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This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — January 2023

Updated: Apr 30

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.

What Is This About?

The January 2023 DACH startup news roundup kicks off the new year with key developments from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland — covering early-year funding activity, ecosystem predictions, regulatory updates, and the founder stories setting the tone for the startup landscape in 2023.

This article is part of our coverage of Monthly Startup News from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

  • This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.

  • Happy 2023, as well as a happy Chinese New Year of the Rabbit.

  • Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups, our startup news wrap-up for January 2023 by Startuprad.

  • As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode.

  • WeFox is under fire for growing with acquisitions of insurance broker pools, BioNTech makes largest acquisition in its history, DeepL confirms unicorn status and snipes at Grammarly, Solarisbank in trouble with BaFin, Trade Republic has to disclose numbers and Sono Motors gets longer runway with EU money.



New Blog


This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — January 2023 Startuprad.io brings you independent coverage of the key developments shaping the startup and venture capital landscape across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

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.


Happy 2023, as well as a happy Chinese New Year of the Rabbit. 2023 Chris and Joe will again bring you startup news once a month (with a small summer break) wrapping up what was going on — and we found noteworthy — in the GSA / DACH startups scene.

Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups, our startup news wrap-up for January 2023 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on January 24th, 2023. Keep in mind, this news episode covers everything since our last news episode.

As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode. Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog, link below.


Our Highlights:

WeFox is under fire for growing with acquisitions of insurance broker pools, BioNTech makes largest acquisition in its history, DeepL confirms unicorn status and snipes at Grammarly, Solarisbank in trouble with BaFin, Trade Republic has to disclose numbers and Sono Motors gets longer runway with EU money.

Let’s talk startups:


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Top News


WeFox got some splaining to do 🙂

Extensive, but not favorable coverage of insurtech Wefox came out this month. The main complaints are that the growth is basically driven by acquiring existing pools of insurance brokers (not really what you would associate with an insurtech startup). They made that way 600 million Euros in revenue in 2022. But these pools do not get innovative systems from WeFox, or innovative insurance offers from them, they just keep working. Also, there has been no innovative product that really drove the growth at WeFox as an innovative unicorn https://financefwd.com/de/wefox-zukauefe/; https://www.capital.de/wirtschaft-politik/so-pumpte-sich-wefox-mit-zukaeufen-und-fragwuerdigen-deals-auf-33116352.html


BioNTech makes the largest acquisition to date

BioNTech may be one of Germany’s most successful startup companies. We talked about it in our news before, the company alone is responsible for approximately half a percentage point of Germany’s GDP Growth in 2021 — Keep in mind that Germany is the 4th largest country in the world by nominal GDP.

Here is the new piece: Mainz-based pharma company BioNTech (famous for their corona vaccine) makes the largest acquisition in its history with UK-based AI startup Instadeep https://buff.ly/3W4k0kY

Related: BioNTech’s founder on the future of mRNA technology https://buff.ly/3QzgbmN


Cologne-based DeepL confirms unicorn status and snipes at Grammarly

DeepL takes aim at Grammarly with the launch of Write, to clean up your prose. https://buff.ly/3IScR4u

Related:

Cologne-based translation tool DeepL confirms unicorn valuation for their 2022 fundraising of 100 mn US$ https://buff.ly/3ZuGuyE


Solarisbank joins N26 in Troubles with BaFin

Bafin is Germany’s bank oversight body (think FSA or SEC). They have already limited the number of customers N26 can acquire due to lapses in following regulations (especially AML), now Solarisbank is in too: “Solarisbank in Germany can now only get new partners (fintech clients) with permission of German finance oversight BaFin, due to continuing problems. BaFin also sends an “observer” https://buff.ly/3J3c157”


Trade Republic Updates

Trade Republic generates more than 1 bn Euros inflows of new client money with 2% interest rate offer https://buff.ly/3H36EzZ and a lot of favorable press coverage.

