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

Updated: Apr 8

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 September 2023 DACH startup news roundup covers the latest funding rounds, founder moves, and ecosystem developments across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This monthly digest highlights the key stories shaping the region's innovation landscape during Q3 2023.

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

Executive Summary

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

  • Welcome to our summer 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.

  • This time we wrap up September 2023.

  • Our startup news is recorded with Chris live in New York City and Joe in Frankfurt.

  • We track close to 500 mn Euros in newly announced investments in GSA.


New Blog


This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — September 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.


Welcome to our summer 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.

This time we wrap up September 2023. There have been a lot of news sad (insolvencies, final closures, …), but also good ones (expansions, fundings, …) that we just had to make a selection in order not to bore you to death.

Our startup news is recorded with Chris live in New York City and Joe in Frankfurt. The recording date is September 26th and all news not included will be in our next news to be released on October 26th.


Our Highlights:

We track close to 500 mn Euros in newly announced investments in GSA. We have the first defense tech unicorn in Berlin and a lot of great news from Greentech startups in Germany. Some proptechs are not doing well, but not all startups associated with construction are performing poorly, as shown by the fundraising from Schüttfix. Long-distance trucking gets more autonomous with FERNRIDE and some bank news: Deutsche Bank uses Swiss DLT startup Taurus’ technology and we learn more about JP Morgan’s retail offering in Germany. Unicorn Flix already hired banks for their IPO in H1 next year. We also keep you updated on the bank holidays in Germany in the next weeks.


Let’s talk startups:


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The Audio Podcast Will Go Live on Thursday, September 28th, 2023


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Our Enablers


This recording is supported by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen




Top News


Helsing (Berlin-based) Defence Tech Startup Becomes Europe’s first Unicorn in Defense

Helsing raises €209M in Series B funding for AI Defencetech https://buff.ly/3rqCmDx becoming, in turn, Europe’s first defense unicorn Tech.eu writes:


FERNRIDE Extends Series A to 50 M USD

Autonomous driving startup FERNRIDE from Munich extends its Series A funding to 50 M USD. Investors include DTCF (Germany’s Deep Tech and Climate Fund), Munich Re Ventures, Bayern Kapital, and Klaus Kleinfeld https://buff.ly/3PQLWIj The company wants to become an end-to-end solution provider for autonomous, electric trucking, keeping humans as teleoperators in the loop. Meaning the trucks will maneuver autonomously, but if the AI recognizes a problem a human driver from FERNRIDE will take over.


Schüttfix Gets a Pour of Money

Despite a souring mood in Germany’s construction industry, the construction startup Schüttflix raised 45 m € to break even https://buff.ly/46gsGKz to put this in perspective new housing construction was down 30% in H1 2023. Schüttflix is an online portal enabling construction companies to order materials like sand, or gravel online.


Lots Of Good News For GreenTech Startups. Just One Example

Berlin-based climate tech startup Plan A raises 25 M € from investors including Silicon Valley-based Lightspeed https://buff.ly/3PzIbqx Plan A is a GreenTech company that develops a carbon quantification platform to measures, monitors, and reduces environmental footprint. Investors in this round include clients, Visa, Deutsche Bank, and BNP Paribas. New investors are the founders of Wolt and Zalando.


Deutsche Bank Offers Crypto Services with a Startup

Deutsche Bank now offers crypto services together with Swiss startup Taurus https://buff.ly/3Pv3rxw The startup will help Deutsche with the introduction of digital asset and DLT-based products and services in some of their accounting centers. In February of 2023, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank invested in the startup (https://buff.ly/3rrnAwu) in a 65 mn US$ venture capital funding round. Deutsche Bank does not recommend cryptocurrencies, but tokenized or digital assets. At the time of the investment Deutsche already announced their intention to use Taurus’ IT for their services. Neither bank disclosed what kind of digital assets they wanted to offer their clients.


