This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups - December 2022
12/22/22 • 26 min
Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups, our startup news wrap-up for December 2022 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on December 19th, 2022. 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, which will be January 2023, the first news for 2023. Guys, another year is over! Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog, link below
Our Highlights:
Enpal makes huge fundraising in the current environment, more than 800 mn €. Sennder doubles its valuation in the next funding round to 2 bn US$ and has already 60 mn commitments. The funding environment may be bleak, but investors announced new funds for VC and PE investments worth 3.1 bn US$ targeting startups and scaleups in GSA or Europe. One blog asks if the time of Rocket Internet is over, Matter Labs raises 200 mn, a big heist drives a startup into insolvency and Getir buys Gorillas for 1,2 bn US$, a far cry from Gorillas' former 3 bn US$ valuation.
Let's talk startups:
Top News
Enpal Fundraising
Enpal could double its valuation in the new funding round. Berlin-based unicorn Enpal closes €855 million in debt funding to accelerate the adoption of solar energy.
Sennder Raises New Funds At Double Valuation
Digital forwarder unicorn Sennder is raising new money, at a 2 bn US$ valuation. According to the report, they already have 60m commitments.
Fundraising For VCs Went Quite Well - More Than 3.1 bn Euros Worth of New Investment Funds Have Been Closed
The largest is EQT Ventures. It has Money if your startup needs it: EQT Ventures III closes Europe's largest venture capital fund committed to early-stage tech startups. The money will go to early-stage startups in Europe and North America. For more funds, wait for our later section with new fund announcements.
A service for our audience: Learn more and send in pitches here: https://eqtgroup.com/current-portfolio/funds/eqt-ventures-iii
Has Rocket Internet Already Seen Its Best Years?
"Mucho trouble over at Rocket Internet," wrote Robin Wauters in his readworthy newsletter for Tech.eu. The article asks if their era is over. Staff cuts and investment stop point in that direction.
Startup Brand Ranking
Jung von Matt publishes their annual GERMAN STARTUP BRAND RANKING
Some of the top 50 startup brands are known from our news: About You, Flink, Numa Group, getquin, Vivid, Flaschenpost, Tier Mobility, Zolar, Enpal, Sono Motors, Trade Republic
Matter Labs raises 200 mn US$
Matter Labs, the Berlin, Germany-based developer of zkSync, a solution that reduces the cost of Ethereum transactions, raised $200M in Series C funding https://buff.ly/3UorChp
Not Oceans Eleven, But Still BIG
Berlin-based luxury watch marketplace Watchmaster was one of the largest marketplaces of its kind. After a spectacular robbery where 10 m € worth of watches have been stolen the company has to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/3Fi3qsG
Getir Buys Gorillas And It Is Not Going Well For the Gorillas Founder
First, this kind of news appeared: Getir will take over Gorillas soon - according to press reports. The negotiations have been dragging on for some time now.
Then, we got the confirmation: Getir acquires German competitor Gorillas in $1.2 billion deal - where Gorillas was once valued at 3 bn US$
Housekeeping & Time to Brag
We will be back in the new year 2023 with the first new episode towards the end of January, as far as we can tell right now. Our schedule got a bit screwed up. Sorry!
Joe got featured on TopTierStartups.com: Want To Know About German-Language Startups? Joe Menninger Is Your Guy | https://buff.ly/3gJtbZB
Oh, one more thing: We got our wrap-up from Spotify and it turns out that we are in the global top 5% of most shared podcasts on Spotify. Thank you audience!
News Links and Show Notes on our Medium Blog:
Mentioned in this episode:
Startupraven.com
The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage ...
Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups, our startup news wrap-up for December 2022 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on December 19th, 2022. 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, which will be January 2023, the first news for 2023. Guys, another year is over! Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog, link below
Our Highlights:
Enpal makes huge fundraising in the current environment, more than 800 mn €. Sennder doubles its valuation in the next funding round to 2 bn US$ and has already 60 mn commitments. The funding environment may be bleak, but investors announced new funds for VC and PE investments worth 3.1 bn US$ targeting startups and scaleups in GSA or Europe. One blog asks if the time of Rocket Internet is over, Matter Labs raises 200 mn, a big heist drives a startup into insolvency and Getir buys Gorillas for 1,2 bn US$, a far cry from Gorillas' former 3 bn US$ valuation.
Let's talk startups:
Top News
Enpal Fundraising
Enpal could double its valuation in the new funding round. Berlin-based unicorn Enpal closes €855 million in debt funding to accelerate the adoption of solar energy.
Sennder Raises New Funds At Double Valuation
Digital forwarder unicorn Sennder is raising new money, at a 2 bn US$ valuation. According to the report, they already have 60m commitments.
Fundraising For VCs Went Quite Well - More Than 3.1 bn Euros Worth of New Investment Funds Have Been Closed
The largest is EQT Ventures. It has Money if your startup needs it: EQT Ventures III closes Europe's largest venture capital fund committed to early-stage tech startups. The money will go to early-stage startups in Europe and North America. For more funds, wait for our later section with new fund announcements.
A service for our audience: Learn more and send in pitches here: https://eqtgroup.com/current-portfolio/funds/eqt-ventures-iii
Has Rocket Internet Already Seen Its Best Years?
"Mucho trouble over at Rocket Internet," wrote Robin Wauters in his readworthy newsletter for Tech.eu. The article asks if their era is over. Staff cuts and investment stop point in that direction.
