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AutorenbildJuan Diego Parra Castillo
23. Dez. 202110 Min. Lesezeit

This Month in German Startups — December 2021



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.


HoHoHo Welcome to This Month in German Startups in December 2021 by Startuprad.io — in a news recording with Chris from New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main.


We recorded this new episode on Monday, December 20th. All news not included here will be published in our next news episode. There will also be our annual Fintech Review on December 25th and we will be back with an AI startup interview on January 13th. So we take a few weeks off around the holidays. Happy Holidays!


We are not there yet, so let’s get started:


Today we bring you another new unicorn, a monster funding of 266 mn US$ at Mambu, Volocopter calls off its SPAC IPO and gets a backlash from its early crowd investors, also Jokr is now the 3rd quick delivery unicorn — in record time — and we have an update on Sono Motors. We also take a look at the State of European Tech survey by Atomico and several news pieces on the German Venture Capital Market, as well as VC in general.


Let’s talk startups


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Enablers


Invest-in-Hessen

This show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Find it all here: https://anchor.fm/techstartupsgermany


Startupraven

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The Video Podcast Will Go Live on December 23rd, 2021 at 16.00 CET



The Audio Podcast

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Top News


Mambu

Berlin-based Mambu nabs $266M at a $5.5B valuation to double down on embedded financial service and banking APIs https://buff.ly/3y7FrY0


Volocopter stops SPAC IPO and their early backers are unhappy with it …


Volocopter calls off planned SPAC deal to list on NASDAQ, citing an unfavorable capital market environment. For example Lilium, a competitor from Munich did go public via SPAC but ended below expectations.

  • This decision seems to be sensible but left the early crowdfunding backers furious. They had hoped for a payday and are afraid to be left alone with the minimum guaranteed payment (1%) promised during crowdfunding https://buff.ly/3G0DMGH

  • One of Germany’s leading business newspapers — normally not known to be very dramatic — writes in their headline that “Volocopter turned from a light tower for crowdfunding in Germany to a memorial” https://buff.ly/3ea3egW


Sono Motors Needs More Money

  • Solar car company Sono Motors raised more than 155 mn US$ in November with their successful NASDAQ IPO. Now they need additional 200 mn Euros (225 mn US$) to start the production of their first model Sion https://buff.ly/31ZNLgy


Jokr is a new Unicorn

  • Berlin-based Jokr is now the third quick delivery unicorn, reports Deutsche-Startups exclusively, after a 200 mn US$ investment by G Squared, which already invested in Gorillas https://buff.ly/3o2utj4

  • Related: It took SellerX 14 months to become a unicorn, Gorillas only 9 months, and Flink only 8 months https://buff.ly/3y2UUZz


Infarm is a new Unicorn

  • Berlin-based urban farming startup Infarm raises 200 mn US$ from Qatar Sovereign Wealth Fund at unicorn valuation https://buff.ly/32m938s


PayHawk


Tonies

  • tonies, the company behind the kids’ toy tonies box, was listed via a SPAC deal on the Frankfurt Stock exchange. The company merged with 468 SPAC https://buff.ly/3pbwpoU


Autoflight


Updates in the NeoBroker Competition

  • A contender in the Neobroker Wars in Europe Scalable Capital make a move: They want to win over younger investors and lower their monthly minimum for ETF investment plans to 20€/month https://buff.ly/3EoeeCE

  • Another move in the neobroker competition in Germany: Scalable Capital starts their offer for Bitcoin trading https://buff.ly/32ecnCA


Now We Look In Our Crystal Ball for 2022

  • German IPO candidates for 2022: Fintechs N26 and Solarisbank, as well as dating portal ParshipMeet may list in public markets in 2022 https://buff.ly/3oO539g

  • We will — again — look in the crystal bowl together with a political analyst in early 2022 looking at the initiatives the new Government wants — and is likely to — start. Let’s get to the ecosystem with this thought

  • HTGF is Europe’s most important early stage VC, backed half by government and half by corporate money. They have a 2022 outlook on their website as well. “Important developments to watch out for in 2022” | HTGF https://buff.ly/32aBMgF just some headlines here

  • Investing more energy in researching infectious diseases

  • 2022 will also be a year in which innovation and pioneering technologies are in focus across all areas and industries.

