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🌟 April 2024 Startup & Tech Wrap-Up 🌟 | Germany, Austria, Switzerland | Biotech Breakthroughs, Fintech Boom & Space Innovation 🚀

In just 30 minutes, get the latest on the hottest entrepreneurship news from the heart of Europe! From groundbreaking acquisitions to futuristic ventures, here's what you need to know:

🔬 Novo Nordisk's €1.025B Biotech Splash! Discover how Novo Nordisk's landmark acquisition of Cardior Pharmaceuticals is reshaping the biotech landscape.

🚁 Volocopter's €150M Boost! Despite challenges, Volocopter gets a significant funding injection for its flying taxi vision.

💡 Zolar Shines with €100M! Learn about Zolar's massive credit line and its innovative financing options.

💰 ELEMENT Scores €50M! Explore how ELEMENT is revolutionizing InsurTech with its latest funding round.

🏦 Berlin: Fintech Capital! Berlin solidifies its status as the Fintech Capital with 160 thriving startups.

🛰️ Mynaric's Space Laser Triumph! Witness Mynaric's milestone in global space development with the CONDOR Mk3.

Don't miss out on the latest tech and entrepreneurial breakthroughs! Watch now for all the details. #entrepreneurship #technews #startupscene #startupradio

Find all links and show notes here:

https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-march-april-bb97d8243696

Welcome to Startupradio rad dot Joe, your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German StartupRadio with news, interviews, and live events.

Hello, and welcome to Startupradio dot Joe episode 425. We welcome you to our April 2024 wrap up with vital news from the Startupradio tech entrepreneurship scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less. Let's hope so. Our Startupradio news today is recorded with me, Christian, today in Perugia, Italy. You can actually see a tiny bit here of my Airbnb, where I'm attending the International Journalism Festival. It's a place that this year has a huge emphasis on AI and media. So also quite interesting in terms of new Startupradio coming up in the media ecosystem. And, with you, Joe, as always in

Hey, guys. In Frankfurt.

Today, our recording date is April 19, 2024. All news not included will be in our next news, to be released on May 30th. So you see it's a bit of a bigger stretch there, but we had to record this episode a bit early due to our schedules. And also due to another thing because May in Germany is quite a spectacular May month for the Germans. And as we always aim to also give you insights about doing business with the Germans, May is gonna be a month where, some of the people that you're working with might just not show up at one day or another because there are many holidays in Germany and, holidays that people use as an opportunity to have a longer weekend. Sometimes 4 or 5 day weekends. So, if we have look, have a look at this, May 1st, for example, is a public holiday across most European states. It's International Workers' Day, so basically Labor Day, as well as spring festival in Germany.

So and since this year, it's on a Wednesday, People might take off Monday Tuesday as well or Thursday Friday as well, making it nearly like a week, long, off. And many people in Germany will go out dancing the night before called Tansen in May, dance into May. May 9th is Ascension Day, where we also celebrate the inofficially labeled Father's Day in Germany. That is on a Thursday, so people might take off the Friday, 10th, which I think is great anyway because, May 9th May 11th are the semifinal and the big final of the Eurovision Song Contest, which in my book should definitely be holidays, for I mean, basically, the world in my opinion. But, anyway, so if you're wondering, also the following Sunday is also Mother's Day in Germany. Then May 20th is a public holiday across Germany with Monday. May 30th is the day of our next news publication, so we're working on having that, become a national holiday so far. So good.

Sorry for the joke because it's also Corpus Christi. Again, also celebrated on a Thursday, meaning people might take off Friday. Well, and if right now you think, okay, how can I get, onto this calendar of days off? You might wanna double think because after this May extravaganza, the next public holiday is only going to be on Thursday, October 3rd, German day of reunification. So, in the whole summer, there's not much happening.

Plus, two two two data points, Chris, here. 1st, it's also again a Thursday Joe many people would take off Fridays. Plus, this year since we are doing our labor day summer wrap up again published to be on September 2nd, by the way my my birthday, we will have our September news this year published on this holiday, October 3rd.

