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AutorenbildJuan Diego Parra Castillo
29. März 202031 Min. Lesezeit

Rhine-Main Review 2020 and 2021 Outlook

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This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.com/startuprad-io), and was moved to this blog with the relaunch of our website in summer 2024.


Rhine-Main Review 2020 and 2021 Outlook

“2021 is really going to be a roller coaster. I am really looking forward to the next review, the year is REALLY going to be interesting” Mario Hachemer CTO Fastbill during Rhine-Main-Review

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“At the time trouble [with Covid19] started, large institutions and corporates became unreliable partners” Mario Hachemer CTO Fastbill during Rhine-Main-Review

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“If you look at the startups, that succeeded in 2020, it is the ones with a big client base”Mario Hachemer CTO Fastbill during Rhine-Main-Review

The Guests

“Corona lead to wild [startup] valuation changes, in both directions, sometimes 1,5 X”Mario Hachemer CTO Fastbill during Rhine-Main-Review



“After corona we will get in the startup scene the highest spike either in investments, in mergers and acquisitions or in insolvencies”Joe Menninger, Startuprad.io during Rhine-Main-Review

Topics Discussed



The Video Interview is set to go live on March 30th, 2020 17.00 CET in Frankfurt / Paris / Zürich / Milano


The Audio Interview Podcast

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The Host

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

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Frankfurt / Rhine-Main in Review with the Show Notes of “This Month in German Startups” by Startuprad.io

This Month in German Startups — February 2021

This Month in German Startups — January 2021

Frankfurt

Darmstadt

  • We interviewed the Darmstadt based robotics software startup Energy Robotics in June 2020, where they already talked about their intention to raise Venture Capital. Now they closed their 2 mn Euros VC round: Earlybird and several Business Angels like Paul Achleitner, Gerhard Roiss, Martin Klässner, and Andrej Henkler invest 2 m Euros Venture Capital in Energy Robotics https://buff.ly/3qhA43k

  • You can learn more about them in our interview here: https://buff.ly/3fgyUQ0

  • Merck KGaA snaps up German CDMO in boost to mRNA portfolio — including for Covid-19 https://buff.ly/2KauK2q

Heidelberg/Walldorf

2020 Review / Frankfurt Rhine-Main

  • Look-back at 2020 in the Rhein Main Startup Ecosystem — Frankfurt Valley https://buff.ly/3nBVPcB

  • Frankfurt Rhein Main attracted multiple international companies in 2020 — Frankfurt Valley https://buff.ly/3nCU7HU

  • The most important startup exists in 2020 https://buff.ly/3pXop9Y including Emma, Bettzeit, Lizza and Mailtastic from the Rhine-Main Area

  • Rhinemain.vc (Joe’s project) tracks venture funding of any kind in the Rhine-Main Area. We tracked 28 deals, in total 894 m Euros (skewed towards large rounds with BioNTech’s fundraising due to the development of corona vaccine and placement of additional shares and convertibles). Official publication to follow soon

December News

Frankfurt

November News

Frankfurt

October News

Frankfurt

  • FYRST is live Deutsche Bank’s in-house #neobank for freelancers and entrepreneurs, called FYRST made a soft launch already https://buff.ly/3ndOZLr no numbers have been communicated so far

  • Frankfurt welcomes Coinbase Frankfurt will be the German HQ of Coinbase. They also hired a former manager of Deutsche Börse to run their operations. The position as chief compliance officer is still open https://buff.ly/3iRPebG

  • Female Founders First bach of Accelerator Frankfurt’s female founders program starts: Accelerator Frankfurt open workshops (Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland) https://buff.ly/35iHqLh

  • Fundraising CAPTIQ, the #Frankfurt based lending fintech, raises “seven-digit” #VentureCapital round, with many existing investors adding to their investment https://buff.ly/36DOHrg

Heidelberg

There have been many reports on Heidelberg-based insurance broker / insurtech GetSafe. They are raising a venture capital round, which could top out at 50 mn Euros. This would be one of the largest financing rounds in Germany for an insurtech ever. Now the blog FinanceFWD publishes some allegations:

  • FinanceFWD reports Heidelberg-based GetSafe has inflated numbers and used AI as Buzzword only https://buff.ly/3jtpHFS

  • A lot of noise about nothing — titles t3n, another well-regarded tech blog — their article on GetSafe as a reaction on the article above https://t3n.de/news/viel-laerm-um-nichts-vorwuerfen-1330119/ The founder is quoted in this article saying he is not aware where the allegations of FinanceFWD are coming from. t3n on the other hand confirms the founder (Christian Wien) to be a very good salesman. Wien accuses some of the investors, that won’t get in on the financing round to have an offended ego and being a likely source for the allegations.

