Welcome to Startupradio rad dot Joe,
your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German
StartupRadio with news, interviews, and
live events.
Welcome to our June 2024 wrap up with vital news from the
start up and tech entrepreneurship scenes in Germany, Austria, and
Switzerland in 30 minutes or less. Heavy
task today. But, our startup news is recorded
with me, Chris, in New York City, and Joe joining from
Frankfurt. Hello, Joe. Hey, guys.
Today's news cutoff date is June
25th. As always, all news not included will be,
happening in our next news wrap up, and we're gonna kick it off
with our highlights. And you go ahead. This
this month, roundup of the GSA DACH business and tax
orders, we've seen an array of significant movements
that are shaping the landscape. Czech 24 has arguably launched the
most ambitious marketing campaign of the year in Germany.
Some people even talk about German business history, distributing
5,000,000 free football jerseys from Puma, tapping into
the enthusiasm for the Euro cup, and contrasting sharply
with Adidas' official team gear. This initiative estimate
is estimated to have cost around €100,000,000
and has sparked a vibrant online discourse and driven app
downloads despite privacy concerns. In aviation,
Lilium is seeking €300,000,000 in government aid to
push forward its Lilium Jet. Keep in mind, Lilium
is listed on Nasdaq. The insurtech scene is also buzzing
with news of Wefox with an internal
strife could lead to a dramatic revaluation far
below it its previous 4,500,000,000
high. Meanwhile, clock, clock dot e is preparing for a
significant funding round under new leadership aiming to expand
its reach and profitability. And on a larger
scale, Amazon has announced an additional 10,000,000,000,
yes, b, billion investment in Germany targeting
cloud, data storage, and logistics, emphasizing the growing
importance of digital infrastructure in the region. As
the region's start up ecosystem continues to evolve rapidly,
fueled by substantial investments and strategic shifts.
In a significant leap for German tech innovation, DeepL
has now clinched the title of Germany's most valuable AI
Startupradio a staggering 2,000,000,000 US dollar
valuation, eclipsing Aleph Alpha following the
DeepL robust 300 million investment.
Meanwhile, Black Semiconductor is injecting a
hefty 254,400,000
into Europe's semiconductor industry with plans to establish
a state of the art pilot facility in
Aachen by 2026, Not to be outdone,
Cognigy Cognigy,
sorry, from Dusseldorf has garnered 100,000,000
US dollars to enhance AI driven customer service
automation supported by brands such as Lufthansa,
Toyota, and Mercedes Benz. Finally, in the mobility
sector, Flix is considering a shift in in strategy
with a potential private equity investment from EQT
that could see a later acquisition of
30%, possibly altering Flick's path to
a public offering. Chris, let's talk
StartupRadio. Joe, I mean, first off, we, for
those not watching us, we have to explain. We are
Hawaiian shirts. Yeah. And and if you're
watching this, it's your own fault. Yeah. Honestly.
My apologies. But it's, it's a segue
into us taking a summer break. We will be back with the summer
news wrap up on September 2nd. US
Labor Day also sometimes considered to be the, start
of election season even though, I mean, we said
it it's Tuesday 25th right now, and we are looking at the present
presidential debate in 2 days already. So we will see about this.
Nevertheless. For everybody who speaks German, we may hint that
you do have a podcast in German explaining US
politics. It's called of course, it's in German. It's
it's called which I usually listen to during my afternoon walk.
Chris, here you go. Well done. We're still not sure
about the number of publications we will have during the summer since
requests are piling up a bit on our desks. We would
assume every other week there might be some new content with the potential to have
even weekly publications. So it's promising to
be a really hot summer already. Yeah, and here in New York, we
already had our 1st day with more than a 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Also, Germany is forecasted to have
to reach 35 degrees Celsius. Next week,
Chris, how much is this in Fahrenheit? I assume a lot. Somewhere in the
nineties? Yeah. Joe, yes, 35 is
like nineties. Exactly. But since we are also always service
oriented here, I, as a European, always struggle with the stupid
conversion from Fahrenheit to, Celsius and back and to have any
sense of what any of the Fahrenheit numbers mean. But just
recently, I read you just have to think of Fahrenheit as percent.
So, 80 degrees Fahrenheit, 80%
weather. You know? Okay. That sounds good. I can wear short sleeves.