  • New opportunities with quantum technology and new space

  • World of work in flux — Constant battle over talent


Ecosystem

  • Germany has a new government. On December 8th Olaf Scholz was sworn in to be the 9th Chancellor of Germany. He is ruling with his center left SPD, in coalition with liberal FDP and the Green Party. This will lead to changes for startups in Germany, and we will have an SME interview on this early next year with an expert.

  • Pfizer executives say Covid could become endemic by 2024 https://buff.ly/3slYjSu One could interpret this as “we are back to almost normal in 2024”


The German VC Ecosystem


Germany News

  • IFO business climate is not looking as good, as it used to be “Coronavirus Wave Weighs on ifo Business Climate (December 2021)” https://buff.ly/3pad1Ki

  • 2021 set a record for IPOs. German companies raised 9,3 bn Euros with domestic IPOs and 1.8 bn Euros abroad https://buff.ly/3ETqcoe

  • Corona and a strong shift to eCommerce show their effects not only on retail but also on rents for retail spaces. In Germany’s top 7 cities, the rents dropped in all cities, some by more than 10% https://buff.ly/3FYj4as


On the State of Venture Capital and the HOT Private Capital Marktes (VC)

IMF warns of crypto risks, suggests global standards https://buff.ly/3sdibXX


Highlights of Atomico’s — State of European Tech

If you guys like, we can make a wrap-up of Atomico. Let us know if you want to hear more about the survey.


Hubs


Frankfurt


Munich

Hamburg

  • Compliance platform Taxdoo raises $64M Series B round to build the Financial Operating System for e-commerce via @HTGF https://buff.ly/3dUTRkX

  • Hamburg-based Dealcode nabs €1 million to make sales teams more successful https://buff.ly/3ITUxW2


Bielefeld


Austria

  • Austrian Growth Capital Fund is intended to invest up to 15 mn Euros in scaleups or buyouts in Austria. Now they make the first closing at 140 m Euro https://buff.ly/3d8QVB2

  • Do you know the Vienna-based startup Storebox? You should they are now partnering with Ikea in Austria to enable their clients to pick up their delivery from Storebox storage rooms in their vicinity https://buff.ly/3d7WyPG

  • kompany is a Vienna-based scaleup, which sold itself to Moody’s for more than 100mn Euros https://buff.ly/3pAeaJQ

  • enlivio is a Vienna-based startup, which counts Porsche amongst its investors. Now they start with their app, to enable a mix of on-site and app guided physiotherapy https://buff.ly/3pPWhqS


Switzerland

  • Swiss Private Bank Bordier & Cie Partners With Fintech Moonfare to Access Private Equity Funds https://buff.ly/322mWsv


General News / Companies News Section


Mercedes Beats Tesla in Autonomous Driving

  • Mercedes gets level 3 license for autonomous driving in Germany, outdoing all competitors including Tesla. This means complete autonomous driving up to 60 km/h 37,3 mph) https://buff.ly/3DNFPw7

  • Learn more about the german regulation: https://buff.ly/3DO6SYk


Fintech News

  • Berlin-based fintech Fincompare is bought by a syndicate of cooperative banks. Investors (including Speedinvest and ING) have so far invested 20 mn Euros, therefore the price of 15 mn € is quite surprising https://buff.ly/3EWliGW

  • Deutsche-Banks in-house neobank for SMEs Fyrst now has 25.000 customers. They stick to their free basic account model, but their competitors are larger with Holvi having 90k clients and Penta 40k clients in Germany https://buff.ly/31W7BcP

  • German/UK fintech unicorn Sumup is trying to be a European Square, by offering banking services via app to retail clients. They add features with acquisitions. https://buff.ly/3dpIWzG

  • N26 made a Second Closing — Raising Additional Money to their 900 mn Series E Round read more in our blog post https://buff.ly/32jaLaG

  • Germany’s No 1 crowdfunding platform Exporo restructures and cuts headcount https://buff.ly/3oybkWO

  • A German startup blog writes Klana’s super app is “totally innovation free” https://buff.ly/31WGVZD


Vegan and Vegetarian Startups

  • That flew under the radar of many: Germany’s largest producer of vegan products Veganz IPOed in November in Frankfurt. They raised almost 50 mn Euros. They IPOed at 87 Euros a share and have been trading up to 94 Euros https://buff.ly/3DbyG8w they raised 47.6 mn Euros (53.5 mn US$) in funds at a 106 mn Euros (120 mn US$) valuation.