Summer-Warp-Up (July/August/September) News

Frankfurt

  • Startup Genome: Global Startup Ecosystem Report: Top 7 startup cities keep their ranking in 2020 — but new players are on the rise https://buff.ly/2ZaUhfd Frankfurt makes Top 20 Knowledge and Top 30 Funding Berlin making No 16 — Overall Bern Geneva from Switzerland and Munich are also doing well

  • Deutsche Bank buys stake in Frankfurt-based Supply Chain #financing #fintech Traxpay https://buff.ly/3g6loPR No further deal details (e.g. price) have been disclosed

  • German business magazine Capital tested 34 robo-advisors. Out of those three #Frankfurt-based made it in the top group — all offspring of traditional asset manager or private banks Visualvest, Zeedin and Bevestor https://buff.ly/2ODZVSx

  • Business Insider Ranking: Top 100 fastest growing companies in Germany. From the Frankfurt Area No 12 Stoertebekker Shaving Accessories (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_St%C3%B6rtebeker) No 33 ChemSQURE No 46 WiWin No 49 Meshcloud (Learn more about Meshcloud here https://buff.ly/2X2DMQA) https://buff.ly/2ZgNQbR

  • “Frankfurt’s FinTech Agora Innovation, with its iVE.ONE platform has brought a stock corporation to the Blockchain for the first time in the European Economic Area.” https://buff.ly/33AlUkg Related Interview on upcoming law for tokenization of securities https://buff.ly/339VKVr

  • Brockhaus Capital Management lPOs in Frankfurt in Prime Standard. They raise 115 mn Euros to invest in mid-sized tech companies https://buff.ly/2B5fq2I

Darmstadt (also Rhine-Main Area)

  • Boston Dynamics, Merck, and the Darmstadt based robotics software startup Energy Robotics cooperate successfully on an autonomous inspection robot https://buff.ly/32fCoP8

  • You can learn more about the startup here in our interview https://buff.ly/2ZscWo2

June News

Frankfurt

  • Commerzbank is not really known across Germany as a big fintech investor. But this story tells how they invested in Marqeta via CommerzVentures. They invested in a 25 mn US$ round and now own (yes, there is some guesswork involved) approx. 3.5% of the company, now valued at 4.3 bn US$ — which leads to their share being valued at approx. 150 mn. This assumes CommerzVentures did not sell any shares in the meantime https://buff.ly/3dvn7gw

  • Bryter, a software toolbox — with locations in #Frankfurt, #Berlin, and #London raises 14 min Euros #VentureCapital https://buff.ly/2MrmN6m

  • Wingcopter Awarded as Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum — sUAS News — The Business of Drones https://buff.ly/2Azw8Hi

May News

Frankfurt (Rhine-Main)

  • The app Aliah supports communications in the hospital and takes away some of the burdens of the medical personal https://buff.ly/2KCssG2

  • There is a webinar for the STEP program of the German-American Chamber of Commerce in New York City, which enables German startups to make a first “step” to New York. It will take place on June 30th form 14–15 CET. You can register here and startups from Hessen can apply for 1.500 Euros funding https://buff.ly/2ADFBg7

  • Aareal Bank, Wiesbaden-based bank specializes in property financing, wants to sell shares in their IT subsidiary after pressured by an investor https://buff.ly/3dXeJGi

Also Rhine-Main Area: Mainz

  • There is still business going on during Corona. Mainz-based Mailtastic (a GDPR conform marketing platform) completes exit (“seven digits”) to New York-based Cognism https://buff.ly/2X5DpWl

April News

#Frankfurt / Rhine-Main

March News

#Frankfurt / Rhine-Main

Covid19

#Drones in RheinMain

  • Bruchsal-based Volocopter extends its Series C to €87 million to pioneer air taxi services | EU-Startups https://buff.ly/2PpfpdJ

  • Drone startup Wingcopter secures a further seven-digit investment from Corecam https://buff.ly/3aBD7f7

Being a fintech CEO is good, at least if you are in Frankfurt https://buff.ly/2VluOzs

Some of the C-Level employees of the startups are earning 500.000 Euros or more a year, according to their annual reports. Note that this salary is not outrageous compared to the position the people could hold elsewhere, especially in Frankfurt.

Take for example here the list of what startups in the US pay their CEOs. Some upward of 4 million USD a year (in one case even beyond 100 mn USD) https://about.crunchbase.com/blog/startup-ceo-salary/ The whole discussion was started because one CEO in Berlin earned more than 130.000 Euros a year. This seems to be a very German discussion.