30% 30, degrees Fahrenheit, which is more or less
like 0 Celsius, is like, oh, this is chilly. This sucks. A
100 degrees Fahrenheit, you know, it's a 100% warm. It's too
much. Anything above a 100%, way too much. Impossible.
So this is the my new system. And just think of Fahrenheit as
percent, and you're all good. See, I just Googled it. Of
course, I did. 35 degrees Celsius or 95
degrees Fahrenheit for everybody who's newly listening to this.
Always, when Chris does have a siren in the background, he's off the
hook. If we don't hear any sirens in the background when he's recording from New
York, he owes me a bagel when I'm there next time. Bagels are
piling up. So, yeah, our video podcast will,
go live on June 27th, available 24 hours
before for channel members, who can't wait to see us in the
Hawaiian shirts. Audio podcast goes live on,
Thursday, June 27th as well. You can always tune in to
our Internet radio station, which more than a 100000
people did altogether over all platforms.
And we also have many media partners there including but not limited to Tech
EU and Stanford University Radio Show. Laptop
Radio you can find all this at www.
Startup.radio. You can get your content to your inbox
if you subscribe to Substack. And we as always, we have
all our channels at Linktree, linktrue.ee/startupradio,
Joe word. And we also have enablers
for this. This recording is supported by
HDIA and the enterprise Europe network, Hessen.
This recording was made possible by HKI, Hessen Trade and
Invest, and the enterprise Europe network Hessen. 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, start up companies can network and
develop innovative strategies for success on the international
stage. The dedicated support of HTI and the
enterprise Europe network Hessen, also e n Hessen, is
paramount in providing StartupRadio businesses with the tools for
lasting success. Look at our dedicated podcast in
partnership with them, tech startups Germany, or of course,
again, as we said, in the link tree.
Now dig a little bit into the top news. Right, Chris? Everybody's
talking about Euro cup here in Germany right now, especially,
since Germany has successfully moved out of the group phase as
number 1 in their group. But I do believe it wasn't the most difficult.
Neither Italy Joe Spain nor France nor Portugal. So it was
okay. Check 24 just accomplished the
biggest marketing campaign in Germany this year is a question.
Check 24 has made waves in its latest marketing
campaign distributing 5,000,000, yes, 1,000,000
free jerseys from Puma ahead of the European championship.
This bold move estimated to to have cost around €100,000,000
aims to tap into the football market and attract a younger audience.
The jerseys, which have flooded fan zones and social media, contrast
sharply with the official DFB, the German Football Association,
teams' jerseys made by Adidas. Czech
24 founder Heinrich Blaser sees this as long term
investment in the brand despite criticism from customer advocates
who warn about data privacy. The campaign has not only
boosted app downloads but also sparked discussions and Bemis
online. While some applaud the innovative approach,
others questions the true cost of the free jerseys.
What everybody has to see is also the the
background story that Puma and Adidas have been
founded by competing brothers. So this is just a
continuation of this fight. And I do believe a lot of people
at Adelas are currently pretty mad at, check 24
and, of course, Ooma.
Air taxis still in the news. Remember that we talked last news
about Vodacopter and their, Menninger their self imposed
deadline of flying during the Paris Olympics this summer and the failure to
secure more than 50 1,000,000 state guarantees.
Lilium is now in the headlines. The Bavarian
e v t o l, Ifto Ifto developer,
is seeking 300,000,000 in government aid to bridge
financing gaps for a Stellium jet. Meanwhile,
competitor Volocopter is also vying for funding. 1st manned flood
expected this year. Details in the link here in the show notes at
Handelsblad. Also, the news of Lilium come after
last month, we covered 150,000,000
funding. We've hinted this already in
our in our headlines. Wefox
suffers from internal power struggle with a potential
4 1,000,000,000, yes, 1,000,000,000 US dollar valuation
drop. There seems to be power struggle that wefox, as always,
the company as a whole is suffering. This is what we
know. According to several articles in the newspapers and blogs,
Mubadala, an important investor at Wefox, a sovereign wealth
fund, pushes for sale of, 2 UK's
Ardonga Ardonga valuing the Berlin based
IntriTech at only €550,000,000
far below the last valuation reported by TechCrunch to be €4,500,000,000
in May 2023. Other investors prefer
injecting fresh capital. Decision time looms.
