DACH Startup News November 2021: Founders, Funding and Ecosystem Updates
Updated: Sep 20
November 2021: Tier raises $200M, N26 exits the US, and Frankfurt's first unicorn Clark. Explore the latest in German startups.
What Is This About?
November 2021's startup roundup features Tier raising $200 million, N26 exiting the US market, and Frankfurt's first unicorn Clark. This edition covers the month's most significant funding rounds, strategic moves, and ecosystem developments across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Introduction
November 2021's startup roundup covers Tier raising $200 million, N26 exiting the US market, and Frankfurt's first unicorn Clark. This edition captures the month's most significant funding activity and strategic pivots across the DACH ecosystem during the peak of the 2021 startup boom.
November 2021 features Tier raising $200M, N26 exiting the US, and Frankfurt's first unicorn Clark — capturing peak 2021 boom activity across the DACH ecosystem.
November 2021: Tier raises $200M, N26 exits the US, and Frankfurt's first unicorn Clark. 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 DACH Startup News January 2022: Founders, Funding and Ecosystem Updates.
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Top News
Tier raises capital and buys a bicycle rental company
Tier scoots off with $200M, all-equity ‘first close’ of Series D Tier scoots off with $200M, all-equity 'first close' of Series D | TechCrunch
Plus take over bike rental service nextbike, but does not disclose the price. They are https://about.tier.app/de/tier-and-nextbike-unit-to-become-the-number-1-for-sustainable-micro-mobility/ Tier says ““The combined force of the two companies will create Europe’s largest and most diverse micro-mobility provider with more than 250,000 vehicles in over 400 cities.”
Related Links
After entering the Netherlands, Berlin-based TIER Mobility raises €171.4M; now valued at €1.72B "Source Link dead 2026-09-14"
N26 pull the plug on their US operations
They will stop on January 11th, 2022 already. So there is not much time to shift your main bank account if you ever had it there. N26 started in the US in 2019 and now, 2 ½ years later, already leaves again. https://n26.com/en-us/blog/n26-us-operations
Three more unicorns (Sono Motors is publicly traded and strictly not a unicorn, but Clark and Razor Group make the cut)
Sono Motors IPO on NASDAQ
Sono Motors, the Munich-based solar company startup, had a great IPO. They offered their shares for 15 US$ and reached (yesterday) on first trading a high of 38.74 US$. This is all despite delivering their first car (16.000 pre-orders on their books) only next year. In total they will have raised around 135 mn US$, at a 2.6 bn US$ valuation. The two founders Jona Christians and Laurin Hahn retain the majority of the votes. https://finance.yahoo.com/m/0ad5129a-f89c-3940-b882-0c9f55a33264/sono-motors-has-gone-public%2C.html?.tsrc=fin-srch
https://www.businessinsider.de/gruenderszene/business/sono-motors-schafft-den-sprung-an-die-nasdaq/
Related: Sono Motors IPO: SEV Starts Trading on Nasdaq Sono Motors IPO: SEV Starts Trading on Nasdaq
Clark.de — Now a unicorn
Frankfurt-based insurtech startup Clark Germany gets the website Finanzen.de from AllianzX in an all-share deal. Existing VCs invested as well. The transaction values Clark at more than 1 bn US$, becoming Frankfurt’s first unicorn. AllianzX becomes largest minority stakeholder https://t.co/cAIQYBck1b?amp=1
You can learn more about the complicated transaction and the founder (we had him overtime in two interviews) on our blog post here: https://www.startuprad.io/post/frankfurt-has-it-s-first-unicorn-startup/
Razor Group
Amazon-shop-buyer Razor Group raises 125 mn US$ and cracks unicorn valuation Amazon: Shop-Aufkäufer Razor Group knackt die Milliardenbewertung - Business Insider
Ecosystem
How data is helping European VCs find their next hidden gems How data is helping European VCs find their next hidden gems | Sifted
German Retail Association forecasts for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 4,9 bn Euros revenues in Germany (Original Source Removed - Here would be a link to the source) Prognose: Handel setzt zu Black Friday und Cyber Monday 4,9 Milliarden Euro um - onlinemarktplatz.de
Hubs
Frankfurt
Clark.de is Frankfurt’s first unicorn (from above)
Frankfurt Notches a Win as Cities Fight for Green-Finance Crown Frankfurt Notches a Win as Cities Fight for Green-Finance Crown - Bloomberg. This is Frankfurt’s chance to become the global center of green finance.
No more paper. Frankfurt-based startup paperless has hundreds of clients waiting to be the first customers Nie wieder Papierchaos: Hunderte Pilotkunden stehen bei diesem Startup Schlange, they help you get rid of hardcopy contracts and documents
Frankfurt-based fund of funds Multiple Capital has closed its €20 million raise for Multiple Fund II Fund of Funds Multiple Capital closes €20 million raise, officially welcome Michael Jackson as Venture Partner - Tech.eu
BITA secures €6m investment from ETFS Capital BITA secures €6m investment from ETFS Capital Learn more about the founder in our interview here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/bita-allows-the-calculation-of-tailored-indices/
Helen Ventures, and Porsche Ventures invest in Frankfurt-based customer loyalty startup &Charge an undisclosed amount Scalable Capital übernimmt justETF - Porsche Ventures investiert in &Charge - Redalpine setzt auf Luya - deutsche-startups.de
Last news we have already announced that Fastbill sold itself to Canadian unicorn FreshBooks. Now here is the exclusive interview with Fastbill’s founder: https://www.startuprad.io/post/fastbill-s-exit-to-canada-based-unicorn-freshbooks/
Mainz
BioNTech, the company behind the Pfizer corona vaccine is building a factory in Africa to produce their vaccine Corona: Biontech baut ab Mitte 2022 in Afrika Produktionsstätte für mRNA-Impfstoffe - DER SPIEGEL
BioNTech is not only successful as a startup, but the tax revenues fill the coffers of Mainz, where they are located. Mainz wants to use the money to pay back debt and help to get more biotech startups to the city https://lnkd.in/e4EsrE2b
Tübingen
Curevac one of Germany’s great biotech hopes had to trash its first approach for a corona vaccine, now they are back with their 2nd attempt and promising data on it Erste Erfolge in Tierversuchen: Curevac meldet sich mit neuem Impfstoff zurück - n-tv.de
Heidelberg
Insurtech startup Getsafe obtains property insurance license, turning itself from an insurtech into an insurance company Getsafe: Versicherungs-Start-up Getsafe erhält Bafin-Lizenz
Hamburg
NAGA Launches Stock Trading Globally and Announces Its Own NFT Marketplace NAGA Launches Stock Trading Globally and Announces Its Own NFT Marketplace | Finance Magnates
We spotted NAGA very early and brought them to you back in 2015! https://music.amazon.de/podcasts/2a1bdac9-7b5e-47c0-89d5-11a277228946/episodes/e183e74d-b07b-495e-9a17-9b5e087f08b3/startuprad-io---the-authority-on-german-startups-two-interviews-from-euro-finance-tech-2015
Munich
See above for Sono Motors
Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek puts €100M into #Munich-based defense startup Helsing.ai, in their Series A funding at a valuation of more than €400M to support democracies — TechCrunch Daniel Ek puts €100M into defence startup Helsing.ai, to support democracies | TechCrunch
UVC Partners raises their 3rd VC fund. Amongst the investors are the founders of the unicorns Flixbus and Celonis. Flixbus received investments from UVC early on UVC: Warum prominente Anleger in diesen Fonds investieren. Now Deutsche-Startups reports that they raised 255 mn €, the original target was 150 mn € pockid sammelt 4 Millionen ein - Omnia Retail kauft Patagona - UVC Partners füllt dritten Fonds mit 255 Millionen - deutsche-startups.de
Cobrainer applies AI to HR and raises 11 mn € as Series A funding, to expand across Europe 11 Millionen Euro für Cobrainer | Munich Startup Platform
Deep North, a Redwood City, CA and Munich, Germany-based AI company transforming video assets into custom-tailored analytics, raised $16.7M in Series A-1 funding Deep North Raises $16.7M in Series A-1 Funding
Cliniserve, a SaaS tool for nursing homes from Munich, raises a “seven-digit” seed round Siebenstellige Seed-Finanzierung für Cliniserve | Munich Startup Platform
Munich-based Parkamo closes €2.1 million funding to continue the expansion of its climate compensated parking app | EU-Startups Munich-based Parkamo closes €2.1 million funding to continue the expansion of its climate compensated parking app | EU-Startups
Stuttgart
AnyDesk wants to replace Team Viewer. Now they raise 70 mn US$ venture capital from investors General Atlantic, Insight Partners, EQT Ventures and Possible Ventures (Original Source Removed - Here would be a link to the source) Ardian investiert in Berlin Brands Group - AnyDesk bekommt 70 Millionen - Tesvolt sammelt 40 Millionen ein - deutsche-startups.de
Austria
iDWell: Vienna-based PropTech raises several million Euros venture capital from investors in Guesty, Shazam, or Delivery Hero iDWell: Wiener PropTech sammelt mehrere Millionen Euro ein
Vienna’s tech startup ecosystem gathers momentum Vienna’s tech startup ecosystem gathers momentum | Computer Weekly
General News / Companies News Section
The Zooplus story is nearing an end. The story in short: One PE company wanted to take them private and made an offer. Then two others were interested in joining the fight. One dropped out and H&F and EQT decided to work together.
Zooplus buyout to be decided Wednesday, November 3rd, the offer for the company was raised, now reaching 3.4 bn Euros (~4 bn US$) Zooplus vor der Übernahme-Entscheidung am Mittwoch (3.11.) – Exciting Commerce
Hellman & Friedman (H&F) and EQT now own more than 50% of the Zooplus shares. They paid 480 €/share, valuing the company at 3.7 bn € Finanzinvestoren nehmen wichtige Hürde bei der Zooplus-Übernahme
Here is a short overview of the bidding war compiled by the Exciting Commerce Blog
2,8 bn Euro (390 Euro/share) Hellman & Friedman August 13th.
3,3 bn Euro (460 Euro/share) Hellman & Friedman September 12th
3,4 bn Euro (470 Euro/share) EQT September 25th
3,4 bn Euro (470 Euro/share) Hellman & Friedman October 7th
3,4 Euro (480 Euro/share) Hellman & Friedman and EQT joint offer on October 25th
November 3rd they purchased more than 50% of the shares
Fintech
A German blog looked through the published P&L and balance sheet of Berlin-based fintech unicorn Trade Republic (Sep 30th, ‘20)
Their revenue grew by 3.600%
CAC 40 €
RPC 100 €
==> They make ~60 € out of each new client the first year 3600% Wachstum!!! Wir haben die Trade-Republic-Zahlen
Moonfare — a Berlin-based fintech that allows its clients to invest in PE funds — raises $125M in Series C led by Insight Partners to accelerate global growth Moonfare sammelt 125 Millionen ein - mondu bekommt 14 Millionen - audibene-Gründer starten True Growth Capital - deutsche-startups.de at an assumed valuation of 500 mn Euros. They can be seen as a competitor of NYC based startups iCapital Network or Artivest, but iCapital has already raised 3x the funding of Moonfare. We will see how far Moonfare gets, since the money is for their international expansion.
A new move in the neobroker competition between Trade Republic, Bitpanda and Scalable: Munich-based neobroker Scalable Capital buys JustETF, an ETF-focused website Provinz-Fintech JustETF an Scalable Capital verkauft - Business Insider
German finance oversight Bafin surprised by Insurtech Hype, the seven insurtechs in Germany only make up 0,02% of all property premiums in the German market Bafin-Versicherungsaufseher warnt vor „Hype“ um Insurtechs
Solarisbank (the banking backend of many fintech startups) is reorganizing due to their first international acquisition Solarisbank baut Organisation um – und schafft „Business Units“ ab | FinanceFWD
SPACS are not dead yet
Former German McKinsey CEO Cornelius Baur keeps pushing his SPAC plans. It will be listed in Amsterdam, looking for targets in health care Ex-McKinsey-Chef Cornelius Baur konkretisiert Spac-Pläne - manager magazin Now Handelsblatt reports the ex CEOs from Merck and Qiagen are also part of the SPAC team: Ex-Chefs von McKinsey und Co. wollen den Pharma-Markt aufmischen
Noteworthy New VC Funds
World Fund just launched Europe’s biggest climate tech venture capital fund with €350 million World Fund: The European search engine Ecosia launches a €350 million climate VC fund | EU-Startups
Balderton Capital announces €529 million early-stage fund to back Europe’s next wave of breakout tech Balderton Capital announces €529 million early-stage fund to back Europe’s next wave of breakout tech | EU-Startups
All Other News
MediaMarkt Saturn — Ceconomy made one third of profits online Ceconomy made one third of profits online
Goldman Sachs owns 17,4% of the German online furniture store Home24. This makes the New York-based investment bank their largest shareholder Goldman Sachs ist jetzt mit 17,4% größter Home24-Aktionär – Exciting Commerce
Germany’s Sanity Group adds $3.5M to Series A | PitchBook (Original Source Removed - Here would be a link to the source)
You can learn more about the founder in this interview https://www.startuprad.io/post/german-startup-awards-2021-gsa21-entrepreneur-of-the-year-finn-hansel
Carbon accounting startup Plan A raises $10m six months after seed Carbon accounting startup Plan A raises $10m Series A | Sifted
DN Capital opens Berlin office DN Capital opens Berlin office - Private Equity Wire
1 in 10 of All-New Startups in Germany Are Fintech Companies 1 in 10 of All New Startups in Germany Are Fintech Companies | FinTech Magazine
German logistics startup Hive just raised $34 million from Tiger Global. The firm’s unique approach to due diligence won the deal — and other VCs are taking note. Tiger Global Leads $34 Million Round in Logistics Startup Hive - Business Insider
Y42 raises 27 m Euro (31 m US$) Series A, with lead investors atomico and insightpartners Berliner Startup Y42 bekommt Millionen-Finanzierung - Business Insider
German online car dealer Auto1 raises 2021 targets on strong demand German online car dealer Auto1 raises 2021 targets on strong demand | Reuters
Stay ahead of the curve
Sequoia Capital just blew up the VC fund model Sequoia Capital just blew up the VC fund model
SoftBank Vision Fund Borrows Against DoorDash, Coupang Stakes "Source Link dead 2026-09-14"
This article was originally published on Startuprad.io. Find the link here: https://www.startuprad.io/post/this-month-in-german-startups-november-2021/
November 2021: Tier raises $200M, N26 exits the US, and Frankfurt's first unicorn Clark.
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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What are the key facts about DACH Startup News November 2021:?
November 2021: Tier raises $200M, N26 exits the US, and Frankfurt's first unicorn Clark. Explore the latest in German startups.
How does this affect the German startup ecosystem?
This article is part of our coverage of DACH Startup News January 2022: Founders, Funding and Ecosystem Updates.
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.
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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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