There you go. Speaking, that's enough talk about taking days off. Let's jump right into today's episode. And let me give you a brief overview of what we will be talking about more in-depth, later on. So here are a couple of our highlights. Because in April 2024, we really saw that the German StartupRadio scene witnessed seismic shifts, groundbreaking achievements. Among the headlines were, for example, Novo Nordisk's acquisition of Cardio Pharmaceuticals, which basically stole the spotlight this month with a staggering 1.0, €25,000,000,000 deal, monumental milestone in biotech. Cardio Pharmaceuticals, spin off from the medical school in Hanover, pioneers RNA medications, for heart disease prevention, showcasing transformative power of innovative research here.

And obviously a market worth a lot of hope and potentially huge markets. Meanwhile, while Zolar illuminated the renewable energy landscape by securing a substantial €100,000,000 credit line from BNP Paribas, BNP Paribas, propelling their mission forward with Zola EasyPay financing options. Berlin solidified its status as kind of German's Fintech capital fighting over it for Frankfurt, I would say, boasting a 160 Fintech Startupradio, while Element surged ahead in the insure tech arena with a €50,000,000 euro funding round. Minerix Munich based team achieved a milestone by initiating volume production of the Condor MK Space Laser Terminal. We will talk a bit more about what that means. It's but, you can be sure it's a testament to German ingenuity driving global space development. And, these might not only redefine industry standards, but hopefully also underscore Germany's position as hub for innovation and entrepreneurial prowess as always. Stay tuned for more insights and revelation.

In the world of startups. The video podcast will go live on Thursday, April 25th, as will the audio podcast. You can subscribe to us on all the platforms that you know and follow already. We have it all in the show notes, obviously, too. You can tune in to our Internet radio station, which is being done by a staggering 170,000 people. So, and we where we have some media partners, including but not limited to tech tech.eu, Stanford University's Radio Show Laptop Radio. You can find all that at StartupRadio. So www.startup.radio.

You can get your content to our inbox. To your inbox, we have this all explained in our show notes. And, I hand over to you to for a little word from our sponsors and enablers.

Didn't we just declare last month that there's a seismic shift with the, with the big financing out there, and then solar comes along and has another 100,000,000. Man, that is going to be big numbers. By the way, we won't lose our touch with the software startups, but we will also, of course, include green startups and a little bit more biotech in the in the future. Our enablers lower cost of ISO 27,001 and SOC 2 compliance by up to 85% with our partner Vanta with a v. Achieve ISO 27,001 or SOC 2 compliance can unlock major growth for your company and build customer trust, but this process can be time intense and costly. Vanta automates compliance, getting you audit ready quickly and saving up to 85% of associated costs and Vanta's case with your business, helping you enter new markets. Join 7,000 global companies like Atlassian, Flow Health, and Quora that trust Vanta. Claim 20% off Vanta atvantavanta.comforward/startupradio.

Plus, this recording is supported by Hessen Trade and Invest and the Enterprise Europe Network. Chris, you always look like a top news guy to me, but I'll take a little bit of this this time. Okay? Because you you you had you had to talk a little so much about the public holidays here. As we already said, top news, the $1,000,000,000 exit. Big news in the biotech world. Novo Nordisk, acquires German Biotech Adior Pharmaceuticals for whopping 1,250,000,000 including so earn out conditions. The company is a spin spin off of medical school Hanover founded only in 2016, and they develop RNA medications to prevent heart diseases. And you can learn more with link in our show notes.

Volocopter wanted to have 300,000,000 from the German government, but now only get half of it 150,000,000 despite Menninger. Volker Wissing, the federal minister of transportation from FTP pledges 150,000,000 to support futuristic dream of flying taxis. Think like very big drones where you can step in. They originally wanted to have double the amount, the state of Baden Wurttemberg where they're headquartered back out of the deal, and Der Spiegel reported that auditors of PwC also warned mister Wissing. Read more about this ambitious venture here. And Volocopter's Menninger competitor, Lilium, by the way, gets no money at all. Volocopter needs the money to start production. They want to take off during, Paris Summer Olympic this year in July.