The blog, Finance Forward, writes about the power struggle between the is
between the founders and the new CEO, Marc
Hartigan. They write the founders want to avoid him getting
elected for the board of directors. The blog,
Das Investment, the investment, wraps up neatly.
Mubadala Investment would profit from a sale. The valuation has dropped
considerably. Founders and some investors want a new
start because according to Bloomberg, the founders would end up
empty handed in a sale to AO and DACH. Mubadala
would profit most from a divestiture. The future depends on the
election of the new next supervisory board. And, of course, we
keep you updated. In a stark contrast, also in
the insurance insure tech space, Clark, Clark
dotde. Christopher Oster, we had him in 2 interviews and you
can look down here in the show notes the last video interview I had
with him in the 100,000,000 round, is
peacefully transitioning from his operational role at Clark to join the
supervisory board. His leadership has been pivotal,
and we're excited to see the impact he'll make in
his new role. Congrats, Christopher. There's a link to his personal
LinkedIn update. And you can learn more about
him along this journey with our 2 interviews with him
over time. Plus another article, InsureTech
StartupRadio Clark is gearing up for massive one
100,000,000 funding round under the new CEO,
Menninger Kaltier with plans
for expansion and increased profits. Clark is set to make
waves in the industry. More details, of course, as always in the
link. And the last top news and I'll hand it over to Chris.
After announcing €7,800,000,000 investment last
month, Amazon announced another €10,000,000,000
additional investment this month. They are focusing on
cloud storage in Rhein Main area and expanding its logistics network.
This brings the total investment in Germany to 70.8
€1,000,000,000 just announced this year alone. Joe, both
investments are focusing on building more or less their infrastructure in Germany.
And I hand it over to Chris who has important news about AI.
Yes. And a bit shorter,
top news here. In the AI world,
we see that DeepL is going to become,
Germany's most valuable AI StartupRadio surpassing Aleph Alpha.
Because DeepL got a $300,000,000 investment and now hit a
$2,000,000,000 valuation, they build their
reputation with, machine translation
and, actually holding their own against Google Translate and
JetGPT, I'd say. There's more than €250,000,000
for Black Semiconductor because they secured
€254,400,000 in a series a funding to
boost Europe's semiconductor industry. With
the money or in in terms of business business strategy, they are
set to open up a cutting edge pilot fill facility in Aachen
by 2026. And Cognigy
from Dusseldorf raises a $100,000,000 to supercharge AI
customer service, automation, or a Zeo Growth,
leads this series c funding round, which is supposed to fuel
research and development and Joe with expansion of the brand. Joe
far, clients include Lufthansa, Toyota, and Mercedes Benz.
We will see who else will join that
group. And Flix considers a private equity,
investment as you already said. There's big moves in mobility.
Investor EQT is in early talks to potentially acquire 30% stake
in Flix, powerhouse between FlixBus and Flix
Train, the company here in the US owning what used to be Greyhound,
and, which also could probably lead that
investment could also probably lead to a delayed
IPO. You can learn more in our interview
with Jochen Engert, who at that time was CEO at Flix, and there you
can get some background about the company.
I'm handing it over back to you to brag for a quick second, and
then I'm taking over again. Yeah. There's actually not a lot
to brag about. Our new website is online. You can register
there on the website to get alerts every time we post new content.
Note, not all blog posts are moved there yet. So that
means you may get a lot of,
alerts that we posted something just because we're migrating this. But
don't worry. Start registering in September. We'll remind you of this
again, And you will notice that we've already migrated more than 40
blog posts and are working hard on publishing more. If you're
looking, to partner with us, look no further. There is a
link to our Passionfruit storefront. Chris, you always seem to me like
a ecosystem guy. Yeah. Big picture
guy. So ecosystem news is,
the part of the show where we talk about everything
surrounding the StartupRadio scene that is affecting it. At first, we have
a look at the worldwide ecosystem where we see that
the meta verse and ARVR investments are cooling
off even though Apple obviously introduced with huge
fanfare the Vision Pro, which also now has a German release date,
it seems though that these seeds are losing interest to 2024
is on track for the lowest funding in years for these technologies. And,
I mean, even, even for the vision pro, I have
already read a couple of swan songs saying, okay. This is gonna
be, this is gonna go down the same way as
the Google Glasses. We will see.
