Hello and welcome everybody. This is Joe from start up rate dot io, your
startup podcast YouTube blog and Internet radio station on the
German Austrian with startup scene. Today, we are back. Hey,
Chris. Miss you a lot. How you doing? I'm doing fine.
Summer is still ongoing, but yesterday was the 1st day of
fall here in New York. Felt like it. I actually love
it here, everybody who's listening to this. I'm wearing a polo
shirt, short sleeves, but, long trousers. So therefore
long pants. Therefore, I actually
really like this water because the temperature goes down at night. I can sleep pretty
well. And during the day, it's not too harsh. It's awesome.
Let's get started. This recording will be tiny bit
longer than usual, maybe even much longer.
Welcome to this month in German, Swiss, and Austrian startups,
our regular summer news wrap up for July
August. This is a special publication. Our traditional
startup summer news wrap up published on Labor Day in the
US, where we get you up to speed again after
the summer break. Usually, this episode runs a little bit longer than our 30
minutes goal. So guys, now is the time to get a snack and a drink.
Welcome to our summer 2024 wrap up with vital news from
a start up and tech scene in
Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Our start up news is recorded
with Chris in New York,
and, meet Joe joining from Frankfurt. Today,
our news cut is August 21, 2024. As always,
all news not included will be in our next news or app app this
time. Usually, we would let me check my work calendar.
We will publish on the 26th September, but this is a
pretty short time. So Chris and I decided, we
will have the next start up news publication on October 3rd for the very
simple reason. It's a public holiday. It's Unity Day,
here in Germany. So we will get you a publication on October
3rd, and we have complete month of news there.
Also, new, we have a new partner announcement with
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You can help shape the future of European startup hubs, share
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Your voice matters. Join us in mapping the next wave of
innovation. You can participate with link in the show notes
until September 15th. Chris,
you are the person who always gives us the highlights. Right? I
am, like, my whole life, and me too. So
full of highlights. So, as you said, this is our welcome
to the summer 2024, startup news wrap up from
start up rate dot I o, where we bring you the latest highlights
from the start up ecosystems of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
Also, my apologies. You might hear some construction work in the background. This is
just what New York does. If you think it's annoying and while
listening to the podcast, then imagine living through it.
Today is a special Labor Day episode packed with updates from July
August, ensuring you stay ahead of the curve as we head into a hot fall
and winter of innovation here. And our top stories
include Helsing's monumental €450,000,000
series c funding positioning the Munich based defense AI
startup as a leader in European security tech. We explore
Lilium's potential sale and relocation due to uncertainties
over German state aid, something that could
significantly impact the air mobility landscape.
Also, Grover is having a €50,000,000
funding run round, marking a strategic shift
towards sustainable growth as the Berlin tech based rental
company navigates market challenges.
Also, in this episode, we delve into Kettle
YM, Kettle Limb's impressive €150,000,000
series defunding for cancer immune therapy
and AUSATION's €110,000,000 investment to its expand its
global ESG platform highlighting a,
some robust investor confidence there in Europe's deep tech
and biotech sectors. Not to be missed European Central Bank's 1st
progress report on the digital euro,
a milestone in preparing Europe's central bank digital currency,
CBDC. Beyond those individual funding news, we
will show we will talk a bit more about the
broader startup ecosystem in the DACH region, DACH being the
German abbreviation for GSA, Germany, Austria,
Switzerland. The European VC
landscapes continues to thrive with venture capital firms
outperforming US counterparts over 10 15 years horizon,
where so we see that Europe is gaining some traction in
the global innovation landscape. We also spot the
surge in European deep tech investments with McKinsey's research reporting
that Europe now accounts for 19% of global funding in this
sector, expected to grow to 20 by
25 to 35 percent by 2030. A trend
reinforced by record breaking €18,700,000,000 raised in
venture debt during the first half of twenty twenty four, signaling
an upcoming wave of mergers and acquisitions, particularly in climate
tech and Fintech. Moreover, the EU's
Digital Markets Act, DMA, introduces a new regulatory framework
set to reshape tech competition across the continent, and
Germany's start up scene faces both challenges and opportunities with the
booming AI startup sector showing 35% increase in
2024 despite government initiatives lagging behind.
