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Welcome

Welcome to our summer 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.

This time we wrap up September 2023. There have been a lot of news sad (insolvencies, final closures, …), but also good ones (expansions, fundings, …) that we just had to make a selection in order not to bore you to death.

Our startup news is recorded with Chris live in New York City and Joe in Frankfurt. The recording date is September 26th and all news not included will be in our next news to be released on October 26th.



Our Highlights:

We track close to 500 mn Euros in newly announced investments in GSA. We have the first defense tech unicorn in Berlin and a lot of great news from Greentech startups in Germany. Some proptechs are not doing well, but not all startups associated with construction are performing poorly, as shown by the fundraising from Schüttfix. Long-distance trucking gets more autonomous with FERNRIDE and some bank news: Deutsche Bank uses Swiss DLT startup Taurus' technology and we learn more about JP Morgan's retail offering in Germany. Unicorn Flix already hired banks for their IPO in H1 next year. We also keep you updated on the bank holidays in Germany in the next weeks.

Let's talk startups:



Find all links and show notes here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-september-2023-startuprad-io-e-397-40c9c7b5fa2c

This is the one-year anniversary episode of our cooperation with DEEP Ecosystems in our Sub-Podcast European Startup Pulse. In this episode of Startuprad.io, host Jörn “Joe” Menninger and guest Thomas Kösters discuss recent developments in the European startup scene. They explore the growing preference of founders to stay in Europe and the prominence of certain European cities, such as Malaga and Lisbon, in attracting startups. They delve into the challenges of building a startup hub brand, the underrepresentation of female founders, and the importance of founder mobility in the European ecosystem. The episode also analyzes the impact of startups on regional development and debates whether startups can solve societal challenges like climate change.

In episode 395 of Startuprad.io, host Jörn "Joe" Menninger interviews Fridtjof Detzner, Winner of the German Startup Awards 2023: Investor of the Year. Fridtjof discusses his journey from founding Jimdo, a website builder, to becoming a green tech venture capitalist. He shares his passion for simplifying complex problems and making technology accessible. Fridtjof also talks about his experience filming a documentary series and how it led him to focus on sustainability issues. The episode explores Fridtjof's entrepreneurial journey and his transition to investing in green tech startups.

Like what you hear? You can tip us here: https://startupradio.captivate.fm/support

Find all blog posts with all the links on our blog https://medium.com/startuprad-io

Executive Summary
In this episode of Startuprad.io, host Jörn "Joe" Menninger interviews Maximilian Wühr, the CEO of FINN Auto. Maximilian shares his motivation for starting Finn, which stemmed from a frustrating car-buying experience in the San Francisco/Bay Area. He discusses the fundraising process and emphasizes the importance of being persistent and solving a problem. Maximilian also highlights the differences between the US and German markets, particularly in terms of product-market fit and logistics. He shares his journey from finance to startups and discusses the advisory board experience. Maximilian concludes by sharing his vision for Finn's future, including the possibility of going public.

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Welcome to our summer 2023 wrap-up with vital news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in around 30 minutes sometimes less 🙂.

This time we wrap up July and August. We came up with the summer news because the September news has always been very long, overcrowded, and covered 3 months. That was a bit too much of a break and too much news in one piece. So we looked to wrap up summer and since the US is an important market and Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer it seems like a good fit.

This summer has been a bit different and there has been a lot of news, so we focus more on the most recent ones and we have cut a lot of news here.

For everybody in the US who celebrates it: Happy Labor Day!

Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-summer-2023-july-august-episode-fdb709d89fbd





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Our Highlights:Binance has not - yet - gotten permission to operate in Germany from BaFin, Nextwind raises 750 m US$, Bitpanda surpasses 1 M customers in Germany and Germany sets a new record in new founders. We also shared that SAP wants to invest in Aleph Alpha, they confirmed this and two more.

Germany's law for legalizing cannabis falls short of the expectations of cannabis entrepreneurs. Europe dominates climate fintech funding and the overall fintech funding shows a sign of life. Bafin also stopped mini VC investments - trashing the business model of some fintechs - AND we found newly closed VC funds in excess of 2.8 bn US$ that are open to European founders.





Our Enablers This recording is supported by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen

Look for our dedicated sub-podcast in partnership with them: Tech Startups Germany on our https://linktr.ee/startupradio





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Top News Du kommst hier ned rein 🙂 Is the usual saying in Frankfurt if a Bouncer won't let you in a ClubFintech blog Finance Forward reports German finance oversight BaFin signals no license for Binance for Germany. So they can neither advertise nor expand in Germany. To be clear, this is not a final NO, but rather a "Binance keeps trying, but BaFin signaled a No"





750 M US$ for Wind EnergyWind Energy in Germany: StartUp Nextwind raises 750 M US$ Venture Capital investors include Sandbrook Capital, Canadian funds Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), and Imco





Bitpanda - The Austrian UnicornSurpasses 1 million customers in Germany alone https://buff.ly/44mMyKP it is not sure how many of them are really active, but that is always a tough question, even for the startups. But the question is important since one only makes money with active users.





Germany Sets a New Record in FoundersDespite the current economic situation, Germany has the highest share of founders in 24 years!!! According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Germany had a larger than 9% founder quota, meaning people from 18–64 who (co) founded a new business within the last 3,5 years (Young...

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Executive SummaryIn this episode of Startuprad.io, host Joe Menninger interviews Max Koziolek, co-founder of Spectrm. They discuss the importance of making strategic decisions and pivoting in business, sharing insights from Spectrm's journey. They explore the challenges of seed-stage investments, the benefits of messaging apps for brands, and the impact of AI technology in their industry. Max shares his experiences in politics and media, highlighting the need for quality content distribution. The episode also delves into Spectrm's successful pivot to targeting brands and their impressive growth from pre-seed to series B, acquiring as pivoted startup clients like Zalando, UberEats, Premier Leauge, HelloFresh, Deichman, Breitling or Ford.





The FounderMax, the guest on this episode of Startuprad.io, is a co-founder of Spectrm, a company that leverages AI-powered messaging to help brands connect with their customers more effectively. With a background in law and politics, Fabian brings a unique perspective to the startup world. He shares his experience of campaigning for public office, competing against Frank Walter Steinmeier. At the time the reigning foreign minister of Germany, now Germany’s president. He also shares his story of pivoting his company and the challenges they faced in finding their niche in the market, that was large enough to survive and how to communicate this to their investors. Fabian's determination and strategic thinking allowed Spectrm to not only survive but thrive, securing partnerships with major publishers and leading brands. His passion for AI technology and its potential for the future is evident in his vision for Spectrm's continued growth and success.





The StartupSpectrm (https://spectrm.io/), is a Potsdam - Berlin Area-based startup, co-founded by Max Koziolek. It has made significant strides in the field of AI-powered messaging for brands. The company has successfully raised multiple rounds of funding, starting from a pre-seed stage all the way to a series B round. This demonstrates the confidence investors have in Spectrm's innovative approach and their potential for growth.





What sets Spectrm apart is not only their ability to help brands effectively engage, but also to pivot. They started out as a tool for sharing great journalism and realized that their market was not big enough. We take the journey with them to evaluate new options, and communicate the pivot to their investors and how to get them to agree.





Max also shares his experience with their customers by leveraging messaging apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, and more. With a specific focus on solving the problem of reaching audiences, Spectrm's platform enables brands to have meaningful conversations with their customers, ultimately driving conversions and revenue. Their impressive client portfolio includes renowned publishers such as CNN, Financial Times, and Business Insider, highlighting the trust and confidence their...