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 — June 2021
Welcome to This Month in German Startups June 2021 by Startuprad.io — in a news recording with Chris (Back Home in New York) and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main.
We are reporting live from Germany’s largest unicorn wave ever. We announce two new unicorns (Scalable Capital and Forto (formerly FreightHub)) and Germany’s first Decacorn Celonis, valued at more than 11 bn US$. The 2019 Unicorn Wefox raises large funding of 536 mn € (650 mn US$). About You IPOs for 23 €/share at 4 bn Euro (4.85 bn US$) AND Austria becomes a new most valuable startup with GoStudent (1.4 bn €, 1.67 bn US$), after they had their first unicorn only last month.
Plus SolarisBank is rumored to be in talks of a 100 mn Euro VC Deal, which would make them a unicorn as well, to buy up a competitor. Especially active in this frenzy of unicorn creation is Softbank from Japan and Tencent from China.
We have a special episode on the unparalleled unicorn creation, which is available on the same channels. If you want to know more about the new Decacorn and unicorns in Germany and Austria you want to listen to this episode as well. We keep here the coverage of unicorns to a minimum.
Note: This will be the last news recording before the summer break. There will be no regular news in July or August, but we will be back with news at the end of September, wrapping up the summer news.
We are soooooooooo looking forward to the summer that Joe even wears a Hawaii shirt. Be happy for your eyes if you are only listening to this podcast :-)
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The Video Interview is set to go live on July 1st, 2021, at 18.00 CET
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Housekeeping — Time to brag
We will go back to the weekly publication schedule. This means only one episode each week, starting in calendar week 27 (from July 5th on).
Stay safe everyone!
Argentina was the 53rd country to download us in their podcast charts! We even made it in the Top 100 of Apple Podcasts Entrepreneurship charts. Muchas Gracias!
Top News
Meet Germany’s First Decacorn!
Munich-based startup Celonis becomes Germany’s first Decacorn (valued at 11.1 bn US$) with a monster funding of 1 bn US$ for their Series D funding https://buff.ly/3it1Mti
This also means our bonus episode on Trade Republic being Germany’s most valuable startup is obe, but they remain the most valuable fintech for now.
Scalable Capital Reaches Unicorn Status
Yet another startup from Munich made it in the exclusive unicorn club, namely neobroker Scalable Capital. They first started out as a robo advisor, but now they turn increasingly to online brokerage. Their brokerage also offers a Trading Flatrate model, taking on Trade Republic (learn more here https://buff.ly/3dsPYnw).
They raised the most recent investment round, their Series E, of more than 150 m € (~ 180 mn US$), made them a unicorn at a 1.4 bn US$ valuation:
European neobroker Scalable Capital raises €150M ($180M+) at a $1.4B valuation — TechCrunch https://buff.ly/3csdpgc
Forto (formerly Freight Hub) Reaches Unicorn Status
Forto has been part of “This Month in German Startups” for quite some time. They underwent a re-branding from Freight Hub. The Berlin-based logistic startup raised 200 mn US$ from investors, led by Softbank, valuing them at 1 bn € (1.2 bn US$) https://buff.ly/3y136bx With this funding they also added Citi Ventures and G Squared as new investors.
Austria’s New Unicorn And Most Valuable Startup
We talked about Bitpanda becoming Austria’s most valuable startup in “This Month in German Startups March 2021,” but now there is GoStudent, which takes the title from them. Go student became the 2nd unicorn in the country with a 200 mn € (~240 mn US$) investment led by Softbank and Tencent. The investors value the company at 1.4 bn € (1,67 bn US$) https://buff.ly/3qokCDR
Germany’s Existing Unicorns Are Also Doing Good
Another fintech monster funding: #Berlin-based insurtech startup Wefox grabs $650 million at $3 billion valuation https://buff.ly/2S0RKVp
About You, the Hamburg-based online fashion retailer, IPOed in Frankfurt at a 4bn € valuation, raising 828 mn € https://buff.ly/3gvh6o9
Germany’s Rumor-Corns
German blank check firm 468 SPAC said it had entered exclusive negotiations to buy children’s entertainment firm Boxine from Düsseldorf for about 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) https://buff.ly/2UouBNF
Solarisbank is rumored to work on a 100 mn Euro VC deal, making them a unicorn as well. The blogpost from financefwd, a reputable fintech blog also states that the proceeds of the fundraising should be invested to take over a competitor, focusing on other geographies. The spokesperson refused to comment on that https://buff.ly/3d4BxWL. We already talked in our April 2021 news about a SPAC deal for Solarisbank, which was targeted at 2022 anyways. The SPAC deal appears to be not off the table
Wirecard
No changes to our last update here:
Keep in mind there is still an investigative committee ongoing, right now they have heard 104 witnesses and we assume they will wrap things up before the next federal election on September 26th 2021, so part of it will be in our summer wrap-up news. https://www.bundestag.de/ausschuesse/untersuchungsausschuesse/3untersuchungsausschuss
Related:
Philippines file criminal charges against former #Wirecard CFO Jan Marsalek, which is still on the run https://buff.ly/3g0wuZq This is small news, since Mr. Marsalek already faces charges in Germany and if ever found may end up serving a long time in German prison.
Ecosystem
General note on the ecosystem: Germany is approaching a scheduled general election on September 26th. This election is important because chancellor Merkel will retire. This may also imply changes to laws and regulations, touching startups as well. We will keep you updated here. Germany will have a new Government and a new chancellor before Christmas.
Related to the end of Chancellor Merkel’s term: Digital Association Bitkom analyzed Merkel’s promises to the German startup scene. The administration wanted to start 25 measures in 2018, which should have been fulfilled after two years. Now only 15 have been finished https://buff.ly/2SuHtRv
Related to that: We have already recorded another bonus episode on the upcoming 10 bn startup investment program from the German federal government, with the digital commissioner. The recording will be published during the summer.
