If you are new to our podcast(s), we are wrapping up the startup news of the German-speaking area in a monthly recording from Frankfurt and New York. Have a look at our website www.startuprad.io or www.startup.radio and you will find all the links to our recording and the articles we are quoting form there. Some of the source articles are in English, some are in German.

 

Find the hosts here:

Jörn “Joe” Menninger joe@startuprad.io / Twitter  / LinkedIn / Video Interview (2018)

Chris Fahrenbach chris@startuprad.io / Twitter / Homepage / Video Interview (2018)

 

 

Affiliated Links

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Enabler

This recording was made possible by Invest in Hessen. Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/home

 

Housekeeping – Time to brag 

We set up sub-podcast for special interest and our Fintech Germany made it up to No 72 in the iTunes Business Charts of Qatar. Thank you!

Now there is

 

Ecosystem

European tech startups break records with $34bn in venture capital funding this year | Sifted https://t.co/ode0s8bWGc

There has been a massive 40% jump in venture capital funding for European startups this year, even as funding for US and Asian startups stagnates. That’s just one of the seven key takeaways from Atomico’s State of European Tech report.

The sharp jump, highlighted in Atomico’s latest report on the State of European Tech, adds to a growing sentiment that the European tech ecosystem is finally coming of age. 

“It does feel like we are in a golden age for Europe now,” says Sonali de Rycker, partner at venture capital fund Accel. “The quality of talent, the level of ambition and availability of capital are at a completely different scale.”

Meanwhile, venture capital investment into Asian startups has halved in 2019 to $63bn and US venture investment has fallen 1% to $117bn compared to 2018.

 

The 5 best countries in Europe for founders and startups | @EU_Startups

Germany made it to No 2! https://t.co/sFnHTb6FQv 

If you are thinking about which country in Europe is the best for creating your startup, you are not alone. Internationally minded founders take time searching for the best options they might have in different countries across Europe. And it makes sense, since from country to country, there are many differences in terms of corporate law, business environment, corporate tax and incentives.

 

This news recording goes live on Thanksgiving, so let’s talk about an american tradition, that made it to Germany:
“60% of German retailers don’t want Black Friday” https://buff.ly/352Edh8

More … maybe related information …

The turkey itself did not make it to Germany en mass yet, but a similar day is celebrated on the first Sunday in October (Erntedankfest), but with far less importance to the German public than Thanksgiving in the US (it is not even a regional holiday). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_festival

 

 

New Funds https://buff.ly/2NLBra3 

according to Dealroom Venture Capital Investors raised in Europe 10.7 bn Euros in 110 new funds YTD

The top fundraisers included EQT Ventures (III 660 mn Euros) and Balderton Capital (VII 400 mn USD) #VC #VentureCapital

Learn more about Dealroom and it’s founder here: https://www.startuprad.io/interviews/learn-how-the-lehman-insolvency-brought-yoram-to-found-a-data-startup-in-berlin/

 

German Car Sharing companies are especially in Berlin a price competition. Some carsharing offers are actually cheaper than e scooters. Prices range from 9 Cent to 19 Cent per minute https://buff.ly/33e1gF5

 

What Berlin’s top VCs want to invest in right now – TechCrunch https://buff.ly/36pHLLT 

The range of interests hints at the expanse of Berlin’s startup ecosystem right now, with VCs focused on everything from fintech, agtech, and B2B marketplaces to audio, travel, and transportation.

 

Paris overtakes Berlin for tech startups after boost from Macron – FT https://t.co/PIkf1HhJC5

…

The most important change, according to the French tech industry, was the creation of a special tech visa, making it easier for the sector to import talent. 

The latest figures show that in the first half of 2019, French start-ups raised a record €2.79bn, up 43 per cent on the previous year, and the size of their fundraises is increasing. France is behind the UK, which raised €5.30bn (+75 per cent) but ahead of Germany, which raised €2.47bn (+4 per cent).

….

 

 

Affiliate Links

Want to get better? Try our recommendations

Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, and Mergers & Acquisitions (Wiley Finance Editions) https://amzn.to/2WwKy1g
Venture Capital For Dummies (For Dummies Series) – Nicole Gravagna, Peter K. Adams https://amzn.to/2oxRDC4
Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist https://amzn.to/2WtuQ72
You can listen to Venture Capital books or entertainment on your way to work with an audible subscription (first month for free – AL)

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00NTQ6K7E?tag=startupradi0e-21

Hubs

#Frankfurt / Rhine-Main

We helped quickly unmask some fake news about savedroid, the startup which first had one of Germany’s most successful ICOs, than turned public opinion against it with a PR stunt and now is trying really hard to get back trust https://twitter.com/startuprad_io/status/1196462050391793666. We understand many people don’t like the company, but keep in mind there are also people working like you. 