These ecosystem insights provide an overview of the
forces driving the conversation in
the start up scene right now. And,
we that's it for me kick starting
our show for today, and I will hand it over
to you for more details now. Let's talk
start ups, but first, schedule. We are back from the summer break
and hope all of you are refreshed and ready for hot fall
and winter. This summer, we published new episodes each
week, plus a few blog posts. We want to highlight
just 2 in cooperation with the Curios 20 24
event here in the lovely city of Mainz. Legendary
engineer, entrepreneur, and one of the world's most cited
researchers, MIT professor Robert Langer, also cofounder
of Moderna, gave us a remote interview. We talked about research
biotech and outlook on the world
of biotech. By the way, I met him in person in Mainz, but we
had to, rearrange the recording,
due to his travel schedule and his very heavy schedule
on-site. Steven Chu is the 1st Nobel laureate we interviewed
here. The former US Energy Secretary and Stanford professor talked with
us about energy, renewables, US versus European Queen Tech,
and why he has personally no solar panels on his
roof. We'll get you at least weekly content
until I need to turn again to my, to
my trusted paper wall calendar until 19th
December. The audio podcast and the video
podcast will live will go live on September 2nd. As we
repeatedly said, it's Labor Day in the US. Happy Labor Day
for all of you listening there. If you get your
news to your inbox, if you prefer that, you can subscribe to
our sub stack. For everything else, there's our link tree,
our enablers. This recording is supported by HTII and
the European Enterprise Network, Hessen. This recording was
made possible by HESN Trade and Invest and the Enterprise Europe Network,
HESN. These organizations have made tremendous
contributions to helping start up businesses succeed and
thrive, providing a range of services from helping to find grants to
ongoing partnerships. By taking advantage of these resources,
startup companies can network and develop innovative strategies
for success on the international stage. The dedicated support of
HTAA and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen is paramount
in providing start up businesses with the tools for lasting
success. Look for our dedicated sub podcast in
partnership with them called Tech Startups Germany. Start up
Raven, the best way to find investors and corporation partners
for early stage start ups. Sign up for Alexis here.
Chris, you draw dove a little bit more
into the top news. As we said before,
we're now doing a little bit more top news and go a little bit more
in-depth there. Yeah. Some of it I already
mentioned, in the highlight section, but let's have a closer
look at some of these news. First off, Hellsing,
an AI startup, based in Munich,
working in defense AI. They have secured €450,000,000
in series c funding and are now looking at a valuation
of a staggering €4,900,000,000.
Their investment hopefully accelerates the development of
AI technologies aimed at enhancing European security.
So, yeah, good for them that right now they are, I guess, at an
intersection of 2, booming trends right
now with Europe wanting to be more independent when it
comes to defense and
security investments? For our international
audience, €4,900,000,000 is almost 5 and a
half 1000000000 US dollars valuation a year?
You can have a look at how Helsing is poised to shape the future of
defense tech in an more in-depth
article in our show notes that we are
linking to from, 10 Silicon Canals.
Then moving on, Lilium, an air taxi start
up, they are a bit more troubled. They are
considering, sale and relocation in the
middle of German state aid uncertainties. They
consider themselves one of the pioneering German air taxi startups
but are exploring a potential sale because,
yeah, the, I guess, the support in
Germany grew colder for,
the air taxi industry,
fantasy, some might say. Their,
potential move actually would, I guess, impact the future of air mobility
in Germany as a whole or the German start up ecosystem
even. You can read more about Lilium's options and the implications
for the industry also in our show notes. This
time, a longer article at Handelsblatt, some
kind of, yeah, the biggest German daily newspaper for business and
economics news. Once again, I have to add some content here.
We also had an article that didn't make it into this news
episode, a a study saying that only wealthy
people could afford such air taxi rides because the fares
would be pretty high. Mhmm. Moving
on to, the European Central Bank,
ECB, EZB in Germany, they have published their first progress
report on a digital euro or the digital euro.
They are so which means they are preparing a digital
currency. In the first report, you can read about key
developments, future steps in the digital euro project,
a project of which they hope that it
will revolutionize the European financial landscape.
