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Welcome to StartupRad.io.

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Your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German start

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startup scene with news, interviews, and

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live events.

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Welcome to our regular startup news from the startup and tech entrepreneurship

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scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Our startup news

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is recorded, today with me,

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Chris, in New York City. And I have to say, I don't fully know why

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in our script I am talking about myself first.

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But joining me is, Joe in

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Frankfurt. Hey, Joe. How are you? I'm doing good. And, Chris, you know

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why you're first in the script? Because today I wrote it.

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Yeah. As if I wrote as if there were other days when I write it

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then. Today's news cutoff date

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is

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02/24/2025.

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As always, all news not included will be in our next news wrap up.

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We needed to cut our news seriously short this time so you can

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have a brief news overview. And without further ado, that means

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that you're gonna guide us through some of the highlights

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of this month. Yes. As our audience already knows,

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we are aggregating the news from all the social media

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shares we do during the course of the month. Usually, I'm going through

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something like 15 to 20 pages, in terms of

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startup news. But this month, we had

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59 pages of startup news. Of course, some of

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them, the same news from multiple sources, but nonetheless, that

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was really a lot. So we had to cut it really seriously.

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Talking about our highlights here, the DACH startup ecosystem is buzzing

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with activity from major funding rounds to political

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changes that could reshape the landscape. German

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German auto tech, Finn, the the the startup

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renting out, cars as a car subscription model,

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reached 1,000,000,000 in

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funding commitments signaling a major shift in German startup

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scene. Meanwhile, Solaris secured a substantial

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140,000,000 investment, fueling its growth

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in the banking as a service sector. But we gotta

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see that funding was basically,

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a rescue for Solarisbank. The other option would be

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to wind them down. This development highlights the continued

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strength and potential of the DACH Region as a hub for

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innovation and investments. However, challenges remain. Lilium,

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the Munich based,

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Iftol, Iftol, the drone

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flying cars developer faced a second insolvency

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raising questions about the viability of the industry.

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Additionally, the recent German election brought a change in

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government with CDU taking the lead. This shift could

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have significant implication for startup policies and regulation,

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creating both opportunities and uncertainty for entrepreneurs and

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investors. Stay tuned to startuprate.0 for in-depth

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analyzers and expert insights. And of course, we will

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talk with Chris about the startup news and the startup elections

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here because he is one of the person,

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he is one of the people who actually keeps Germany up to

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date on US politics and also covers those

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politics. Talking about the schedule here, we are shifting to

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two publications a week. Let us know how you like it.

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Chris, you wanna straight hop into the top news?

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Yes. I want to. And,

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I also don't know how it's pronounced, eVTOL

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electrical vehicle takeoff and

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landing. EVTOL.

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God. Anyway Maybe they only have problem

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because the industry had such a strange acronym. I still

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prefer air taxis. Yes.

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Yes. So, let's jump

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in. You mentioned it already. The

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company FIN, a company

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that is working in the car subscription

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services field, secured a $1,000,000,000

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investment to expand its fleet. They are based in Munich, and they are

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capitalizing on the shift from traditional car ownership to more

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flexible, all inclusive subscriptions, hoping to cater to a

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new generation of mostly, especially urban

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drivers, and businesses looking for hassle free mobility

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solutions. They hope that they

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will be part of the general transformation of

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the automotive industry, and, their growth strategy

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positions them as one player there. Mobility as a

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service is the buzzword there.

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And so we will see whether they can bank in on what they

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hope will be the future of car ownership. The

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Berlin based Cherry Ventures is doubling down on the

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future of AI and deep tech startups. They are getting a

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$500,000,000 sorry. They are starting a

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$500,000,000 investment fund,

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that focuses on AI first businesses, robotics, and next

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generation enterprise solutions. Want to they want to provide

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early stage funding to, innovations. And

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with venture capital tightening in some sectors, Cherry Ventures' commitment

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signals a strong confidence in long term potential of deep tech investments,

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hopefully creating Europe's next AI unicorn. And one

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shouldn't forget that we had a very nice in-depth interview with the

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CEO who led, Finn to this big funding. I

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talked with him about, his automotive experience

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and so on and so forth. And actually, he was driving at the time

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he cofounded, Finn, he was driving,

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an old Beetle, VW Beetle.