Europe, European ecosystem. There are signs of recovery
for the European StartupRadio market market after a tough 2023.
IPOs and late stage funding are picking up. Early stage deals
are heating up with major funds like Creandum announcing a new €500,000,000
euro investment. We expect to see
more unicorns and start up exits in the near future. All of it
can be read in-depth at Siftit. And,
affecting the start up industry in Europe is also the,
discussion about chat control. And so far, there's no majority about that
in the European Union. The member states are unable to
agree on a position on chat control today. Council
presidency has removed the Joe from the agenda because
it did not have a sufficient majority.
So, the if you wanna know more about the chat
protocol and the, oversight that was planned, you can have a
look in the show notes with articles from netspolitik and privateinternetaccess.com.
And in the German ecosystem, we always take a short look at the
e for business climate index for Germany, in
which the, poll participants
given given insight in what they expect business how they expect business to
develop in the near future. And then we are
being communicated a point number,
a numb yeah, an index number. That index number dropped
to 88.6 in June from 89 point 3 in
May, Menninger, well, there might be some more
pessimism in the market growing. The
current situation assessment stayed unchanged though, and I
mean, it's still the same story as has been for a couple of months now,
maybe even years. The German economy struggles to overcome stagnation and
doesn't do, doesn't show as much of a dynamic growth as
other other countries do maybe, for example, the
US. The, which also leads us to,
specific numbers in terms of the economy, and,
we see a slight growth mostly boosted by construction and
exports. German GDP rose 0.2% in the
Q1. Private consumption remains a challenge,
though. So the question remains if,
customer spending can drive a further recovery in the future or
not. Moving on from the ecosystem to,
more specific news from several start up regions in
Germany, where, as always, we can tell you, well, there
are some hidden gems in cities of general start up interest. We're not looking at
everything. But, you have a quick
sentence about Frankfurt and then moving on to Dusseldorf. I
had thought when you talked about that, when
you think about the German economy growing by only 2 point
0.2% in a quarter, that is even
in a quarter more than a few small,
GDPs of small nations here in the world. So,
relatively speaking, we're not growing fast, but I think in absolute
terms, it would still be an impressive number. Yeah. Write in mind,
just keep in mind the news from clog.de and Dusseldorf.
Dusseldorf may not seem like a StartupRadio hub,
but it has all the right ingredients. AUX money's
CEO highlights the city's tech community, talent access, and
quality of living. Read more about them in the tech.eu
article. Chris, you wanna take over a little bit? Yeah. Looking
a bit at, the StartupRadio that are Austria and Switzerland.
In Austria, there was a scoop where about the EdTech unicorn
GoStudent, because it turned out that GoStudent
is behind the comparison site, and funneling
leads to their own tutoring services at GoStudent. So
the site is now being redesigned for better transparency,
and we got a full story about that in the show notes. Austria is also
set to launch 3 new business angel consortia, boosting
early stage StartupRadio investments with €10,000,000 from the start up invest
and, start up invest boosting scaling potentials
program. Exciting times ahead for Austrian start ups, we think. Looking at
Switzerland, FINMA has initiated bankruptcy proceedings
against Flobanca's aid due to insufficient
capital and overindebtedness. The
Swiss bank's license was revoked, and deposits up to a
100,000 Swiss francs will be repaid to clients.
Moving on to general news, tech news, and the company news section
where we zoom in even more and talk a bit about specific
developments in specific companies.
First off, though, let's talk a bit about new funds in case of you
are looking for money, which only also is a selection
Fabian, which, with offices including in Munich,
announces the first close of its bioeconomy fund 1
at €75,000,000 aiming for a 150,000,000 overall.
The fund will invest in innovative biotech companies
across food, agriculture, materials, and environmental
tech. Porsche and CICC launch a venture capital fund to
invest in Chinese automotive startups, collaboration that aims
to drive innovation and strengthen early stage investments in China's
dynamic market. More about that in the show notes Show notes.
Greentech News, you're Rian.
Yeah. We moved this out of the,
creative destruction. We didn't make it. Waldemar
Zayla announced the, the temporary end of
Zweihorn Energy despite 6 figure crowdfunding.
Changes included legal issues, market complexity, and customer
adoption barriers. Basically, he was doing a very annoying
all pink trash image
everywhere present advertisement for
potential solar installations on the balcony that should generate
energy and just didn't work out.
Moving on to the fintech news, only 1 in 5 fintech
founders would start again in Germany due to excessive
bureaucracy and insufficient venture capital. Fintechs wait 2 years for
buffer approval. The coalition's effort, receive a grade
of simply sufficient according to the,
survey of the German StartupRadio association. Other One's
Fintech subsidiary called Mobifin has officially
failed. A bit of shareholder dispute, sounds familiar,
and mismanagement led to its downfall despite initial
high hopes the project has turned into a €1,000,000
euro loss. Two news concerning trade republic. Number
1, they end their partnership with Solaris Bank in
Berlin, opting for established banks like Deutsche, JPMorgan,
HSBC, and Citi. The new broker now entrust customer
funds to these major banks. More links, of course, in the show
notes and trade Joe republics experience problems with
paying dividends for their, for shares
their shareholder their customers hold in their portfolio.
Sorry. They,
they, answer questions. Of course, link in the show
notes, and I think by now, they might have already
fixed that bug. Chris, you wanna do some general news?
Sure. And looking at, the time, I'm gonna just,
like, rattle it off. Northvolt's €2,000,000,000
deal with BMW has been canceled due to production delays.
It's the Swedish battery manufacturer, which is now also
reviewing its plant factory in Borlanger, Sweden.
More about that at Zifdet. Celonis, Germany's most
valuable startup, is reinventing itself as they say, despite
nearly 40% growth. Their IPO is delayed as they
revamp technology to harness AI advancements
better. They are expected to surpass $1,000,000,000
in revenue this year. After the big fireworks of
Gurkillas, which burned fast and bright, not all delivery
concepts seem to suffer. So we see that Flush and Paz, one of the few
survivors of the delivery boom, likely surpassed €500,000,000
in revenue in 2023 despite staff reductions.
OTCA expects a diff a significant growth in
2024. So maybe
FlashPost might also outpace rivals like Picnic and
Knuspa. We may add for our audience abroad that
OTCA is basically a large conglomerate of food
companies started originally by a a person with a family
named OTCA with, with ingredients for baking.
Yeah. A bit like, I would say, probably, like, general meals or something. Yeah.
I don't know. They're also in into muesli a lot.
But not all delivery, ideas do well. Berlin's pharmacy
delivery service, Mayd, m a y d, has
filed for insolvency. Once operating in 70 cities, they face
financial struggles and competition. The app already
experienced outrage outrageous outages.
The exploration company from Munich receives order from the
European Space Agency to build a space capsule in order to
deliver freight to the ISS. Peugeot
partners with German StartupRadio, v a y, to
revolutionize delivery services with teledriving technology,
aiming to make autonomous vehicles obsolete.
The we got big news for Uber. One's a fierce competitor
is now expanding its partnership with German taxi providers. So
the Uber app is now available to all taxi operators across
Germany, and the German military army, the German
army, Bundeswehr, is exploring new drone defense solutions and Startupradio
Titan Technologies may have what it needs, a 3 d printed
AI equipped kamikatsu drone with speeds
up of up to 250 kilometers per hour.
It apparently is able to take down larger
drones. More about that in. Let's talk
a bit about creative destruction. Creative
destruction. Of course. As always, does creative destruction.
And I have to tell you, Chris, this is getting shorter and shorter, and the
fundraisers are getting longer and longer. I think we turn the corner
here. Berlin based, known for personalized
accessories, declares insolvency. Munich 3 d lidar
tech company, Plickveld, is insolvent. Founded in
2017, it raised over €42,500,000
but faced financial hurdles. 2022 revenue was
€1,900,000 with loss of 12,600,000. Woah. That's
staggering. They raised their last funding in
2023. And, of course, you can learn more in the show notes. And
Austria, Vienna based start up Spoon, formerly Tolstoy,
known for its AI driven restaurant management software, files for
bankruptcy after selling its vegan restaurant division last
fall. Chris, you want to end on a high note?
Of course. So we are highlighting a couple of successful fundraising
and exits here. Keep in mind, it's a small selection.
