This Month in German Startups - June 2020

This Month in German Startups - June 2020Intro

Today we are going to talk about German startups, in the process of producing vaccines for Covid19, the potential accounting fraud at Wirecard, startups in Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne and Berlin, and the 110th Birthday of Konrad Zuse, the inventor of the modern-day computer.

Welcome to this month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City.

Reach out to usOur audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA Find the hosts here:Jörn “Joe” Menninger [email protected] / Twitter  / LinkedIn / Video Interview (2018)Christian “Chris” Fahrenbach [email protected] / Twitter / Homepage / Video Interview (2018)Patreon

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This recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/

 

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💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflDeezer http://bit.ly/2Qbh1rlTuneIn http://bit.ly/2M8vpznStitcher http://bit.ly/34xTANO💢 Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - VideoiTunes https://apple.co/2M8ZxKJThe Video Interview is set to go live on Thursday, June 25th 2020

https://youtu.be/xRNMoOSm28Y

 

The Audio Interview is set to go live on June 30th, 2020

The Audio Podcast will be published next week. Subscribe to our podcasts here

 Housekeeping - Time to brag 

Now it is official, Startuprad.io passed several milestones. 

We reached more than 200.000 subscribers for our podcasts alone! 206.014 as of today! We count subscribers, who return at least once in 7 days to our RSS feed over 90 days.We managed to score more than 1.000 days in podcast charts (iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and Chartable), actually, we made 1.026 days so far. https://www.startuprad.io/blog/startuprad-io-ranked-now-in-33-countries-and-1-000-days-in-podcast-charts/We now scored with PR China, Croatia, and Singapore in three more countries and now we made it in 33 countries in their respective podcast charts. We are also a steady member of chartable.com’s science and tech podcast charts, for the US as well as globally. https://www.startuprad.io/blog/startuprad-io-ranked-now-in-33-countries-and-1-000-days-in-podcast-charts/

And again we have several interviews and blog posts for you. We will also have on July 1st our first live stream after corona. https://www.meetup.com/Startup-Couch-TV-Talks/events/271395382/

 Coronavirus / Covid19 80% of Berlin-based startups see their very existence threatened by the coronavirus https://buff.ly/2UYMi3P CureVac is the first German biotech to receive a direct investment from the German government, an astonishing 300 mn Euros. The reason behind this is the Trump administration. You can learn in our blogpost how the story unfolded https://www.startuprad.io/blog/germanys-hope-for-coronavirus-vaccine-and-how-they-got-a-300-mn-euros-government-investment/Mainz-based BioNTech (we talk about them frequently) is the first company in Germany to start human trials for a Coronavirus vaccine: https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer_and_biontech_dose_first_participants_in_the_u_s_as_part_of_global_covid_19_mrna_vaccine_development_program  Wirecard - This month’s top news in GermanyIntro

Wirecard is a company processing payments. The company works as an intermediary and guarantor between buyers and sellers and takes a commission on all transactions. They have about 5,000 employees and actually replaced Commerzbank (we will talk about them later) in DAX 30 (Germany's equivalent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average 30). They are the first “fintech” to achieve this.

The big problem now is that there are accounts missing, which should hold 1.9 bn Euros in cash. So these 1.9 billion are in their balance sheets, but they probably basically don’t exist. Let’s back up a bit, though.

Find all the details in our dedicated Podcast recording (Audio, Video, and Blogpost):

