Startup News March 2018

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House Keeping

We are nominated for the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards. Please take a minute and vote for us on this website. Every share on Twitter or Facebook from the website is considered a vote!

https://benzingafintechawards.com/vote-2018/startuprad-io/

We have been to Aufschwung Messe here in lovely Frankfurt (http://www.aufschwung-messe.de/). See our video interviews here on our YouTube channel:

Fastbill a local hero and longtime backer of the Frankfurt startup scene. Mario also hosts the monthly meetup Founders Table and is a partner of Joern in RheinMain.vc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDx4s7Umun4&t
MeshCloud a local cloud provider in Rhein-Main, based on open source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmohoYq-wAo&t
Privalino – An AI app – Which can distinguish children and adults and offers this software in its own messenger and as white label product to protect children: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kfS_IbV450&t=11s

We will also publish another interesting interview with Schuhe24.de as a video interview. This is the story of a 125-year-old company, which transforms itself into a leading online platform. Stay tuned on YouTube.com/c/startupradio

The next news may be a bit late – Joern is traveling. Aaaand we will be in New York! 🙂 At the Benzinga awards.

Ecosystem

German food retailers fight Amazon, Go Fresh and the other online competitors with high-end stores …. http://www.faz.net/aktuell/finanzen/meine-finanzen/geld-ausgeben/edeka-bietet-kobe-rind-an-neue-ladenkonzepte-sind-gefragt-15504699.html?xtor=EREC-7-[Finanzen-Analysen]-20180321&utm_source=FAZnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter_FAZ_Finanzen-Analysen

eFood is booming in #Berlin the delivery services of #REWE and #Edeka – two of the largest grocery chains in Germany – barely can keep up writes @gruenderszene #efood #delivery http://ow.ly/AJMM30iTbTQ

Hubs

Frankfurt

Frankfurt-based #fintech Giroxx raises 900.000 Euro venture capital writes deutsche-startups.de http://ow.ly/vdkC30j9wU0 The company offers transfers in foreign currencies.

Frankfurt-based startup Acomodeo, a marketplace for serviced apartments, raises “mid seven-digit” venture capital reports Rhein-Main Startups http://ow.ly/wiLQ30iLdZ1

Meet the Frankfurt-based fintech FastBill, which sees opportunities in the US market and may look for another venture capital round. Learn more here http://ow.ly/W4cy30iOv4v via RMStartups

You may remember that we also talked to savdroid about their ICO? They are under scrutiny for their ICO since one of their advisors was blogging in favor of the ICO but did not disclose the connection. None the less the ICO raised somewhere between 35 and 40mn Euros https://www.gruenderszene.de/allgemein/savedroid-ico-krypto-roland-klaus

IPOs Stock Exchange Deals:

IPO candidate Home24 grows to 276 mn Euro revenue in 2017 but generates losses of 22 mn Euro http://ow.ly/C8nE30j5LYw

Home24, the Rocket Internet-backed furniture platform, is working towards its IPO in Frankfurt. The volume could be up to 600 mn Euros (~ 740 mn US$) and should take place in the next three months writes deutsche-startups.de https://buff.ly/2FFDvhE

Frankfurt-listed Windeln.de (diapers) has been a frequent topic in our startup news. Now deutsche-startups.de calculates that they have not been a good investment. 10.000 Euros invested at the IPO would now only be worth 1.306 Euros. This is -87% https://buff.ly/2piZIYA

RocketInternet sold shares in Delivery Hero worth almost 200 mn Euros https://buff.ly/2tD4951

Companies

The top news is surely the big VC rounds:

Surely the largest VC round in recent history took place in Berlin:
Tencent, Allianz X co-lead $160m Series C in Europe’s retail banking startup N26 http://ow.ly/EMFV30j6efd
There has also been addition news on the Softbank investment in Berlin-based Auto1. Reporters revealed that they got a discount of up to 20% for their 460mn Euro investment – deutsche-startups.de https://www.deutsche-startups.de/2018/03/24/softbank-bekommt-millionen-dis%c2%adcount-bei-auto1/

Even more VC money is coming in this month. Just some hints here (there are not all):