Grover, a Berlin based tech rental company, has
raised €50,000,000 in new funding despite facing market
challenges, including a retreat, from the US market
here. Funding round now will support Grover's growth and
profit profitability goals. They are navigating
rather challenging economic climate right now and are thinking
a lot about the future of tech rentals. You can read more about
that also in our show notes. They are not
anymore right now having a unicorn start up,
but, it seems as if there are some, like,
honest conversations going on right now.
In Vienna, we see that there
the HR tech startup Speed Invest Heroes
filed for insolvent insolvency. They recently rebranded as
HROs, because their unfunding
attempts proved to be unsuccessful in the end.
This development highlights the challenges faced by start up in the HR tech
space as a whole during our economic tough times right
now. Details of the bankruptcy and its implications for the industry
are, explained in-depth on trending
topics. We found top 4
fundraisings summing up at least
or almost €900,000,000. Helsing,
we already set €450,000,000 in series c.
Then, Manheim based ESG
platform Osapiens secured a €110,000,000 to
expand global reach. Kettle EM Kettle YM, a
Munich based biotech startup, raised €150,000,000 in series
d for cancer immunotherapy, and Caresyntax
from San Francisco in Berlin raised a 180,000,000,
euro dollars. Major funding rounds,
which I guess all highlight growing investor confidence in European deep tech
and biotech, because they are all positioning
these startups as key players in in global innovation. And I think
here we really can say I mean, looking back to when we started
also our show, these are numbers that back then would have been, like,
more or less unthinkable. Having 3 digit
million in 1,000,000
in funding for a single company back then would not have been
possible. And because I remember us talking a lot about in the beginning
also about how the German start up scene or the European start
up scene will ever be able to keep up with the
the developments in other hot spots like Silicon Valley.
And now numbers like this really show that there are all these, like,
highlights or maybe unicorns that prove, that also the
industry here has become more and more important. And
Wefox is getting in heavy waters. It's,
an InsurTech unicorn undergoing significant changes
as it exits the German market and takes a strong valuation hit.
Recently, Wefox secured a crucial €25,000,000 in fresh
funding from existing investors, because they needed to
avert a potential sale to a UK insurance broker named
Ardenon. And now the new capital allows Wefox
to restructure operations, focus on profitable markets like the Netherlands, Austria,
and Switzerland while transforming the business in Italy.
CEO Mark Harting Hartingan reaffirmed in his role,
and Wefox is now poised to navigate strategic
shifts a bit better and overall strengthen the
position in the European intertech landscape.
We also have sources here for a full story.
This is what I would say the highlight section for this
month or for this summer, giving
handing it over back to you to talk housekeeping and bragging.
Do you know you you you talked about past, and we
had a few episodes of the unicorn stampede where we
had, almost monthly new unicorn creations now with the
Wefox and Grover. We have 2 leaving the club, but I'm sure
there will be new ones coming in pretty soon. As Chris always
said, housekeeping and time to brag. But, you know, it end
bragging if it's true. Start up radio hit a new height of
2.1 1,000,000 inventory in first half of twenty
twenty four. From Nobel Arts to Forbes Entrepreneurs, we bring you
the best of the GSA startup. Join us in this journey, and we are
looking for 5,000,000 inventory this year. That will be awesome.
If you're interested to work with us down here in the show notes,
there is a link to our website, become a partner.
You can subscribe and follow on the startup radio link
tree. Also, link here in the show notes. And for the ecosystem, I
hand over to Chris where we do have a little bit of world, where we
have quite frequently US data because they are pretty good
trend indicator of what is going on in startup
world. Yes. Ecosystem, as you may know, the section of the show
where we zoom in more and more. So we will start on a global
scale. 1st, with a couple of new stories there.
On a, worldwide level, we see that European
VCs outperform US VCs over 1015 years
or over 10 15 year horizons,
rights sifted. A tech start up funding has
plummeted in 2024 with only $360,000,000 raised in the
US, which is the lowest in over a decade due to market
saturation, regulatory pressures, and economic uncertainty.