JP Morgan Is Getting Ready for a Challenge

JP Morgan has already 50 employees in Berlin for their online bank “Chase,” working on the launch https://buff.ly/3ZyTtzW according to FAZ (https://buff.ly/3t3Ft4J) the online offer for retail clients will start 2024 or 2025, as second country in Europe, behind the UK. Interestingly they are still investing, despite competitors like Goldman and Citi closing or downsizing their retail client business. You can learn more in these articles (Handelsblatt https://buff.ly/46s0jtg or Capital https://buff.ly/3LEg9ce)


Unicorn Flix (Known as Owner of Greyhound) is Looking for an IPO

Munich-based mobility unicorn Flix (known as owner of Greyhound) is looking to IPO. They have reportedly hired J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sach, and BNP https://buff.ly/3t9hy4d Of course you can learn more about the company in our interview last year with one of the founders of the unicorn: https://buff.ly/457t4u5 According to Handelsblatt they want to get listed in H1 2024 with a potential valuation of 4 bn Euros (4,25 bn US$). 2022 Flix could show a positive EBITDA and increased revenue by 185% to around 1,5 bn Euros. They are looking for +20% topline growth for this year (Handelsblatt https://buff.ly/45b2KPA).


Housekeeping & Time to Brag

We have been recommended as one of the 10 podcasts entrepreneurs should listen to by EU Startups in September: 10 Podcasts every entrepreneur should listen to in 2023 | EU-Startups https://buff.ly/48rc5ps Thank you!


Business Culture in Germany:

For our little business and culture diversion: Keep in mind that Germany has a long weekend ahead, we celebrate Unity Day on October 3rd. Since it is a Tuesday, many will take off Monday, October 2nd. If you do business with or travel to Germany keep that in mind. The holiday is observed in all states (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Unity_Day).

Some states have bank holidays on either October 31st or November 1st.


Radio YouTube Live Stream:

You can not also listen to our internet radio station 24/7 on YouTube as a live stream. Note that we have to change the live stream every few days due to the way YouTube was set up. Just have a look at our YouTube page and catch the most recent stream: YouTube.com/startupradio


Keeping Up with Our Guests:

Our former guest HR Tech startup Kenjo raises 8,8 mn € Venture Capital https://buff.ly/45TXnFV

Learn more about the company here: https://buff.ly/3rcINu2


Events for our audience for free

Crypto Assets Conference: Organized by our former guest Prof. Philipp Sandner www.eventbrite.com/e/crypto-assets-conference-2023-cac23b-tickets-686212850107

  • 100% Discount online use the code: CAC23Online

  • 25% Discount for onsite tickets in Frankfurt use code: CACNetwork25


Ecosystem


Relevant News from the World


Focus on GSA

  • Germany implemented 45% of its startup strategy measures, ministry says https://buff.ly/3PTzLf1 Learn more here in our interview with the digital commissioner: https://buff.ly/3rrMADL

  • German startup founders are increasingly bootstrapping, due to the currently not favorable funding environment for startups https://buff.ly/3tdovks

  • Germany will subsidize solar charging stations for electric cars with up to 500 M € starting September 26th https://buff.ly/46mOHHN

  • Why and How Germany Bans (B2B) Paper Invoices https://buff.ly/3LqZatI


Hubs

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


Frankfurt / Rhein-Main-Area


Cologne


Ilmenau (Thüringen)

  • Betterspace, an Ilmenau, Germany-based provider of software and hardware solutions, raised a 7-Figure investment from Round2 Capital https://buff.ly/3RnShgF “Betterspace is a provider of a smart software solutions for the hotel industry in the areas of digital guest communication (better.guest) and intelligent energy management (better.energy).”


Jena (Thüringen)

  • Jena, Germany-based rooom AG closes 17 M Euro Venture Capital funding for their 3d software https://buff.ly/46tH4Q1 their customers already include companies like Deutsche Telekom, BMW, Zeiss, porta and Bosch.


Mittweida (Saxony)

  • Mittweida (Saxony)-based startup Corpus takes on first-time investors for their software enabling tokenized investments in companies https://buff.ly/3taAm2T


Essen

  • »Staige One« plans to raise 8 M € from offering their shares in October, after listing with SPAC deal https://buff.ly/3PSwXyI


Austria


Switzerland

  • ETH greentech startup viboo raises 1,5 M CHF venture capital https://buff.ly/3PzH5ep

  • Zurich-based Instimatch Global AG raised 11.5 M CHF for their offer of a web-based cash management trading platform for institutions across industries and geographies https://buff.ly/456goU7

  • Blockchain Startup Swisstronik Secures $5M and Launches Private Token Sale https://buff.ly/462H09P


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:


Fintech News


Green Tech News

  • Greentech unicorn Enpal invests in startup theion, which produces batteries based on sulfur https://buff.ly/3RRqR35

  • Greentech unicorn 1Komma5 Grad is looking for an IPO in 2025 https://buff.ly/48vubX8

  • Shell is putting solar and energy storage startup Sonnen up for sale, after just 4 years https://buff.ly/3EPUU34 and we have talked about Sonnen quite a lot in the past, right Chris?


