Startup News from Germany – Summer wrap up

House Keeping:

This is the first news wrap up after the summer break. What we have been up to during the summer:

In German

• We got for you an update on the billion dollar project of a startup campus. The project shall be called Silicon Valley of Europe and will be located in the vicinity of Frankfurt. We wait for the results of a land auction if the project will get the required area: https://www.startupradio.de/der-silicon-valley-of-europe-update/
• We introduced our listeners to a short format “in nuce” (in brief), where we introduce our listeners to several event formats in short podcasts

In English:

• We had a Sommer-Interview. There is a tradition in Germany to do in the summer outdoor interviews and so we did as well, with Souleyman from Africa Green Tec. We talk about their project the solar container: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp1gZh_pONk
• We conducted interviews with startups and investors at the Venture Capital Forum in Frankfurt, including the VC who was the A-Round lead in MySQL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87viss42R6w
• We did our first interview with a polish startup, who is working on recycling: http://www.startuprad.io//interviews/interview-marcin-lotysz-cto-bin-e-smart-garbage-bin-will-save-company-money/
• For the FinTech fans here. We did two interviews with Luka, co-founder of the mobile banking app Penta, who want to be the banking interface of choice for small and medium enterprises in Germany and France.
• In the first interview we talk about Luka and Penta, how he came from selling shoes on the streets of New York city to co-found a fintech in Berlin. http://www.startuprad.io//interviews/interview-penta-mobile-banking-app-small-medium-companies/
• In the second interview we talk about venture capital and Luka’s experience with raising it in the US and Europe http://www.startuprad.io//interviews/interview-penta-part-ii/
• Love the wisdom in the interview:  Don’t marry the sexiest people,but the ones who bring most to the table.

Startupradio.de (our German channel) is once again listed as a need-to-know source for every entrepreneur in Germany: http://www.deutsche-startups.de/2016/08/25/5-podcasts-die-sich-jeder-gruender-anhoeren-sollte/

Ecosystem

Frankfurt and region making themselves heard in London http://ow.ly/O91p304CenE

Hubs

Frankfurt

Frankfurt turns into #Fintech city writes local newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau, listing 35 fintechs in the city center alone. Here is the map: https://twitter.com/GangolfSchrimpf/status/773044029323931648

Fintechs:

• The robo advisor Ginmon raised “millions” from London based Passion Capital http://ow.ly/6gRG303uzjm
• Frankfurt insurance startup Clark raises €13.2 million http://ow.ly/tgqI302Sbfn
• Cloud Computing: Frankfurt is on the way to become the could computing center of Europe writes Wirtschaftswoche http://ow.ly/GV8v303uze6
• From one of the first startup guys in Frankfurt, there is now the “Intro to the Frankfurt Tech scene” http://ow.ly/MuVs302S2k9
• More signs of life: Relative to its population, Frankfurt is the most mentioned startup city in Germany on the Internet http://ow.ly/pIm6302nFsX

Financing for 42 ha (for americans 103 acres) innovation center & startup campus close to Frankfurt have been secured. We are waiting for the official results of the public bidding. This is associated with out interview mentioned above, but an article by Frankfurt based news paper Frankfurter Rundschau http://ow.ly/ZNGY303z8oD

Berlin

In Berlin, the flagship startups of Rocket Internet are not doing especially well, but this seems not to matter too much to the overall tech scene http://ow.ly/aWvz3041gCZ

Companies

Rocket Internet

Hit a rough patch in all of 2016 so far:

• Home24: Rocket internet slashed the valuation into half, erasing approx. half a billion Euros from the book value of the company  http://ow.ly/lGk73041bTV
• Delivery Hero is reported by Manager Magazin to have been unable to raise venture capital and therefore went for a expensive loan http://ow.ly/1b5E304BqW9
• HelloFresh had to put its IPO plans on hold http://ow.ly/PxvW304Br1f
• And it really struggles making money, acquiring customers is too expensive. http://www.wsj.com/articles/rocket-internets-marketing-costs-keep-profit-at-bay-1474551037
• Global Fashion Group erased more than 1.5 bn USD in paper valuation, as it raised 364 mn US$ in venture capital http://ow.ly/C4Wd304Brda
• Rocket Internet Troubles Mount After Latest Startup Down Round – Bloomberg http://ow.ly/29IC3041h6N

Tesla: A close Musk associate Antonio Gracias has been turned down by a bavarian battery producing sme called Sonnen, writes manager magazin. Tesla seem to have been interested taking a stake in the company http://ow.ly/XXtx3040Ln9

Here is the promised interview of Elon Musk by Y Combinator: How to Build the Future – YouTube http://ow.ly/r7Wr304CqpC

The story of Travador, they started out as a startup for travel flash sales. This did not work out, the did a pivot and developed their own booking platform for short and weekend trips. Now they are profitable http://ow.ly/TtAl304cd4E

Unister was a talking point all through summer. The company behind several B2C travel portals like abindenurlaub.de (like head for vacation) or flüge.de (flights) are owned by the company. The holding company itself is under receivership right now. The founder apparently wanted to avoid that and fell for a scam (so called rip deals), the founder Thomas Wagner getting a cash loan of several millions swiss francs in counterfeit money, in exchange for posting a collateral in real cash. Than to make havoc on the company absolute …. the private jet in which they transported back the money crashed and killed the jet’s crew and passengers (including Mr. Wagner) http://www.n-tv.de/wirtschaft/Unister-Chef-Wagner-ging-volles-Risiko-article18424011.html

Automated Vehicles / Automated Driving

“German OEMs retain their lead over US automakers when it comes to incorporating automated functions in mass produced vehicles.” writes Roland Berger in their newest research on automated vehicles

The US and Germany lead the field in terms of automated vehicle expertise.

https://www.rolandberger.com/en/Publications/pub_automated_vehicles_index_q3_2016.html

The Economist thiks there will be a starbucks effect in chocolate as well and is asking “Who will be the Starbucks of chocolate?” http://ow.ly/IqWD3033ZHx

Know-how for those with vision

Germany performing well in region innovation rankings, writes the European Commision in a publication http://ec.europa.eu/growth/node/1378_de

Peter Thiel at Stanford to Share Tips from his book “Zero to One” – YouTube http://ow.ly/BVAq302O1vC

Peter Thiel on the Global Economy, the State  Tech and Artificial Intelligence – YouTube http://ow.ly/4Cw6302O1Jg

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