Right? Crunchbase. We also see that logistics start ups
face a tough reality. Investments have plummeted nearly 90%, dropping
from $26,000,000,000 in 21 to just 3,000,000,000
in 23. Reasons for that are high interest rates and
market shifts. Something that may also
come to GSA, venture backed startup bankruptcies in the US have
surged by 60% in 2024, raising concerns about
broader economic impact, early stage funding, and particularly early
stage funding in AI is slowing. And startups are
taking longer to close series b rounds with the median time reaching
28 months in 2024, highest in over a decade.
Many 2021 series a startups face now
a funding cliff as they struggle to secure follow on funding.
Zooming in on Europe, the, EU's Digital Markets
Act is a new take on tech regulation. Yeah, that
is like a a a topic for the connoisseurs
there, but, we have more, information about
that in the show notes, deeper links. McKinsey reports a search in
European deep tech investments. Europe now, accounts for
19% of global funding, expected to grow 25 to 35%
by 2030. And, yeah, meaning that
deep tech is Europe's chance at global innovation leadership.
And, we found 2 takes on venture
debt on the Sifted website. Venture debt
is surging in Europe with €18,700,000,000 raised
in the first half of twenty twenty four, signaling an upcoming m and
a wave. Climate Tech and Fintech are thriving while start ups
brace for strategic acquisitions, And venture
tech sorry. Venture depth is on track for a record
year in Europe with 18.7,
being raised in h one, just another source
that we also linked to in the show
notes, emphasizing a bit more that the surge is driven not only by
Fintech, but also by green tech giants.
Zooming in even more on Switzerland and the Swiss ecosystem,
Swiss startups raised 1,100,000,000 Swiss francs
in the first half of twenty twenty four with biotech here leading
the charge despite an overall 9.5% decline.
Early stage investment surge, particularly in AI and energy, while
late stage funding lagged.
Moving on to the neighbor in the north, us,
I would say, Germany. The ZEV index reveals the
steepest decline in economic expectations for Germany in 2 years.
The, outlook drops despite stable condition
while the US and China face worsening evaluations.
Inflation expectations remain stable, though. And then we
always talk about it each month. The,
E4Geschefsklima index, the E4, business
climate index for Germany dropped to 80,
7 point sorry, to 87.0
points in July, down from 88.6
in June. Reasons for that, companies are
increasingly dissatisfied with business, current business, and growing
skeptical about the future. So the
conversations about a deepening economic crisis are still not off the
table here. In general, Germany, start up
seen as waiting on promises. Only 22 of 58 initiatives
have been delivered by the government. And, yeah, there's also
another ongoing conversation about what can the federal government do in
order to improve conditions for the start up scene.
Right now, the, German government coalition is in heavy
waters overall. So the question here also is how much can
they actually still push forward when it comes to a digital
digital economy? What about that has cash
online? Then, this also leads to
the fact that German startups give the government startup policies only
a 4.0, like, a a 4.
That means in Germany, it's grade d, barely passed.
They are especially criticizing,
the red tape, wishing for less bureaucracy and easier access
to public contracts. Time to step
up. Government says not just we, but also
Bitcoin. Bitcoin. And, we bring you content
in English that is otherwise otherwise only available in German.
It's funny that I, claim we bring you content in English, and I can't even
pronounce the word otherwise. Anyway, Germany
fine. Germany's AI landscape
is full of potential, but challenges remain from academic
excellence to VC backed start ups. The road
ahead requires focus on digital skills and innovation. You can dive
deeper into the current AI state in Germany,
yeah, in a, deep read that we have
related, but from a different source and different research, the German
AI startup scene is booming with 687 startups
in 2024, a 35% increase. As always with
these things, it depends a bit on how they are specifically counting, but we are
always interested in the trend lines. So seeing while there's,
a 35% increase is a significant development for us.
Funding challenges persist, nevertheless, pushing, some
to the US. Berlin and Munich lead the funding, but other
cities are catching up. And, the top 27
AI startups are leading innovations from autonomous trucking to
satellite based fire detection. Another report about that
can be found in our show notes. Then we have a blog post on
report. A private equity in the DACH region is g sleeping
giant awakens is the headline and the bottom line
there. And on our blog based on the NGP research, we
found that generative AI and deep tech are driving
GSAV c industry or scene.
