expanding globally, including new routes in India and pioneering sustainable mobility with solar powered and hydrogen powered buses.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:06:27]:
Also in micro mobility, we or not also because Flix is buses. But, in micro mobility, we see Tia from Berlin once, a micro mobility unicorn in and of itself with a €2,000,000,000 valuation. In 2024, they merged with Dot and are now Europe's largest shared e scooter operator. I guess many people have seen them in if they live in a bigger city, they faced heavy layoffs and a declining valuation because, there really was a boom for these companies. And now it's only a few companies left in the market, but their rights now surpass 100,000,000 annually.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:07:05]:
And I would say tier counts as a former unicorn in most lists. Also here, what I talk about, Volocopter and Porsai, once a flying taxi unicorn, they went bankrupt before the Olympic debut. China's Wang Fang Group bought them in March 2025 for just €10,000,000, making a dramatic end to Germany First EVTOL unicorn. Going into deep tech and iHeartware, another deep tech star is agile robots, also Munich. They made waves as Germany's First robotic unicorn with softbank backing in 2023. They acquired Franca, Emica, and BMW's automation unit IdealWorks. They're pushing forward with award winning robot arms like Diana three, tackling automation in health industry and logistics.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:08:03]:
And just like, HR robots and BMW, we also have Helsing in Munich, taking AI to the battlefield there. They raised €450,000,000 in 2024 and are now at a €5,000,000,000 valuation, so largely significant, developing defense AI for fighter jets and drones. Helsing is one of the key players in the Eurofighter upgrade, FACAS program. Their Baltic expansion shows how serious they are about European security tech and I guess, the whole discussion about the future of NATO, Europe investing more in its own defense systems in order to be less dependent on The US will probably mean good business for them as well. Related to what we're talking now or at least we already dropped BMW, we are now looking at auto companies and some overlooked giants there. There is check twenty four in Munich which is a bit little bit of everything because it's also a website that offers car rentals. It also offers it's a competitor to booking.com. But despite flying under the radar, it's a price comparison platform that in Germany really is a consumer tech behemoth, profitable bootstraps, still a unicorn in 2024 with really aggressive marketing.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:09:22]:
In Germany, they gave away free football jerseys from the German team, And, they really got a lot of buzz from that, but also some backlash. But Czech twenty four, definitely one of the German unicorns to watch.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:09:35]:
Also, Autodock in Berlin, Europe's leading auto parts ecommerce firm. In 2024, they reported €1,300,000,000 in revenue, a 10% profit margin, and a 2,300,000,000.0 valuation after Apollo Global invested. They are they are preparing for 2025 IPO and pushing hard into the b two b space with Autodoc Pro. Going a little bit into biotech and life science here. There is only one for the very simple reason that all lists in Switzerland include this one startup. Otherwise, we shipped around noting all the all the unicorns that are from the biotech space. It's much complicated. But if you'd like to get an overview done here, we are also happy to do it.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:10:30]:
One prominent player there, as I said, is ADC Therapeutics from the Southern Switzerland. They specialize in anti antibody drug conjugates for cancer after 105,000,000 US dollars raised there in 2024. Their truck
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:10:47]:
Zinnlanta? Zinnlanta?
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:10:49]:
Zinnlanta. Something like this turned profitable, but the valuation dropped below Unicorn level, and their market cap now sits at around 150,000,000. Chris?
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:11:01]:
Yeah. So ADC is really good example of volatility in the biotech sector. I mean, if they have been a unicorn and now sitting around hundred and $50,000,000, you can really see that. In our next section, we'll cover climate tech unicorns and why 2025 could be their breakout year. Stay tuned for that. But let's take a little breath
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:11:23]:
And say thank you to our sponsor for a little ad break.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:11:34]:
Welcome back from the ad break. We are moving on to, climate tech and renewable energy, as I said. For example, we also mentioned them a couple of times in the podcast, in the regular podcast already. We have Einskommar Funf Grad, one point five Degrees, if you translate it. They are based in Hamburg, definitely another start up to watch. They've raised over €450,000,000 and acquired solar companies across Europe and Australia. They have an energy platform called Heartbeat AI, which helps households to buy cheap electricity and then sell it higher. So it's definitely a company in that industry, in the climate tech industry that is thinking about, how to kind of harvest the potential of the field.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:12:23]:
Yes. Enpal in Berlin or Enpal, Eepel, something like this. And I would pronounce them Enpal in Berlin is the largest residential solar platform in Germany with over 5,000,000,000. Yes. Again, with a b. Yours in financing race, they now offer a full energy suit, batteries, heat pumps, EV charging, and AI powered heartbeat platform to manage it all. Okay. Why don't we take this out? In Switzerland, Climeworks leads in carbon capture.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:12:54]:
They mammoth DAC plant in Iceland is live, capable of removing 36,000 tons of c two annually, partnerships with companies like Morgan Stanley, and Accolades from Frost company cement their global leadership. Chris, you wanna start with fintech and insurtech unicorns?
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:13:18]:
Yes. There is n '26. I was even a former customer of them, a company that has gone through several iterations by now, but still being a a brilliant heavyweight. They overcame regulatory headwinds, bounced back, attracted 250,000 new customers per month, as they say, and are now posting €440,000,000 in revenue. That's from last year. They've exit exited The US and Brazil market to, focus on Europe and plan to double their marketing spend in 2025. So, definitely still a company that has not seen its last days even though it might have felt like that probably in our even in our podcast. Mhmm.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:14:00]:
I see. Trade republic actually before the last fundraise of n twenty six for some weeks or two months, something like this, Germany's most valuable fintech, the Berlin based new broker now serves over 8,000,000 customers and manages more than €100,000,000,000 in assets. In 2024, they secured a full banking license, but outages in early twenty twenty five raised concerns about their platform's reliability.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:14:31]:
And just as dynamic as the fintech sector in Germany is also InsurTech, there we see that Clark from Frankfurt is growing steadily. They hit 35,000,000 in revenue in '23, and transitioned founder Christopher Oster to chairman now. They've also appeared twice on startup radio diving deep deeply into their strategy and into to their digital insurance vision. So Clark definitely want to watch too.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:14:59]:
Vividly remember the first, interview before they became unicorn. I was talking with Christopher. And, at the time, we've been an audio only podcast, so I'm not really sure about his face. But he was on list of Bloomberg's twenty most promising startups you never heard of. I I asked him if this was an word for him, Most promising startups or challenge for his marketing, never heard of. I think by now you know my style. Do not forget, Scalable Capital headquartered in Munich with 17,000,000,000 under management and a base of over 600,000. They are major player in wealth tech.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:15:39]:
But outages and EU regulatory risks about their payment for order flow model have raised eyebrows about long term viability. The the payment for order flow is actually also a problem of trade republic, I have to mention.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:15:54]:
Mhmm. We also see Raizen, a company that aims to redefine savings across Europe. They have an impressive €57,000,000,000 in assets under their management, are profitable, and expanding into new countries. Also, they appeared on start up radio to share their journey. Definitely a fintech to watch closely as well.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:16:15]:
Another important one is Mambu in Berlin, a core banking SaaS platform supporting over 114,000,000 users in 2024. They acquired French payment tech, Nouriale. Chris, you're better in French. You actually learned that stuff. I did never.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:16:35]:
Numerale.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:16:36]:
Numerale. As he said, expense expand their product suite and won Google Cloud financial services partner of the award.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:16:47]:
And rounding out this little fintech crew here is Bitpanda, probably the most talked about, startup that we have. From Austria, they are an Austrian crypto unicorn and they're launching non custodial DeFi wallet. They're expanding into Dubai. They're pushing their B2B white label offerings or named Bitpanda technology solutions. So definitely last but not least in this little section.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:17:13]:
Also, I have a add on for this list because nobody likes taxes, but Taxfix became a unicorn with innovating in tax filings across Europe after acquiring tax scouts in The UK. They're growing despite a workforce reduction in 2023. Their commitment is simplifying taxes for every bay. Users keep them on the map. Exactly. And now we go into SaaS and enterprise and HR tech. That is definitely the place to talk about Ceylonese, Germany's only decacorn, meaning evaluation of above 10,000,000,000. In their case, 13.2 was the number we found.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:17:54]:
Based in Munich, Celonis is a global leader in process mining and execution management. They are partnering with IBM and ServiceNow, and in '24, delayed their RTO to focus on embedding AI deeper into their platform. Pretty impressive and gutsy management decision there.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:18:16]:
Another Munich based stand out is Personio, an HR tech platform tailored for small and medium sized enterprises. They're optimizing internal operations, right now after layoffs in '24, but they remain a European category leader, still with a strong growth and deep integrations in HR workflows. So Personio still want to watch.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:18:38]:
Let's not skip Contentful in Berlin. They are powered digital experience for giants like IKEA and Shopify. Even after 15% layoff, they launched a new AI feature and kept evaluation near 3,000,000,000. Their CMS platform remains a backbone for modern digital infrastructure.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:19:00]:
And in internal communication communications, we see that staff based from KEMNETs made waves as the first unicorn from the Eastern part of the country, sometimes still referred to in the country as the new states. They've expanded rapidly with the support of JPMorgan and KFW. Their launched a next generation email platform and landed in the Gardner Magic Quadrant. Moving on to AI and language tech, DeepL, based in Cologne, is a powerhouse and translation tech. In '24, they raised $300,000,000 and launched Clarify, a real time editing tool for Nuance translation translations. They now serve a hundred thousand customers, including global enterprises like Coursera and Deutsche Bahn.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:19:49]:
AI has been central to the growth. And to our show as well, Startup Radio has been tracking deep l since early days, and now they are on Forbes AI 50 and cloud 100 list. Not bad for a clone startup. Chris, you wanna talk a little bit about travel and marketplaces?
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:20:08]:
Always travel. I wanna talk about travel. On travel, GetYourGuide, a Berlin based company, raised nearly €200,000,000 in '23 and now lists over a 10,000 global experiences. Strategic partners like Checkout.com and Prima are helping them boost conversion and scale globally. But I also have to say I had a, get your guide experience in Rome where I wanted to watch the or go see the Caravaggio exhibit, and I bought my ticket at through get your guide. And when I arrived at Piazza Barberini Piazza Palazzo Barberini, it turned out that the ticket I bought did not include the special exhibit, and it was not mentioned on the website properly. So I will I will let them know. I will write, get your guide, and see what comes out of it.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:21:00]:
Mhmm. You should do. Also, we have Omio, actually a start up that I interviewed many, many years ago when they were really early stage their founder, under their old name GoEuro. They are still from Berlin, and they have secured by now more than 120,000,000 credit facilities. They're expanding into Southeast Asia and offering flexible multi model travel tools across Europe.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:21:28]:
In travel and marketplaces, very interesting niche that Chrono twenty four sits in. They are from Karlsruhe and are a leading marketplace for luxury watches With $235,000,000 in funding and new dealerships, they're now adapting to shifts in demand and they are doubling down on digital innovation. It's gonna be interesting to see how that goes in that market small market in luxury ecommerce.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:21:55]:
Yes. Great rundown so far, Chris. Coming up next, we'll take a closer look at food consumer robotics and education unicorns, plus those we've lost along the way.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:22:08]:
So stick around. You're listening to startuprate.io. Don't forget to rate us and check out our links in the show notes. Time for some ads.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:22:18]:
Thanks for sticking around. Welcome back to consumer tech robotics and food innovation. Let's start with Berlin bands brands group. With 800,000,000 funding, they've acquired dozens of d two c brands and expanded globally despite layoffs and rising competition. They're pushing hard in compliance and portfolio optimization maintaining the unicorn crown.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:22:42]:
And speaking of optimization, Shoko, also based in Berlin, is digitalizing the food supply chain. They have an app that reduces food waste and streamlines restaurant supplier communication. They acquired the Spanish startup Cartu and became Spain's top food service ordering platform as well. So a company that seems to do a lot of things right, Shoku, also based in Berlin. And also, we already mentioned it, eGym from Munich in 2024, they raised $200,000,000 to out to grow their Well Pass corporate wellness network and launched eGym genius and AI workout coach after acquiring FitReserve, FitReserve, and Hussle. They are scaling fast in Europe and The US. Moving on to EdTech, education tech, smart data and deep logistics.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:23:35]:
Yes. GoStudent in Vienna is transforming education with hybrid online offline tutoring and VR based language learning that AI tutor Amelia is already helping thousands of students personalize their learning experience.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:23:52]:
Oh, interesting. Over in Zurich, Scandit is a global leader in smart data capture. They have clients like Carrefour and the NHS in The UK. Their SDKs now offer AI powered scanning tech, smart labels, and advanced logistics solutions.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:24:12]:
Let's talk about commerce tools. The Munich based ecommerce software provider. They're a leader in API first, headless commerce, and processed 30,000,000,000 in GMV last year. Despite recent layoffs and leadership turnover, they continue to win enterprise clients and Google Cloud awards.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:24:33]:
Yeah. And that that was it for our little section of software as a service fintech and marketplace unicorns. But now we mentioned it a couple of times already. We are moving on to what I don't know if we can call it a graveyard because maybe some of those might experience a resurrection. So let's talk about former unicorns and the question, where are they now? You got the first one.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:25:02]:
Okay. For now, for the part nobody likes, but it's important. Let's talk about former unicorns. First, we have Wefox once valued at 4,500,000,000 drop below unicorn level amid d plus in Italy and Germany. Needed to change twice, and they're now fighting for survival. And, actually, we have to say we talked about this a lot because the fight in and for We Folks was quite public.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:25:32]:
Grover, known for tech rentals, lost its unicorn status after a down round, and they burned through over €1,000,000,000 in funding. They've now pivoted to some kind of stabilization mode with a new CFO onboard to ride the ship. We will see how that goes.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:25:48]:
Inform, once the vertical farming darling exited several markets and entered administration by late twenty twenty three, the cofounder now runs a much smaller Canadian spin off. Their pivotal to kosher greens in North America is a far cry from their global farming dreams. And, actually, I couldn't I couldn't even find their website anymore, so they're completely stamped up, but still on some lists here.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:26:19]:
More like infamous than inform. Am I right? So there's there's also oh god. I'm so sorry. I know it's people and dreams and etcetera. I'm sorry for the joke. But I'm sorry for the joke. Oh god. And that's even a segue because there's also a JOKER, without the e, a Berlin born quick commerce startup.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:26:38]:
We've talked about that industry quite often here in terms of, fast grocery shopping. Once a billion dollar player, Joker now exited Europe and The US, only operating as Ducky in Brazil, the valuation dropped below $1,000,000,000 after a tough down round.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:26:55]:
Actually, I was tempted to also include gorillas there, but then I realized they already lost, their, billion dollar valuation during the takeover, from Get Here more than three years ago. So I thought, just skip this here. Not skipping. We will. Oh, that that was Yoda saying, talk about Solaris, a major BAS, banking as a service player. So its valuation dropped from 1,600,000,000.0 to 90,000,000 after heavy losses and staff cuts. Japanese Japanese SBI group took over the majority ownership in 2024, a sobering example of scaling too fast in fintech.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:27:40]:
And rounding out, here are the ones we mentioned before because they're still on some lists we have found. Just a very quick run through. Tier, the former micro mobility unicorn merged with DOT and saw its value dropped to a hundred €50,000,000. Volocopter, the air taxi pioneer sold to China's OneFeng Group after insolvency and numbers without the e once a Swiss fintech unicorn quietly faded into b to b niche obscurity.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:28:06]:
And there you have it, or, full unique our full unicorn tracker, all 20 48 known unicorns in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, plus the fallen stars who shaped the ecosystem. Whether you're an founder or just a tech nerd, this was your full download on the start up scene stands right now.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:28:31]:
Yes. So we will continue updating this every few months. So hit follow or check out the show notes for all source links, investor info. We hope you enjoyed this special episode and this special overview of the market, bit of a shift from our regular programming. You can also find more investor info and our own interviews with many of these founders on our website. For now, though, we say thanks for listening to startuprate.io, your inside track to the DACH startup ecosystem.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:29:01]:
Until next time, and keep scaling.
Christian "Chris" Fahrenbach | Co-Founder Startuprad.io [00:29:04]:
Yes. Please do. Bye. Bye.
Narrator Dorsey Jackson [00:29:11]:
That's all, folks. Find more news, streams, events, and interviews at www.startuprad.io. Remember, sharing is caring.
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