Iwoca, with German headquarters in Frankfurt, raises 100 mn Euros to hand out as credit in Germany to its clients | FinanceFWD https://buff.ly/3aatsfb it could be a test for a much larger investment

February News

#Frankfurt / Rhine-Main

Frankfurt-based #fintech Traxpay completes management buyout, transforming from AG (plc) to GmbH (ltd) with management buying out old investors https://buff.ly/2UJGxrk The idea of the company is to move money along supply chains along the products. We had the first interview with them (including one of the now bought out investors) in 2014 (published on October 31st 2014): https://www.startuprad.io/interviews/interview-traxpay-main-incubator/ :

Sdui, a Koblenz, Germany-based provider of a school app, extended its seed financing to around €2m. https://buff.ly/3bEb1Be Sdui is a start-up providing tools for mobile communication in education, especially schools.

Discover the eight Graduates from Founder Institute Frankfurt by Pedro Ferreira on Hallo Frankfurt https://buff.ly/2SJkdLT

savedroid AG gets ruling form a district court (Amtsgericht) in their favor. A former trustee has to hand over 3.9 mn from ICO proceeds — https://buff.ly/32fP5Ij

You may remember them from their unfortunate PR stunt — acting like a scam for one day https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/18/another-day-another-50-million-ico-exit-scam/

Frankfurt-based big data startup Bita released the world’s first real-time tradeable crypto index! https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6636207686612590592/

January News

#Frankfurt / Rhine-Main

#Frankfurt-based Online-Broker Flatex buys Dutch competitor DeGiro for 250 mn in a combination of shares (190 mn) and the remainder cash https://buff.ly/2t1x3wf

Successful #Exit for #Frankfurt-based food startup Lizza. A corporate investor buys out all other investors. The founders will retain 30%. The deal volume was “seven digits” https://buff.ly/30qyKQc

#Greater Rhine-Main / Würzburg

Scoutbee gets $60 million to transform industries with AI-based supplier discovery — Tech.eu https://buff.ly/2tzZhOV usually Tech.eu is a great website, the only point they missed is that Scoutbee is headquartered in Würzburg (1:45 hour drive from Frankfurt — unless you do it friday afternoon :-) ) Scoutbee is a B2B platform, which helps you to find

The company aims to drive digital transformation of global procurement. With the help of AI and big data, the scoutbee platform enables the right purchasers and the right suppliers to connect anywhere in the world.


“2019 was an amazing year for startup funding in Frankfurt and Rhine-Main. They raised collectively more than 665 mn Euros, which equals ~ 725 mn US$ or 554 mn GBP. This is a year on year growth of a whopping 75%! Some of it can be explained by the better coverage in the last year, but surely a large part is also due to the very impressive work of startups in the area.”

Transcript


[0:00] Music.


[0:08] That I owe you were podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startup scene with newsinterviews and Live Events hello and welcome everybody this is Joe from celebrated all your startup podcast and YouTube blog from Germany as well as the first internet radio station 24/7dedicated to startups and Techcompanies if you haven’t done already sold make sure to like And subscribe and comment down here wherever you’re listening to this or watching this today I havethree guests here and we’ll take a little review of the rhine-main region for everybody who doesn’t know that that ismore or less the area around Frankfort spreading into three different state hessen.The state we are living in in Frankfort then there’s a position a little bit Rhineland Palatine and up files with the city of mines and down there there is even part of Bavaria guysI would like to welcome you here let’s start first with the one nobody has heard about on my podcast yet at least in person hey Kristen how you doing hiI’m doing really good thank you very much welcome can you tell our audience a little bit about yourself.


[1:28] Sure yeah so I work as a copywriter and WordPress developerand in the startup scene I was and I am active since one-and-a-half to two years with my podcast it’s called the connecting dots podcastand for my podcast I connect the dots in the stories of the founders so I reflect with them on the founders Journey talk about their lessons the highs the ups and downs that’s what I’m doing,and there is Mario hi.Mario I’m the city of first bill in the area of Frankfurt active since I don’t know 2011 or so have been involved in multiple startup since then and well,I’m happy to join this podcast to talk about what happened in 2020 because there’s a lot of stuff to talk about.Yes plus there is as many people may already know Pedro who’s not only our community manager here at celebrated L but also the founder of the startup block Frankfurt Valley hey Pedro welcome I.


