Welcome to startuprad.io. Your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startup scene with news, interviews, and live events. Hello, and welcome, everybody. This is Joe from startuprate.o. Welcome to this month in German, Swiss, and Austrian startups, March 2025. Welcome to our regular startup news from the startup and tech entrepreneurship scenes in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and even Liechtenstein. Our startup news is recorded again
with Chris in New York City. How are you doing, man? Hi. I'm good. City is gray, but my heart is full of sun. That's why we love him. I'm joining from Frankfurt. Today's news card was already 03/21/2025 due to us recording on a Monday. As always, all news not included will be in our next news wrap up. Here a little hint, the April news wrap up will be published on May 1, Labor Day in Europe, where a lot of people have free time. And as always, we need to cut the
news very seriously. In case you celebrate it, between now and our next recording, happy Easter. Yes. Chris, Chris, my friend, you've always been a highlights guy. Right? Yes. So, I mean, I don't know how to follow, after Jesus's resurrection, but let's have a look at a couple of the highlights of this year. Chris, we just tell our audience that you are also a highlight. Exactly. I mean, Chris, it's like, you know, Christian. It's like it's all the same story anyway. So,
let's get started. This month, startup news reveal again a pretty dynamic DACH region. So DACH being Deutschland, Osterreich, Schweitzer, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Austria, Switzerland. We are seeing significant financial movements, some strategic shifts. We see that ID now has an impressive €300,000,000 exit to Coase, underscoring the fintech sector's maturity, while Thomas Bravo's one point eight billion euro European fund signals a strong US US Investor
confidence. Notably, the stablecoin market surged to a record 20, sorry, surged to a record $226,000,000,000, reflecting evolving digital finance landscape. And, however, though, as always, we also see that challenges persist with zombie VC trends. We will talk about what that means and selected insolvencies like element insurance highlighting market volatility. We are trying to come up with a view of the German Switzerland Austria text scene for
you. And yeah. Well, as always, this month, also, we see that it's it's a bit of a whirlwind in these three countries. We see Volocopter's acquisition, by OneFeng Group. We see that Mainz's Biomed has a groundbreaking cancer detection discovery. We've tracked major funding rounds, including Tactile's fifty two million euros raise, and celebrated female led start up setting new records in Switzerland. We would talk more about that. But as I said, it's not always, and everything's smooth sailing.
We are also witnessing legal battles, like Germany's top startup versus SAP and GDPR compliance reviews for DeepSeek, reminding us of the high stakes in the whole entrepreneurial landscape. So I would say, let's talk start ups. As already said, we are shifting to two publications a week. Let us know how you like it. As always, you could get our audio podcast wherever you'd like to get your podcast. And keep in mind that we do have a twenty four seven Internet radio station under startup.radio.
For all others, use our link tree. We'll link it down here in the show notes. Chris, you also wanna do our top news pieces? Yeah. So let's look into what I already hinted at a bit, a bit more in-depth. So first off, ID. Now or Corsair. Corsair has a €300,000,000 acquisition of IDNow, marking a pretty significant exit in the fintech sector, overall highlighting the continued interest in digital identity verification solutions. It's a Munich based company, and their sales signal, investor
confidence, obviously. And you can read more about it on Business Insider, Handelsblatt, and, also on our own website where we have more about the CEO and ID now in an exclusive interview. Germany's count of billion dollar startups is on the rise, showcasing that the nation's tech ecosystem is growing and pretty healthy. Search and valuations underscores the increasing maturity of the German venture capital landscape. The trend signals a fertile ground for innovation and investment.
So Heizer.de was counting Heizer.da also being a German tech website was counting the number of billion, euro startups in Germany and saw an increase. One thing, I already talked about that in the highlights too or in the little teaser in the beginning. The One Fang Group is set to acquire Volocopter, a company we've been talking about here quite often. So we are talking air taxis, helicopter taxis, however you wanna call them. Urban air mobility is sometimes the buzzword here used.
