Welcome to StartupRad.io.
Your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German start
startup scene with news, interviews, and
live events.
Welcome to our regular startup news from the startup and tech entrepreneurship
scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Our startup news
is recorded, today with me,
Chris, in New York City. And I have to say, I don't fully know why
in our script I am talking about myself first.
But joining me is, Joe in
Frankfurt. Hey, Joe. How are you? I'm doing good. And, Chris, you know
why you're first in the script? Because today I wrote it.
Yeah. As if I wrote as if there were other days when I write it
then. Today's news cutoff date
is
02/24/2025.
As always, all news not included will be in our next news wrap up.
We needed to cut our news seriously short this time so you can
have a brief news overview. And without further ado, that means
that you're gonna guide us through some of the highlights
of this month. Yes. As our audience already knows,
we are aggregating the news from all the social media
shares we do during the course of the month. Usually, I'm going through
something like 15 to 20 pages, in terms of
startup news. But this month, we had
59 pages of startup news. Of course, some of
them, the same news from multiple sources, but nonetheless, that
was really a lot. So we had to cut it really seriously.
Talking about our highlights here, the DACH startup ecosystem is buzzing
with activity from major funding rounds to political
changes that could reshape the landscape. German
German auto tech, Finn, the the the startup
renting out, cars as a car subscription model,
reached 1,000,000,000 in
funding commitments signaling a major shift in German startup
scene. Meanwhile, Solaris secured a substantial
140,000,000 investment, fueling its growth
in the banking as a service sector. But we gotta
see that funding was basically,
a rescue for Solarisbank. The other option would be
to wind them down. This development highlights the continued
strength and potential of the DACH Region as a hub for
innovation and investments. However, challenges remain. Lilium,
the Munich based,
Iftol, Iftol, the drone
flying cars developer faced a second insolvency
raising questions about the viability of the industry.
Additionally, the recent German election brought a change in
government with CDU taking the lead. This shift could
have significant implication for startup policies and regulation,
creating both opportunities and uncertainty for entrepreneurs and
investors. Stay tuned to startuprate.0 for in-depth
analyzers and expert insights. And of course, we will
talk with Chris about the startup news and the startup elections
here because he is one of the person,
he is one of the people who actually keeps Germany up to
date on US politics and also covers those
politics. Talking about the schedule here, we are shifting to
two publications a week. Let us know how you like it.
Chris, you wanna straight hop into the top news?
Yes. I want to. And,
I also don't know how it's pronounced, eVTOL
electrical vehicle takeoff and
landing. EVTOL.
God. Anyway Maybe they only have problem
because the industry had such a strange acronym. I still
prefer air taxis. Yes.
Yes. So, let's jump
in. You mentioned it already. The
company FIN, a company
that is working in the car subscription
services field, secured a $1,000,000,000
investment to expand its fleet. They are based in Munich, and they are
capitalizing on the shift from traditional car ownership to more
flexible, all inclusive subscriptions, hoping to cater to a
new generation of mostly, especially urban
drivers, and businesses looking for hassle free mobility
solutions. They hope that they
will be part of the general transformation of
the automotive industry, and, their growth strategy
positions them as one player there. Mobility as a
service is the buzzword there.
And so we will see whether they can bank in on what they
hope will be the future of car ownership. The
Berlin based Cherry Ventures is doubling down on the
future of AI and deep tech startups. They are getting a
$500,000,000 sorry. They are starting a
$500,000,000 investment fund,
that focuses on AI first businesses, robotics, and next
generation enterprise solutions. Want to they want to provide
early stage funding to, innovations. And
with venture capital tightening in some sectors, Cherry Ventures' commitment
signals a strong confidence in long term potential of deep tech investments,
hopefully creating Europe's next AI unicorn. And one
shouldn't forget that we had a very nice in-depth interview with the
CEO who led, Finn to this big funding. I
talked with him about, his automotive experience
and so on and so forth. And actually, he was driving at the time
he cofounded, Finn, he was driving,
an old Beetle, VW Beetle.