Let's see if that works. As we already said, solar secures 100,000,000 from BNP Paribas for their solution, solar easy pay. Solar, by the way, with a set like sorrow. You can learn more about the founder in an interview that did in the partner podcast started why published in December 2021. We'll also link this in the show notes. And as we always claim, you may have never heard of our guests in the past, but you will in the future. Held true again. Element, German insurtech white labeller secures 50,000,000 in latest funding.

They write founded just a few years ago in 2017. Element has quickly distinguished itself in the intertech arena operating under cloud based model. The company has earned a reputation for its innovative white label insurance product. Berlin remains the Fintech capital. Berlin remains the hub for German Fintech startups. The capital hosts 160 Fintech companies surpassing major cities like Frankfurt, Munich, and Hamburg. The scene continues to thrive with companies like n26 and Wefox leading the charge. Chris, you wanna take the last top news here?

Yeah. Definitely. And, also, I just wanted to add to the, Berlin as a Fintech capital. Little grain of salt. It comes from the Berlin, IBB, the, the study. So I've been probably a publisher or, basically, a company that has some vital interest in making Berlin sound good. So maybe not all is lost for your hometown Frankfurt.

It's actually the government backed. So of this city state of Berlin backed bank that helps with the economic development of the city. So yes, it's it, it, it may be very one-sided this research, but nonetheless, I think they tried their best to be as objective as possible.

Speaking of, I don't know, high hopes, maybe. Minarik, it's based in Munich, a company that says that they started volume production for the Condor MK 3 space laser terminal. They themselves wrote, hit a product maturity maturity milestone, by starting volume production for the Condor m k MK3, its flagship optical communications terminal. They began production for the terminal in early 2024 and completed the first shipment last week. The initial shipments will be part of the US Space Development Agency's SDA, Tran 1s, transport and tracking layer programs. Joe, Joe matter what comes out of it, I think it's still interesting to see that, German companies are getting into that field as well. I'll let you brag a bit.

Yeah. Just a tiny bit, here, Signal Hill Insights has highlighted the growing significance of podcast, particularly e to b ones as a strategic tool for reaching high level executive capable of influencing major corporate decisions. Not a surprise seeing our audience here. Mental high five to all the people out there. If you're looking to cooperate with us, there's a link to our passion fruit, storefront down here. Chris, I hand over to the ecosystem.

Yes. And the very first impulse here that we wanna give you, has to do with, bitcoin, which experienced quite a surge in the last couple of weeks months. And Bloomberg had an interesting article about that, where they said that also crypto VC creeps back towards a comeback. And they wrote crypto Startupradio are back after brutal year for cryptocurrency and blockchain related companies. Venture capital investment in the industry ticked up by nearly 1 third from the previous quarter according to new data. So that's probably some Startupradio that might be relevant for your business on a global level. If we take a closer look at Europe, we see, talent shortage in deep tech. We can't find a single German or European applicant, is a quote that we saw in the, in an article about the situation in the deep tech industry vertical, on Sifted.

You can find the full article in our show notes. Then March 2024 witnessed a shift in the fintech landscape as European StartupRadio navigated a 30% decrease in fundraising totaling €4,400,000,000 across 304 deals. You can dive into the details on a website called, or on a study on tech.eu. And we see the maturation of Munich. The Bavarian city has grown into a hub for more growth funds, international law firms, and big banks in recent years. Kind of moving from Europe to the German, topics here. But one last idea before that, mega rounds are making a comeback in Europe. We have more about that in the show notes as well.