[2:35] Hi everyone so it’s nice to be back the last interview that I made was some weeks ago because I’m a founder of a start-up called experience plus if you haven’t seen itplease go there on our library and check this interview with Joe but apart from a Founder I’ve been yeah,building ecosystems and working with different startups here in the region,I’m sitting here and today I want to talk about some of themilestones and the top read articles that we had that Frankfort Valley so let’s get ready.


[3:16] And for everybody who’s listening to this who is watching this down here in the show notes there will be a link to our blog post and we have all the pieces of Newton articles and linksdown there so you don’t need to understand German and English just by listening or watching us guys just make it a little bit open herewhat would be your key takeaways from let’s say 20 20 plus a little bit the first quarter of,2021 except for week glad it’s over,so I would say the the clock funding round was a huge one.The maybe it also one of the most recent ones I guess right it happened in January I happen to interview micro audit,and I think Joe also you also do talk to Christopher oeste right yes talked second time to the sea oh yeah.


[4:18] Yeah so my biggest I would be plaques funding round and it’s interesting that a Chinese investor had a,he was not the only one but I had the majority stake the majority investment I guess that and I think we have quite a lot of cool online video formats.From the start up Safari and Tech with here so I said we have a lot of video content from various podcast so I think we besides the funding round you also had.Um quite a lot to see and hear.And I’m sure it helps the ecosystem a lot to be more on display online and reach a wider audience when we get more content out.


[5:02] If if I may adding on Clark that it’s a big,Flagship let’s call it there is a second one that I would highlight when copter obviously that yeah just raise 22 million recently this,first quarter of the year but all in all I think there is a study from the that is called Essen startup monitor that I lights that,maybe in terms of rounds and business Angela activity the region atvery good performance I think what we have been lacking it’s really access to venture capital,and although we highlighted Clark and Wing copter maybe these are just two small examples so we need more cases like these ones,and this is highlighted in the essence startup monitor the lack of venture capital in the region hopefully we can change it through the year.


[6:10] And that would be one of my takeaways my main takeaway from 2020 like you know talking on a certain.Maybe on a different level to Startup Founders to author Christopher and so on this 2010 E from a Founders perspective.


[6:31] Was one way you can get lots of validation from the or autonomy sense you know there were lots of fun is that I know that have relied largely on big customers or largely on customers that.


[6:46] How our governmental customers a lot of our customers that were institutional and.



[6:54] There will add these these companies ran into a lot of problems a lot of troubles in the second uncertain time started so.

[7:05] If you look at the startups that actually succeeded from an turnover standpoint and succeeded from actually business operations the.Well actually those that had a large large following of customers that had let’s say product that was developed,in a very Progressive manner that wasn’t looking too tightly into compliance and regulations and so on simply simply put because.


[7:34] At the time uncertainty started.Every one of those large institutions became unreliable partners and that is something that.Is something that most Founders like in that have in their gut feeling when they run that company simply because.Well I want to be on my own I do my own stuff.Is one of the key mantras as a founder and well having the government basically not.Doing proper support for the P2P to for the smes having the government fail in many many respects.Something where many entrepreneurs stepped up stepped in if you look at the restaurant at the business that was started around trying to help with restaurant coupon payments and so on.Um lots a lot of very good initiatives I saw from the startup scene this year.


[8:29] Obviously some grifters that well you can’t keep them off but still there was something that was kind of the.


[8:37] Most negative aspect That Couldn’t rely on the large institutions.But you could rely on like the actual people on the ground and it was something that I found really positive.Indeed the the way that startups got involved in trying to find solutions for The Gap the bigger issues with coffee not only really.Belt Solutions butall in all for social for all the business Fields was great so me as a Founder I took part of the you versus virus but there was a version as well in Germany and the amount of startups Founders that caught involved the amount of solutions that were,putting practice in such a short amount of time yeah I think it showed how our.Ecosystem can create really tangible and quick value to to the humanity and that.


[9:36] Is a good sign or.The good side of the coin personally for me I two of the highlights have been more a little bit on the,less well-known side one of them was Avoca they are actually a Lennox startup headquartered in London,they decided for Frankfort as they germany-based and they raise for this one 100 million euros to end it out as credit as a venture debt as a credit lines and so on and so forth,that was very interesting for me as well as sole active they are in the field of index providersthink S&P Dow Jones stocks and so on and basically those guyshave been more or less a financial institution financial service provider technical service provided however you want to call it and they reinvented themselvesas of fintech and raised 50 million of course you’ll find both links down here and that,especially of selective who something very encouraging for me because I do see a lot of potential of a little bit more established companies Reinventing themselves.