Well, maybe part of the fleet too. And then Lilium, I feel
as if we are talking about them every month right now.
Munich based, e v t o l, developer
has filed for insolvency for the second time, major setback
for the whole industry, raising questions about the viability of the business
model. Also, that is kind of the, yeah, the
debate we're having every every month or every other month about that
industry. Lilium's situation highlights the challenges in
developing and scaling aviation technologies,
long development cycles, regulatory hurdles, intense competition.
So we will see whether the industry actually can
weather their, challenges.
And if you're an investor, obviously, you need to carefully
assess the risks in that emerging sector.
And you also said it already, the German election, this is
this is very current news because
I think the last votes were counted less than twenty four hours ago.
My vote was not counted because my mail in ballot didn't arrive in
time here in The US. But Germany, has elected
a new parliament, most likely
leading to a new government led by
the Christian Democratic and Christian Democratic
Union, basically the center left party in Germany sorry,
the center right party in Germany, which will then
be a shift in power from the Scholz administration of the Social Democratic
Party. But the Social Democratic Party without the current chancellor
might be the junior partner in the coalition. That
change in leadership could have impact on startup policies, digitalization,
VC investment regulation. And, we'll have a
closer look at those new policies that are being drafted,
and we will see what it means also for taxation, maybe AI
investments, and incentives for businesses. Yes.
I want to get your impressions from that because, what most
people don't know if they are only listening to our podcast here, you are
actually, more active in politics,
covering politics than you are active in,
let's talk about startup and tech here, even though that are your
roots as a reporter. I I was I was wondering,
what was your perspective for that? We also may add to the
audience everybody who is able to speak German. There's a highly
recommended newsletter from you, KrautReporter, for which you also won
2019 the, prestigious Kremer Online Award.
Plus, you also do, a regular
podcast in Germany on US politics. So but here, I
want to pick a little bit of your brain on the German election. What
actually scared me a little bit that the right wing
AfD got over 20%. Yeah. That is that
is scary. Actually, the right wing party in Germany had the best result
for right wing extremists since 1945. So,
basically, since the beginning of the Federal Republic Of Germany after World War
two. But we always have to say
that as long as no other party, is willing to build a coalition
with them, they, they are not in governmental power. Now
the big question is whether the conservative party will
keep up their so called firewall and not
work together with them the way it looks like now,
is that this is the case. I mean, I guess my take is,
well, okay, that was a win that was expected. We see it everywhere around
the world that governments in power or the governments who were in power
during or right after the, COVID pandemic,
voted out of office. And, now he has a long
list of things to be done. He's not necessarily Friedrich Maerts,
I mean, with he, the, soon to be chancellor,
or the expected new chancellor of Germany. He has a very long list of
things to do. He basically has to lead Europe without
ever having been a secretary in
no state in Germany or, in the German
federal government. He has so far only been even though he's
relatively old, he's close to 70 years old. He
has so far only been a parliamentarian in the German parliament and in the
European parliament. So, the hope is that
he is able to become a
steady hand leading Europe in what seems to
be even more geopolitical turmoil
with the Trump administration who
like, which is really guessing or really changing
long term alliances right now. And we see
huge discussions about the question whether the post World
War two order is actually history. Mhmm.
So, yeah, very complex. By the way, everybody who's interested
in that, we are in the preparation, meaning me,
that we are we'll be blogging a little bit about the the results, what
we think about this, go through the election program of
the CDU and potential allies in a coalition,
what they think about tech and development and so on and so forth.
One should keep in mind that Friedrich
Mads has been working for international, law firms
like Mayer Brown and also BlackRock Germany. So he's a little bit
more on the business side. Hopefully, that will be good for the German
economy. Yeah. Chris, you
wanna talk ecosystem? I do.
