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This Month in German Startups — December 2020

This story was migrated from our old blog, originally published on December 17th, 2020.


New Blog

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.


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.

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Housekeeping — Time to brag

We have only one thing to say: Stay safe everybody! Be grateful for what you have!


Affiliate Links

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  • “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/3cl41sA

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  • A 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

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Top News

10 Billion Euros (12.1 bn US$)

This is the sum the German federal government wants to invest in addition to all other measures in the German startup scene in 2021, as a kind of kick-off to encourage private investments as well. Some articles here:

  • The German government wants to invest 10 bn Euros (~12 bn US$) in German startups in 2021 — directly and indirectly https://buff.ly/2HSEBZJ

  • A more critical view from Sifted includes statements from Christian Miele, head of Germany’s startup association “Germany launches €10bn ‘Future Fund’ for startups. But will it go far enough? | Sifted” https://buff.ly/3r1CHrw

DAX (Deutscher Aktien Index — Germany’s most important share price index)

  • Trouble for HelloFresh? German share price index DAX will be completely overhauled. It will be expanded from 30 to 40 and all companies should be profitable. Changes will take effect in September 2021 https://buff.ly/33fqoNH

  • We already shared the news that the DAX (Germany’s leading equity index) will be overhauled and extended to 40 companies. Hot candidates for the expansion are Zalando, Scout24, Teamviewer, and HelloFresh https://buff.ly/369EF0p

Back to normal only in 2024?

Flightright is one of the startups, buying up compensation claims for delayed flights under the EU rules. They expect commercial flying to be back to normal in 2024 https://buff.ly/2JJXdvO

What is your opinion? How do you plan to recover? Feel free to give us your feedback and opinion on Google Forms, please include your geography in the feedback ( https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA)

N26

Right now only 20% of their client base are paying customers. So N26 shifts strategy for their current accounts, focusing on their premium account “N26 Smart” clients have to pay for https://buff.ly/2J7mbon For banks having the current account is considered the basis to sell other, more valuable services e.g. asset management, credit, … to the clients

Wirecard

We keep you updated, just a small selection of news here.

In the recent corona time, it became a bit quieter around the insolvency, we are sure the news will pick up again in 2021. Keep in mind there is still an investigative committee ongoing.

  • Deutsche Bank Accounting Head Stands Aside in Wirecard scandal, he was formerly in charge of auditing Wirecard at EY https://buff.ly/3oGAcsm

  • German finance supervisor Bafin lets go several employees due to their Wirecard share dealings when they were supposed to oversee the company https://buff.ly/3qYaaCY

  • Wirecard: Apas is Germany’s supervisor of auditors. DER SPIEGEL now reports their head was dealing in Wirecard shares shortly before the insolvency. He is now on leave https://buff.ly/3mjJkS7

Ecosystem

AI

Europe is catching up with the US and China as all sides plow money into the ‘AI arms race’, experts say https://buff.ly/37fcpsv

Talking AI: It still has a lot to learn

Taxes

Sorry to scare you here, but good news this time

Better tax treatment for employee share ownership in Germany should come into force on July 1st, 2021 https://buff.ly/2IdmrC7

German Future Award

“Deutschen Zukunftspreis 2020” (German Future Award 2020) goes to a team, which uses “extreme” ultraviolet light to build extreme fine structures in microelectronic components https://buff.ly/2JasNm9

Hubs

Note: The order of news and cities is only due to the time when we discovered the news, rather than anything else.

Frankfurt

Munich

Hamburg

  • Hamburg-based Sanity Group raises 4.8 m US$ from Black Eyed Peas frontman Will;i;am, US actress Alyssa Milano, German soccer star Mario Goetze and model Stefanie Giesinger along with Bitburger Ventures https://buff.ly/3ojEgP5

Bielefeld

  • Bielefeld-based Saas startup Valuedesk raises 3.2 m Euros in Venture Capital to help companies optimize their internal spending https://buff.ly/37pEuyR

Bochum

Augsburg

Austria

  • It is not the sum, it is their product, which is interesting here: AnovonA Medsupps is an #Austria based startup producing protein to help a human body recover its own protein production. They are founded by four doctors and now raise 200k Euro funding https://buff.ly/3nnX8MP

Switzerland

Companies

Crypto Challenger Bank Bitwala

Buying up Amazon Shops

  • Before the hype really starts in Germany, Thrasio declares to invest 225 mn US$ to buy up German Amazon shops — to scare away the clone startups? https://buff.ly/2VFkC42

Crowdfunding / Crowdlending Defaults

  • Exporo is a German real estate crowdfunding website. They have 106 projects currently in their portfolio, but 16 are already overdue with payments. https://buff.ly/39PLsym

  • We expect more news like this until at least the end of 2021.