[10:51] Startups maybe even in the process becoming a little bit more dynamicalso admittedly together with Mario and Powell we are running right man we see and I’ve been tracking the VC funding rounds here in the greater right man areawhich we Define as approximately one hour away,by car from Frankfurt it’s a little bit smaller than the definition of Silicon Valley but nonetheless it’s a pretty broad one for Germany and of course we do this drivingoutside the rush hour because in rush hour you don’t get out of the Frankfurt city limits,and you don’t go don’t get out of something to school either yeah yeah right.And basically that’s a different issue we had at the start ups the the company’s the tech companies in their racemore than one building you as dollars which is a little bit below 1 billion euros dude you take exchange rate and the motor the biggest driver withbio and Tech and without them without the funding of the vaccine to which they could develop together with Pfizer we would have been.


[12:08] We would have taken a real dive in terms of funding for the Rhine mining area did any of guyyou guys know of any like VC round without mentioning the startup that got busted they didn’t go through all that got smaller due to Corona,I did hear of one funding round that just got.Pushed it to the Future so because that founder that I will not mention my name.She said that in 2020 things were too unstable so he didn’t want it with the funding round in 2020 but they’re working on it now and I could imagine in the next month you will hear about itI did use from your saying that they did not need the funding round fortunately.Not really about it voice it was on the agenda for 2020 actually but like so many things had got it got.


[13:06] Yeah pushed into the future yeah like the the same with me like from the chatter that I’ve been picking up you have lots of postponement.But also valuation changes wildly in both directions.Like you saw the were in those discussions that people say hey I can get.1.5 x 2 3 x of the valuation I had before Corona simply because they were doing online first digital first kind of business and that was just enough.Compared to other other stuff but in general the.Multiple many people are trying just to stretch their cash flow to get the runway longer it’s one of the reasons like the that’s one of the things we’re basically the government incentives of having.


[13:56] I’m not sure what the English term was quotes abide.Um whether it was actually used by multiple startups Eternal to stretch their Runway little bit further so.That’s I think part for the course the question is just we see where we see that you know.Same with the with the SME and businesses small businesses where we see then a spike in.Picking up and do you flow picking up or will it just remain the same and you have just this invisible glut of startups that just never had,do you know the pace picking up because what we do during the pandemic like I’ve Heard lots of rumors hey I’m starting something new during the pandemic.So a lot of people were listening to the.Advice of who was it I think and raised in Horowitz basically said that a crisis is always the best time to start a company.And so that is something that I’ve liked.In my socket so hard I had a lot that’s like I don’t know for before see also known CEOs or cxos who left companies to start something on their own.Personally and I’m very interested in looking on what’s coming out of this because.


[15:17] If you don’t have any kids this is a very Zen kind of way of thinking about your business like.


[15:26] Putting this big asterisk behind that I’m really like parents out there I feel you.


[15:35] In the,indeed Mario I can relate to that a lot so it’s not the easiest time to start your own startup when you have,kids full time at your place and in my case I have four so it’s been very hard,but I relate a lot to what you’re saying and indeed that for example Founders Institute we work with the very early stage founders,and that they were raised here our CEO always says that it’s the best time to start startups it’s now but it’sunfortunately it’s very hard it’s been very hard with the funders that we have been work with it’s very hardto motivate them to keep moving forward the uncertainty although some people like to see answer tunity and changes as a good way to.To to find solutions for some others it’s hard to cope with that from the investor perspective.


[16:37] The amount of money that is sitting around is huge so investors want toto invest they stopped somehow because what they have been asking to sometimes they are not getting the right answers because yeah because founders,cannot give the answers that they want so my prediction is that the Investments for.The upcoming quarters will increase hopefully but I relate to a lot what you said Mario.


[17:11] I really burst out laughing when he said.It’s really a sin time for everybody without children and many people may already know that I have a son and actually,he’s a very active guy the kindergarten teacher just said he is now there for two months so she has to to retire two years earlier,so he’s a very active guy and basically as Pedro says you really feel the difference when you have him at home,for quite some time I would also like to add what I just wrote down quota bite is a government-backed scheme where they take over a little part of the salary,of an employee so he could stay on the payroll but not for 100% of the costs so companies get to keep,the people on the payroll instead of just firing them many people who are frequent listeners to start operate at allwill already know this and talking about Mario’s term as again I do believe there will be spike it will either be,a spike in investmentit will be a spike in mergers and acquisition or it will be a spike in insolvencies I actually hope for the first and feel less but the truth will be most likely somewhere in the middle I do believe and to be honest I think all of those will have them at the very same time.