Berlin-based software company Signavio 15.5 mn https://buff.ly/2Gj2ozf
Neighbourhood network Nebenan.de secures €16 million for the European expansion http://ow.ly/7CbJ30j6eC0
Geld-für-Flug.de raises 25 mn € as venture capital. The investors include German billionaire Carsten Maschmeyer and a Swiss-based private equity fund writes Deutsche Startups http://ow.ly/pl4M30j5LGU
BBVA, ABN Amro, and Visa invest in Berlin-based fintech Solarisbank writes Finanzszene.de exclusively venture capital http://ow.ly/ffhV30iTt16

Established companies are again active in the startup scene:

Sennheiser invests in Düsseldorf-based VR startup Dear Reality- deutsche-startups.de http://ow.ly/Sjpk30j9wo3
German sweets manufacturer Katjes indirectly buys shares in Sarah Michelle Gellar’s food startup Foodstirs | NGIN Food https://buff.ly/2IVysrq
Sigma Sports Group – Already owning brick and mortar retailer Karstadt Sports – now also buys Stylefile a shop for sneakers, including outdoor and camping subsidiary Big Tree writes deutsche-startups.de https://buff.ly/2GQijBy

Automotive!

Auto Giant Daimler Ag Creates Cryptocurrency To Reward Eco-Friendly Drivers – Blocktibune.com http://ow.ly/OkHM30iV263
Germany will become the 2nd largest market in Europe for electronic cars in 2017 writes t3n. In total, more than one million electronic cars have been registered last year https://buff.ly/2pcDKWb
The merger of the Carsharing entities Drive Now and car2go was only the beginning: BMW and Daimler want to build much stronger partnerships for innovation in the mobility sector https://ngin-mobility.com/artikel/mobiltaetsallianz-daimler-bmw-berlin-kitt/

AI in e-commerce and retail:

Zalando – RocketInternet’s online fashion store – axes 250 jobs in marketing. The job will now be taken over by algorithms writes Gruenderszene . Now they are looking for more developers http://ow.ly/jOXM30iTsqp
The AI system has proved so reliable—it predicts with 90% accuracy what will be sold within 30 days—that Otto allows it automatically to purchase around 200,000 items a month http://ow.ly/EHPn30iSFp9

Rocket Internet again:

Innolend – financed by Rocket Internet – the fintech for financing SMEs is in liquidation. The phone number on the website is already dead writes deutsche-startups.de https://buff.ly/2HEQ49B

Amazon first wanted to build a new center in cologne and create 950 new jobs – now they withdrew an application for the building permit. It seems the city wants to give the area rather to a city-owned company https://buff.ly/2oVpa5h

A tale from the Berlin startup world – Move24 raised 40 Euro venture capital and had to file for insolvency – Movinga, its sworn competitor, raised 22 mn Euros and is doing well by its own statements http://ow.ly/tO9k30iMm1U

Berlin-based gaming company Wooga keeps axing jobs. This time 30 of the 220 employees have to leave. In summer 2016 they still had 300 employees writes deutsche-startups.de https://buff.ly/2FFGbIX

End the news on a high note! Rescued!

Panano – the crowdfunded 360 degree camera – emerged again after insolvency. The swiss based private equity fund Bryanston bought them and now they are starting again, targeting real estate agents http://ow.ly/pK0k30iTaXe
Monoqi can withdraw the insolvency filing. Former investors keep investing reports – deutsche-startups.de http://ow.ly/D7vS30iFUI6
A company running Autobahn service areas buys insolvent travel optimizing startup fromAtobB – deutsche-startups.de http://ow.ly/ezmJ30j0ud5

Events / Competitions

We are a media partner of http://www.startupjobsfair.co/ May 25th in Berlin. Get your ticket now on your way to hunt for a startup job.

We will also be a media partner of the Arctic15, the startup event of arctic startups in Helsinki on May 30th to 31st for artic and Baltic startups “Real Return on Investment – Arctic15” http://ow.ly/QgqL30id4mt

Stay Ahead Of The Curve

ICOs delivered at least 3.5x more capital to blockchain startups than VC since 2017 – TechCrunch http://ow.ly/jSPv30iMtCR

The ROI Of Cash Burn For SaaS Startups http://ow.ly/ISN230j6dz7

A new dawn for European VC http://ow.ly/w9eF30j6dUM

An amazing article on how Amazon works and how they are “amazoning” industries https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-amazon-industry-displacement/

About the Author: Joe