Also, Trade Republic has to publish their numbers: There is a legal requirement in Germany to publish your balance sheet 12 months after your business year ends. Now it was the Republic’s turn: Berlin-based neobroker unicorn Trade Republic triples revenue and losses https://buff.ly/3XkY2Mh


Sono Motors gets more runway

emobility startup Sono Motors gets additional 1,4 million Euros from EU Horizont Program reports Der Spiegel https://buff.ly/3D96oyt


Housekeeping & Time to Brag

Our fintech review went live on December 25th, 2022 — as every year, and we had a surprise episode with Professor Fatas from INSEAD on FTX for you on the 26th. You surely noticed that we did not include our honorary Startuprad.io member in the fintech review — Paolo Sironi. He has a totally crazy travel schedule and he was only free in early 2023, so we made a fintech and banking outlook (what he does all day), which turned out to be a real deep dive into the future of fintech and banking strategies. Listen to the 45 minutes, it is totally worth it: Fintech and Banking 2023 and Beyond | Strategy https://buff.ly/3iPoRsX

The new year gave us a pretty pleasant surprise. On January 13th, 2023 Startuprad.io and its sub-podcasts scored in more than 45 countries worldwide in Apple’s and Chartable’s podcast charts! Including in the USA, India, Brazil, France, Canada, Germany, Russia, Mexico, Italy, Turkey, Chile, Taiwan, Croatia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Tunisia and in the Global Podcast Charts for Business and Technology by Chartable.



Very happy to see our content as part of France Digital’s information pack for Germany. (Look at “Hungry for more”) https://buff.ly/3XKkZIu


Ecosystem

Keep in mind that we are recording the first news wrap-up for 2023 here, so a forecast has to be in here somewhere :-) Can Berlin help startups lift Germany’s economy? 10 predictions for German tech in 2023 https://buff.ly/3k7nYw2

  • Healthtech will become more patient-centric

  • A boom in new fintech startups

  • The German government will wake up to the potential of startups to steer the economy away from recession

  • Joe’s favorite: Massive wave of first-time founders

  • ChatGPT will birth a host of new startups

Germany had 2022 10% fewer newly founded companies, BUT still more than in 2019 or 2020. Even insolvencies have only been 6% above 2021. Most companies were founded in March 2022: 13.126 in total, according to an analysis by databyte



Hubs

Here we want to highlight some hidden gems and cities of general startup interest.


Frankfurt

  • Frankfurt-based finance software startup Fintus buys Münster based software startup Finstreet. The price tag is rumored to be low eight digits. https://buff.ly/3W1F2kf

  • Deutsche Digital Assets from Germany successfully sells US-based groups to Cryptology. Patrick Lowry resigns as DDA’s CEO to focus exclusively on Cryptology’s CEO https://buff.ly/3WzB4Q6

  • Interview as Iconic Funds (before rebranding to Deutsche Digital Assets): https://youtu.be/sDL9nvWiY84


Hamburg

  • Hamburg, Germany-based Neobank Ruuky files for bankruptcy https://buff.ly/3Zo7nUR the neobank tried to appeal to the Teenagers / Gen Z, but is now under insolvency protection, looking for a buyer

  • Related: Insolvent neo bank Ruuky — targeting Gen Z — is looking for a buyer https://buff.ly/3HrX1fB


Osnabrück

  • Gastro tech startup visiolab from Osnabrück raises 3,1 M Euro for their self-checkout solution for restaurants and their market entry in the US https://buff.ly/3iDkzVc


Stuttgart

  • Vialytics from Stuttgart raises 10 m US$ in Series A funding. Investors include Scania Growth Capital, and existing investors EnBW New Ventures as well as Statkraft Ventures https://buff.ly/3QLSIyV


Rostock

  • Tax app Zasta (german equivalent for … dough or bucks) gets a 60 mn Euros line of credit from cooperative bank https://buff.ly/3QPGQvF