General News

  • Device-as-a-Service Startup “Fleet” Expands into Germany https://buff.ly/3rjLh9T

  • Kleinanzeigen (formerly part of eBay) and Mobile.de (one of Germany’s leading vehicle platforms) are up for sale again https://buff.ly/3ZxBdXl investors are lining up

  • Berlin-based Babbel acquires US-based Toucan to further expand its learning ecosystem with browser extension | EU-Startups https://buff.ly/3Pz41Ku

  • Fast delivery startup Jokr, founded by tech veteran Ralf Wenzel, is only active in Brazil and lost with the most recent investment it’s unicorn status https://buff.ly/48r9njL


Schumpeters Schöpferische Zerstörung ⇒ Creative Destruction Still Ongoing:


Schumpeter was one of the most influential economists of the 20th century and coined the term creative destruction in German Schöpferische Zerstörung as well as Entrepreneur. Learn more about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schumpeter. We introduced this section towards the end of covid and it is still going strong.

  • Bielefeld-based crypto startup Coindex ceases operations after filing for insolvency and negotiations with Binance fell through https://buff.ly/46hilOQ

  • Vienna-based workflow startup Ataleo starts restructuring https://buff.ly/469e7Zy

  • Graz, Austria-based hr tech startup Talto has to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/3ESBPxf

  • Austria-based agtech startup Pixofarm has to file for insolvency since their strategic investor UPL from India changed strategy. They are under pressure from competition and started a 100 mn cost-cutting program https://buff.ly/3ZzsRyK

  • The Berlin-based startup behind carsharing service „Clevershuttle“ will disappear. The company can not be rescued from insolvency https://buff.ly/46jRMrW


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

  • CHF 45 million Investment takes H55 next level https://buff.ly/3RzHRuv “. The Valais based startup has raised substantial financing from a group of distinguished strategic and financial investors, further consolidating its leading position as a major provider of certified electric propulsion aviation technologies. The financing will support H55 path to Type Certification (TC) by 2024 and accelerate growth.”

  • PowerUs gets 24 M € investment for their platform that enables users to find craftsmen https://buff.ly/3ETRKf0

  • Wise, N26 investor backs Germany’s Ivy in €18M round for its API for instant bank payments https://buff.ly/46owiKz

  • GentTwo, a Zurich, Switzerland-based provider of a B2B Fintech platform specialized in securitization of bankable and non-bankable assets, raised USD15M in Series A funding. https://buff.ly/3RBQepq


Stay Ahead of the Curve

  • Compensation Decoded: Tech leader salaries at early-stage startups https://buff.ly/3rbvEkV

  • What the Finance Industry Tells Us About the Future of AI https://buff.ly/46grsir HBR writes “What will artificial intelligence do to industries and jobs? For a preview, look to the finance industry, which has been incorporating data and algorithms for a long time, and which is always a canary in the coal mine for new technology. The experience of finance suggests that AI will transform some industries (sometimes very quickly) and that it will especially benefit larger players. But it may not leave the overall system better off.”

We will be back shortly before Halloween on the 26th of October.

Key Takeaways

  • Helsing, a Berlin-based defense tech startup, closed a €209 million Series B round in September 2023, becoming Europe's first defense technology unicorn — signaling growing investor appetite for defense innovation in the DACH region.

  • FERNRIDE extended its Series A to $50 million USD for autonomous trucking technology, highlighting continued momentum in German mobility and logistics startups despite a tighter funding environment.

  • Deutsche Bank partnered with crypto infrastructure startup Taurus to offer digital asset custody and tokenization services, marking a significant step toward institutional crypto adoption in Germany.

  • Munich-based mobility unicorn Flix (owner of Greyhound) moved toward an IPO, hiring J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and BNP — one of the biggest potential DACH startup exits in 2023.