Let's start this time around with some news about
the European ecosystem. So Bitcoin slams,
Bitcoin is how do we always explain it? The
German It's it's the largest digital
association in Europe. And they are, I
do I do believe, thousands of corporate they
do have thousands of corporate members here from Germany. There you go.
So Bitcoin slams the European Union's new online
marketplace regulations. So the question becomes with
tighter rules are actually a win for consumers or more of a burden
for sellers. We have a link to that
on the Bitcoin website.
France is investing a hundred billion dollars
in AI technology in order to compete globally in
that new market. There's also a European
AI Act, which tries to regulate that new
field, reshaping AI compliance
in Europe. And the
European Union is coming up with a startup and scale up
strategy that should be unveiled by
summer. Question there, will it help Europe to stay competitive
in the global tech race? More about that in the months to
come. And, a the
start up scene in Europe, in
general, demands a united AI strategy. Question is
there, will the EU support more homegrown AI players
or fall behind China and The US? Trendingtopics.
Eu has the, wrap up of
that discussion, what the European
startups want, and what kind of strategy they are looking
for. And, we have a list at TechEU
of the twenty twenty four unicorns
showing which European startups reached the ever so
coveted $1,000,000,000 valuation last year. For
Germany, it was only eGym. There
you go. But moving on to Germany, Speedinvest
warns of a liquidity crisis in,
the VC market. One of Europe's top VC
firms predicts that, we will be seeing one of
the biggest capital crunches in years. It's also on
trending topics dot e u. So, yeah, we will
see whether their rather grim prediction actually becomes true.
But, I mean, again, going back to what I said a bit earlier before, the
geopolit if you look at the geopolitical, landscape right
now, there is certainly reasons to be worried.
Jumping from Germany to Switzerland and the ecosystem there, Swiss
startups raised $2,400,000,000 in 2024.
Even though the market is tough there too, obviously, a lot
of money went into deep tech AI and life sciences.
They're also hoping to have their next unicorn
soon. More about that can be found in
vcmagatzin.de.
And, the university, the
engineering university in Zurich, ETH, ETH
Zurich, continues to launch high growth
start ups. They are experiencing quite the boom there there.
And, so that start up ticker.ch is
asking whether this is actually Europe's top tech incubator.
Moving on to some to the general news, tech news,
company news section. I have the honor to
highlight some of the, new funds and VC
news in case you are looking for money.
We are already we have already, talked about
Cherry Ventures and their $500,000,000 for DeepTech and AI in
Germany. Then there's the Khan Fund,
$51,000,000 fund targeting life
sciences and deep tech, also based in Germany. And
there's Hellantec VC the Hellantec VC
Fund, a hundred million dollars to fuel European
defense startups, also based in Germany.
Now industry news.
And back to you. Yes. Let's look a little bit
at biotech news. German ecology startups. Germany ranked number
three in EU for biotech innovation. They have more
than 200, cancer related,
startups here in Germany. Talking a little bit about fintech news,
Trade Republic under Baffin investigation for high yield savings
promotion. Finleap is struggling with multiple portfolio
company failures. Tesla crashes with
Baffin over financial compliance issues. Trade Republic
and N26 are now having real
duel here. They, one blog called it
the ultimate fintech showdown, which company is leading the race for
Europe's top neobank. Neobroker's customers are
unhappy. A new study shows high dissatisfaction with
neobank trading platform. What's going wrong? Trade
Republic is also under fire again for another
another ankle on their, high yield interest rate
promises. And we go to the general
news where Alep Alpha CEO says no one will
use DeepSeek R1 in twelve month. Is this a
hype or an AI revolution in the making? ADAC,
the German what is the equivalent like AAA in The
US? Yeah. I was gonna say AAA. Yeah. Yeah. New range test
for EVs, chargers, manufacturers. Which brands lives up to the
promises? Also Frankfurt Airport makes space for Uber.