But despite the acquisition, Volocopter will remain based in Baden. So we will see how that will work out. Panasonic's strategic investment in Tado shows the growing convergence of energy and smart home technologies. It's a partnership showing that there is movement in the market of energy efficiency solutions. Tado is a company that comes up with new approaches for home climate control and now has a strong partner
with Panasonic. Housekeeping. Housekeeping. Yes. As always, we're thrilled to share our significant achieve oh, by by the way, I was, a guest in the corporate life podcast. You can have a look down here in the show notes where we talked about 2025 tech trends. We are thrilled to share our significant achievements for start up radio in q one twenty twenty five, which has solidified our position as leading voice in the startup scene. We got the number one spot in
Feedspot's top 15 German story podcast. By the way, furschotterbrecher.a0+ number seven also made Female Entrepreneurship, our sub podcast. We got our podcast, Fintech Germany, at number 19 in million podcasts, top 100 fintech podcasts globally. Completing these podcast triumphs, we've been named among the top 100 fintech companies and startups in Germany Twenty Twenty Five by f six s reinforcing our deep understanding of the investment landscape and our key role
within the German startup and fintech community. Beyond these specific awards, our podcast consistently charts right now in, Chris, would you know? 15 to 20 global, global podcast charts in any given day. We are everywhere. Almost. Almost. But we are we are working on this. If you like to work with us, drop us an email at partners@startoperator.ao. Chris, you have always been very happy with the ecosystem. Right?
Yeah. So, in this ecosystem segment, we are, at first looking at the ecosystem of the world, the worldwide ecosystem for start ups, taking a global pulse on the entrepreneurial spirit. We see that entrepreneur optimism, is increasing. Techstars survey a Techstars survey shows strong global confidence. So according to this recent Techstars pulse of the entrepreneur survey,
global entrepreneur optimism remains remarkably high. The survey is conducted by Techstars, Stars, a leading accelerator and venture capital firm, reveals a strong belief in future growth and innovation. The survey, which interviewed many early stage start up founders, shows that founders are extremely positive about the future of their businesses, But it is worth noting that the survey was likely taken before
the recent tariffs and global trade tensions began to escalate. So that whole discussion was not part of it yet or is not, like, included yet. And as such, it is possible that future surveys may show a bit of a shift in this, optimism. Let's take a look at how these global trends are impacting specific regions, mostly Europe, ecosystem Europe,
where, GDPR reform is a big topic. In a surprising turn, the conservative, member of the European Parliament Axel Foss and privacy advocate Max Schrems, which in Germany is known for having sued Facebook very early on, have reached a rare agreement on GDPR reform. Netspolitik reports, that's a German, website about web policies, reports that the collaboration among the two aims to streamline data protection rules potentially impacting how European startups
handle user data. And that could lead to regulatory challenges that actually affect many startups and websites doing business online. Moving on to a major funding milestone, European Union funded start ups have collectively reached a staggering €520,000,000,000 in valuation according to Broadcaster.com. It's a milestone underscoring how effective the European Union, invest European Union's investment in fostering tech and innovation growth is.
The achievement highlights the strength of the European start up, ecosystem as a whole. You can read more about it in the lengthy article or the in-depth article of podcast.com. Speaking of supporting start ups, though, there's Unterneema TUM, which is from the University of Munich. Unterneema TUM has a technical university to be more precise.
And and we should tell everybody who's not a German native speaker, Unterneema two means entrepreneurship, but here it is spelled in capital letters t u m, which also means Tag Nangle University Munich. Wordplay. It's a wordplay. It's funny. But Unterneema, t u m, has been recognized as Europe's best founding center for yet another year, a recognition that they have achieved before, again, highlighting their continued excellence in nurturing entrepreneurial talent in Southern Germany, or
based coming from Southern Germany. You can hear more about their work in our recent interview that we did with the, COO of Unterneema TUM on start up radio. Shifting gears. Get it? Because now we're talking about the automotive sector. We are seeing in the European car market that several brands are struggling, namely smart, tiny compact cars, and Tesla. It's an analysis by Automotoren Sport, probably the most renowned
German automotive monthly magazine. And that reveals a challenging year for Smart and Tesla and European new car registrations, indicating a shift in consumer preferences with these brands facing declining interest. I mean, especially with the whole discussion going on about Elon Musk, Tesla has, is fighting a decline in sales from sometimes 70 to 80% in, monthly sales compared to last year. So
yeah. But we are seeing, okay, that that these are trends in the European automotive market as a whole. Let's take a broader look at the European tech landscape. TechEU, has come up with their latest report providing a comprehensive overview of European tech trends and investment activity in February. You can access the full report, on a under a link that we have in our show notes. And
finally, a major development in digital finance. The European Central Bank president, Christine Lagarde, has announced the launch of the digital euro CBDC set to begin in Europe in October as reported by BTC echo, and it's a move that marks a significant step in the evolution of digital currencies in Europe. And we will also see how it may may affect the, European fintech world. Moving on from Europe and to the DACH region,
the core of our show. So DACH region again, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Dutch and Austria Schweiz. Today, we are exploring developments from AI breakthroughs to founding dynamics and even furry into outer space. Germany boasts world class AI research but faces challenges in translating that innovation into practical applications, writes Entifah, a German news channel. This report, their report highlights the discrepancy between academic
excellence and commercial implementation. So the German AI research landscape might be strong, but there are issues with the practical applications of their research. On a more positive note, Germany's broader tech ecosystem is making waves. Tech EU reports that the tech ecosystem is a significant driver of global change with its startups and innovations making an impact on the world string stage, actually showing that the, German tech industry's standing
is improving. Moving south to Switzerland where funding is a key topic, venture capital for the Swiss fintech startups is tied, but Amnis is proving to be a notable exception, reports money today. This highlights the nature of investment selective nature of the investments in the Swiss fintech sector, but at least
it's one success story. And a bright spot for female founders in Switzerland, startup ticker CH reports that female led startups in Switzerland have achieved another record breaking year. Continuing growth here demonstrates the increasing influence of women in the Swiss entrepreneurial landscape and,
women catching up. Shifting east from Switzerland to Austria, where also AI and funding are key themes, Linz, the city of Linz, has launched an AI excellence cluster focused on the development of flexible artificial intelligence rights Factory Net, an initiative aiming to position LINZ as a leading hub for AI innovation. And Austria has also seen movement on the funding front, where the Austrian DACH Fund for start up investments
is set to launch, reports trending topics. It's a fund that aims to boost investment in Austrian start ups and foster regional collaboration. Finally, a surprising development in Austrian aviation, Lower Austria is entering the space race, Lower Austria being the name of the state of Austria, with Vienna Airport transforming into a space hub, reports trending topics. It's a pretty unexpected development signaling Austria's growing interest in
space exploration and technology. And that wraps up our look at the dynamic start up and tech scenes across the DACH region. Let's talk general news. I also wouldn't have, Lower Austria on my cards talking about space race here. Let's go to the general news, our VC pulse. New funds and information from the VC world with relevance for the DACH region. Welcome to our investment pulse check where we delve into the largest latest venture capital news and new fund launches.
Post star capital launches of 500,000,000 e mobility infrastructure fund, dedicated to accelerating zero emission logistics infrastructure. This significant investment e mobility sector and is its potential to revolutionize transportation. EU startups provides the details. Next, a look at impact investing, KFW Capital, the capital armor of KfW Bank, a state owned bank here in Germany, unveiled 200,000,000 impact fund facility.
This is aimed at supporting impact funds. This initiative underscores the growing emphasis on sustainable and social response responsible investment within the venture capital landscape. VC magazine provides more details. Moving on to successful fund closures, fund f reaches 28,000,000 final closing backing diverse found founders. Now for major European fundraise, Thoma Bravo raises 1,800,000,000.0 for European venture fund. Thoma Bravo has successfully raised €1,800,000,000 for
its first European venture fund. This substantial capital raise signals significant interest in European tech companies from major US Investors. TechCrunch provides more details. A look at unique investments. Peter Thiel's fund receives 50,000,000 from Matthias Stufner Sand. Peter Thiel Venture Fund has secured a 50,000,000 investment from Matthias Stufner Sand. This investment is notable for its connection to prominent figures in both tech and media. Manager magazine reports on the transaction.