Austria

  • Novak Djokovic invests millions in Vienna-based scale-up waterdrop and becomes a brand ambassador for their beverages, products, and bottles https://buff.ly/3GRnGRv


Switzerland

  • Swiss insurance as a service startup Toni Digital raises 12 m CHF in series B funding https://buff.ly/3GSrvHA

  • 14 Swiss Venture Capitalists Fintech Startups Should Watch in 2023 https://buff.ly/3IY6ywd

  • Penta co-founder Lav raised 3 m Euros seed funding for his new neobank Relio in Switzerland https://buff.ly/3X5FiQy learn more about the founder in our interview with him (when he was still at Penta): https://buff.ly/3GYM1X9

  • Switzerland-based fintech Everon, specializing in digital asset management, closes CHF 2.5 M seed funding, lead investor TX Ventures https://buff.ly/3D7cXkU


General News / Tech News / Companies News Section

New VC Funds, If You’re Looking for Money

  • SMAPE Smart Perspectives I will invest in Web3 startups and make the first closing at 20 m €. The fund is managed by Hamburg-based SMAPE Capital https://buff.ly/3vUXccM

  • For our readers on the blog: Pitch your startup here on the website via contact https://www.smape.capital/


Fintech News

  • Commerzbank, one of Germany’s largest banks, sues auditor EY for incurred losses in Wirecard investments https://buff.ly/3ZVrGt2

  • PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel backs German B2B BNPL Mondu in $13M Series A extension — TFN https://buff.ly/3W6UnQK

  • N26 starts their offer for crypto trading in Germany — Bitpanda as partner https://buff.ly/3GN0ZOB This is either the best time or the worst time to do that. Only time will tell


General News

  • The job cuts did not really stop. They went into pause during the holidays. Now they are back: Berlin-based fertility startup Clue axes a quarter of its employees https://buff.ly/3HrDtZ4

  • That is an interesting concept. A German airline startup (they want to start operating this year) wants to replace frequent flyer miles with a cryptocurrency https://buff.ly/3ZtiUCl

  • Oda — Norway’s No 1 online grocery store — starts service in Germany, with Berlin as the first city https://buff.ly/3Wl3g9p

  • New York-based Co-Living Firm Common Living Merges With German Counterpart Habyt https://buff.ly/3HgC1Z6 Interview: Habyt bought Frankfurt-based homefully. You can learn about homefully here: https://youtu.be/BMiL0niD6SI

  • Tiger is noteworthy as a (lead) investor in large venture capital rounds in Germany: A secret $10 million settlement hangs over Tiger’s latest fundraising effort | Semafor https://buff.ly/3kuTqok


A Very Few And Selected Fundraisings — End on a high note :-)

  • Carbon One (C1) is founded by serial entrepreneur Christian Vollmann. The startup wants to produce climate-friendly ship fuel, now Maersk invests 5 m Euros as convertible https://buff.ly/3Xh65Jw

  • PraxisEins closes seven-figure seed funding | HTGF https://buff.ly/3GTd5XF


Stay ahead of the curve


Transcript


[0:00] Music.


[0:16] And Live Events.


[0:20] Hello and welcome to 2023 and to a new episode of our show this month in German Swiss andAustrian startups it’s the January 20 23 Edition happy New Year as well as Happy Chinese New Year we are now in the year of the rabbit so we’ll see how that goes and in 2023Joe and me will again bring you start up news once a month with a little summer break we were wrapping up what was going on and we found noteworthy inthe German Swiss and Austrian startup scene death as it is called in Germany and Austria Switzerland our started news wrap-up for January 23 with startupradio from me here in New York City and Joe inFrankfurt.