 

The Bad Homburg-based startup Thing-it, a digitalization platform for smart offices, intelligent city quarters, and smart facility management, just raised a Series A financing of €4.2 million. The new co-lead investors are PropTech1 Ventures, the first dedicated European VC fund focusing on the untapped innovation potential of the real estate industry, and the Cologne-based venture capital fund coparion. In addition, Thing-it’s existing shareholders have invested again | EU-Startups https://buff.ly/37cBzqT

Learn more about Bad Homburg v.d.H. here: Presently, Bad Homburg is again one of the wealthiest towns in Germany (with the Hochtaunuskreis and the Landkreis Starnberg regularly competing for the title of the wealthiest district in Germany). As of 2004, the town’s marketing slogan is Champagnerluft und Tradition (Champagne air and tradition). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Homburg_vor_der_H%C3%B6he 

NOTE: Starnberg is close to Munich

Frankfurt-based lending fintech creditshelf raises a diversified credit fund, which enables qualified investors to invest private debt of German SMEs. The European Investment Fund is the anker investor with 30 mn Euro. The majority of the investments will be conducted via their lending platform https://buff.ly/32GNQ3q
Learn more about the company in our interview with them here https://www.startuprad.io/exclusive/do-you-know-creditshelf-it-is-germanys-only-listed-pure-play-fintech/ 

Companies listed in Frankfurt:

Teamviewer, the newly listed Tech startup from Germany confirms outlook, grows in Q3 and is a candidate for SDAX or MDAX in December revision of the indices https://buff.ly/371o39I 

 

#Munich

We talked about frequently Scout24, they have been thinking about a leveraged buyout. They are formal headquartered in Munich. Scout24, the German group of online platforms is considering to sell or spin off it’s successful car platform Autoscout24 https://buff.ly/2QRyrLp 

 

InsurTech ottonova raises additional 60 mn Euros #VentureCapital for private health insurance in Germany, currently less than 500 clients writes  deutsche-startups https://buff.ly/2pR08J8
Learn more here in our interview from 2017, shortly after launch: https://buff.ly/2OqSA7e  

 

Munich-based identity verification platform IDnow raised 36 mn Euros (40 mn US$) from NewYork-based Private Equity fund Corsair Capital https://buff.ly/348jKa8

 

Companies

#Rocket Internet Corner

Rockets Cash-Reserves are melting writes Gründerszene. A brief overview of the results as of Q3 2019:

– Since 2018 started 20 new companies

– Invests heavy outside of Germany, cash left is 2.6 bn Euros

https://www.gruenderszene.de/business/rocket-internet-2019-neue-zahlen 

See also

Rocket Internet shuts down it’s startup for invisible mouthguards writes deutsche-startups. The startup was called Franksmile https://buff.ly/2DjI8KE 

See also

Real estate crowdinvesting platform Brickvest has to file for insolvency. The british-german startup was backed by banks, business angels and Rocket Internet https://buff.ly/37rCR1y 

See also

HomeToGo, a search engine for vacation homes, valued at 400 mn Euros, last year bought casamundo. Now the layoffs at Casamundo in #Hamburg start writes deutsche-startups https://buff.ly/33mmNL8 

 

#Scooter wars

COUP, the European electric scooter sharing service, is shutting down https://buff.ly/34rKdAg 

It’s a sad day for fans of COUP, the Bosch-owned electric scooter sharing service operating across a number of European cities.

related

Circ, the Berlin-based e-scooter company, makes layoffs following ‘operational learnings’ – TechCrunch https://buff.ly/2saLrRT

 

#ecommerce – the established players are not dead yet

IKEA Germany generates 33% more online revenue of 494 Mio. € and pulls ahead of Home24 (352 mn Euros) https://buff.ly/37CdqKA 

 

#VentureCapital
(only a selection, there are way to many, to keep track of them or list them here)

  • #Berlin-based Frontier Car Group raises 400 mn US$ from OLX group. The investment is a combination of debt and equity. Last year the company raised 147 mn USD already https://buff.ly/33F6ief
  • German tech unicorn Celonis raises over €261 million to extend its market leadership in process excellence software | EU-Startups https://buff.ly/347Lk7O
  • “Comtravo, a business travel booking #startup, has raised a $23.4 million (€21 million) #SeriesB round of #venture #investment. .. New investors included Deutsche Bank and AER Ticket. Past investors Project A, Creandum, and Btov also participated.” https://buff.ly/2NTd5Ki?utm_source=twitter
  • Household services startup Helpling raises $22.3m for Asia Pacific, Europe expansion https://buff.ly/2PDDyy0 

 

#Media

KKR gets approval by EU to buy 40% in Axel Springer, one of Germany’s leading media houses, inlucing BILD, Welt and Gründerszene (a blog we use frequently as information source), amongst others https://buff.ly/2CNtawg 

 

German media house ProSiebenSat.1 is starting a competitor of spotify. If their version of Netflix or Amazon Video is an indicator, there is not much Spotify would need to fear. Their video-on-demand Maxdome has a market share of 2%, compared to 47% Amazon, 36% Netflix (according to Kress Report October 2019) https://buff.ly/2X6awsJ
https://kress.de/news/detail/beitrag/143852-der-abo-streamingmarkt-in-deutschland-netflix-liegt-bei-der-taeglichen-nutzung-klar-vorne.html

 

#TravelTech

Berlin-based travel tech unicorn Omio acquires Australian travel planning engine Rome2rio https://buff.ly/33hEvjz 

 

Stay ahead of the curve 

The End of an Era: Will Tesla and Google Kill the German Car? – SPIEGEL ONLINE – International https://buff.ly/2Cdsxvu

Is Deep Learning a Game Changer for Marketing Analytics? https://buff.ly/2XK1IsR

Opinion | WeWork’s collapse revealed the lies tech founders have been telling workers https://buff.ly/337v9ad

 

We get frequently questions on how we work, so we put it together here: