DACH Startup News December 2023: Founders, Funding and Ecosystem Updates
Updated: Sep 20
This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — December 2023
What Is This About?
The second part of December 2023's DACH startup coverage focusing on German, Swiss, and Austrian startup developments. This edition rounds up additional funding news, ecosystem changes, and notable founder stories that shaped the end of the year across the GSA startup scene.
Introduction
The second part of December 2023's DACH startup coverage rounds up additional funding news, ecosystem changes, and founder stories from across Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. This edition captures the final developments that shaped the end of a challenging year for the GSA startup scene.
December 2023's additional DACH coverage rounds up the final startup stories that shaped the end of a challenging year. The edition captures late-year ecosystem developments, founder stories, and market signals from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — December 2023 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.
Our Highlights:
Aleph Alpha’s AI models get bad press. Escooter Tier lays of one-fifth of the workforce. Solarisbank also fires employees, and so does the Austrian scale-up neoom. Sport Alliance gets 100 M US$ funding and Hugo Boss chips into a sustainable fashion fund. Trade Republic is now a fully licensed bank and Instafreight has to file for insolvency. In total, we have more than 30 M US$ new VC investments in Austria, more than 25 M US$ investments in Switzerland, and more than 400 M US$ investments in Germany, vs only three insolvencies.
Yes at the core we are very positive :-). It feels better, at least a bit.
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Top News
Aleph Alpha’s Models Get Bad Press
Aleph Alpha from Heidelberg promoted their models as better and non-biased than others including their ability to filter out fake news. The founder liked to talk about “european values.”
Now the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel and the Hamburg-based Zeit discovered shocking reactions of the models in the “Playground” of Aleph Alpha e.g. praising Hitler, homophobe and anti-semitic statements. Some of what the jounarlists discovered is shocking and other content sounds like statements from a dumb teenager. Interviewed researchers concluded them to be weaknesses of the language model.
One should keep in mind that the models are not final AND many LLMs have similar weaknesses. One should be concerned about LLM if models that keep theses “problems” are claimed to be final and go into production. Everybody who worked with new software knows that it can not be perfect. This is no excuse for the statements, but since it is software it may simply be the way to a final — hopefully non racist, nazi or homophobe tool.
Tagesspiegel: https://interaktiv.tagesspiegel.de/lab/aleph-alpha-ki-aus-deutschland-biases-vorurteile/
Zeit: https://www.zeit.de/digital/2023-09/aleph-alpha-luminous-jonas-andrulis-generative-ki-rassismus/komplettansichtAs an example of weaknesses of other AI models here CNN: “AI can be racist, sexist and creepy. What should we do about it?” https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/18/politics/ai-chatgpt-racist-what-matters/index.html
20% of Employees Have to Say Goodbye to the Escooter Company Tier
Scooter startup Tier lays off 22% of workforce to reach profitability | TechCrunch Scooter startup Tier lays off 22% of workforce to reach profitability | TechCrunch
Also, Solarisbank fires Employees
Solarisbank keeps firing employees reports a German blog: Solarisbank entlässt über 20 Beschäftigte. Auch Manager gehen this time around 20 employees including three managers have been let go, shortly before Christmas
Sport Alliance Raises The Bar
Sport Alliance announces Further Growth Investment from PSG, with New Commitments Totaling $100m Sport Alliance announces Further Growth Investment from PSG | SPORT ALLIANCE They write “With its product portfolio currently available across Europe, Sport Alliance enables efficient gym management and easy, digital access to sport and exercise for members in sports facilities. Over 5.2 million gym members use the app solutions provided by Sport Alliance to gain simple and digital access to sports facilities.”
Hugo Boss Joins Collateral Good in a Sustainable Fashion Fund
Collateral Good launches a HUGO BOSS-backed sustainable fashion fund with a €100M target Collateral Good launches a HUGO BOSS-backed sustainable fashion fund with a €100M target - Tech.eu The fund will invest in innovation and technology to accelerate the sustainable transformation of the textile and fashion industry. Collateral Good is a Zürich-based climate-first Venture Capital platform. To be clear, the whole fund volume is 100 M Euros, but Hugo Boss does not invest that much. The article does not even speculate on the size of Boss’ investment
Trade Republic Gets Full Bank License
Fintech unicorn Trade Republic from Berlin gets full bank license Trade Republic erhält Banklizenz – was das für Kunden bedeutet - Capital.de In the past Trade Republic was regulated as a so-called “securities trading bank.” Since Crypto has not been doing well, it can be assumed that TR seems to aim to extend its products and services in normal banking and securities trading, as well as asset management. Right now they have a lot of partnerships, which may be on the chopping block in the future.