[1:14] So how are you it was quiet family was sick but now everybody’s recovering.Fair enough I can only advise to not have family then everyone stays healthy we recorded this episode today on January the 24th keep in mind this news episode coverseverything since our last episode asalways a little disclaimer on news not yet included here will be published in our next episode and you can find all links to the quoted news on our medium Block in the link belowif we look at some of the highlights we have prepared for today’s episode there’s definitely much looking ahead we will talk about some of thebiggest success stories of the past year or mention a couple of them so we will talk for example about by on Tech we will talk about the.Chat GPT disruptor or competitor deep L from Germany will have a little fintech session section where we will again talk about in 26 so I would say.UmWith the last piece of information that the video podcast will go live on Thursday January 26 audio same day let’s talk startups.


[2:34] You can tune into our internet radio station and on start up dogsorry on start up the radio you can find all options to subscribe to the newsletter podcast YouTube channel listen to our internet radio station on link 3 / startupradio that is linked true Dote / startupradio And as always weI have to thank our and a blurs being invest in hessen so I will show as always was made possible by hessen trade and invest with their brandinvest in hessen you can more learn more about them at www.investmentpitch.com inDash hessen H essential-1 we also run a dedicated supper podcast with all interviews and news and copper cooperation with them you can look for technews.Startups Germanyunder the linked relinked through.it e / startupradio as I said and we also want to thank startupradio and.com the best way to identify investors and cooperation partners forearly stage startups you can sign up for early saxes at whre at startupradio on.com.


[3:50] And to kick us off with the top news of the past month I’m handing it over to you.Hey guys Welcome to the New Year of the rabbit we have been doing quite some digging here in the tech scene in Germanyand we found we Fox got some splainin to do a little bitcheetah background we Fox is one of the unicorns here in Germany of fintech intro Tech startups they had extensive but not favorable coveragethe main complaints are that the growth is basically driven by acquiring existing pools of insurance brokers not really what you would associate with intricate with an intertext startup they made way.600 million euros in Revenue go that way they made 600 million euros in Revenue in 2022 but the pools do not get Innovative systems from we fox or Innovative Insurance offers from them they just keepworking also there has been no Innovative products that really drove the growth at we Fox as an Innovative unicornof course my native City by Owen Tech by intake may be one of the most successful startup companies in Germany’s history.


[5:20] We talked about it in our news before the company alone is responsible for approximately half a percentage point of Germany’sGDP growthin 2021 keep in mind that Germany is the fourth largest economy in the world by nominal GDP here is the news piece mindspace Pharma company bio and take famous for the coronavirus seen makes the largest acquisition in its history with the UKbased AI startup calledinsta deep also related by Antics founder on the future of mRNA technology it’s an English only podcast by deed columnistwe are going to Cologne they’re deep L confirms the Unicorn status and Snipes at grammarly Deep L and.Confirms that.


[6:13] I made take a step back DeBell is a translation software and they confirm unicorn valuation for the 2022 fundraising of 100 million u.s. dollars and now they want to take the money to snipe at grammarly with the rightlaunch of right to clean up your prose maybe that would be helpful for me Chris you also got some top news right now.


[6:37] Yes yeah and I was saying it’s Chad GPT competitor that is a bit too far but at least it goes to say that alsoumin Germany there’s a lot of innovation happening in in-text Innovation I would say and in writing Innovation and using systems to improve people’s writingon a.


[7:02] Bigger picture as I said we also will be talking about fintech and this specifically means that Zola has Funk joined in 26 and troubles with.Boffin boffin is GermanyBank oversight body like the FSA or sec in the US they’ve already limited the number of customers and 26 can acquire due to their lapses and following regulations especially am L and now is allows bank has issues too.


[7:34] The article we found says quotes a lot of spunk and Germany can now only get new partners fintech clients with permission of German Finance oversight boffin due to continuing problems boffin also sends.Observer.Trade Republic’s we spoke about them use a couple years and update trade Republic generates more than 1 billion eurosinflows of new client money with 2% interest within two percent interest rate offer and a lot of favorable press coveragealso they have to publish their numbers there’s a legal requirement in Germany to publish a balance sheet 12 months after your business here ends now was the Republic’s turn britain-based new broker unicorn tripled the revenue and losses this is what came out of thepublished numbersand so no Motors gets more Runway it’s Annie Mobility startup that found an additional 1.4 million euros from the ew.Hold it sound program as was reported by dish being so they live for another day.This is just like our little overview about the top news let’s look at ourselves and do some housekeeping and time to brag back to you.