Peter Thiel invests in Germany

Looking for funding? Here are some new VC funds:

  • Berlin-based Cavalry Ventures raises 2nd fund this year, 20 mn Euros for follow-up or later stage investments https://buff.ly/33HzZgs

  • Berlin-based Target Global raises 300 mn Euros for new growth fund https://buff.ly/3qx4Syi They are looking for early growth startups, who have the potential to generate revenues early on.

Stay ahead of the curve

  • How to Be a Blue Ocean Strategist in the Post-Pandemic World https://buff.ly/3q2LY1U

  • Using NBA Metrics to Scout Superstar Startups — Andreessen Horowitz https://buff.ly/3q9vwwX

  • Venture Debt Vs. Venture Capital In One Graphic — CB Insights Research https://buff.ly/39JbaEI

  • “Digital ID companies are helping fintech providers tackle user verification, combat fraud, and comply with KYC/AML laws. We look at where Fintech Smart Money investors are backing deals in the maturing space.” Where Fintech Smart Money VCs Are Placing Bets In Digital ID Technology — CB Insights Research https://buff.ly/2VCuewb

  • Simply stay safe and be grateful for what you have!

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

Automated Transcript

Intro

[0:00] Music.


[0:08] That I owe you were podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startups.With News interviews and Live Events.


[0:21] Hello and welcome everybody this is Joe from celebrated I owe your startup podcast and YouTube blog from Germany.First up Merry Christmas and happy New Year because that will be the last startup news recording offthis year don’t worry they will be more and we will have a few more episodes for you coming this year untilDecember 22nd then there is the last interview December 25th there is the last fintech reviewthis year as always on December 25th and then in the next year we are starting with our usual publication schedule on Thursdays.That’s sad welcome to this month in German startups December 2020 this is the Chris.Mess Edition and of course presses here from New York how you doing man so sad how often we.Try it this joke but yeah hello I’m good I’m not ready for Christmas yet still a lot to do.Ten days to go nine days to go.


[1:28] Yes exactly but the upside is we do this we get to do this joke only once.A year during the December New Soul every bugging just skipthis welcome to this month in German startups by start up radio dial in the transatlantic news recording with Chris in New Yorktoday 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 these news on December 15th.On use not included here will be part of ordinary web up and there will be.Special episode 20 20 review 20 21 Outlook as well last time the outlooks have been totally offlet’s see how it goes this year today we bring you news about the 10 billion investment package of the German government the new decks which is the German Dow Jones Peter thiel’s investments in Germany taxes Ai and much more

Overview News

[2:28] enable this risk this recording was made possible by hasn’t rated invest learn more about our enabler dub-dub-dub investments in — hessen.. come housekeeping time to brag we have only one thing to say stay safe everybody be grateful for what you have.

Housekeeping

[2:50] Let’s get to the top news

Top News

[2:52] ten building yours 12.1 billion US Dollars this is the some the German federal government wants to invest in addition to all other measures in the German startups inin 2021 as a kind of kick off to encourage private Investments as well some articles here there’s a German won the German government wants to invest 2010 billion euros in German startups 20.2020 one directly and indirectly and more critical few from sifted include statements from Christian Miller head of Germany startup Association Ducks Deutsche.Oxygen index German stock index Germany’s most important chair index.


[3:40] There’s a question trouble for hello fresh German Shepherd price index Ducks will be completely overhauled it will be expanded from now very cute future 40 and all companies should be profitablechanges will take effect.In September 20 21 so it’s not just around the corner we already shared the news that X will be overhauled and extended hot candidates for the expansion are companies likeSalon do Scout 2014 View and maybe hello Fresh then there’s a question back to normal in 2024.Flight ride is one of the startups buying up compensation claims for delayed flights under the EU European Union rules they expect commercial flights to be back to normal only in 2024.What is your opinion how do you plan to recover feel free to give us feedback in opinion in our Google forms of course there’s link down below and please include your geography so we can kind ofassemble this Christian I do believe you also have some interesting news.