Instafreight — A Frequent Part of Our News Has to File for Insolvency
Instafreight raised a total of 75,2 M US$ but still has to file for insolvency. Likely this is one of this year’s largest startup insolvencies +++ Instafreight +++ Mirror +++ Myne +++ breathe ilo +++ Infarm +++ - deutsche-startups.de The startup was founded in 2016 to get transportation space for B2B customers who only look to get one pallet transported. They raised 40 M US$ in Series B funding, announced in March 2022. According to LinkedIn, they have around 140 employees registered there. They counted amongst their investor's companies like Shell Ventures, Heliad Equity Partners, European Investment Bank, and Rocket Internet.
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Ecosystem
EU
European VC funding nearly halves in 2023, but shows resilience European VC funding nearly halves in 2023, but shows resilience
EU negotiators strike a political deal on AI Act EU negotiators strike political deal on AI Act – POLITICO This topic will occupy us for some time. We will surely have a deep dive when more details are available.
These are the EU countries with the most successful companies — France is slightly ahead of Germany These are the EU countries with the most successful companies - Tech.eu
Germany
SPACs? Are they still around? Turns out no. Famous entrepreneurs and investors in Germany returned the money they have raised for their SPACs to investors Was wurde aus den Spacs der deutschen Startup-Szene?
Study: The German AI market grows by 1/3rd to 6,3 billion €, and is expected to grow by another 30% in 2024 according to Bitkom e. V. Deutscher KI-Markt wächst um ein Drittel | Bitkom e. V.
Hubs
Here we want to highlight some hidden gems and cities of general startup interest.
Frankfurt — Rhein/Main
Crowdfunding platform bettervest wins Germany’s Sustainability Award 2023 category finance. Congratulations! bettervest gewinnt den 16. Deutschen Nachhaltigkeitspreis in der Kategorie Finanzdienstleister und Börsen
Cologne
Sastrify secures additional funding and acquires competitor Pengu to solidify its market position. Sastrify, a Cologne-based SaaS procurement platform, secures additional funding in the Series B round and acquires competitor Pengu. Sastrify secures additional funding, acquires competitor Pengu to solidify market position - Tech.eu
Cottbus
Zander Laboratories from Cottbus gets a 30 M Euro research grant for the development of neurotechnology prototypes. The project is called „Neuroadaptivität für autonome Systeme“ (NAFAS) 30 Mio. Euro: Cottbuser Startup erhält größte Forschungsförderung in EU | NIEDERLAUSITZ aktuell
Austria
neoom, the Austrian energy scaleup cuts 27 of 300+ jobs Neoom: Energy-Scaleup aus OÖ muss Stellen abbauen
Vienna-based scaleup Hydrogrid raises 8.5 M US$ venture capital for their real-time management software for hydropower Hydrogrid aus Wien holt sich in Series-A-Runde 8,5 Mio Dollar
Hololight, an Innsbruck, Austria-based company that specializes in AR and VR solutions for the enterprise market, raised $12M in funding Hololight Raises $12M in Funding
Jentis, a Vienna, Austria-based data capture technology company, raised €11M in Series A funding. Jentis Raises €11M in Series A Funding
Switzerland
Vandria, a Lausanne, Switzerland-based mitochondrial therapeutics company developing small molecule mitophagy inducers, raised $20.6M in Series A funding Vandria Raises $20.6M in Series A Financing
Cacao? Yep Zurich-based Koa raised 15 M US$ in Series B funding to build up their cacao upcycling business Kakaomarkt: Koa erhält 15 Mio Dollar in einer Serie-B-Finanzierung | Moneycab
General News / Tech News / Companies News Section
A little note here. Since we aim to inform you about the startup world in GSA, SMEs and large enterprises are also active in the markets. Therefore we include some news of them here as well:
New Funds, in case you are looking for money:
Munich-based Vanagon Ventures launches €30 million fund to heavily invest in the B2B green transformation space Munich-based Vanagon Ventures launches €30 million fund to invest in the B2B green transformation space | EU-Startups
Fintech News