[8:52] Yeah I’m the bragging guy our fintech review went live on December 25th.20:22 as every year and we had a surprise episode with Professor fattest from in sirakon FTX for you on the 26th so you surely notice that we did not include our honorary startupradio member in the vedek review Polo see horny he has a totally crazy travel scheduleactually you always have to check on which continent he is and the next question is the time zone and he was only free not only 20 23 so we made a fintech and banking Outlookit’s actually what he does all day and this turned out to be a real deep dive in potential future strategies.Fintech and banking you can listen to it for 45 minutes and it’s totally worth it the link is in the episode below or find it on our medium Blog the New Year gave us a pretty pleasant surprise.


[9:51] On January 13th startupradio and it’s sub podcast scored in 45 countries across the world in Apple’s podcast chartsand try to both own charts including the u.s. Brazil France Canada Germany Russia Mexico Italy turkey Chi Lata one grazier ganas buffer Egypt Tunisia andin the global podcast charts of chargeable for business and technology guysthank you very much muchas gracias vielen dank she’s in here Chris you got some way to say thank you as well.


[10:32] Nope I can just talk about the ecosystem and we’re looking at a piece of information to Brack we had we had conversations with fans digitalit’s basically our France’s government entity for digitalization of the country as well as supporting.

[10:55] Startups and they built an information package to enter the German market and we have been included big time if you lookhitting the link down here in the show notes and open up hungry for more than more than 80 interviews ofUs in there sorry Chris for the rude Interruption now he go mistake no no I was just so scared to have to speak different languagesbut of course as a good European I know them alllet’s move on to our ecosystem section the part of the show where we talk about the broader environment of Germanof the German startup landscape keep in mind that we are recording the first news wrap-up for 2023 here so also obviously a forecast has to happen at some point and the one of the questions that is mentioned in the article that we found is ifBerlin might be able to help lift startups over sorry.


[12:04] As one of the loopand one of the questions that was asked here was if Berlin is probably able to help startups lift Germany’s economy overall there are 10 predictions for German Tech in the article that we foundfor example Health Care will become morepatient-centric there is two there seems to be a boom in new fintech startups things.Sifted the German government will wake up to the potential of startups to steer the economy away from recession one can only hope Joe’s favorite is there’s there’s a massive wave of first.Time Founders which also in Germany very often has to do with new influx of.Foreigners and refugees coming into the country because obviously not every not every startup is gigantic startupsorry not every new entrepreneurial Endeavor is a gigantic startup but they often it’s also small and medium-sized companies later on turning into something bigger and we talk again inthat sifted predictions about Chet GPT because the colleagues that believe that GPT might.


[13:27] Birth host of new startups.


[13:30] Looking back to 20 20 to Germany in the past you had ten percent fewer newly founded companies but still more than in 2019 or 2020even insolvencies have only been six percent above 21 most companies were founded in March 22 more than 13,000in total according to an analysis by data by Apes.


[13:57] 13 that is 13 thousand and moving on from the ecosystem looking at some specific news from.Cities all over the country or in that case even all overall German language countries in the center of Europe we go to the hub section and.To your home region job.


