This Month in German Startups-February 2021
Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io-in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main.
Today we are wrapping up February 2021 for you. There is great news in the German startup scene, the much anticipated Auto1 IPO generated two new tech billionaires, Europe's first Tech SPAC lists in Frankfurt, more Wirecard details, we talk about Trade Republic and Gamestop , as well as the billion exit of Berlin-based AdJust.
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Affiliated Links
Why not learn from entrepreneurs and executives who are open to share their favorite books. We skimmed through some recommendations and that is what we found.
Recommended by: Bill Gates
“Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker” https://amzn.to/2XAENlB
Recommended by: Jeff Bezos
“Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras” https://amzn.to/2RGKGKe
Recommended by: Elon Musk
“Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel” https://amzn.to/2REbHhw
Recommended by: Tony Hsieh
“Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan” https://amzn.to/34KgraQ
Recommended by: Warren Buffet
“Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street by John Brooks” https://amzn.to/2K92z06
Recommended by: Tim Cook
“Competing Against Time by George Stalk and Thomas Hout” https://amzn.to/3cjMMYn
Housekeeping - Time to brag
Stay safe everyone!
In the meantime you can tune in to our internet radio station, the worlds first 24/7 dedicated to startups and tech companies! https://s2.radio.co/sb16d65602/listen - We will soon be available on many platforms, for now:
https://raddio.net/373202-startupradio/
https://radio.streamitter.com/station/startupradio-89HNV
Top News
We have two new tech billionairesThe IPO of Auto1 went spectacularly well and skyrocketed on the first day of trading on February 4th, surging 45%. We took a look at the data and realized that this was the first tech IPO in a long time that generated new tech billionaires in Germany.
Bloomberg: SoftBank-Backed Auto1 Soars in Debut After $2.2 Billion IPO https://buff.ly/2YLTm5j
Reuters: UPDATE 2-AUTO1 shares go into top gear in Frankfurt debut https://buff.ly/3pLaOSm
Read more in our blogpost here: At recording this Auto1 IPO turns founders into billionaires https://buff.ly/3oY45EA
Related: The story from the side of one of their first investors: How VC fund DN Capital invested in car marketplace Auto1 8 years ago and landed an $8 billion IPO winner https://buff.ly/3abVPMO
N26
German regulator, stung by past failings, extends oversight of N26 - sources https://buff.ly/2Ymp88F
German mobile bank N26 is thinking of making its first acquisition https://buff.ly/3ckRpVq
Trade Republic, Reddit and GameStop
Berlin-based SolarisBank needed four years to get to 400k customers, but the next 600k came within half a year says their chief commercial officer Jörg Diewald, many of them have to be attributed to Trade Republic https://buff.ly/3oEKLMc
Our take on this topic: https://www.startuprad.io/berlin/gamestop-reddit-and-fintech-trade-republic/
Note: There will be a follow-up on yet another blog post from our side, with hearings of Roaring Kitten and profits for hedge funds.
We're nothing like Robinhood, says Berlin-based broker Trade Republic | Sifted https://buff.ly/3bAqNOq
iCar
Porsche's Cayenne Boss Dr. Manfred Harrer (48) is hired by Apple. He was rumored to be one of the best engineers in the company.
Is the iCar around the corner? https://buff.ly/36x2SNM
Game over for Mapify?
Founders of Berlin-based traveltech Mapify “the Instagram of travel" give up "evaluating options." Their current investors include Lakestar and Atlantic Labs https://buff.ly/39BbzZp (We will come back to Lakestar, keep them in mind).
AdJust Exit for 1.2 bn US$ (990 m Euro)
AppLovin buys Berlin-based mobile marketing company AdJust and pays 1,2 bn US$ https://buff.ly/3pQCm9P according to Deutsche Startups, who published the price
Related: Apploving said to acquire Berlin-based Adjust in a 1 bn $ deal https://buff.ly/2NVhrV2
Wirecard
We keep you updated, just a small selection of news here.
Keep in mind there is still an investigative committee ongoing.
Deutsche Bank fires supervisory board member Schütz over email correspondence with Wirecard CEO Braun https://buff.ly/3tGjs7Q
German finance oversight BaFin places one employee on leave due to internal investigations in trading in Wirecard shares before the scandal became public https://buff.ly/2YywIgG
Germany's highest court ruled that EY auditors have no right to refuse to give evidence, now the parliamentary committee will invite the auditors and EYs CEO for Germany https://buff.ly/3s01zzi The Digital Euro
ECB keeps working on digital Euro. Italien central banker said the ECB is looking at the digital Euro for their instant payment system "Target Instant Payment Settlement TIPS" as a first step https://buff.ly/3ji4xMJ
The Audio Interview
You can subscribe to our podcasts here
Ecosystem
Why we need to start looking at Europe as one tech ecosystem https://buff.ly/3cdZWJU
It's IPO time! Here are 30+ European tech companies most likely to go public this year great list by Tech_eu https://buff.ly/39lB3de
including German startups Auto1, SUSE, Mister Spex, About You and N26
What U.S. Startups Get Wrong About Expanding into Europe https://buff.ly/3rIR5EA
Iconiq Capital, the US investment firm backed by Silicon Valley elites like Mark Zuckerberg, is expanding to Europe https://buff.ly/3anUdj4
Hubs
Note: The order of news and cities is only due to the time when we discovered the news.