[18:36] Um no like honestly the for just from the talks I’ve had you’ve just have.Large group of Corona Google kokoro no winners just people who get better value the Asians people who are more adapted to this kind of working you know.With our company like we’ve been one of the first biggest companies in Germany it just works like a whole company was like remote first for like the past four years from the setup.Obviously we had an office we do things but still our companies were I would put a pushes in the winners bucket but,if I look at the other companies and the discussions I’ve had there is a there is a,stake of people who simply had no opportunity to make much turnover there opportunities they’ve tried have like they had to iterate a pivot in the crazy amount of time didn’t work out that wellthe Department’s crapped on them like gods of those stories as well and then you also have the stories where.


[19:40] The thewell the numbers change just that as much to push them into an MMA it I am a territory where it just makes sense or whether deal Plover deal-making raising Capital just makes sense now we’re didn’t beforeand probably wouldn’t and thinks he is so I think you will see like especially also.There’s also this I don’t know if you if you would agree to a robot,from my feeling there’s a sick a cyclical habit as cyclical well development around startups and right now the past I don’t know 12 months the next 12 months.Is right now the end of a seven-year period for lots of startups where you see now like lots of the founders that I have.


[20:28] That’s a grown up within a startup Community I know in the first exit or have just done the first exit are in the ma talks these kinds of things so,lots of companies are in the process of growing up now they would have also without Coronabut Lex said that the shifting of the numbers the slightly shifting of the numbers the devaluation of money the higher valuation of tech companies in general,pushes everything towards that little bit earlier so it feels like we’re going to see lots of exits.Lots of insolvencies and also lots of well great turnover wind strategies.So I’m going to I’m really confident going to happen all at the same time.And if you then look at the macroeconomic picture of small businesses that are going to have to file for insolvency over the next six monththe economy is going to look like a rollercoaster this 2021 is going to like the numbers in 21 going to be crazy I’m really looking forward to the 2041 review just.So I’m not the guy having to go through this roller coaster I want to be at the end of it.


[21:34] It’s going to be really interested I would agree Mario and and the funny thing was my you was talking and Peter and I would not act like,totally safe with food about itany agreement yeah I totally agree on that we are already in the 2021 Outlook I think will do the review maybe next year again for Easterif you guys would like to come and just having a little bit,Outlook at approximately one year Meyer already said lots of merchants Investments and.


[22:13] Insolvencies are really hope the Murchison Investments Drive the next generation of entrepreneurs because I found it very,interestinguseful and insightful to kind of track like the first wave of entrepreneurs successful in Berlin who made an exit who made the merger they then set up their own VC fundBean business angels soup angel or something like this and that’s a development I really do expect.To take hold in Frankfurt starting like until Easter.And will then keep developing hopefully because I do believe that that’s the right way to go that’s how a startup Hub will be actually growing especially due to lack of support here around from public sources.Another interesting aspect that I wanted to want to bring up last November Starling opened offices in Frankfort.


[23:16] That is something where maybe under look under looked but overlooked but.


[23:23] Having those kinds of players recruit people pulling them into the area is something where hey I’ve worked for styling for 6 months like.Alon corporate is not my kind of thing.But still at this point living in the area is attracting High potentials to an area which is very interesting for startups as well.Because as usual that like the war for talent and Frankfurt is high in general because you have these large financial institutions were paying top dollar for good people.And on the other hand of the on the other side you have startups who are doing very Innovative Innovative stuff.And now having like let’s say the cream of the crop of tech companies trying to hire here using their strategies to hire their kind of salaries,we’ll pull a will pull right kind of people here so I’m always find these notes were not worthy,because we’re then you see you get those we get those CVS that include,Tesla’s darling whatsoever that’s always valuable to have people from that kind of experience in the areaI have a really devious mind and I was wondering if you already have posters on the opposite Street side of the Starling exit fast bill is hiring or if you have a Headhunter luring around the Mario.You have to have like you have to wait for Ilan to burn them down a little bit they have to like the.


[24:50] That he needs to put their stamp on there just they’ve I think they just rented the office it’s the offices.Opposite of the old Vision vest office like if I remember correct that might sound Stars Anna yeah.


[25:05] So I drove by that like everyday and I offices like in walking distance so.I should probably do that so yeah we will all be on the lookout if any of us like Christian Peter oric some fast build recruiting posters next to their exit will post about it.


[25:26] Yeah but I do agree with Mario as well so on this point because indeed a startup ecosystem is not only Built ofthe start tips itself also be corporations have a role on this and I think in 2020 with a lot of good examples ofbeak international players that settled in our region and this is Mario highlighted with starlink is a good way to boost the ecosystem make it more International to bring more.