[14:17] Yes hubs it’s the place where we highlight some hidden gems as alwaysit’s just an order we found it Frankfurt based finance software startup finto see may remember that it was bought by a private Equity they now bye.Muenster based software startup fin Street the price tag is rumored to be low eight digits Deutsche digitalassets from Germany successfully sales US base group 2cryptology Patrick Laurie resigns sdd a CEO to focus exclusively on cryptologists Co we do havean interview with the traditional assets before they repented to this current name we link the show notes down here.Chris I do believe you like Hamburg the Hamburg based new bankrookie spelled are you uky files for bankruptcy the new bank tried to appeal to thetwo teenagers generation set by this now under insolvency protection and not surprisingly looking for abuyer or snap hook gaster Tech startup Vizio lab from osnabrück races 3.1 million euros for the self.Check out solution for restaurants and their Market entry in the u.s. drop Koch violently.


[15:45] M via lytx from Stuttgart raises threeraces 10 billion years in series a funding investors includes Connie growth capitaland existing investors like Ian BW New Ventures as well as Starcraft Ventures Chris I heard you have more on that right.


[16:07] Yes and deaf coming probably one more that were two stood guard it’s a artificial intelligence startup via latexand yeah if you look into German startup culture or German entrepreneurial culture as a whole just stood guard region in Southwestern Germany has always been like the car region and so it’s very engineering-driven so it’s a good fit it seemsat the other end of the country there’s crosstalk where we see that the text app faster and it’s Estherusually Za St ER but in that case z Asta and butSAS t er is the German equivalent for like do or bucks they got a 60 million Euros line of credit from Co-operative Bankand as we always say we also aim to look into other German language countries so we have Austria there.


[17:05] Where Novak Djokovic invests millions in the Vienna based scale up water drop and becomes a brand ambassador for their beverages products andbottles and in adjacent Switzerlandthe Swiss insurance as a service that up Tony D time raised 10 million Swiss Francs and it’s easy theater has be funding we found 14th with Venture capitalists fintech startups that you shouldwatch sorrywe found 14 Swiss Venture capitalists that fintech startups should watch in 2023 the penta co-founder Lev lav raised three million euros seed funding for his new bank Aurelio in Switzerland you can also learn more about the founder in our interview withhim is straight Penta.


[17:56] And the switzerland-based fintech everyone specializing in digital Asset Management closed a 2.5 million Swiss Francs each funding with a lead investor TX Venturesumthat’s it for the Hops meaning we will move on to our general News technews company new section and first there are news about new VC funds for those of you who look for money.


[18:27] Just a very small section today though short not on laughs I think I wrote it a little bitconfusing he is now with radio and we had an interview I had an interview with him when he was still a pentile yeah but basically they’re both got is Banks and I tried to get him for an interview I hopepretty soon let’s talk General news new VC funds in case you’re looking for money smart purse purse mapesmart perspectives one is the name of the fund it will invest in warp three startups and make the first.Closing at 20 million euros the fund is managed by Hamburg basedMabe Capital smarter and for our readers down here in the show notes we have the website link where you can contact them via.Oh website where you can pitch fin technews still not gotten rid of way I cut yet the.Court is still ongoing the proceedings again the former CEO and now come at bank one of Germany’s largestBanks seduced the audigier ebuy for incurred losses in wycott Investments.


[19:44] Paper former PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel backs German buy now pay later B2BMundo in a 13 million u.s. dollars series a extension and 26 starts their offer for crypto trading in Germany with.Panda as a partner in the newspaper in the news last year we also told you that they have been considering when big panel was very small to actually buy them out so there was always a good relation thereand I found this is either the best time or the worst time to do that only time will tell if it’s now amazing to start getting into crypto orjust the worst idea ever yes we have found that in the show notes I had to smile a bit because I mean only time will tell.That’s such a nice truism in general news we see that job caught new jobcut news don’t really stop we see that here in the US also with like big news coming from Microsoft but I think there is also important to really emphasize that sometimes media just focuses.With the big companies at least on them.