And Schleswig Holstein, Germany's northernmost,
state is seeing a start up boom with 37 new start ups and
23. The region experienced a 20% growth, surpassing
the national average. Software here leading the way.
Again, the absolute number is probably not as important
as the trend line here. So maybe you wanna think about spending
your time on the Baltic or Northern Sea.
That was a lot of yapping from me. Let's move on to hubs
and to let me hand it over to you. Yes. As always, we
want to highlight hidden gems of general start up interest,
what international press does not covered.
This time, we tried our utmost to focus on as many
cities as possible, and you'll hear there's a lot. And the other of the
news is simply the way we found them. Our former guest,
Frankfurt Rhein Main, Our former guest, compredict
raises 50,000,000 US dollars in a series b funding.
We'll have an interview with them later in fall when there will be more news
to share. Fastbow, we also had them in our interview,
on the takeover from FreshBooks, the Canadian unicorn.
Now the founder, Rene, buys the shares back,
regaining independence. Cheers to your new beginning. Here's the link
in the show notes. And also, Rene promised us us an interview on his
management buyout. Minds BioNTech remote reports
positive phase 2 data on its mRNA cancer drug
in combo with Regen Hohns therapy
promising results, but more details awaited.
CoupLens. Sudoui acquires Fox Education and raises
a further €20,000,000 according to High-tech Cunha
Fund HTGF. Hamburg, Planckraft, the
Hamburg based leader in craft industry digitalization, has
raised €12,000,000 in a series a funding
led by Kreedom. They'll use the funds to expand their
contract, their OS, and go beyond the DACH region. Congrats to the
team. Hamburg based MRGEmergeacquies
Max Bounty, enhancing its global reach in commerce
advertising. This strategic move
strengthened merge
merge offerings in key markets and boost its expertise
in CPL CPA, CPL, and CPI campaigns.
Heilbronn, the city where a billionaire, the founder
of Lidl, Dieter Schwarz, is located. Dieter
founder, Dieter Schwarz, has rebranded Zukunft von
Heipron as the 11 Zed Ventures, shifting
focus to AI, digitalization, and deep tech startups
with plans to invest in 75 to a 100 startups by the
end of the decade. Manheim or Sapiens, we already
talked about them, a 110,000,000 funded. Congratulations. The
rounder slide, by the way, by Goldman Sachs, and they already,
are used by 1,300 clients globally.
Aachen, the city with the 2 a's, Potempi
secures 20,000,000 from EIB to advance its
groundbreaking utembo device
aimed at protecting patients' brains during heart procedures.
Constance. Niemi
secures 30,000,000 from Invoce, a supercharged AI
governance, and model ops empowering
everyone to harness data with their open source
platform. Kinne is shaping the future of data science.
By the way, CNIME is a acronym something with
constant. I don't remember from top of my mind. Hyder based
InsurTech GetSafe. We talked about that frequently, has reached
profitability in its core insurance business for the first time.
Thanks to high automation and customer service and claims processing,
they aim for full profitability in 2025.
Ebersbach, and that that's the one I had to look up. It's around 30
minutes by car from Dresden. Demikan, a Saxon
startup, has become the 1st German company to receive
an unlimited license to grow medical cannabis under
the new cannabis act. This marks a major step,
Augsburg. A major setback for
Rocket Factory Augsburg, RFA, as the RFA
1 rocket suffered a massive explosion during a test in
Scotland. The incident delays their plans the team is determined to
push forward. Tubingen,
HIPAA HIPAA Reginex, a
Tubingen based Klingel stage company, raised
15,000,000 in CRC funding led by
Visalios Bio Capital 4. The funds will advance their
liver disease therapy candidate.
Hanover Hanover based Hero, all in capital letters,
secure 40,000,000 in series b to power tradesmen
SME across Europe. With new funding, hero aims to
streamline financial transactions and expand its
SaaS platform. Oh, Chris, you
wanna take over Austria and Switzerland? Yeah. Guys, as I said, a
lot of very small cities here. Yeah. So,
yeah, ecosystem in Austria and Switzerland, this is rather short today.