[4:53] Yes I mean just adding to this I think a it is pretty interesting how the German government actually was able to come up with.Packages and and support for Germans as a whole through quotes about we’re basically German government stepped in and paid people’s wages during the pandemic but also was not.Completely forgetting Freelancers startups which are usually structures that don’t necessarily benefit from governmental.


[5:27] Stimulus packages and so for example we see it here in the United States that it takes forever become very political but people are not being helped so yay for thisin terms of German support and I mean just to the docks in case people don’t know what team viewers it’s basically.The app that.Makes you family get along because it is probably the single best thing that you can use if you want toit support your parents so definitely also a holiday recommendation for us because it allows for remote control of computers and for coming up with updates or for checking out whatever it is that is wrong with.Therecomputers and third thing to the idea that everything goes back to normal and 20–24 I mean at this point I just guess it’s anyone’s guess and who knowsno probably we are looking at a much faster vaccine distribution.


[6:31] And we are probably looking at things being back to normal at the end of 2021 there’s also thisidea that back probably we are going back to another Roaring 20s just like a hundred years ago when with the Spanish Flu everyone was back and celebrating so we’ll see.Anyway my to feniger and.Moving on to n 26 which we had an hour show a couple of times and it’s a German bank trying to do things in a very new way and is probably one of the.Bigger German startups success storiesin banking right now though only 20% of their client base are paying customers so and 26 shift strategy for their current accounts focusing on the premium account and 26 smartclients have to pay for so for banks having the current account is considered the basis to sell other more valuable services.For example Asset Management credit Etc to the clients and 26 basically just goes down the same route even though I mean we’ve seen in banking over the last couple of years.


[7:42] All over the place that fees went up really really high and because there is not much money to be made with credits so yeah it’s a.It’s a pretty tough business and the same goes for why a car hello same goes for why a card.Which we also a couple of times explained is probably one of the biggest startup.Scandals of the past couple of years if not decades basically they had Assets in their books which didn’t really exist or at least this is this is the claim then.CEO disappeared and to keep you updated we have a small selection of the news of the past couple of weeks so it became a bit quieter around the insolvencywe are sure that news might pick up there on that front in 2021 a bit more but there’s still investigative committee on going in the German Parliament.


[8:44] One we’re so far the company has remained pretty quiet.But Dodge bank accounting head stands aside and wire card scandal he was formerly in charge of auditing wire card atey then there is the German Finance supervisor boffin which let go several employees due to their higher card share dealings when they were supposed to oversee the company’s so there is also another thread going on thereand.


[9:16] The apis in Germany the supervisor of Auditors was part of the news because they’re speak with an investigative news magazine reported their head was dealing also in why Akasha sureplay before the insolvency became public he is now on leave so a lot of open threats they’re going on.

Ecosystem

[9:41] Which lets us move on to the ecosystem first of first topic we are covering is AI artificial intelligencewhere we found reports basically saying that Europe is catching up with the United States and China as now all sides blow money into the AI arms race.Experts say a couple of more information about that in our show notestalking AI it still has a lot to learn though we have something about that as well and.Let me get into this something about to learn because we using for the automatic transcript where people can read on our blog post content we need we use Google cloud and they really made us laughheartfor our startup rate dot IO the automatic translation came up with star ballroom dance studio Dotcalm that there was quite far fed right.


[10:45] Okay yeah so it’s not just us mumbling but I think we also tough for the AI.Then moving on to taxes another tough topics or taxes as in things you need to pay to the government not.The state we don’t want to scare you here because there.It’s good news this time then because there’s a better text treatment for employee share ownership now in Germany and it should come into fourth on July 1st 2021.There’s also an award going on in Germany that Deutsche atsuko most prized fancy expensive so German future War 2020 whichgoes to a team that uses extreme ultraviolet light to build extreme fine structures in microelectronic componentsmore about that in our show notes as well back to you.


[11:44] Thank you so much Chris that at that really make it made me love we’re not only mumbling let’s try to avoid a little bit.Chris discipline please okay other people cannot see right now hops.

Hubs

[12:01] Note the other of the new Sin Cities is only due to time we discovered the news rather than anything else Frankfurt just 2 News German Finance.