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Well, maybe part of the fleet too. And then Lilium, I feel

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as if we are talking about them every month right now.

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Munich based, e v t o l, developer

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has filed for insolvency for the second time, major setback

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for the whole industry, raising questions about the viability of the business

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model. Also, that is kind of the, yeah, the

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debate we're having every every month or every other month about that

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industry. Lilium's situation highlights the challenges in

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developing and scaling aviation technologies,

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long development cycles, regulatory hurdles, intense competition.

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So we will see whether the industry actually can

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weather their, challenges.

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And if you're an investor, obviously, you need to carefully

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assess the risks in that emerging sector.

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And you also said it already, the German election, this is

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this is very current news because

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I think the last votes were counted less than twenty four hours ago.

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My vote was not counted because my mail in ballot didn't arrive in

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time here in The US. But Germany, has elected

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a new parliament, most likely

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leading to a new government led by

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the Christian Democratic and Christian Democratic

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Union, basically the center left party in Germany sorry,

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the center right party in Germany, which will then

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be a shift in power from the Scholz administration of the Social Democratic

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Party. But the Social Democratic Party without the current chancellor

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might be the junior partner in the coalition. That

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change in leadership could have impact on startup policies, digitalization,

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VC investment regulation. And, we'll have a

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closer look at those new policies that are being drafted,

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and we will see what it means also for taxation, maybe AI

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investments, and incentives for businesses. Yes.

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I want to get your impressions from that because, what most

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people don't know if they are only listening to our podcast here, you are

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actually, more active in politics,

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covering politics than you are active in,

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let's talk about startup and tech here, even though that are your

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roots as a reporter. I I was I was wondering,

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what was your perspective for that? We also may add to the

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audience everybody who is able to speak German. There's a highly

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recommended newsletter from you, KrautReporter, for which you also won

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2019 the, prestigious Kremer Online Award.

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Plus, you also do, a regular

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podcast in Germany on US politics. So but here, I

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want to pick a little bit of your brain on the German election. What

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actually scared me a little bit that the right wing

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AfD got over 20%. Yeah. That is that

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is scary. Actually, the right wing party in Germany had the best result

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for right wing extremists since 1945. So,

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basically, since the beginning of the Federal Republic Of Germany after World War

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two. But we always have to say

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that as long as no other party, is willing to build a coalition

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with them, they, they are not in governmental power. Now

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the big question is whether the conservative party will

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keep up their so called firewall and not

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work together with them the way it looks like now,

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is that this is the case. I mean, I guess my take is,

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well, okay, that was a win that was expected. We see it everywhere around

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the world that governments in power or the governments who were in power

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during or right after the, COVID pandemic,

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voted out of office. And, now he has a long

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list of things to be done. He's not necessarily Friedrich Maerts,

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I mean, with he, the, soon to be chancellor,

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or the expected new chancellor of Germany. He has a very long list of

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things to do. He basically has to lead Europe without

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ever having been a secretary in

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no state in Germany or, in the German

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federal government. He has so far only been even though he's

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relatively old, he's close to 70 years old. He

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has so far only been a parliamentarian in the German parliament and in the

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European parliament. So, the hope is that

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he is able to become a

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steady hand leading Europe in what seems to

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be even more geopolitical turmoil

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with the Trump administration who

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like, which is really guessing or really changing

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long term alliances right now. And we see

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huge discussions about the question whether the post World

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War two order is actually history. Mhmm.

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So, yeah, very complex. By the way, everybody who's interested

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in that, we are in the preparation, meaning me,

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that we are we'll be blogging a little bit about the the results, what

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we think about this, go through the election program of

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the CDU and potential allies in a coalition,

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what they think about tech and development and so on and so forth.

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One should keep in mind that Friedrich

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Mads has been working for international, law firms

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like Mayer Brown and also BlackRock Germany. So he's a little bit

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more on the business side. Hopefully, that will be good for the German

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economy. Yeah. Chris, you

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wanna talk ecosystem? I do.

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Let's start this time around with some news about

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the European ecosystem. So Bitcoin slams,

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Bitcoin is how do we always explain it? The

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German It's it's the largest digital

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association in Europe. And they are, I

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do I do believe, thousands of corporate they

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do have thousands of corporate members here from Germany. There you go.