But now focusing on Germany, where we see, one article that says big changes are ahead in Fintech as the German government proposes stricter rules for credit checks, potentially impacting business like karma karma, like Klarna, for example. The details about that are on a, in an article on finance forward backed by Capita, a German, business magazine. And since we are a bit early with our recording, we don't have a current I feel, E4 Business Climate Index. As you may remember, we usually take a little look about into this index which is basically a survey about business sentiment among German Menninger. But we don't have the current numbers yet, which makes us move on to hubs, and I hand it over back to you.

Yes. Again, hubs here starting again with Frankfurt Rheinmains. Scavenger AI just secured 1,100,000 in pre seed funding. This Frankfurt based AI StartupRadio is revolutionizing data analytics. You can learn more about the game changing technology in the link here in the show notes, which leads you to an article to fin SMEs. By the way, a good place we found in tracking fundings, speed, and efficiency are crucial in food delivery. Knuspa, an online supermarket, just automated its warehouse for the Rhinemann region offering a peek behind the scenes of online supermarkets. You can learn more about their approach in the article linking to FA Tech.

Then a FinnSMEs has been a little bit mistaken because they write Frankfurt, but, actually, it's Kaszruhe, Bayvest, a Frankfurt, Germany based b to b fintech closed 1,100,000. Funding round link in the show notes. Forschung Centrum Julich, meaning research center Julich and Elektron with a q, big q in the middle, team up to develop a modular quantum computer with €21,000,000 boost from the NRW, Nordheimers Pfal, one of Germany's states government. This partnership marks a significant milestone for the tech industry. Tristan. Tristan bet Whatron secures 12,000,000 in series b funding to revolutionize sustainable packing. Again, link in the show notes. In Aachen, Protenpis just closed 30,000,000 series b funding led by Segula Medical Acceleration Exchange Future and Tech Vision Fund.

You can read more about the innovative cardiovascular medical device in our show notes. And as always, I hand over to Chris and the Austrian top news. By the way, this time, we removed a lot of the funding rounds and moved them to the end of the funding. Well, again, Chris takes it over then.

Yeah. Taking a look at some of the companies in Austria, we, for example, saw news from the, Tyrolean savings at Monki. They just secured a 7 figure investment from new investors along with its existing ones. You can not only find an article about that in our show notes, but also you can find an interview with Monkeys founder for more insights, in our archives.

Actually, it's a it's a little bit older album, older interview. And again, something you've never heard of in the past, but you will in the future. And the big thing about monkey is it's a FinTech app but they have 80% female users. They really, found the holy grave for FinTech there.

Mhmm. Texify. So tax as in you have to pay your taxes and then e f y. A Vienna based startup is making waves with the relaunch complete with updates, its own tax consultancy. You can check out the full story at. We had them in our news recently with not so nice news. Now they seem to be turning the corner. Vienna's unicorn Joe student achieved full profitability in q one and are restructuring their leadership team.

Halme Brasco, I think that's how you pronounce it right, if if it's a Spanish name. Yeah. Joins as CTO to drive innovation, while CFO Duncan McIntyre bids farewell. And Vienna's chatbot StartupRadio, tony.ai, tony with an I, is being liquidated. It was once a promising venture in the age of Facebook's chatbot hype a long long time ago, but it couldn't keep up with evolving ai tech. Yeah. So Menninger ending a bit on a sad note here, when it comes to Austria. But moving on to Switzerland where there's more exciting news from a former guest of yours.

The Swiss American StartupRadio SwissPod and the UK based financial provider ICM are teaming up to supercharge hyperloop technology worldwide. Also a lot of buzzwords in that announcement. Then Proton from Switzerland acquires standard notes from Chicago, trying to create a new era of privacy first digital services. This was it for the hubs, but we now move on to our next section. General news, tech news, company news. Just like a an overview of what caught our attention in the past couple of weeks. Let's first start with new funds in order to inspire you to probably apply for some money. One k x just secured a whopping $75,000,000 for their latest fund.

