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Hey guys, welcome Back to part two of this month in German, Swiss and
Austrian startups 2025. This goes live on
September 4, 2025 and in between
the recording, which for some of you may have been three days in between
for Chris and me, just three minutes we
established that Chris had a clown for breakfast.
He is super fun today. Welcome back to Part two
of our Startup News Wrap Up. In this segment we're driving into the
movers shaping Europe's innovation landscape. From new
venture capital funds and leadership shakeups to deep tech
breakthroughs, green tech milestones and latest fintech
plays. Whether you're raising money tracking cutting edge
tech or following the biggest shifts in the dark startup scene,
we got you covered and talking about this. There is
the general news section here where we have tech news, companies news
and so on. Right now we will focus on
VC news, new funds in case simply
if you are looking for money Smart
Infrastructure Ventures launches 30 million
euros SI Ventures to to back early
stage German startups and especially
focused on smart infrastructure. Sebastian
Boric joins HTTF High Tech
Kronephone which was at the time I was interviewing the
former CEO Alex von Frankenberg. I think 2020,
end of 2020 they've been the most active seed investor
in Europe as I said. Sebastian Borick joins HTGF
as co Managing Director completing the new leadership
trio reports VC Magazine and then I already hand
it over to Chris. Yeah, and I get to look a bit
more into the deep tech news of
our program. First up is a
team from Freiburg in the very
southwest of Germany where. Team
of wouldn't you want to say down into the left.
Down. Down in the. In the left. Down in the left. They
are building what they claim is Germany's first brain
inspired AI chip, but also
ran into the fact that they must test it abroad.
To be a bit more specific, they are developing a neuromorphic
they're developing neuromorphic brain chips for ultra low power
AI and there are regulatory
constraint constraints so prototype testing is only allowed outside
of Germany. The contract cited in coverage
it Business Insider points to rising
European demand for deep tech compute alternatives.
Vienna in Austria is
the home of QT Labs which
is reporting a milestone communicating with a NASA
spacecraft around 265 million kilometers
away. And so QT Labs is showcasing long
range high fidelity space communications grounded in
quantum adjacent expertise.
That's also, that's also me. I also have quantum
adjacent expertise. And
the feed underscores Austria rising Austria's rising deep
tech profile and potential dual use applications,
insecure comms and space infrastructure.
Moving on to green tech news where
you can keep in mind the 825 million euros for orange
bed that we talked about in our top news section in the
first part of our episodes. But moving on Saltstrom
and Bogenland Energy or Bogenland Energy
launch a sustainable salt based
storage offensive so Borgen Land
is a state of Austria and
they aim at scaling this like sustainable salt
salt based electricity storage project
aiming at providing long duration
recyclable energy storage as Austria specifically
accelerates renewable grid integration.
Biotech News Moving on from the green tech News already
CureVac, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer
BioNTech resolve MRNA patent dispute
News agency Reuters confirmed that these three companies
settled their long standing MRNA patent dispute
with sorry that Curevac and partner GSK
settled it with Pfizer Biontech. The agreement ends years
of litigation over the COVID 19 vaccines intellectual
property and the settlement clears the legal overhang for all
parties allowing Biontech to double down on oncology
pipelines. Now a an area
of research that is also very much in flux since the US
announced that they probably might retract from MRNA
based research and development with like huge implications
thanks to RFK. Jr. We we should also keep in
mind that we had in last news that Q Work agreed to
be bought by Biontech. So this news that litigation is
stopped shouldn't surprise anyone here. Chris, taking
over from you for the fintech news. Bit Panda
Modern doubles 2024 revenues to
993 million euros with an
EBITDA margin of more than 30%, BTC
Echo reported. Bitpana achieved this revenue
more than two times year on year with an EBITDA margin of more than
30% and 7/ million users underpinning
a broader EU expansion. Strategic partners
include Deutsche Bank, LBBV, a German formerly state owned
bank, Reif Isen and 26. No new numbers beyond
our earlier BL German fintech bling
acquires startup Finstep to expand youth banking
starting up reported Berlin based Bling has acquired
Finstep, a fintech focused on family and youth
oriented finance solutions. The acquisition
strengthens Berlin's position as Gen Z Financial
Services center added complementary savings and
pocket money features to its platform. Terms of the
deal were not disclosed. Guys, we
will be back after a short break talking about Europe's deep tech
frontier. From brain inspired chips in TR to AI
coaches in Berlin, plus the rise of AI search analytics
startups.
