This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — February 2023

Tech Startups Germany - Startups and Venture Capital

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

We follow our top-down structure in the news: First the top news, then we look with a bird’s eye view at the startup ecosystem in the German language countries, dig deeper by looking at interesting startup cities and end with general news. And for those of you who are really serious about startups, there is even a collection called: Stay ahead of the curve where we share interesting reads, articles, studies, and podcasts.

Welcome to our startup news wrap-up for February 2023 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on February 21st, 2023.

All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode. Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog, link below.

Our Highlights:

Rising interest rates are leading to an interest rate war between the neobrokers. We covered the troubled company Windeln.de, which is now liquidated. Farewell! Moonfare extended it’s Series C funding to more than 130 m US$, but we are not sure who invested in the last batch, since a fund is mentioned, that was also founded by Moonfare’s founder. The City of Mainz goes live with its quest to become a world-class biotech hub. N26 was reportedly in advanced talks to buy dutch broker Bux, but buxed out shortly before the closing. AAAAAAnd, we like to end on a high note: Raising is in the process of reclaiming its unicorn status with new funding. We have also some event recommendations for you and discounts from 20% to 100% for the events listed in our show notes.

Let’s talk startups:

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Top News

Neobrokers Just Started — What May Be An Interest Rate War (Chris)

After german unicorn Trade Republic had a smashing success with offering 2% interest for money deposited there now also fellow unicorn Scalable offers even 2,3%, BUT only from 100k € on and only if you are a subscriber (4.99/month)

Farewell Windeln.de

We have often talked in our news about the precarious position of windeln.de. Now it is finally liquidated

Who Extended Moonfare’s Series C?

Moonfare is a fintech from Germany, allows individuals to invest in Private Equity Funds, founded by former KKR Germany Head Steffen Pauls. They cap their Series C extension round at about $15M, bringing its Series C funding to $130 million+ the Berlin-based fintech allows HNWI, family offices, banks, and their advisor's access to top-tier private markets investments. BUT German business magazin Manager Magazin reports that for this extension the only investor mentioned by name is one that Mr. Pauls has co-founded.

You can find his profile at 7 Global Capital here on their website as Managing Partner and Founder.

City of Mainz Starts to Invest some of Their Billions in the BioTech Hub

You may remember that we told you the story of Mainz? A lovely city with a normal annual budget of 100 million Euros, the capital of one of Germany’s states. Since they are also the headquarters of BioNTech they got flooded with tax revenues as soon as the corona vaccine was rolled out. They showed more than 1 bn € profit as a city in 2021 alone and they want to invest the money to become a world-class biotech hub. Now the company they want to use to drive this initiative is operational: biomindz | Newly established company to promote Mainz as hub for life science and biotechnology now operational and supporting the city of Mainz.

Here is the interview with the person in charge of the BioTech Hub:

The City of Mainz Just Started on Its Way to Becoming a World-Class BioTech Hub

N26 Bux(ed) Out?

According to a press report, N26 was in discussions to acquire Dutch broker Bux, but backed out shortly before the deal was closed. The price tag is also reported as around 100 m €, but N26 feared too much complexity with the deal and the post-merger integration.

Raisin Get It’s Horn Back

Not everybody is suffering from higher interest rates. The deposit broker fintech Raisin is in the process of raising 50 m € venture capital at a 1,5 bn € valuation reports Boersenzeitung. We talked about them losing narrowly their unicorn status in our news before, but apparently, they are on their way back to reclaim it.

We had Raisin in an interview before many people outside of Germany knew they existed. Have a listen at our interview form 2017 here (https://buff.ly/3IrLDQc)

Find all Links and Show Notes on our Medium Blog: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-february-2023-7f8c6b9920bc

Mentioned in this episode:

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