In Austria, we see that, Vienna based EDI
provider, Ecosio, has been acquired by the
US software giant Vertex in a deal worth up to $180,000,000.
The acquisition aims to create a seamless compliance management platform now.
And in Switzerland, we tracked more than a 160,000,000 US dollar start ups
investments. We will tell you more about that later in the details because now
we are moving on to the general news, tech news, company news section.
First off, VC news, new funds in case you're looking for money, also only
a selection. VCs are navigating a tough fundraising
environment in 2024 with some opting for smaller, more focused funds
while giants continue to grow is one of the reports that we found
that asks, will the trend towards bigger rounds
push fund sizes even higher? And,
UVC Partners just closed their 4th round,
their 4th fund, I'm sorry, at €250,000,000
smashing records with a quick and oversubscribed round. They are doubling
down now on on deep tech, climate tech, mobility,
and AI startups in
Europe. And,
yeah, this is this is what we see for
the funding. We move on to green tech with you,
Joe. Green tech news. Big news for Europe's
green future. EIB, the European Investment Bank,
is teaming up with Deutsche Bank to boost wind energy with a
5,000,000,000, yes, billion euro initiative starting with a
1,000,000,000 guarantee for wind projects.
Also, we found the EU climate tech scene is heating
up with €18,300,000,000
raised in 2023. These top investors are leading
the charge toward a greener future. Check out the
most active backers of climate innovation.
EIC Fund, that is the European Investment Council, so it's a
European Union thing, but this one is based in Germany.
B p BPI France, Antler from Singapore,
Speedinvest from Austria, SFC Capital from the
UK, Green Angel Ventures from the UK, and again, the
high-tech krone from h t h t
g f from Germany. As always, we have an interview
with the CEO. FinTech
news. Let's get to the FinTech news, shall we? Berlin based Bunch
has secured 15.5 1,000,000,000 US
dollars in a series a funding to modernize private markets
replacing outdated tools with AI driven solutions.
A heist straight out of movie, thieves made
off with €18,000,000 in luxury watches
from Berlin's watchmaker in 2022. The culprits
sentenced to years behind the bars. The loot,
still missing. Note, Watchmaster always try to position
themselves as a fintech, so we include them here in the news.
And Munich's Komatum is offering an exclusive
chance to invest in Klarna shares before
their rumored IPO, promising high returns with
significant fees. Is this really a golden ticket or risky
bet? Read more in the
source link. And, Chris, I want to hand over you to
a little bit money in the general news. Right? Hell, yeah.
In the general news now yeah. Also, a lot of stuff to work
through, so let me get right through it. TSMC is set to break ground on
its 1st European, fab in Dresden,
Germany with investments across Germany, Japan, and the US
now nearing a $100,000,000,000. That
actually just happened yesterday, and the, groundbreaking
I don't know if you call it the groundbreaking. I mean, the the the the
ceremony where all the politicians came together actually even attracted,
Ursula von der Leyen from the European Commission and German chancellor
Olaf Scholz. The whole project is not
without criticism in Germany because, $5,000,000,000
in funding, half of it actually comes from German taxpayers.
And with these things, in the end, you never really know how much they are
aiming how much they are paying off. Once
Unicorns now fall in stars, 7 German several German
startups, including Grover, T Mobility, and Lilium have lost their
$1,000,000,000 valuations. Reasons for that are tough market conditions and
strategic challenges. A more in-depth report about
these devaluations, you can find in the show notes.
Porsche, as is bold move into sustainable mobility with
FlixBus marks a new era for global debt transport,
discover how this strategic investment is set to reshape the future of
mobility, on our blog. I think it's really
interesting to see that for a long time now, German car manufacturers are
really looking into how to diversify, their portfolios
with regards to the future of mobility
and the, obviously, the electric mobility trend, but
also car sharing and new forms of of transportations
and mobility. It's been a conversation for a long time, but probably now
finally bigger moves and bolder moves are being
made. Again, Porsche, they agreed to provide
capital in a battery producer called Valta,
pretty traditional and and well known,
battery producer in Germany. And Walter has a restructuring
deal, so Porsche has their hands there because, also, again, going back
to electric mobility, all those manufacturers now need
those batteries. We see a big move in logistics.