And Back from the break, we are looking at deep tech and AI
news some more Munich based defense drone
maker Quantum Systems could triple its valuation to around
1.5 billion billion euros powered by NATO and
Ukraine contracts and Europe's defense rearmament cycle.
The company's AI enabled reconnaissance platforms and
expanding order book underlying dual use momentum across the
Dach defense stack. In
the reporting in Hannell's blood there was no new funding
amount disclosed, but at least we know that the company is really doing
well. A Dresden based startup won a major order
for its neuromorphic chips. Designed after the human brain, the
chips promise ultra low energy AI processing targeting both
automotive and industrial automation. The contract
demonstrates European potential in deep tech hardware
and this obviously brings
high hopes for the startup Spin cloud
in Dresden in eastern Germany. Coach hubs
AI coach designed to extend access beyond human
coaching pools. It's in Berlin. Scale up and POS
trying to position Amy for multilingual company wide deployment with
enterprise integrations following a 2023
revenue of 56 million euros. The product push targets
margin improvement and broader
attach across HR suites
and Chris. Do you know what this news says? Coaches
AI is coming for your job. Yeah, well we will see about
that. Can it, can it pull off a shirt like this
though? I don't think so. Peak
AI Launches It's a
Berlin based company founded by Marius Miners, Tobias Livonia and
Daniel Darabo Software as a service company monitoring
brand mention citation and growth across AI search tools
such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, giving
SEOs and marketers a new analytics layer as
SGE AI answers disrupt classic rankings.
So Peak AI PEEC
could be some worthwhile alternative for
you if you want to know more about coverage
and citations. Moving on to the general news
Taking. Over from Chris, here again to the general news.
Uber consolidates position in Germany's Right Hailing Market
efforts had reported that Uber is finally
establishing itself in Germany after years of
regulatory battles and resistance from taxi associations.
With legal framework clarified and consumer demand shifting,
Uber now competes directly in major German cities.
Analysts see this as a turning point for mobility startups in
the Dach region with implications for local players like Freenow
and Bolt. And one should keep in mind that FreeNow has
just been bored. We had this in one of our last news
by uber competitor Lyft
VCs poor fresh millions into German startups across AI
SaaS and climate tech. Deutsche Startups highlights new
VC investments into German startups with multimillion
euro deals across AI SaaS, fintech and climate
tech verticals to report points to continued early and
growth stage capital inflows despite macroeconomic
headwinds. This reflects resilience in the German venture market
and investor focus on deep tech and green tech transition
sectors. Auto One Group We've been talking about them quite
frequently post double digit growth across all
core metrics in the first half of 2025,
IT Times reported. Berlin based Auto1 Group achieved strong
growth across revenue, gross profit
and unit sales in the first half of 2025 as
Europe's leading digital used car trading
platform. Auto1 credits its margin
expansion to Auto Hero their retail part,
their retail growth and supply chain efficiency.
Investors view this as a validation of the post IPO
turnaround doctlib it's an
app in Germany where you can book doctors appointment. They face
government scrutiny over market power and data practices.
They came under review by federal ministries in Germany regarding market
dominance and data protection concerns. Regulators are
examining the platform's role between patients practices and
insurance. No remedies or penalties were
announced at this stage. Reva, a retail giant here
in Germany, I would say something like Whole Foods. Would you agree? Chris
yes Yep. Rolls out the startup lounge
nationwide to fast track shelf access for early stage
brands, reports Horizon Storebox
Lounges parcel service alternative to post the
German dhl, GLS and DPD
Brutcasten reported that Austrian logistics startup Storebox
is entering the parcel service market, positioning itself as an
alternative to incumbents.
We do a little bit good Odd
Schumpeter Leonie says insolvency avoided restructuring
chosen as only path hundreds but
reported automotive supplier Leone confirmed dust Insolvency would
have been the only alternative to its restructuring
deals, which secured credited support and prevented
liquidation. They plan to provide Runway for the
shift to EV wiring and E mobility.
Duolingo shares plunged 12% they they are
not insolvent and just bad news after growth
slowdown spooks. Wall Street Yahoo Finance reported
Duolingo fell more than 12% intraday after Q2
results showed slower than expected user and booking
growth. My World ex
Linus they file for bankruptcy amid
collapse of cashback empire
trending Topics Reported My Word, previously known
as Lyoness, has gotten insolvent. The Graz, Austria
based company once ran a sprawling cashback
MLM empire repeatedly facing legal
actions across Europe. Bankruptcy underscores the systemic
rest risk in unregulated referral schemes and
marks the end of one of Austria's most controversial
scale ups. Idagio and his insolvency
around 35 million years were invested since 2025
at as Landstone took majority
Deutsche Startup confirmed Insolvency proceedings for
Ida Sven Kirschner
appointed trustee founders Till
Young, Tchukovsky and Christoph Lange no
longer active. Investors include Tangleman Ventures, BTOV
Partners, Macquarie later lands on partners
Prewave reduces workforce by 8%
amid growth strategy Shift
Broadcasting revealed that Vienna based Pre Wave, a supply
chain risk intelligence scale up, is cutting 8% of its workforce.