They're based in Berlin and diving into the crypto world focusing on g f I, n f t f I and more. Their recent investment in botto and a I artist is making waves. More in-depth information in the show notes. Tiger Global VC, known as the large known as a large ticket investor in GSA. They have a fund that closed 63% below target with $2,200,000,000. The firm told investors in 2022 that they aim to raise $6,000,000,000. PIP 16 is dwarfed by the previous fund which raised 12,700,000,000, so numbers are going down there. Spotify Becker Lakestar raised $600,000,000 for an early stage and growth stage fund and likit, liqid, an online wealth manager has surpassed all expectations by raising a €130,000,000 for a new venture capital fund allowing private investors to participate starting from as low as €200,000.

Greentech.

Wish one day I can say as low as €200,000. It's a lot of money still. Greentech news. Yes. This section is new. Maxima Fusion raises €20,000,000 of venture capital to get closer to green energy from nuclear fusion. Carbon removal is the name of the game. Startups are racing to secure the biggest carbon removal deal with Berlin's Senken and Exomat Green, recently closing impressive deals for 81,600 tons of c02.

As always linked in the show notes. And 15 investors and founders launched the climate break to fast track European Climate Fund. Then our always present fintech section, Robinhood, set to take on Europeans Europe's wealth tech on the home turf. Link in the show notes. N n 26 appoints Mario Khammert to key executive role. And Germany's Landers Bank, Baten Wurttemberg, taps Bitpanda to offer crypto custody services. You can read more in Fintech Futures. Chris, you wanna take over the general news again?

Joe. Yeah. So, again, just some news in StartupRadio dynamic companies that caught our attention. Not always positive, not always related to money. And, the first one actually is, a bit problematic. There has been a massive data breach at urban sports club exposing thousands of member records, personal info, invoices, and even ID copies were found on an unprotected cloud server. More information about that is in the show notes. Then the sec settles insider trading charges against Andy Bechtolsheim, cofounder of Arista Sun Microsystems.

Rene Kohler buys back farad.da from signa after the Banco's Empire's Banco Empire's downfall. Former guest Guilza Wilke joins Diem Capital as partner and head of the German office. True to our model you may have never heard of our guest, but you will in the future. Again, there's the interview here. Oh, we really, like, we really keep on mentioning this in this episode. We talked about it before, so this did not make our top news this time. Munich based StartupRadio Flix aims to dominate the global bus and train market as it gives up for its IPO. This has also been a long time coming.

The company probably not always with, like, the biggest numbers. Americans may now know it because Flix is now the company behind, very traditional brand, Greyhound. Question now is, will Flix become the next stock? We have some details and analysis about it there. And some of the CEO insights in our interview, which in this case probably is a person that people might, might have heard of, at least of their company before they heard it from us. Then, 10 German tech German StartupRadio watch in 2024, just a little list of of inspiration. Get here, even after the expensive deal buying gorillas is considering to leave Germany according to a recent press report. I mean, the fact that we kind of bundled this down here, among the other news just shows you how the ultra fast delivery StartupRadio is over. And, I mean, we were talking about a lot.

I think in Germany, a lot of money has been burned in that field, because German are just so crazy price sensitive when it comes to groceries.

Not only that. I I do believe the the the economics or the unit economics of a single delivery don't make sense. You remember, like, all the players been around here, gorillas, joker, whatever was out there. I think a lot of them either cut back completely here or they disappeared at all. So

And I would still argue that having your groceries delivered without going to the supermarket is something that so many Germans would still consider frivolous and would be like, no. I I don't know. It's it's just seems like a cultural, cultural thing compared to the US. US. And there are new developments in the watch master case, following a daring heist that led to the insolvency. The former CEO is now under investigation for insurance fraud. You can read more about this intriguing twist in our show notes. And l t l ventures, the VC arm of 1 of Germany's largest TV stations, will be shut down after not even 1 year.

So this is a, like, great segue into creative destruction.