[25:59] Cases and indeed alsodiversifies beat so because we are known a lot by being a fintech up and so on but we will look at the type of companies that camefrom abroad to the region we have people from fintech yes but we have a lot on G sticks medicineyeah energy Automotive so there are so many big corporations coming to the region that I’m also looking forward to see what happens,now in 2021 because indeed last year we had a big bunch a big group of good examplesfor example Tick-Tock was also being discussed come here to the region I guess the decision was not taken by yeah there were multiple discussions about be corporates that could come here to the region.


[26:59] And let’s see if this year we will have some more surprise I mean.We managed this far to talk in it to not talk about biotech I’m kind of happy about that because.They obviously the large elephant in the room like company for mines saving the world like should kind of focus on that a little bit because it also.


[27:26] Highlights a little bit from this angle of looking at.HR and looking at people being sucked into the region the amount of money that like they gained in the past 12 months.Is like enormous you can’t take fathom like the billions of Euros that are that were made in the past 12 months bye-bye on Tech so.I personally know people that have been recruited by them or that I know a couple that went came from India to look at for Flats around Minds to work for biotech sothey are also like sucking and companies sucking in people.Um and they got to be like maybe not in the straight-up taxpayers but in the larger ecosystem that going to be present.Um that’s also something I find very very interesting also as they are not just in mind like.


[28:24] Point of recording this on March 23rd,they IPO did in October 2019 biotech at NASDAQ for $13 82 cents and right now they’re trading at 107 u.s. dollar is that those words Mario referring toChristian you’ve been awfully quiet what’s your take my take on what everything especially the Outlook pitPeter has been has been very good in just touching a little bit that he expects more corporates to show up he wasn’t very specific on his startup forecast but I totally do understand that forecasts are alwaysdifficult especially concerning the future.


[29:07] So I posted oppression of mine wasn’t is that.


[29:15] A lot of Founders in Frankfurt in the area do not such a good job at being present online on sharing.Work in progress ideas thoughts for the future online and then I feel like off a lot of them have like the bare minimum a LinkedIn profile and and a whole page of their startup and and that’s fineyou get information by.Reading about that but I would like to see if I can formulate it as a wish from the community I would like to see a bit more content online of them.And I also mean like sharing retweeting sharing on LinkedIn adding some thoughts to articles to what’s happening you know a bit more activity they would have the.


[30:06] Um the Rhine Mine Valley there the fun food Valley to be more on display online actually Christian I always love to say Frankfurt.Has beautiful places unfortunately it’s very good in hiding them the same holds true for good entrepreneurs yes oh,would you what would be formats or,thinks the founders could do I think I like these little personal home pages that a ton of found us from the from the u.s. from the UK have where you just have a little bio.Waist how to get in touch with them and then maybe some links to blog articles or where they have been on podcasts.Yeah blocks activities social media everything Mario like honestly.


[30:58] Honestly I think this is kind of coming but we are the opposite of Berlin.So in Berlin if you have like an unsuccessful Android app in the store you have like this long CVP blog post page.You move to Frankfort to escape those people so lots of Founders that have talked to over the years like remember having a discussion with.


[31:29] The founder of by VIP HIPAA and Gene now he he basically said that like if I want to I want to go to a startup event every night and if I want to present myself to the public and so on I moved about.Because then I can not work and just be exist as a starter purse.And like find striking a good balance between those two is extremely hard and for people who just want to work and just focus laser focus on getting their stuff done Frankfort is just a very like.Productive place to be meaning that if you are attracted to Frankfurt you’re most likely of the kind person who aren’t very good.This personal branding stuff but it’s coming like this people like Marina who’s like coaching startup founders.With post with regards to personal branding branding and there’s some people yeah she’s amazing at that.


[32:25] So she’s she wrote a book on the topic I’m like I know it our CEO has it on his desk so.


[32:34] I know it’s a topic I know we need to get this done in a better way it’s just that from the like from the preselection of Founders that we have to work with here you work with foreigners who are kind of.Trying to work it to not work another 2 hours a day just on there.



[32:53] Press the profile but we should definitely get there because it’s as I understand as I see it as well it is important not only for like newsie.


[33:03] Tidbits but it’s important as a lighthouse however it’s important to like as a North star for other people who start at the beginning of the edges of the ecosystem who.Need to know that there’s people like in walking distance that have the experience of multiple exit rounds have the experience of an IPO in a company as all of things there are in this area.You have like the if people from the 360 T still in the area who technically are reachable so.There’s lots of lots of lots of lots of experience in the area you just it’s likeIan says it’s just hidden very well last there’s lots of money and unfortunately that is not going into the right direction meaning the startupsor the startup media because I do believe if they if the region would have invested in like a cohesive strategy found something like a Hamburg startups Munich startups are doing they would bemuch further hat but unfortunately I don’t see anything going in this directed but Christian sorry to interrupt you go ahead.Yeah it didn’t necessarily mean a cohesive without a personal brand but just a little more information online would be a.Hey good and easy First Step it’s easier than ever to to share and to.To be more display online but but I I know what you’re saying Mary I agree.