Senda with written with the two n's is set to acquire C.
H. Robinson's European Land Transport Business, creating a
€1,400,000,000 giant in the industry, a deal that
boosts senders reach and strengthens strengthens
also their digital logistics platform. We
sneak in somewhat medtech research here. Researchers at the University of
Mainz close to where you are discovered a replacement for Fentanyl
that has less severe side effects. Obviously, a very dramatic
and problematic, influence, especially here in the US, but also in other
countries. We found news about German
AI startup Aleph Alpha, who once claimed its language
model could rival Chegg GPT. But despite raising $500,000,000
and initial excitement, the tech now seems really outdated and
underwhelming. Industry insiders say its focus on
niche solutions also limits the growth. We got
several articles about this.
So because there's also discussions with the,
parent company, Schwarz Group, that has significant
influence in Aleph Alpha. And so the question
really becomes whether those investors are overshadowing innovations.
And, yeah, we also have the rise and struggles of Aleph Alpha,
Germany's AI. Hope we have more in an original
report on our website there too. Venture capital could be
also NATO's ultimate weapon. If you wanna
know why, check the show notes. Big news in the
SAAS world. Semrush, a software as a
service company, just acquired Munich based right with
y instead of an I to supercharge their website user
experience game. Salesforce snaps up Berlin based
Spokai AI to supercharge Slack AI,
another step towards train taming the info overload in the
workplace. Star entrepreneur Philip Schroeder
from Einskommafunf, 1.5
relating to the climate goal, promoted a now defunct
crypto project through Cap Inside and is facing potential liability
after investors suffered losses. Question now is,
could this lead to a bigger legal reckoning in the crypto world?
And TB Auctions has acquired German industrial auction house,
Surplex, expanding its reach across Europe,
a strategic move that now enhances TB Auctions' presence in
key markets. This is all this and
now some creative destruction
news. It is. I was
just checking because the first news is HOFHEIM, pretty
close to Frankfurt based startup Solarnativ, files for
insolvency, putting 130 jobs at risk. Despite
innovative solar tech, they couldn't secure enough investors.
Buyers needed by August to avoid shutdown and was just
checking, but there's no news at the time of the recording.
Berlin based catering start up. My My Catering has
fight for insolvency, but is actively seeking investors
to to secure its futures. Despite the
setback, operations will continue with 14 jobs and supplier
partnerships intact, writes to you online. Berlin
based b to b startup, Magaloop, a marketplace for
store owners, wholesalers, and manufacturers,
Asphalt for Insolvency founded in 2018, it had
raised around €20,000,000 from investors like
fuse future partners and Bitbooger Ventures.
Insolvency also strikes Berlin based so
solytic, a software start a solar software
startup, and Hamburg's Additive, a robotic 3
d printing construction firms.
Evocortex, a company specialized in
autonomous transportation systems for industry 4.0
has to file for insolvency. The firm
known for its mobile robots and patented sensor
technologies aim to continue. Nothing we found
in Austria and in Switzerland. Marinomate
Biotech, marinomate Biotech faces restructuring with
€25,000,000 in liabilities. Filing to
reorganize potential layoffs, and asset sales are
likely stuck down from 140 to 10.
More details on trending topics. There was a
lot of bad news. Chris, you wanna end with the good news? Let's end on
a high note with more news about successful fundraising and exits.
As always, please note this is just like a a small selection.
We only included some fundraising above €5,000,000
or US dollars. And
also this month, we had the good problem that many announcements
came, in so that we could not include all funds raised.
