2018 was an amazing year for startup financing in Rhine-Main
- Jörn Menninger
- Jan 15, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 26
Startups in Rhine-Main raised over €150mn in 2018, marking a record year for IPOs, venture capital, and ICOs. #rheinmainstartups
What Is This About?
2018 proved to be an amazing year for startup financing in the Rhine-Main region. This article reviews the year's standout funding rounds, the growth of the Frankfurt startup ecosystem, and how the region established itself as a serious contender in the German venture capital landscape beyond Berlin.
Startups in Rhine-Main raised over €150mn in 2018, marking a record year for IPOs, venture capital, and ICOs. Startuprad.io brings you independent coverage of the key developments shaping the startup and venture capital landscape across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
This article is part of our coverage of Industrial and Manufacturing Technology in Germany, Austria,.
Executive Summary
2018 was an amazing year for startup financing in Rhine-Main
2018 marks the first year we are covering completely with our initiative. This year startups broke 150 mn Euros financing for 2018 in total. To be precise, the tracked money raised totaled 153,723 million Euros.
This is amazing work, congratulations to all involved parties. These congratulations include the hard-working people in startups, funds, business angels, law firms, consultancies, auditors and many more.
These numbers included the IPOs of Germany’s first pure play fintech do be listed on public markets, as well as the first IPO of an insurtech in all of Europe.
Methodolgy
We would like to note that this is a preliminary version and we are in discussion with several startups to get their precise numbers. This would lead to upward corrections of our numbers.
Let’s see why: Startups in Frankfurt announced several “seven digits” VC rounds, which are in our tracker as 1.000.000,00 € each. As soon as we get the specific amounts raised (which could range from 1,0–9,9 million) we will correct the numbers. This correction would necessarily lead to an upward correction.
Initial Public Offering
This is now the largest financing category we have been tracking. This is actually not surprising since Frankfurt has the best capital market access of all cities in Germany.
The first pure play fintech and insurtech have conducted an IPO in 2018 in Frankfurt. Actually, both have also been headquartered in Frankfurt as well. Please note here that we only track the startups in Rhine-Main, all other startup listings in Frankfurt are not included in our tracker. Both transactions together raised 68.5 mn Euros.
The first pure play fintech to list in Germany was the credit marketplace creditshelf. It was rewarded with a successful IPO in Q3 and raised 16,5 million Euros.
Next came the insurtech Deutsche Familienversicherung, which raised 52 million Euros. This was the first successful IPO of an insurtech in Europe. The listing took place in December 2018.
Venture Capital
The second largest category we have been tracking contains traditional venture capital, either invested by funds or individuals. These investments included debt and equity deals. The startups raised more than 48,43 mn Euros. In total, we have identified more than 20 deals. The field was dominated by all types of fintech (12 deals), including insurtech, proptech, payments and the like. On the other hand, these numbers also include money raised by startups active in healthcare, cybersecurity, IoT and software. In Rhine-Main fintech is important, but the startup scene has greater diversity.
Initial Coin Offering
The instrument of an ICO was introduced to Rhine Main on a large scale by the fintech savedroid, which reportedly raised at least 35 mn Euros (depending on sources much more) with their ICO.
We keep in touch with several other ICOs, but the current decline in crypto prices leads to a very long and hard process to raise money in ICOs. All ICOs we are currently tracking have been extending their deadlines and came down with their expectations of capital to be raised. In many cases, there have been several corrections on both fronts.
Crowdfunding
The instrument seems to be out of favor for 2018. We will keep track of it anyways.
Keep up to date
You can keep up to date, by following our Blog here, our Twitter account or on Facebook. On the social media channels, we also post on these channels content related to venture financing in the greater Rhine Main Region.
Hashtags to follow
Have a look on Twitter for Frankfurt and the wider Rhein-Main area: #rheinmainrocks, #frmstartupscene #rheinmainstartups #frankfurtvalley or #startupradio
Exchange rate used in all 2018 calculations: 1 US$ = 0,81 Euros
Jörn Menninger for the partners of RhineMain.vc
Key Takeaways
Startups in Rhine-Main raised over €150mn in 2018, marking a record year for IPOs, venture capital, and ICOs.
This article covers a significant development in the DACH startup and venture capital ecosystem.
The DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) continues to be one of Europe's most dynamic startup markets.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the key facts about 2018 amazing year startup financing?
Startups in Rhine-Main raised over €150mn in 2018, marking a record year for IPOs, venture capital, and ICOs.
How does this affect the German startup ecosystem?
These numbers included the IPOs of Germany’s first pure play fintech do be listed on public markets, as well as the first IPO of an insurtech in all of Europe.
What are the latest startup funding trends in the DACH region?
Startuprad.io tracks venture capital and startup funding across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Explore our pillar coverage pages for the latest data.
About This Data
This article is part of Startuprad.io's exclusive Rhine-Main Venture Capital Report series — the only continuous, independent tracking of startup venture funding in the Greater Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region. This dataset is not available from any other source and represents years of original research covering every disclosed funding round in the region from 2018 through 2022.
Rhine-Main Startup Ecosystem Series
Explore the full Greater Frankfurt/Rhine-Main startup venture capital data series and related coverage from Startuprad.io:
Venture Capital Reports (Chronological)
Quote Highlights
Startups in Rhine-Main raised over €150 million in 2018, marking a record year for IPOs, venture capital, and ICOs.
The tracked money raised totaled €153.723 million, making 2018 the first year fully covered by the Startuprad.io initiative.
2018 established the Rhine-Main region as a serious contender in Germany's startup ecosystem beyond its financial sector roots.
The Frankfurt startup ecosystem saw remarkable growth across multiple funding channels including venture capital, IPOs, and ICOs.
Related Rhine-Main Coverage
About the Host
Joern "Joe" Menninger is the host of the Startuprad.io podcast and covers founders, investors, and policy developments across the DACH startup ecosystem. Through more than 1,300 interviews and nearly a decade of reporting, he documents the evolution of the European startup landscape. Follow Joern on LinkedIn.
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