https://www.startuprad.io/blog/news-wrap-up-developing-wirecard-story/

Ecosystem VC investments have declined by 20 percent worldwide due to the Corona crisis shows the latest report by Startup Genome https://buff.ly/3eoTdus There are approximately 900 fintech startups in Germany, of which almost 35% are headquartered in Berlin. No 2 are Hamburg and Frankfurt with 10.6% of the fintechs https://buff.ly/3egGH0v Ridepooling services are not looking good in Germany and the #coronavirus does not help. With a few exceptions no service provider generates profits and many backers may reconsider after the crisis https://buff.ly/3dopX6a  Startup Hubs#FrankfurtCommerzbank is not really known across Germany as a big fintech investor. But this story tells how they invested in Marqeta via CommerzVentures. They invested in a 25 mn US$ round and now own (yes, there is some guesswork involved) approx. 3.5% of the company, now valued at 4.3 bn US$ - which leads to their share being valued at approx. 150 mn. This assumes CommerzVentures did not sell any shares in the meantime https://buff.ly/3dvn7gwBryter, a software toolbox - with locations in #Frankfurt, #Berlin, and #London raises 14 min Euros #VentureCapital https://buff.ly/2MrmN6m Wingcopter Awarded as Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum - sUAS News - The Business of Drones https://buff.ly/2Azw8Hi #AachenAachen-based UZE Mobility nabs €7.2 million for its responsive vehicle adtech https://buff.ly/2Y2SE2C #MunichWe have a new unicorn: German Flying Taxi Startup Joins Unicorn Club With New Funding https://buff.ly/2YiD1Et#CologneFord-owned Spin scooters head to Europe, starting with Germany with Cologne, Essen, and Dortmund – TechCrunch https://buff.ly/3dS2PxN

 

Companies Researchers find exposed data on millions of users of #Berlin-based quiz app, TVSmiles – TechCrunch https://buff.ly/36ZotgX Klarna partners with Raisin to open savings accounts in Germany https://buff.ly/2BWujEyYou can learn more about raising in our interview with its founder: https://www.startuprad.io/interviews/raisin-financial-crises-inspired-former-partner-large-consultancy-jump-ship-found-startup/Former Rocket Internet Managers start 468 Capital, a 170 mn Euros #deeptech #VentureCapital fund https://buff.ly/3d9zSMAThere is still life in the German-speaking startup scene. Proof here the #VentureCapital investments (in chronological order)Homeday raises €40 million from Axel Springer and others for its hybrid real estate brokerage service - @tech_eu https://buff.ly/3hxYfXHBerlin-based Contentful secures €71.3M funding to accelerate expansion; ropes in new CMO | @SiliconCanals https://buff.ly/3dc2k0l 83North, Microsoft|s M12 and Next47, Paua Ventures, EQT Ventures and Atlantic Labs invest 26 million Euro #VentureCapital in Wandelbots, a startup which has a tool to code for industrial robots https://buff.ly/3htkkXD #manufacturing #Germany #startups Berlin-based #fintech scale-up @smava secures €57 million in financing to maintain growth through economic downturn - @tech_eu https://buff.ly/36D3m47 German #Healthcare #Jobs Startup Medwing Wins $30m Series B Round — Red Herring https://buff.ly/2AinHPWSwiss SME Lending Startup Teylor Closes CHF 8 Million Funding / Expands to Germany https://buff.ly/30rMbBbSennder, a #Berlin-based logistics company, has acquired French rival Everoad to create one of the largest digital platforms for road shipments in Europe. https://buff.ly/3cJZpMd Vivid Money: How this new German #mobile #banking startup plans to challenge fintech moguls | @SiliconCanals https://buff.ly/37HGX62

 

Happy 110th Birthday to Konrad Zuse

Konrad Zuse was born on June 22nd, 1910. His greatest achievement was the world's first programmable computer; the functional program-controlled Turing-complete Z3 became operational in May 1941. His company built more than 250 computers between 1949 to 1967 in Hessen. It was sold to Siemens in 1967.

Zuse died on 18 December 1995 in Hünfeld, Hesse (near Fulda) from heart failure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse

 

See you in September! We will be back with "This Month in German Startups"
with a summer news wrap-up end of September 2020. Enjoy your summer! Stay Ahead of the CurveSoftBank Invested in Credit Suisse Funds Financing Its Bets: FT https://buff.ly/2YzDi6jPeloton is having a moment. So are its competitors https://buff.ly/2ChQzsw