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So Bitcoin slams the European Union's new online

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marketplace regulations. So the question becomes with

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tighter rules are actually a win for consumers or more of a burden

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for sellers. We have a link to that

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on the Bitcoin website.

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France is investing a hundred billion dollars

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in AI technology in order to compete globally in

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that new market. There's also a European

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AI Act, which tries to regulate that new

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field, reshaping AI compliance

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in Europe. And the

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European Union is coming up with a startup and scale up

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strategy that should be unveiled by

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summer. Question there, will it help Europe to stay competitive

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in the global tech race? More about that in the months to

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come. And, a the

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start up scene in Europe, in

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general, demands a united AI strategy. Question is

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there, will the EU support more homegrown AI players

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or fall behind China and The US? Trendingtopics.

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Eu has the, wrap up of

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that discussion, what the European

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startups want, and what kind of strategy they are looking

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for. And, we have a list at TechEU

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of the twenty twenty four unicorns

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showing which European startups reached the ever so

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coveted $1,000,000,000 valuation last year. For

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Germany, it was only eGym. There

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you go. But moving on to Germany, Speedinvest

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warns of a liquidity crisis in,

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the VC market. One of Europe's top VC

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firms predicts that, we will be seeing one of

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the biggest capital crunches in years. It's also on

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trending topics dot e u. So, yeah, we will

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see whether their rather grim prediction actually becomes true.

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But, I mean, again, going back to what I said a bit earlier before, the

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geopolit if you look at the geopolitical, landscape right

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now, there is certainly reasons to be worried.

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Jumping from Germany to Switzerland and the ecosystem there, Swiss

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startups raised $2,400,000,000 in 2024.

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Even though the market is tough there too, obviously, a lot

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of money went into deep tech AI and life sciences.

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They're also hoping to have their next unicorn

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soon. More about that can be found in

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vcmagatzin.de.

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And, the university, the

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engineering university in Zurich, ETH, ETH

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Zurich, continues to launch high growth

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start ups. They are experiencing quite the boom there there.

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And, so that start up ticker.ch is

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asking whether this is actually Europe's top tech incubator.

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Moving on to some to the general news, tech news,

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company news section. I have the honor to

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highlight some of the, new funds and VC

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news in case you are looking for money.

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We are already we have already, talked about

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Cherry Ventures and their $500,000,000 for DeepTech and AI in

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Germany. Then there's the Khan Fund,

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$51,000,000 fund targeting life

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sciences and deep tech, also based in Germany. And

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there's Hellantec VC the Hellantec VC

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Fund, a hundred million dollars to fuel European

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defense startups, also based in Germany.

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Now industry news.

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And back to you. Yes. Let's look a little bit

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at biotech news. German ecology startups. Germany ranked number

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three in EU for biotech innovation. They have more

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than 200, cancer related,

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startups here in Germany. Talking a little bit about fintech news,

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Trade Republic under Baffin investigation for high yield savings

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promotion. Finleap is struggling with multiple portfolio

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company failures. Tesla crashes with

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Baffin over financial compliance issues. Trade Republic

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and N26 are now having real

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duel here. They, one blog called it

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the ultimate fintech showdown, which company is leading the race for

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Europe's top neobank. Neobroker's customers are

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unhappy. A new study shows high dissatisfaction with

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neobank trading platform. What's going wrong? Trade

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Republic is also under fire again for another

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another ankle on their, high yield interest rate

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promises. And we go to the general

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news where Alep Alpha CEO says no one will

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use DeepSeek R1 in twelve month. Is this a

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hype or an AI revolution in the making? ADAC,

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the German what is the equivalent like AAA in The

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US? Yeah. I was gonna say AAA. Yeah. Yeah. New range test

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for EVs, chargers, manufacturers. Which brands lives up to the

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promises? Also Frankfurt Airport makes space for Uber.

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Could this be signal shifting away from traditional taxis?

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Frankfurt Airport, 1 of the busiest in Europe's year.

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OpenAI opens a new office in Munich and Deutsche Classfauser,

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one of the companies that is, that is providing

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high speed. They disclosed that they need more than

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€1,000,000,000 for this high speed

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Internet. Chris, you wanna do some creative destruction as well?