We may we may add here that, a competitor of theirs, Prossibinsat Ains, is doing this for quite some time, quite successful, in terms of media for equity deals. Not sure why this is not working for RTL here. Maybe because they serve a different demographic. As you said, Switzerland baby food StartupRadio, shuts down operations immediately despite efforts to secure funding. After 7 years of innovating fresh baby, they are they've achieved significant milestones, like expanding, with products in over 200 stores, and it appears to be done yet.

2,000 stores, actually, even. 2,000.

2,000 stores. Oh, yeah. I I was mistaken. 2,000 stores. I'm sorry. Full database queen pioneers has to fight for insolvency and Joe Louvinae. Beloina announced that it will halt operations by the end of April due to tough market conditions and failed efforts despite past acknowledges acknowledge accolades. Madhu, I take this again.

Sad news. Villainen announces it will halt operations by the end of

I would say I would say, Halloween. Halloween. Like hero like the like the female hero.

Ah, Halloween announces it will halt operations by the end of April due to tough market conditions and failed funding efforts despite past accolades including ISPO brand new winner and Europike Gold Award. As always, read more in the link in the show notes. And Berlin StartupRadio scene takes a hit as water purifier innovator MITRE files for insolvency despite early investor backing the venture struggle to deliver and ultimately offering a pricely alternative to established brands. And, Chris, you wanna end on a high Joe? You have 2 and a half minutes left.

I was gonna say, just scattering off some, successful fundraising and exits. As always, keep in mind, it's a small selection. News here and their total value show just how resilient the Startupradio scene is. We included some selected fundraisings at above €5,000,000 or dollars. This month, so many announcement. Not all will be, included here, but some of the highlights. Number 1, our former guest, Kranos Health, raises €5,000,000 to become the number one health companion of men. NX Technologies, a cologne based Fintech company that operates the automotive payment management platform, Betzal.de, raised €22,000,000 in series b.

We have fundraisings from Switzerland. €20,000,000 for underrepresented founders were raised there. Then following the FDA approval for its Otenafil and Otenacure solutions, Swiss dental StartupRadio, former Lumendo, raised 5,500,000 US dollars to fund the upcoming US launch. Bakery Bakery secures 1,400,000 Swiss francs from 700 bay bakers bay backers in that case for Swiss expansion, while Quibi's mark rewards marketplace receives over 1,000,000 francs, from just 75 supporters. In total, 7 Startupradio a whopping 4.1 Swiss franc 1,000,000 francs here. Adex Pharma and Perceptive Advisors joined forces to launch Neurostorix, a new venture with $63,000,000 funding for advancing preclinical assets and drug discovery. Zurich's own Progyle just launched test results CEO, an AI platform for overcharging software development. With a fresh round of seed funding, they're ready to revolutionize tech and conquer new territories as they say.

Photokiteag, revolutionizing emergency response with fully auto autonomous tethered UAVs, just closed its latest series b financing round. And Freeburg based cleantech b comp closes €37,600,000 series c to foster mobility decarbonization. Moving on to Austria, Austrian Health Tech Scale startup xund, xund. Oh, xund. Oh, this is a good name because xund is

x u n d.

X u n d is Austrian dialect for healthy. Sund extends seed round funding to €8,000,000 to digitize the patient journey. I mean, 425 episodes, and I think it's probably the first time ever that I, commanded one of these, naming ideas to start a first idea,

It's our 425th episode, and it's the 425th time I'm stumbling over StartupRadio don't worry.

Econitix, an Austrian StartupRadio, just secured a major investment to revolutionize carbon tracking with sensors. This wraps it up. We will be back on May 30th with the next news episodes and the next Reg Labs. So we'll go live next week as we said. We have some news to stay ahead of the curve. We are always looking for your feedback. You can find us on LinkedIn and Twitter. And to keep up to date, there's also a publication calendar online on Google.

As always, we thank you for listening, and we say, yeah, have a nice dance into May.

Have a nice day. Have a good month, and we will be back next month. That's a wrap. Thanks, Chris.

Bye bye.

That's all, folks. Find more news, streams, events, and interviews at www.startuprad. Joe. Remember, sharing is caring.