The company cited strategic realignment and efficiency gains as
reason. Despite layoffs, Prewave continues to expand
its AI driven platform to monitor ESG and supply chain
disruptions. And Chris, you are always the person who hands on
a high note, right? I'm very much ending on a high note. But also
I would like to add a bit more depth to Leonie
where you said the wiring company that
avoided insolvency because that is actually a
fascinating company because they are not necessarily a
startup. Do you know when they opened up their first
shop? As in like repair shop, their
first vaccine? Nope. And they're in Nuremberg
in take a guess the year
1980, 1569.
Yes, but as we always said in the general news that
their repair shop there more or less aligned with what we were
doing here. Yes. So. And they have a hundred
thousand people working for them. And so it's
really, and it's actually considered to be a crucial company in
Germany because they have such a, or at least had such a unique
position in terms of the wiring for cars, which nowadays
has gotten so much more important with there being so many
computers and processors on in every car. And
of course a lot of the startups rely on this because they are bringing
the tech to the cars. Yes. So yeah,
successful fundraisings, the high notes that you talked about. Keep in
mind this is as always a small section. The
news here and the total value of the company always show how resilient the
startup scene actually is. This time we included selected fundraisings
above 10 million euros Swiss francs or US dollars
and let me rattle through some of them. Berlin's
Talon 1 raises $114.7
million to expand incentive automation
platform software as a service platform for promotion and
loyalty program management.
The scale up plans to use that for international
expansion.
Oculus amended its BlackRock loan facility
raising potential access to 100 million Swiss francs, that
is around 106 million euros to accelerate
therapies for ophthalmic and neuro ophthalmic
diseases. This capital
extends the Runway for late stage clinical programs and positions
Oculus to push pivotal trials and
helps them to preserve equity because it's non dilutive capital.
Munich based new Clydeum raises
84 million euros in a series B round to advance
radiopharmaceutical their radiopharmaceutical pipeline. The
funding is going to drive clinical trials for cancer diagnostics and
therapies. Another step forward for Germany's
health tech as a For Germany as a health tech
country then Q and
Q A N t has a 62
million euro Series A to industrialize photonic
computing and quantum sensing. It's a Stuttgart based company
my old hometown and it's a spin out part
of Trump Group planning to expand production
engineering while targeting energy efficient AI acceleration
and navigation grade sensors.
Also Stuttgart based is the maker site,
a company that secured 60 million euros in the series B
funding as well. They offer AI driven product lifecycle management
PLN focused on sustainability and compliance.
Buena closed a $58 million
Series A to expand their AI driven local services marketplace
across Europe. They want to scale the product and go to
market to capture fragmented
high frequency categories.
Plan Craft a German construction software as a Service
startup raised 38 million euros in a Series B
financing company provides digital workflow solutions for
contractors and small and medium sized enterprise
builders tackling inefficiencies in project and
compliance management. Zurich based
biotech Marbilon AG announced a 30 million
Swiss franc funding round to expand its antibody
immunotherapy platform. The company develops next generation
treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases
and Candy Solar secures $24 million
from existing backers including a 20 million
convertible and 4 million dollar mezzanine top up.
The company's active portfolio expanded by 60
plus megawatt in the past 12 months, reaching now
132 megawatt contracted
capacity across 22 Indian states and aid
South African provinces.
Berlin based Motor AI raised $20 million
to enhance its autonomous driving software stack the
startups the startup develops explainable AI systems for
vehicle decision making, addressing regulatory and safety hurdles in Europe's
autonomous driving race. We talked a bit about that topic already.
Munich based certivity closed
a €13.3 million Series A round to grow its
regulatory compliance platform. It's the the software
as a service helps enterprises manage complex EU regulations, which
is all EU regulations in automotive and
industrial sectors. Backers include prominent European
VCS. Tanzo from
Munich raised 12 million euros in a Series A
led by Cap Namec and UVC Partners.
They are building accounting Software to help SMEs
comply with EU CSRD rules.