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Yeah. Sure. Let's talk about what did not work. More than a

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hundred and startups failed in 2024. Deutsche startups

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has a list of them. Mostly a lot

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of them actually did not make it through the winter, actually,

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wiping out a lot of the promising ventures there. Then

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Spreadshirt lays off employees as ecommerce

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shifts. Spreadshirt being really around for quite a long time

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already now, and it's another sign of market correction for online

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retail platforms in Germany. It's a place where you can customize,

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gear, gear as in clothing.

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Refurbed lays off 20% of its staff,

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reflecting pressure on refurbished electronics. They are based

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in Austria. And Heitzma

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acquires the insolvent Neo Energy, showing

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that the heat pump sector in Germany isn't also immune to turbulence

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there,

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which already leads us to

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should we do mergers and acquisitions first? Because it

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says end on a high note. Lease my bike joins Munich's

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Green Mobility holding, another step towards sustainable

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urban transport. Travelperk raises 200,000,000 in

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series a for the acquisition of Yokoi.

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Home2Go acquiring inter home to shape reshape

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European vacation rentals. Merck in talks to

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acquire US Cancer biotech firm SpringWorks.

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Heitzmark acquires bankrupt Mio Energy signaling

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sector consolidation. Chris, now you are

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the highlight. You are the high note for the end. Yes. So I

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end on a high note, with just a couple of the successful

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fundraising and exits. Keep in mind that it's just a selection

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that we come up with. This time around, we included only fundraisings

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above €10,000,000, Swiss francs, or US dollars.

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For example, Zolaakos, they got a hundred and €40,000,000

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to strengthen embedded banking and fintech

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infrastructure. Then the Kompanisto

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backed start up raised €40,000,000 in series b

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funding. Wondering

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whether this will fuel more European status exits.

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Avelius Medical raises €30,000,000

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00:21:13.255 --> 00:21:16.855
in a series a. They are working on AI

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powered health care automation,

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streamlining hospital workflows. MeteoMetix

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from Switzerland could secure

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$22,000,000 for their series c

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funding already for AI powered weather forecasting.

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Neurrocare secures

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€19,300,000 to work

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on mental health treatments, also AI driven

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personalized therapy solutions there.

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Genlogs raises

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$14,600,000 in a series

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a round to revolutionize logistics

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with AI working on supply chains

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00:22:01.559 --> 00:22:03.784
there. Construct

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00:22:04.245 --> 00:22:08.024
€12,500,000 also to bring

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AI, which is, like, apparently the buzzword of all of our fundraisings

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and exits this month, to bring AI powered automation

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to construction. So hoping that the construction

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00:22:19.860 --> 00:22:22.919
industry actually is also ripe for

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disruption coming from the machines. But, Chris, you

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remember there was also some time when we only talked about ecommerce, when we

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talked about quick delivery, when we talked about,

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yeah, air taxis and so on and so forth. So I

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don't think it will crumble it will crumble like a

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quick delivery hype, but but I do believe it's it's a little bit

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overhyped AI right now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or at least, I

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00:22:49.160 --> 00:22:52.120
mean, it seems to be the one word that you have to include on all

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your in all your pitch decks, apparently.

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€10,000,000 for Ocell, o c e l

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l. It's also another deep tech investment in Europe,

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working on complex tech. Bioversus from

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Switzerland is a biotech IPO that got money. And then

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Felt. Energy secures funding from the FlixBus founders.

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It's a Munich startup bringing AGRI PV

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to farmers, clean energy without sacrificing the

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crops. Chris, given that we went

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through so much material in order to cut down for the

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news. I think we're pretty happy to have it, down to twenty five minutes

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here. Right? Honestly, that was like, drut.

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Rattling. Drut. German engineering in the

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podcast today. Awesome. Chris, as always, was a

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pleasure talking to you. Looking forward to do the, next news

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with you. Let me look on my wall calendar. They should also go live

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on the March 27.

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Sounds awesome. Bye. Bye, guys.

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That's all, folks. Find more news, streams,

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events, and interviews at

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00:24:12.030 --> 00:24:15.250
www.startuprad.io.

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