HeidelbergAleph Alpha, Heidelberg-based AI startup raises 5.3 m Euros (6.4 m US$) from investors LEA Partners and #Berlin-based 468 Capital https://buff.ly/2YhD0kL
Frankfurt
Startups in the Area around Frankfurt, called Rhine-Main raised more than 1 bn Euros in 2020 our research shows (1.12 bn US$): https://rhinemainvc.medium.com/looking-back-at-the-corona-year-4a8e8806e4cf
Lakestar SPAC I: First tech-focused SPAC in Europe successfully launches on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange https://buff.ly/3aGFQXn
We talked to one of the founders of Frankfurt-based Iconic Lab, which wants to be the largest crypto asset manager in Europe: https://buff.ly/3dBR94V
Münster
The founders of beverage delivery startup Flaschenpost just sold their company to German food giant Oetker, now they invest in an HRtech startup from Münster - Echometer, which better enables agile work https://buff.ly/2YfmTUO
Tübingen
Germany #BioTech #startup Curevac, which listed on NASDAQ in summer 2020 - working on a corona vaccination - is planning to raise additional capital, which could amount to 600 m US$ https://buff.ly/3t1PkDS
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf-based SME financing platform Compeon closes 15 m € Series C #VentureCapital funding with government-backed NRW Bank joining previous investors including Quatar Development Bank https://buff.ly/39tdJu7
Munich
Egym receives 28 m € #VentureCapital for the production of connected gym equipment. In spring 2020 they had to let go 100 of 450 employees https://buff.ly/2O3hmyP
Austria
Australian Unicorn Canva buys Vienna-based Kaleido AI. Kaleido offers a service where one can automatically cut the picture of a human out of the background https://buff.ly/3aIohVL
Austrian crypto startup "Startup Hero" issuer of the Herocoin gets acquired by international gambling group Novomatic, also from Austria https://buff.ly/3d695nY
Switzerland
Swiss listed travel portal HolidayCheck raises 47 m Euro by selling new shares https://buff.ly/2Z5td1z
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein-based VC MIG gets 340 m € payout from their investment in Mainz-based BioNTech https://buff.ly/3jjsHq3
Companies
Fintech and CryptocurrenciesMastercard to open up network to select cryptocurrencies https://buff.ly/3d0AzLM, but not the ones you may think
Mastercard will support cryptocurrencies—but not the ones you think https://buff.ly/3p9MTvD
Finleap was once a fintech company builder in #Berlin with 80 employees at peak. Now there are around 20 left to manage existing investments and there may be 20 more work on innovations for corporates in the future https://buff.ly/3u1BrWE
Here’s why the former Global Head of Google Payment, former COO of Venmo have backed the €20M Seed round of this fintech https://buff.ly/2M9YoWs
Funding News (a very tiny collection, of what we see)
Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date here.
Berlin-based #traveltech Getyourguide fills war chest with additional 80m € loan, after a convertible of more than 100 mn € last year, looking for targets https://buff.ly/3s8x5LP
Autonomous driving startup Recogni, with locations in San Jose and Munich, gets two new investors Bosch and Continental are investing together, this is new for German OEMs https://buff.ly/3k62Q52New VC Funds
#Dublin and #London-based #VC firm Frontline has raised its third seed fund of €70m to invest in #B2B #startups across #Europe looking to take on the US. https://buff.ly/3tGEGmm
Eurazeo gets €340 million in additional commitments to its growth strategy - tech.eu https://buff.ly/2YOrqxO
TCV Captial raised 4 bn US$ #VentureCapital fund, aiming for German #startups https://buff.ly/36nPBHw The VC's past investments include Netflix and Airbnb
SPACs will be here pretty soon!
Lakestar plans to raise 200-300 m Euros for a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) to be listed on a German stock exchange https://buff.ly/2MI3w47 - Listing already happened by now ⇒ Frankfurt News
Rocket Internet plans to list a SPAC in New York, with a volume of more than 100 mn Euros https://buff.ly/3a2vT6b
Technology SPAC Rocket Internet Growth Opportunities files for a $250 million IPO at #NYSE - backed by #Berlin-based #RocketInternet https://buff.ly/2LGkeRp
More exits
Kinnevik, once an important and trusted Rocket Internet investor now wants to sell all Zalando shares worth 5,5 bn € (6.6 bn US$) https://buff.ly/2Zt6o89
Shell buys Berlin-based electric car charging firm ubitricity https://buff.ly/3pZWd6A
Not a direct exit, but preparing for some:
Berlin Brands Group commits $302M to acquire D2C and Amazon merchants – TechCrunch https://buff.ly/3t7hc9o
Berlin-based startup Branded raises 123,5 m Euros (150 m US$) to buy up Amazon Shops https://buff.ly/3jyi7LW
German home appliance company Miele buys majority stake in #Berlin-based Kptncook, in which they have already been an investor. Kptncook offers recipes in their app https://buff.ly/3a57j4F All Other News
MDAX listed tech company Teamviewer want to grow their revenue in the next two years to 1 bn Euros https://buff.ly/3jCfzws
Home24: Growth slows from +54% in Q3 to +50% in Q4 read more here: https://buff.ly/3tM6upb
The 1st Unicorn by #German #investor Carsten Maschmeyer in the USA / Startup "Modern Health" with 1.17 ... https://buff.ly/3dbD6TH
Germany based HDI insurance (a subsidiary of Hannover Re) wants to invest more in startups - especially #cybersecurity https://buff.ly/2Nzjiyw
Zalando interested in buying beauty platform Flaconi to add to their second foray in beauty https://buff.ly/3u5WPdi
Quandoo, the #Berlin-based platform for table reservations axes 20% of their workforce https://buff.ly/3pDnrjq
Stay ahead of the curve
Venture Capital and Private Equity Funds trends for 2021 https://buff.ly/3bdMIKW
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