Austrian XR company HoloLite raised 10
million euros to accelerate development of its
immersive streaming platform for enterprises. They
Their platform enables complex 3D visualizations in AR
and VR environments targeting engineering and design
heavy industries and Vienna based Zero Third
secured a $10 million investment to scale its quantum
computing solutions. Zero Third is a
company that focuses on hardware software co
design for industrial applications. Funding here will
accelerate lab to market transition and help 0
third to gain a better position within Europe's deep
tech ecosystem. M&A's
M&A's Next one of our former guests of
course we linked the interview down here in the show Notes
acquires Hamburg based Akadis to expand ID
verification platform,
another local startup to extend its authentication and
onboarding capabilities. At the time we interviewed them they
have been already the most neck. I mean necked here. They have been
the most downloaded self edit
identification app in Germany. That was back in
2021 Rumble explores interest in
Northern Data amid AI compute expansion
strategy F8 said Frankfurt Alge reported
Rumble is interested in Frankfurt based Northern Data, a
European AI HPC compute operator.
Any transaction could give Rumble closer control over GPU
infrastructure for AI and video workloads,
highlighting the strategic value of European
compute capacity. Discussions remain
exploratory. No deal terms have been disclosed.
US Material startup Lighten to
acquire Northwest remaining assets you remember
guys, they have been pretty big from Scandinavia and they want to build up a
big factory in northern Germany. We
talked about like the little village that was the last one that had to
prove all of that and it unfortunately went
under. So now we are in the story and Silicon Canals
reported Lyten's plans to acquire all remaining assets of
Northwold following the Swedish battery makers insolvency.
The deal would transfer manufacturing and IP assets to
Liens, Lilium Sulfur and Advanced Materials
roadmap, preserving parts of Europe's battery supply
chain footprint under new ownership. Frank
Thielen, one of the investors in or in the
first round of investors of Germany's shark tank called Lions. Then
at the time Handelsblad revealed that we see Frank
Thielen sold Scanbot SDK, a German document scanning software
provider, to Canadian firm A Price.
Financial terms were undisclosed, but the deals reflect
consolidation in the enterprise document text base for
talent. This marks a nose another notable asset for his
portfolio DVP bank basically Security
service bank buys Lemon Markets closing targeted
autumn 2025 BaFin approval
pending Deal Monitor confirms DBP bank
will acquire Lemon Markets and keep it as a standalone unit
post close IT Finance magazine adds that closing
is slated for autumn 2025, subject to
Bafin and customary approvals. The aim is to
add digital non brokerage platform to
DVP Bank's infrastructure. And Chris,
you are the person who is closing this record
long recording. I think in total we are now at almost
an hour of recording time. And you will end it with some
awesome useless knowledge, right? Yes. Our useless
knowledge today is not necessarily connected to the dach startup scene,
but it's about a very dedicated person nonetheless.
Her name is Debbie Indicot. She lives in Lenoir, North Carolina
and in 1990 she was in a diner in Las
Vegas. The diner was Coca Cola themed so red
and white everywhere and Indicot must have thought
that's what I want at home. So she started
collecting Coca Cola memorabilia and
did so for three decades until in 2020
she got the Guinness Book of Records title for the
collection with the most Coca Cola memorabilia in the world. Because
she had 2028 items
based on Coca Cola in her collection. Then someone else took over the record.
Apparently it's a very. It's very sought after.
She got her record back, someone else took over. But now I'm happy
to report Debbie has the record again and
has been newly certified as the person
in the world with the biggest collection of Coca Cola memorabilia.
With now individual Number of items
5623. Congrats.
Definitely awesome to close those record news with a
dedicated with such a dedicated person. Chris, was a pleasure talking to
you. Yes, I won't finish this. Also her favorite
type of Coke is Diet Coke. She said oh,
okay. Mine would be the vanilla Coke.
Yeah. And she said Diet Coke. But I also like cheese cherry. So
fine. What's your favorite Coke Diet.
I don't fully care. Yeah, I sometimes go for or Coke Light,
whatever. I don't think is there. Yeah, Coke Light, Coke Zero. Is there a
difference? Who knows? I think Coke Light is more targeted
towards women and Coke Zero more towards men. Guys, we
do have also a lot of stay ahead of the curve including
Defense Tech 2025 report. Women now hold almost
20% of top venture capital roles globally and Tony's
box and this Tony Bo2 and much,
much more. We will be back, Chris and I with the startup news
to be published on October 2nd. And guys, keep in mind,
October 3rd is German's unity Day, so we all
do have a public holiday there. Chris, as always, a pleasure
talking to you. Yes, same. Goodbye.
Truce. Goodbye. Bye guys.
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