[12:11] Magazine Capitan chose their 40 under 40 and gungeon the founder of inner plexuses one of them congratulations of course we highlight this here because you can learn more about this inspiring entrepreneurin our interviews there two of them with him and Frankfurt based fintech sole active raises 50 million euros.Venture Capital let’s go little bit to the South to Munich Munich based luxury online fashion retailer my Teresa.Planning to IPO valued 1.5billion yes billion would be on New York Stock Exchange that’s quite exciting Chris you got something out thereyeah different City from the south of Munichback to the north and Hamburg where which is the headquarter of Sanity group cannabis Venture and Hamburg which raised four point eight million u.s. dollars from Black Eyed Peas frontman William u.s. actress Alyssa Milano and German soccer player Mario Gotzeplus model Stephanie giving along with Pittsburgh Adventures.Moving on to an even smaller City bielefeld where we find the software-as-a-service startup value desk they raised 3.2 million euros in Venture Capital to help companies optimize internal spending.


[13:38] Go home a.


[13:42] I would say mid sized town in to the west of bielefeld there we have the anti-malware startup VM re they got an even bigger contract and raised20 million euros and Venture Capital Augsburg in the South Bavaria.Is hosting or home of the robotic startup German bionic they also raise 20 million in.


[14:08] Twenty million u.s. dollars in Venture Capital funding.


[14:13] We leave Germany move on to Austria it is not the Summit is their product which is interesting here and I know one a Mets ups are Nirvana.Do you know this I’m sorry I’m sorry if the company listens but also.Probably we’re not the only ones with these issues and 1/2 minutes UPS is an Austria based startup producing protein to help a human body recover its own protein production founded by four doctorsthey now raised 200,000 Euro and funding so yeah for Jim Reds like you and I.Good news I would say and in Switzerland we see seed investment for The swiss-based Internet of Things startup infra sense500,000 Swiss Francs which equals around $560,000 then we have a list of fintech startup accelerators and incubatorsin Europe coming from fintech Switzerland including the Frankfurt base accelerator Frankfurtwhich who we interviewed I think or I mean we didn’t interview the accelerator but co-founder Maria you did.


[15:26] I did exactly and I was just just a smiling again with the with those names I do believe the easy names are out.


[15:38] Maria by the way is a very interesting lady she’s a very early a business angel investor of some of very well-known of fintech startups in Germany including for example Solarisbank and Clark yeah regarding names just one little thinghere in the u.s. even though it’s the German company everyone I mean is talking about them because they came up with the vaccine together with Pfizer.


[16:05] In Germany we say by on Tech but here everyone says bail ntek.And I’m pretty sure that bio ntek actually is the correct one because I guess it comes from biology and Technology.So anyway and we also have more derna there I mean nothing mysterious about the name there except the only thing is more Donna comes from modified RNA.


[16:30] Boom awesome I’m just blown away Chris my man talking now a little bit about

Companies

[16:37] companies crypto Challenger bag between Paula the berlin-based crypto Challenger Bank between Wala raises 50 million eurosventure capital of cause you can learn more about the founder in our interview with him buying upMs and shops yes that’s the thing before the hype really starts in Germany.Has he oh sorry about the name declares to invest 20.225 million u.s. dollar to buy up German Amazon chops maybe to scare away the Clones.


[17:14] Talking about crowdfunding and crowd lending especially default Explorer is a German real estate crowdfundingwebsite they have 106 projects currently in the portfolio but 16 of them are already over do with payments we expect more news like this until at least the end of2020 1 Peter teal.


[17:41] Yes he was born in Germany but we are talking about his investment in Germany right now he backed a Berlin stop based startup makingpsychedelics in a 125 Million Dollar Roundnth new digital German billionaire cast maashjay’eh already invested now Peter thiel’s follow with an investment in thisintro Tech startup and I do believe it’s always Chris job to end on a high note rightdefinitely an in this case even for the whole year so we hope you can use the time in the upcoming quieter days to come up with some strategic realignment or probably you can turn your.Company and startup idea into something that attracts money and if you need money we found two new fundsthat are giving out venture capital for example we have the berlin-based Cavalry Ventures they raise their second fund this year 20 million euros for follow-up or later stage Investments and we have the.


[18:53] Also berlin-based Target Global which raised 300 million euros for a new growth fund they are looking for early growth startups who have the potential to generate revenues early on.Chris it’s always amazing how you can end on such a high note thank you very much it was once again a pleasure working together with you for a whole year we will bedoing strategic realignment also during the holidays and we’ll be back with some news interviews and live events of course in 2021 and undo belief at least10News episodes again next year really looking forward to it also looking forward.


[19:40] Happy Holidays happy holidays thank you very much and.


[19:47] Music.


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