[34:32] I also I also agree with your Christian on that and I would if I would give two cents on the topic would be to also do it not only in German but in English as well because when you.Person like me that as contacts in multiple hubs normally people don’t know what it’s happening aboutour region so why normally I tell them well there is a lot happening I always tend to either to address them to Frankfurt Valley or to startupradio obviouslybut I would be extremely happy that more the founders who would start,having their own content generated as well in English because then,the international investors the international media the international consumer can get aware of really the potential and what’s happening the success stories and so on because if weonly do it in German sometimes onlydid that region will be able to understand it so yeah my two cents on what you just said.Yes totally agree plus you also.


[35:48] Cute but you then have another problem because the german-speaking sources they usually quoted they usually usedin the gym startup media but if your English Source like me you get reach out from all the public broadcaster’s you get reach out from like Financial Times or something like this but never any like local or Regional newspapereven reached out to me even though a few,made out directly to me and one of them even mentioned us on Twitter that we helped him to understand the business model of of very complex startup from the area around here so I do believe their issues onall the sites and we cannot solve them we just can highlight them here.We are running very short I only have four minutes left in your valuable time that are scheduled for me and the review.Do you have some final thoughts closing words inspiration something like this please feel free to go ahead.Kristen usually you would last one to speak you want to start at the beginning.At the first in the beginning I was the first one to speak so I think this would be my task on my let’s call it inspiration.For people in the area also just people interested in the this in the startup ecosystem go online reach out to people right online share your thoughts.And and get in contact we have.


[37:16] Really great opportunities online and it’s easier than ever to reach out to people so so do that we active online.So


[37:29] I think my closing words would be that what I’ve referred to earlier that.This some they say if you feeling hopeless that I don’t know your startup doesn’t work or something try to find Hope inside.Don’t look for Hope outside don’t look for support elsewhere it’s like everything you need to succeed in your business is like.


[37:55] Right where you’re sitting you just need a computer and don’t like.


[38:01] Delude yourself into thinking that there’s going to be some key cut Keystone customer or some I don’t know institutional operator that’s going to fix your business problems send you the money that you need and so on,2020 20 and 20 21 is.Is a wake-up call for everyone to be a little bit more self sufficient to look into a look for them to themselves when it comes for support.And that is something where I think we can all learn and become more resilient at the future.Um yeah there’s something it might look it might sound a little bit dark but actually happy about this happening the way it does.It’s a it could have been less soft for certain people so I’m.Really happy about the way we’re positioned as an area as a digital Hub and you see that with companies like Starling moving to us.


[38:59] Pedro closing words okay.Yeah I would like to make two highlights one it’s related to the topic that I mentioned in the beginning the access to venture capital so there was indeedalready in this quarter very good news I think the the announcement of the scn regional growth fund from future e that indeed as a total of 60 million andit’s based off of multiple.Corporates that are putting money into the basket from Toy tubers to Fresenius Mark Deutsche Bank and so on my Nova and many more I think this fund.Ultimately can bring some good example of how.Investment in the future could bring more startups and projects to the region I’m really curious to see,in which companies they will invest so they invested already in Wing copter but I’m looking forward to see which projects they will invest further ahead,but to link to to to to to this to the discussion and the point that Mario also said about the covid and resilience I really.I think that this is the year where we could see more and more.


[40:27] Impact and sustainability projects coming up so projects that really address the sdgs,and I think we are forced to do it so I’m really looking forward to see,all the different initiatives that we have that are pushing these and we have many examples in our region but as well internationally and I think that I believe that we.Changes there are a lot of chances so I’m really positive that we will have some in one year or maybe two we will have a good review,out of this conversation that we had right now so hopefully I’m positive that.There will be some more winners out of this this face this crisis awesome great closing words would like to end on a high note here at startupradio and Pedro did this way over oh,dice thank you very much for being here was a pleasure having you thank you very much I’ll feed as in.


[41:34] Bye-bye thank you goodbye ciao.


[41:40] How he does in if you are a professional looking at the European startup scene Germany is a place you cannot miss.


[41:49] Music.


[41:59] Each week most likely you have never heard or read anything only startups before in English but you will in the future be ahead of the curve And subscribe to startupradio.


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