Let's go. Berlin based Myne, m
y n e, secures €40,000,000 to expand its co
ownership vacation property model into Portugal and
Croatia. Demand seems high, and Myne aims for profitability already this
year and, vacation making vacation home ownership
more accessible. Munich's 1 data secures
€32,000,000 in a series b
extension to boost AI powered data management and
expand globally. They are powering blue chip giants like
BioNTech and trying to work on
data product management. Creators of
Stable Diffusion just launched Black Forest Labs
with $31,000,000 in funding to power Flux
Point 1, a new AI image generator that's shaking up the
open source scene. They're hoping to for all of
us to get ready for faster creativity. Life EO raises
€25,000,000 in the series b funding. Berlin's Checkly
raises €18,400,000, a bit of a queer sum,
but this is because it's 20,000,000 US dollars Then series b
to revolutionize website monitoring with 10 times faster issue
resolution through monitoring as code. Quick
detection, less downtime, happier customers, their claim for
fame. Then Finn Hensel, founder and CEO of Sanity
Group, who was awarded the entrepreneur of the year award in
2021, has once again proven
that his fundraising prowess in the German cannabis
industry is really big. We had the pleasure of interviewing him after his
latest achievement in that 13 sorry, a €17,000,000
deal with Organigram Holdings. Yeah. And
you can read more about how his deal marks the beginning of a
new era for cannabis in Europe.
And we have a full on interview with him. Berlin's family Fintech
app, Bling, secures 12 $1,000,000 in
series a, and they want to simplify finances and mobile
plans for families. Partnerships,
they emphasize strong partnerships and are on a mission to ease
parents' lives. Munich based
Biometa secures €6,500,000 in seed
funding to power its generative AI platform.
They're working on enzyme development for industries from medicine
to agriculture, so a startup working
in bio innovation and biotech. Varm, v
a r m, secures €5,700,000 seed
funding to revolutionize insulation
and drive decarbonization in Europe.
Big problem in when it comes to climate change, we
have so often just looking for mobility, but buildings
are also losing a lot of energy and creating a huge problem
when it comes to, carbon emissions.
So Varm's mission is to insulate 1,000,000 homes in 10 years.
They want to start in Germany, and
now got money for that. And Katja just took a bigger
bite of the breakfast game. Katja is a German,
sweet and candy company,
because now they increased their stake in My Muesli to 56%.
My Muesli, big German startup success story, basically,
allowing you to individualize your granola in the morning.
And, yeah, so I guess it's an investment that makes sense for
Katya. Nothing newsworthy we found over the whole
summer in Austria. They were all at the beautiful lakes in Carinthia, I
guess. But, some more stuff from Switzerland,
we found big win for biotech as
acenoyron, a s c e, neuron,
closes a $100,000,000 series c round to push
their Alzheimer's drug ASN 51 into phase 2 trials.
So, yeah, obviously, huge hopes in that field in order
to, lessen the load of a deadly disease.
With top investors now on board, the future of neurodegenerative treatment
looks a bit more promising. Then Zurich's Lakera just raised
18,400,000 euros, $20,000,000 to secure Gen AI
apps, because
in the AI world, security isn't just an option. It's a necessity, as they
say. And, Zurich based Libattion,
l or Libattion. All these
names, guys. Come on. Please don't mock us. Find
find better names. Libattion,
wanting to be a leader in upcycled energy storage, they raised
€14,000,000 to decarbonize that industry.
Zintara, a Zurich based semiconductor
innovator, raised $11,000,000 led by V Square
Adventures, with the money they want to
launch their patent pending Compute REM for embedded
computing. Limitec scores a €10,000,000
win partnering with ValNeva to fast track the
world's, most advanced shingles
vaccine. So also hoping for
medtech innovation there. And Swiss
health startup health tech startup, Sanos, raises
€7,000,000 led by Google Ventures and Partech to expand its dental
platform, Roger. They're working in patient
management. That was a wrap, Chris. Did you notice that the
creative destruction is getting shorter and shorter by now and the
fundraising is getting long again even though we we totally
cut a lot out here? I see there's a good sign and hope the
economy does not go go as bad as it looks right
now. Wonderful. Oh, yes. And we do have a lot of stay
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you very much, Chris. We may tell the audience that it's now one and
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recording, and we're recording now for more than 45 minutes.
Guys, it was a pleasure. Thank you very much. We will be back, Chris and
I, together with the next news on October 3rd. Thank
you very much, and have a good day. Bye bye. Bye bye.