  • Regional startup ecosystems across Frankfurt, Cologne, Jena, Ilmenau, Essen, and Mittweida all saw notable funding rounds, demonstrating that German startup activity extends well beyond Berlin and Munich.

Atomic Answer

Featured Entities

Startups & Companies

  • Helsing — Berlin-based defense tech startup, €209M Series B, first European defense unicorn

  • FERNRIDE — Munich-based autonomous trucking, $50M Series A extension

  • Schüttfix — Construction logistics startup, raised funding despite industry headwinds

  • Flix (FlixBus/Greyhound) — Munich-based mobility unicorn pursuing IPO

  • Taurus — Crypto infrastructure startup partnering with Deutsche Bank

  • rooom AG — Jena-based 3D software, €17M VC funding

  • Betterspace — Ilmenau-based hotel tech, 7-figure investment from Round2 Capital

  • KYP.ai — €17.5M for GenAI features and global expansion

  • PowerUs — €24M for craftsmen recruitment platform

  • H55 — Swiss electric aviation startup, CHF 45M financing

Corporates & Investors

  • Deutsche Bank — Partnering with Taurus for crypto custody services

  • JP Morgan — Building retail banking team of 50+ in Berlin for "Chase" launch

  • Round2 Capital — Invested in Betterspace (Ilmenau)

  • HTAI / Enterprise Europe Network Hessen — Enablers supporting this recording

Cities & Regions Covered

  • Berlin (Helsing), Munich (FERNRIDE, Flix), Frankfurt (various), Cologne (KYP.ai)

  • Ilmenau (Betterspace), Jena (rooom AG), Mittweida (Corpus), Essen (Staige One)

  • Austria (various startups), Switzerland (H55 electric aviation, GentTwo fintech)

Relationship Map

  • Helsing → Defense sector → European unicorn status → Series B investors

  • Deutsche Bank → Taurus (crypto infrastructure) → Digital asset custody partnership

  • JP Morgan → Berlin expansion → Chase retail banking → Competition with N26/traditional banks

  • Flix (FlixBus/Greyhound) → J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, BNP → IPO preparation

  • HTAI / Enterprise Europe Network Hessen → Startuprad.io → Recording enabler

Related Articles

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the biggest German startups to watch in late 2023?

In September 2023, several major German startups made headlines. Helsing became Europe's first defense technology unicorn after closing a €209 million Series B. Flix (FlixBus/Greyhound owner) moved toward an IPO, and FERNRIDE raised $50 million for autonomous trucking. Deutsche Bank also entered the crypto space by partnering with startup Taurus for digital asset services.

How much startup funding was announced in the DACH region in September 2023?

This September 2023 roundup tracked close to €500 million in newly announced investments across German, Austrian, and Swiss startups. Major rounds included Helsing's €209M Series B, FERNRIDE's $50M Series A extension, rooom AG's €17M, KYP.ai's €17.5M, PowerUs's €24M, and H55's CHF 45M — spanning defense tech, mobility, SaaS, greentech, and electric aviation.

Is the German startup ecosystem active outside Berlin and Munich?

Yes. This roundup highlights startup activity across many German cities including Frankfurt, Cologne (KYP.ai, €17.5M), Ilmenau (Betterspace), Jena (rooom AG, €17M), Mittweida (Corpus), and Essen (Staige One). Austrian and Swiss startups are also covered, including H55 (electric aviation, Switzerland) and GentTwo (fintech, Zurich). The DACH startup ecosystem is geographically diverse.

What is Helsing and why did it become a defense unicorn?

Helsing is a Berlin-based defense technology startup that uses artificial intelligence for military applications. In September 2023, it raised €209 million in a Series B round, giving it a valuation above €1 billion and making it Europe's first defense tech unicorn. The round reflected growing government and investor interest in European defense innovation.

Where can I find a Deutsche Startups podcast covering monthly DACH news?

Startuprad.io publishes a monthly podcast episode covering startup news from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (the GSA/DACH region). Each episode is available as both an audio and video podcast, and the show notes are published as blog posts. This September 2023 edition is part of that ongoing monthly series.

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.

Stay Visible in the DACH Startup Ecosystem

If your company wants to reach founders, investors, and operators across the DACH startup ecosystem, Startuprad.io works with a select number of partners on high-trust visibility and thought-leadership formats. Explore partnership options here: Partner with Startuprad.io

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