[20:59] Communicating a huge layoff like I think in the case of Microsoft as it was 10,000 people what obviously people verymuch more rarely talked about is if the companies hiredthousands of people in the past year so sometimes here in the US it’s also considered to be just some kind of like Market.Um yeah the market cleaning itself upbit so especially with Microsoft for example over the past years they also hired tens of thousands of people so the 10,000 that are now fired is just regular up and down probably which is not necessarily the case for the German news that we found becausethe berlin-based fertility startup clue x a quarter of its employees and sometimes with those smaller companies it’s a bit of a different storyGerman airline startup they want to start operating this year once to replace frequent flyer miles with a cryptocurrencywhich I mean.


[22:05] I wouldn’t mind if as long as I get like upgrades and then older noise number one online grocery store Oda they started service in Germany with Berlin as first city.


[22:18] As if no one ever learned anything from the past couple of months where we talked for hours about grocery delivery services and their problems the new york-based co-living firm common living merges with a German counterparthabit are built from more like hobby touch I think when add on to this one of the pieces that us now habithas been a germany-based a Frankford based company and we do have an interview with one of the founders I’ll add it here in the show night in the show notes as a link but it’slike only a very small piece to two very big now merge company.And for everybody willing to look that up habit is age a BYT and not have it as in a thing you do regularlyand then tiger is noteworthy as a lead investor in large Venture Capital rounds in Germany a secret 10 million settlement hangedover their latest fundraising effort though rights semaphore.


[23:19] In and of itself a new player in the media sort of landscape in the u.s. we want to end on a high note with the very few and selected fundraisers before also construction here mythat’s my apartment begins which is driving me nuts I hope it’s not too loudin order to run through we see that like carbon 1 c 1 as founded by serial entrepreneur Christian firemanthe startup wants to produce climate-friendly shit Fuel and now mares invest 5 million euros as convertible.Praxis Ines closes a seven-figure seed funding so very few and selected fundraisings this time in order for you to stay ahead of the curve you can learn shocking facts about the struggle for futuristic vertical framings timing startupsand Europe 11 most active AI investors all of this is in the show notes but that’s it from me.


[24:14] And yeah.Die you little rabbit I actually was not sure what the background noises how is wondering if you have to open some browser and Annoying video started this are soit is yes and we will hear each other again hopefully without construction hopefully they’re done in a month towards the endof Siberia what will bring you the Februarynews wrap-up and until then hopefully see you again Chris and of course the art for of the bagel bad for today because you really overdid it during the introduction with the sirens and use onboard right.


[24:54] I heard that this is a buy.


[25:02] Music.



In January 2023, the German-speaking startup ecosystem saw WeFox face scrutiny over acquisition-driven growth, BioNTech close its largest-ever acquisition of InstaDeep, and DeepL confirm unicorn status while launching its Write product to challenge Grammarly. Regional highlights included neobank Ruuky's bankruptcy, Vialytics' $10M Series A, and Novak Djokovic investing in Vienna-based waterdrop.

This January 2023 roundup covers the biggest developments across the German, Swiss, and Austrian startup ecosystems. WeFox, one of Europe's largest insurtechs, drew critical media attention for its growth strategy built on acquisitions of insurance broker pools. BioNTech completed its largest acquisition to date by purchasing AI biotech firm InstaDeep. Cologne-based DeepL confirmed its unicorn valuation while launching Write, a direct competitor to Grammarly. Across regional hubs, Hamburg neobank Ruuky filed for bankruptcy, Stuttgart's Vialytics raised $10M, and Osnabrück-based visiolab secured €3.1M. In Austria, tennis star Novak Djokovic invested in Vienna scale-up waterdrop.

  • WeFox faced unfavorable media coverage in January 2023, with critics noting its growth was largely driven by acquisitions of insurance broker pools rather than organic customer acquisition.

  • BioNTech, originally a Mainz-based startup that became a vaccine giant, completed the largest acquisition in its history by purchasing AI-driven biotech company InstaDeep.

  • DeepL confirmed its unicorn status and launched Write, positioning itself as a direct competitor to Grammarly in the AI-powered writing assistant market.