Do you know the Munich-based crypto custodian Tangany? They are a hidden champion and the billion Euro assets under custody are for them in reach Kryptoverwahrer Tangany profitiert von aktuellem Boom – Milliarden-Grenze ist greifbar | FinanceFWD several years ago (February 2021) we had them in our show: Tangany offers a white-label custody Solution for Crypto Assets - YouTube hashtag: be ahead of the curve :-)
Fina a neobroker for women gives up after only two years Berliner Neobroker Fina gibt nach nur zwei Jahren auf
General News
Sono Motors is rescued out of insolvency, BUT its shares are dropped from NASDQA in a final decision of the stock exchange, according to this blog post: Sono Motors verliert Börsenzulassung
Munich-based startup Air Up has famous investors like Frank Thelen, Ashton Kutcher, and Mila Kunis, but is now confronted with accusations of Greenwashing Start-up-Check: Air Up wehrt sich gegen Greenwashing-Vorwürfe
Schumpeters Schöpferische Zerstörung ⇒ Creative Destruction Still Ongoing:
Software unicorn Contentful axes 50 jobs Software-Unicorn Contentful entlässt 50 Mitarbeitende (yep, also job cuts make it here since they can destroy a life as well).
ExpressSteuer the tax tech startup from Hamburg raised 25 M €, but has to file for insolvency +++ ExpressSteuer +++ Tacto +++ Co’Ps +++ reCup +++ Mistral AI +++ - deutsche-startups.de
Berlin-based escooter manufacturer Unu has to file for insolvency Elektro-Mobilität: Berliner E-Moped-Hersteller Unu meldet Insolvenz an
End on a High Note: Successful Fundraisings and Exits:
Keep in mind this is a small selection. The news here and their total value show how resilient the startup scene is. We included only selected fundraisings above 5 million Euros or USD
Munich-based Scalable Capital raises €60M led by Balderton Capital https://www.balderton.com/news/scalable-capital-raises-e60m-in-growth-funding/
BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, and LBBW gave 53 M Euro credit to the Hamburg-based energy startup 1komma5 Grad https://www.handelsblatt.com/technik/gadgets/1komma5-grad-erhaelt-auf-dem-weg-zum-ipo-erstmals-fremdkapital-von-banken/100003179.html
Tacto raised 50 M Euro for their AI-based tool to make supply chains future-proof. Tacto: 50 Mio. Euro für den Aufbau zukunftssicherer Lieferketten im Mittelstand - StartingUp
ecoworks, a Berlin, Germany-based climate-neutral renovation company, raised €40M in funding. ecoworks Closes €40M Funding Round
Luma Vision, a Dublin, Ireland- and Munich, Germany-based developer of a novel four-dimensional (4D) cardiac imaging and navigation platform, raised $22M in Series A3 funding Luma Vision Raises $22M in Financing
German Bionic raises 15 M € in Series A funding for their ai based exo skeleton for logistics, production, and nursing, also described as a robot wearable (Original Source Removed - Here would be a link to the source)
Berlin-based Fintech Banxware raises 15 M € venture capital and plans to cooperate with Hypovereinsbank Berliner Fintech Banxware sammelt 15 Millionen Euro ein – und plant Kooperation mit der Hypovereinsbank
Milano Vice, a Berlin, Germany-based virtual pizza restaurant chain, raised $9M in Series A funding. Milano Vice Raises $9M in Series A Funding
QuantumDiamonds, a Munich, Germany-based quantum sensing company, raised €7M in Seed funding. QuantumDiamonds Raises €7M in Seed Funding
We will be back in the new year on January 18th and the next news will be aired on January 25th.
Stay Ahead of the Curve
What Europe should do to identify tomorrow’s billion-dollar startups today What Europe should do to identify tomorrow's billion-dollar startups today - Tech.eu
Marqeta, 2024 Payment Predictions From Nick Holt Marqeta: 2024 Payment Predictions From Nick Holt
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Aleph Alpha’s AI models get bad press.
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 December 2023:?
This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — December 2023
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This article is part of our coverage of DACH Startup News January 2022: Founders, Funding and Ecosystem Updates.
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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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