It's just for us that the news here and the total value show how resilient
the start up scene is. We included, as always, only some select
fundraisings above €5,000,000 or $5,000,000.
This month, there were so many announcements that, as always, nearly.
So as you're saying, like, mood is picking up that
we could not include all funds raised. So a couple of highlights here. Yes.
A lot of money, but since biotech is not our main focus, the news ended
up down here. ITM from Garching raised a €188,000,000.
It's a Munich Munich based radiopharmaceutical
biotech and aims to advance precision therapeutics
for how to treat cancer tumors and to expand manufacturing
cap capabilities. ESA Aerospace
secures an additional 65,000,000 in funding, raising its
series c to €220,000,000.
It's backed by the NATO Innovation Fund and aims to
launch its spectrum rocket this year.
Also, I ESA Aerospace secures, in addition, an €85,000,000
80? €18,500,000 growth
lawn Loan? Good lord. They're
not, like, on the green lawn. An €18,500,000
growth loan to gear up for the rocket production. The investment
comes from California's Atell Ventures, and it will
fuel their mission to launch small to medium sized satellites to enhance
connectivity.
Empower 0. M power 0. Joe,
m power 0. I was
like, m accent circonflex
0. M to the power of 0, I think it's it's it's
yeah. $35,000,000 in a series
a funding. I guess most of it goes
to the person who named the company. The Zouk
based decentralized infrastructure layer for crypto dollar issue
issuance plans to expand operations and development. It's
led by Bain Capital. Recap raises $14,600,000
in the series a funding led by Entre Capital, financing
and data insights platform that will expand operations and
business reach in Germany and the Netherlands. Then more
AI news, DeepJudge, which is an AI driven legal search
startup, raised $10,700,000 in seed funding led
by Koju Kwaju.
Funds will support expansion and team growth to meet customer demands.
ARX Robotics secures
€9,000,000 and funding to to revolutionize
autonomous ground systems, also backed by the NATO Innovation
Funds and other investors. Joe they wanna boost
military and civilian applications with scalable
but modular robots. Restate
raises $7,000,000 in seed funding led by Redpoint
Ventures. It's founded by Apache Flink's Fling's cocreator
and aims at simplifying building distributed
applications with an innovative workflows as
code system. Atmio, a Hamburg based Startupradio, raises
€5,100,000 in seed funding in order to combat
Metan emissions. They are it's led by Notion Capital, and the round is
going to fuel product development and team expansions.
ETHRIS, Munich based biotech secured a
$5,000,000 funding from the Gates Foundation to advance
RNA therapeutics and vaccines. With this boost, they are able
to fast track ETH 47 and inhaled,
mRNA candidate for respiratory diseases. And
it's a small investment, but still knows Joe noteworthy
quick save for Compion. It's a it's a sort of based b to b
financial marketplace, voided insolvency
avoided insolvency, thanks to a swift investment from 2 shareholders that
injected €1,000,000. And that
came just weeks after the parent company, Doc Financial, went bankrupt.
We have some fundraisers from Switzerland. Neuraj concept raises $27,000,000
in series b, the Lausanne based 3 d deep learning
platform for product engineering and wants to accelerate global growth and meet
customer demand in Europe, Asia Pacific, and the US. And Swiss
blockchain firm, Liq, loses $22,000,000
in a major cyber attack. Despite the breach, the company assures customers
that their funds are safe and will be reimbursed. And fundraising
from as Austria from Africa. Fundraising from Austria
is a blank today. So this is a
wrap. We will be back on September 2nd. And,
actually, guys, if you want to have more, just let us know. If you want
to have less, let us know. But, actually, I have to admit,
doing more is simple. You just include more content, but
actually doing really, more paragraphs,
digging a little bit deeper into news is what we like. That's why the shop
news are getting a little bit bigger, and we go over the rest. I
agree. No news to stay ahead of the curve. In summer, just,
like, stay in the curve. That's our recommendation. As
always, it was a pleasure talking to you, wrapping up the news with you, and
we will be back together on September 2nd, Labor Day in
the US. Also, my birthday. Wonderful. Looking
forward. Thank you. Auf Wiedersehen. Bye bye.
Bye bye. Cheers. Cheers.
That's all, folks. Find more news, streams,
events, and interviews at www.startuprad.i0.
Remember, sharing is
Carrie.