  • Code check is an app for vegans to check if a food contains animal products. They have 4.5 mn users, but despite that, they had to file for insolvency. They did not earn enough money with their users https://buff.ly/3d4z1iU

  • Perfeggt brings in first capital to shell out plant-based egg alternative — TechCrunch https://buff.ly/3nS0ESh


Deliver Hero Updates

  • Foodpanda, a subsidiary of listed Delivery Hero, starts in 6 cities in Germany. They shut their German business end of 2018 and now they are back https://buff.ly/3o1MHBm

  • Delivery Hero does not get permission to take over Saudi-Arabian competitor The Chefz. This is the second attempt https://buff.ly/3Dr19r6


Indices

  • Former e-commerce stars Home24 and Westwing will be kicked out of SDAX, the little brother of Germany’s main stock index, effective December 20th. Index tracking ETFs will have to sell, analyst coverage will decrease https://buff.ly/31EeoHC

  • Most of our followers know TeamViewer and Zooplus. Now both will be kicked out of the share price index Stoxx Europe 600 https://buff.ly/3EnZjsf


A few — very very much selected — funding rounds

  • Jina, a Berlin, Germany-based open-source neural search company, raised $30M in Series A funding https://buff.ly/30Z8FMA

  • Berlin-based Zolar raises a fresh €20 million, aims to solar panel the world — https://buff.ly/3l92L2r https://buff.ly/3cQM5bv

  • Interview partner podcast Starting Y: https://anchor.fm/starting-y

  • Blickfeld the Lidar startup announced an extension of their Series A financing to 31 mn US$ in total. The new investor is New Future Capital, existing investors like Osram, Tengelmann and UVC_Partners participate as well as HTGF https://buff.ly/3Goz6uq

  • Kinnevik invests 95 mn US$ together with Coatue, Eurazeo, Atomico, Creandum, and La Famiglia in #Berlin-based #carsharing startup Vay, enabling them to deliver and return shared cars with remote drivers https://buff.ly/3E1AUaR

  • N26 boss invests in an all female-founded finance education platform called Beatvest, following the model of Masterclass https://buff.ly/3EFZNKB

  • Do you know the insurtech Hakuna? They offer warranty extensions. They raised 1,5 mn € from investors, including founders of Sum-up and Klana https://buff.ly/3ERFREE

  • The German Thrift organization prepares to offer bitcoin trading in 2022, adding 50 mn potential new investors https://buff.ly/3GAFhLS


You Have Heard That SPACs Are Not Dead Yet …

  • Berlin-based SIGNA Sports United Went Public on New York Stock Exchange on December 15th in Largest German SPAC Deal With Gross Proceeds of $484 million From YAC Trust, valuing the company at 3.2 bn US$ https://buff.ly/3m76pdv


Quick Delivery Startups

  • Gorillas want to sue again against the formation of a work council https://buff.ly/3ymPXuT

  • Khora is a bike courier collective, they want to be the better Gorillas. Founded was the company by a driver, left without a job with the retreat of UK-based Deliveroo from Germany https://buff.ly/3rBDMsv

Berlin-based TIER, announced its acquisition of Wind Mobility Italy, with e-scooters now available in Bari and Palermo https://buff.ly/3GQGZJn

Benedict Rodenstock is known to insiders in Germany as an investor in Mr. Spex and Amorelie (both shooting stars of the German startup scene). Now he raises a new fund for early-stage startups with Arviq Capital Partners https://buff.ly/3EypRXO

Adidas’ first NFT drop earns $23 million https://buff.ly/3mg6v2E


Stay ahead of the curve



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