Startup Brand Ranking
Jung von Matt publishes their annual GERMAN STARTUP BRAND RANKING
Some of the top 50 startup brands are known from our news: About You, Flink, Numa Group, getquin, Vivid, Flaschenpost, Tier Mobility, Zolar, Enpal, Sono Motors, Trade Republic
Matter Labs raises 200 mn US$
Matter Labs, the Berlin, Germany-based developer of zkSync, a solution that reduces the cost of Ethereum transactions, raised $200M in Series C funding https://buff.ly/3UorChp
Not Oceans Eleven, But Still BIG
Berlin-based luxury watch marketplace Watchmaster was one of the largest marketplaces of its kind. After a spectacular robbery where 10 m € worth of watches have been stolen the company has to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/3Fi3qsG
Getir Buys Gorillas And It Is Not Going Well For the Gorillas Founder
First, this kind of news appeared: Getir will take over Gorillas soon - according to press reports. The negotiations have been dragging on for some time now.
Then, we got the confirmation: Getir acquires German competitor Gorillas in $1.2 billion deal - where Gorillas was once valued at 3 bn US$
Housekeeping & Time to Brag
We will be back in the new year 2023 with the first new episode towards the end of January, as far as we can tell right now. Our schedule got a bit screwed up. Sorry!
Joe got featured on TopTierStartups.com: Want To Know About German-Language Startups? Joe Menninger Is Your Guy | https://buff.ly/3gJtbZB
Oh, one more thing: We got our wrap-up from Spotify and it turns out that we are in the global top 5% of most shared podcasts on Spotify. Thank you audience!
News Links and Show Notes on our Medium Blog:
Mentioned in this episode:
Startupraven.com
The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage ...
Previous Episode
This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups - November 2022 Wrap-Up
Our Highlights:
FTX may be history, BUT a German Blog reports there are several parties interested in buying the European Entity of FTX. FTX also triggered Bitpanda to order a special audit from KPMG. We have some more job cuts, this time the 2nd round. Gorillas may sell itself at 1 bn USD even though they have raised 1.3 bn USD in venture capital already. Air taxis are still hot, Volocopter raises more than 180 m US$ to get closer to certification and Lilium sells 100 Airtaxis to Saudi Arabia. The German VC market is stabilizing, according to KfW Research. Our former guest Creditshelf partners with Goldman Sachs and pockets 100 m Euros. Gitpod, a startup from Kiel convinces the founders of GitHub and Shopify to invest.
Let's talk startups:
Our Sponsor Startupraven
The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/
Find all options to follow us and subscribe here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio
Top News
FTX may soon be History, BUT
A German blog Finance Forward reports there are several parties interested in buying the European Entity of FTX, which is headquartered in Switzerland. Their information has been spot-on in other cases in the past.
Job Cuts Keep Coming - 2nd Round Now
Proptechs Homeday and McMakler enter the second round of job cuts. Homeday cuts 20 jobs (60 before) and McMakler again 100 employees
Gorillas May Sell Itself at a Huge Discount
Sequoia-backed grocery startup Getir is close to buying its troubled rival Gorillas in a heavily discounted deal said to be worth less than $1 billion. They have been valued at their series C investment at 2.1 bn US$ and to date they raised more than 1.3 bn US$.
Related: Deutsche-Startups uncovered that Gorillas (which is in the process of selling itself) paid 300 m € this year for french competitor Frichti.
Lilium Sells 100 Airtaxis
Saudi Arabia buys 100 air taxis from Munich -based startup Lilium. The delivery is expected 2025. Before the deal, they also hired former Airbus executive Klaus Roewe. Fingers crossed for them, they did not generate revenue yet, but 841 m Euros in losses so far.
Volocopter Raises 182 M US$
Volocopter raises $182M to bring air taxi closer to certification, as part of their Series E funding
The company is currently testing its two-seater VoloCity air taxi for the requirements set by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Volocopter is looking to certify its aircraft in H2 2023 and generate revenue with rides in 2024.
Creditshelf Partners with Goldman Sachs
Our former guest Creditshelf partners with Goldman Sachs and hits profitability - Goldman Sachs is providing the German alternative lender for SMEs with up to €100m of secured funding. Learn more in our interview with Creditshelf here https://buff.ly/3NVANo1
Creditshelf is Germany’s only listed pure-play fintech, offering a credit platform, where investors can grant credit to German small and medium enterprises.
Mentioned in this episode:
Our Enablers
Younium Younium is the subscription management and billing platform for B2B SaaS. Younium brings the transformative infrastructure to manage and grow your business while you focus on the things that matter. https://www.younium.com/ Tvarit Tvarit is an industrial ai startup, that helps companies to reduce rejections by 40%-60% in metal casting, as well as saving up to 18% on energy. Learn more here: https://www.tvarit.com/
Startupraven.com
The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podder - https://www.podderapp.com/privacy-policy
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Next Episode
This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups - January 2023
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.
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:
Subscribe Here
Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio
Our Enablers
Invest-in-HessenThis show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Look for Tech Startups Germany here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio
Startupraven.com
The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here:
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
BioNTech makes the largest acquisition to dateBioNTech 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
Related: BioNTech’s founder on the future of mRNA technology
Cologne-based DeepL confirms unicorn status and snipes at GrammarlyDeepL takes aim at Grammarly with the launch of Write, to clean up your prose.
Related:
Cologne-based translation tool DeepL confirms unicorn valuation for their 2022 fundraising of 100 mn US$
Solarisbank joins N26 in Troubles with BaFinBafin 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”
Trade Republic UpdatesTrade Republic generates more than 1 bn Euros inflows of new client money with 2% interest rate offer 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
Sono Motors gets more runwayemobility startup Sono Motors gets additional 1,4 million Euros from EU Horizont Program reports Der Spiegel
Blog Post with Show Notes and Links#startup #startupnews #news #businessnews #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #germany #austria #switzerland #fintech #fintechnews #startupradio
Mentioned in this episode:
Startupraven.com
The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podder - https://www.podderapp.com/privacy-polic...
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