Could this be signal shifting away from traditional taxis?
Frankfurt Airport, 1 of the busiest in Europe's year.
OpenAI opens a new office in Munich and Deutsche Classfauser,
one of the companies that is, that is providing
high speed. They disclosed that they need more than
€1,000,000,000 for this high speed
Internet. Chris, you wanna do some creative destruction as well?
Yeah. Sure. Let's talk about what did not work. More than a
hundred and startups failed in 2024. Deutsche startups
has a list of them. Mostly a lot
of them actually did not make it through the winter, actually,
wiping out a lot of the promising ventures there. Then
Spreadshirt lays off employees as ecommerce
shifts. Spreadshirt being really around for quite a long time
already now, and it's another sign of market correction for online
retail platforms in Germany. It's a place where you can customize,
gear, gear as in clothing.
Refurbed lays off 20% of its staff,
reflecting pressure on refurbished electronics. They are based
in Austria. And Heitzma
acquires the insolvent Neo Energy, showing
that the heat pump sector in Germany isn't also immune to turbulence
there,
which already leads us to
should we do mergers and acquisitions first? Because it
says end on a high note. Lease my bike joins Munich's
Green Mobility holding, another step towards sustainable
urban transport. Travelperk raises 200,000,000 in
series a for the acquisition of Yokoi.
Home2Go acquiring inter home to shape reshape
European vacation rentals. Merck in talks to
acquire US Cancer biotech firm SpringWorks.
Heitzmark acquires bankrupt Mio Energy signaling
sector consolidation. Chris, now you are
the highlight. You are the high note for the end. Yes. So I
end on a high note, with just a couple of the successful
fundraising and exits. Keep in mind that it's just a selection
that we come up with. This time around, we included only fundraisings
above €10,000,000, Swiss francs, or US dollars.
For example, Zolaakos, they got a hundred and €40,000,000
to strengthen embedded banking and fintech
infrastructure. Then the Kompanisto
backed start up raised €40,000,000 in series b
funding. Wondering
whether this will fuel more European status exits.
Avelius Medical raises €30,000,000
in a series a. They are working on AI
powered health care automation,
streamlining hospital workflows. MeteoMetix
from Switzerland could secure
$22,000,000 for their series c
funding already for AI powered weather forecasting.
Neurrocare secures
€19,300,000 to work
on mental health treatments, also AI driven
personalized therapy solutions there.
Genlogs raises
$14,600,000 in a series
a round to revolutionize logistics
with AI working on supply chains
there. Construct
€12,500,000 also to bring
AI, which is, like, apparently the buzzword of all of our fundraisings
and exits this month, to bring AI powered automation
to construction. So hoping that the construction
industry actually is also ripe for
disruption coming from the machines. But, Chris, you
remember there was also some time when we only talked about ecommerce, when we
talked about quick delivery, when we talked about,
yeah, air taxis and so on and so forth. So I
don't think it will crumble it will crumble like a
quick delivery hype, but but I do believe it's it's a little bit
overhyped AI right now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or at least, I
mean, it seems to be the one word that you have to include on all
your in all your pitch decks, apparently.
€10,000,000 for Ocell, o c e l
l. It's also another deep tech investment in Europe,
working on complex tech. Bioversus from
Switzerland is a biotech IPO that got money. And then
Felt. Energy secures funding from the FlixBus founders.
It's a Munich startup bringing AGRI PV
to farmers, clean energy without sacrificing the
crops. Chris, given that we went
through so much material in order to cut down for the
news. I think we're pretty happy to have it, down to twenty five minutes
here. Right? Honestly, that was like, drut.
Rattling. Drut. German engineering in the
podcast today. Awesome. Chris, as always, was a
pleasure talking to you. Looking forward to do the, next news
with you. Let me look on my wall calendar. They should also go live
on the March 27.
Sounds awesome. Bye. Bye, guys.
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