Fintech DACH Trends: Funding Bounces Back in 2020 https://buff.ly/3irjhKs?utm_source=-custom-by-source-0-
European fintech startups with overseas ambitions fill war chests at record clip | PitchBook https://buff.ly/3uudUww
Hubs
Note: The order of news and cities is only due to the time when we discovered the news.
Frankfurt
8,5 m € for #Frankfurt-based #SaaS #fintech CrowdDesk (@Buergerkredit) https://www.businessinsider.de/gruenderszene/news/fintech-ticker-mai28-crowddesk/
You can learn more about the two founders here: https://buff.ly/3fn9e7k
Co-living startup Habyt closes $24M Series B, merges with# Frankfurt-based Homefully — TechCrunch https://buff.ly/2S2a7JG
You can find an interview with the founder of Homefully here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/homefully-offers-co-living-in-germany-and-switzerland-and-is-looking-to-expand/
Munich
Munich-based #insurtech Finanzchef24 wins #NewYork-based @MarkelStyle as investor via Munich Startups https://buff.ly/3bV42pg
Are you using a Cherry mechanical keyboard? The company behind it, Cherry AG just ipoed in Frankfurt: https://buff.ly/3dmqtUY
Arive want’s to accomplish, what Amazon could not pull off with Prime Now, a 30-minute last-mile delivery service. They start in Munich https://buff.ly/3vF6ms6
Munich-based Wellster raises €35 million to expand its telemedicine solutions https://buff.ly/35XQDcN
Offenburg
Offenburg is a lovely little town in the very south west of Germany. Actually the next largest city is Strasbourg in France, which is closer than Stuttgart.
Offenburg-based accounting software for freelancers and SMEs sevDesk raises 50 mn Euros from investors Arena Holdings and Hybris founder Carsten Thoma, who join existing investors https://buff.ly/3fOOLr4
Austria
The #Vienna-based #proptech startup Properster raises 3 mn Euros #VentureCapital https://buff.ly/3bYt3Qe
Runtastic co-founder invests in #Vienna-based AI tool that recognizes food in pictures https://buff.ly/3uC7ICO
Switzerland
Top 15 Biotech Startups in Switzerland Making a Difference in Europe https://buff.ly/3iw6ma7
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Section Companies
Trouble at Gorillas in Berlin, Plus Market Entry USA
High traffic, blocked roads, blocked pavements, and a steady stream of couriers sparks protests against #Gorillas warehouse in #Berlin https://buff.ly/3zeL86z. They also just entered the US market, starting in New York City.
Related
“The protests at Europe’s second-most valuable on-demand grocery startup are reminiscent of the labor battles waged by earlier generation gig economy giants “ https://buff.ly/3xdsOZN
Berlin authorities threaten instant delivery startup Gorillas with a fine for illegally opening a logistic center on the pavement https://buff.ly/3wLU9Th
Gorillas enters #NYC “A German e-commerce startup wants to disrupt the New York City grocery market with deliveries to customers’ apartments in 10 minutes or less” https://buff.ly/2Tr8qG8
Related:
Instacart Announces 30-Minute Delivery, as #Berlin-based Gorillas enters some US cities with 10 minutes delivery https://buff.ly/2TtD6Xr
Instant Delivery is still HOT
Flink (a #Berlin-based) instant supermarket and competitor of Gorillas has three takeover offers at hand reports Deutsche-Startups exclusively https://buff.ly/3uz4P5K
But they also raised 200 mn Euros #VentureCapital https://buff.ly/3w0oahz
Flink raised 240 mn US$ last week, now Deutsche-Startups found out they raised at a 900 mn US$ pre-money valuation https://buff.ly/3v34GYk
Pipe hype reaches Europe
In Germany alone, three teams are working on an alternative to venture capital funding https://buff.ly/3uCZ7zC, similar to Pipe, which aims to be the “NASDAQ for revenue.”
Other Noteworthy News
Mymuesli offers customization of cereals. They used to be a darling of the German startup scene. Now they close many of their retail locations and turn profitable. https://buff.ly/2SvCiRq
Berlin-based healthtech startup Ada Health raises €73.8M from Samsung, Bayer, others https://buff.ly/3cj0yx9
German TV Station WDR reports that hundreds of e-scooters are sunk on the bottom of the river Rhine. It appears some of them are leaking, maybe from batteries. This is concerning because the Rhine delivers drinking water to 30 mn Europeans https://buff.ly/3wB2qt9
CureVac Tanks As Potential Covid Vaccine Fails Trial https://buff.ly/3iRdDl2
You can learn more about CureVac here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/germanys-hope-for-coronavirus-vaccine-and-how-they-got-a-300-mn-euros-government-investment/
Berlin-based finleap connect raises €22M to expand its open banking platform across Europe https://buff.ly/2U6Z8zg
SAP bought Signavio for 1 bn € (1.2 bn US$). Now they the founders set up a greentech fund to combat climate change https://buff.ly/3gE5uit
Stay ahead of the curve
Europe’s unicorn herd grows bigger and faster in 2021 | @PitchBook https://buff.ly/35jnqsd
Why Do Innovation Outposts Fail? https://buff.ly/3wQ7OrN
Will brick-and-mortar supermarkets survive in Europe? https://buff.ly/3cqZKX5
EU competition authorities are looking at Facebooks Marketplaces https://buff.ly/34B40i9
Early Stage Fundraising for European Startups: Amount & Valuation https://benpeterjones.medium.com/early-stage-fundraising-for-european-startups-amount-valuation-d3962f256c16
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