  • Regional ecosystem activity included Ruuky (Hamburg teen neobank) filing for bankruptcy, Vialytics (Stuttgart) raising $10M Series A, and visiolab (Osnabrück) raising €3.1M for restaurant self-checkout.

  • International crossover: Novak Djokovic invested millions in Vienna-based waterdrop and became a brand ambassador, signaling growing global interest in DACH scale-ups.

Entities Mentioned

Startups & Companies

  • WeFox — Berlin-based insurtech under scrutiny for acquisition-driven growth

  • BioNTech — Mainz-based pharma; completed largest acquisition (InstaDeep)

  • InstaDeep — AI biotech firm acquired by BioNTech

  • DeepL — Cologne-based translation unicorn; launched Write product

  • Ruuky — Hamburg teen neobank; filed for bankruptcy

  • Fintus — Frankfurt finance software startup; acquired Finstreet

  • Finstreet — Münster-based software startup acquired by Fintus

  • visiolab — Osnabrück gastro tech; raised €3.1M for restaurant self-checkout

  • Vialytics — Stuttgart; raised $10M Series A (Scania Growth Capital, EnBW)

  • Zasta — Rostock tax app; secured €60M line of credit

  • waterdrop — Vienna-based scale-up; received investment from Novak Djokovic

People

  • Novak Djokovic — Tennis star; investor and brand ambassador for waterdrop

Investors

  • Scania Growth Capital — Investor in Vialytics Series A

  • EnBW — Existing investor in Vialytics

Cities & Regions

  • Berlin — WeFox HQ

  • Mainz — BioNTech HQ

  • Cologne — DeepL HQ

  • Hamburg — Ruuky HQ

  • Frankfurt — Fintus/Finstreet M&A

  • Osnabrück — visiolab HQ

  • Stuttgart — Vialytics HQ

  • Rostock — Zasta HQ

  • Vienna — waterdrop HQ

Topics

  • Insurtech controversy — WeFox acquisition growth model

  • M&A activity — BioNTech/InstaDeep, Fintus/Finstreet

  • Neobank failures — Ruuky bankruptcy (teen banking market)

  • AI-powered tools — DeepL Write vs. Grammarly

  • Celebrity startup investment — Djokovic/waterdrop

Relationship Map

  • WeFox → Insurance broker pool acquisitions → Controversial growth strategy

  • BioNTech → InstaDeep acquisition → AI-driven drug discovery expansion

  • DeepL → Write launch → Direct competition with Grammarly

  • Scania Growth Capital + EnBW → Vialytics → $10M Series A

  • Novak Djokovic → waterdrop → Celebrity investor + brand ambassador

Related Articles on Startuprad.io

Quote Highlights

"BioNTech may be one of Germany's most successful startup companies... the company alone is responsible for the pharmaceutical industry's growth in Germany."

"DeepL takes aim at Grammarly with the launch of Write, to clean up your prose."

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Why was WeFox in the news in January 2023?

WeFox received extensive but unfavorable media coverage in January 2023. Critics pointed out that the Berlin-based insurtech's growth was largely driven by acquisitions of insurance broker pools rather than organic customer growth, raising questions about the sustainability of its business model.

What was BioNTech's largest acquisition?

In January 2023, Mainz-based BioNTech completed the largest acquisition in its history by purchasing InstaDeep, an AI-driven biotech company. This expanded BioNTech's capabilities in AI-powered drug discovery beyond its mRNA vaccine expertise.

How did DeepL achieve unicorn status?

Cologne-based DeepL confirmed its unicorn valuation (over $1 billion) in January 2023 while simultaneously launching Write, a new AI-powered writing assistant that positions DeepL as a direct competitor to Grammarly in the language technology market.

Which German startups went bankrupt in early 2023?

Hamburg-based neobank Ruuky, which targeted the teenager and Gen Z banking market, filed for bankruptcy in January 2023. This highlighted the challenges facing niche neobanks in the competitive German fintech landscape.

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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