Chris, can you can you give us a few ideas about Matthias Stefner? Well, he's, I mean, one of the biggest players in German media and has been for years. He's gotten huge shares in media from Frida Springer from Springer Fallak. So this is like an aging aging dorian matriarch in, one of the biggest German publishing houses. A bit like often criticized for running the biggest tabloid in Germany, Bild Zeitung, with sometimes, problematic business practices.
And, Dafna also is known for modernizing the company, and, he is the one who came up with, the idea also to invest in Politico. So that is now part of that, company. But, he's also being criticized. Business Insider. Exactly. And but he's also sometimes criticized for, for example, what was leaked was, him saying behind the scenes that business wise, it would be
really great if Trump became president. And so he's sometimes also considered to be, very conservative and sometimes even, let's say, right wing populist, curious business leader. However, not all investors are finding it easy. Some BVC challenge investors struggle to raise funds. Business insider just talked about it reports on the rising challenges faced by venture capitalists with many struggling to raise new funds.
This trend, dubbed some BVC, highlights the increasing difficulty in securing capital in the current market even for VCs. Finally, a major capital raise in The US, Khosla Ventures seeks 3,500,000,000.0 in fresh capital. It it is seeking to raise 3,500,000,000.0 US dollars in fresh capital. This significant fundraise effort underscores the continued appetite for large scale investments
in innovative tech companies. This is here because you can basically not deploy the money without going a little bit to Europe and Germany. That concludes our roundup of the latest VC news and fund launches. Let's go a little bit into our biotech updates. Gotting start up day highlights regional biotech boom. Chris is showing thumbs up because that's
his area. It's my home region. Yeah. It's a university city that is, had has always been strong in medicine and now is surprisingly seems to be doing surprisingly well for, modernizing itself. Yes. They had a successful startup day in Gottingen that has spotlighted the region's burgeoning entrepreneurial activity in the biotech sector. This event underscores the growing importance of regional hub in driving innovation. Transcript provides coverage.
Moving on to major patent dispute. Moderna wins patent battle against BioNTech and Pfizer. They have emerged victorious in a patent dispute against BioNTech and Pfizer as reported by Antifoul. This ruling could have significant implications for the m r a vaccine market and future collaborations. Shifting focus to BioNTech financial and development updates. BioNTech reports business figures cancer track progress. BioNTech has released its latest business
figures and provided an update on its cancer track development. According to SWR, it's a public broadcaster in Germany. The company is making strides in its oncology pipeline with significant milestones on the horizon. Chris, you wanna say something? No. I'm sorry. BioNTech is also targeting key approval updates, for CancerTrac in 2026 as reported by focus dot d e. And finally a major discovery in cancer diagnostics Minds Biomate announces breakthrough in pancreatic cancer detection in
collaboration with Liquid Bioscience. They have announced a groundbreaking discovery of mRNA biomarkers for blood based detection of pancreatic cancer, very aggressive kind of cancer. This development could revolutionize early detection of this type of cancer. For more in-depth information, listen to our interview with Mainz Biomed or look at the news coverage. Going from biotech to fintech, as Chris already highlighted in the highlights, webboy, stablecoin market hits record 22,
226,000,000,000. The stablecoin market has reached record high signaling significant growth within the cryptocurrency sector. This search underscores the increasing adoption of stablecoins as a reliable digital assets. BTC Echo provides related market analyzers. Moving on to major initiative from the European Central Bank, they plan BLT, distributed ledger technology transaction settlement with central bank money, a new platform. They are planning a new
platform utilizing Central Bank Money. This initiative aims to streamline and secure digital assets digital asset transactions within the European financial system, Fintech Futures reports on this development. Shifting focus to potential IPOs IPO speculations, raising IPO buzz fueled by strong internal numbers. Internal numbers from Raizen are fueling speculation about a potential
IPO. This development suggests the fintech company has experienced significant growth and may be preparing for public offering. Manager Magatine provides the inside scoop. Finally, a major shift in the neobank landscape. Vivid Money exits neobank raise. Vivid Money has announced its exit from the competitive neobank race. The decision marks a significant shift in the European fintech landscape. Details available at manager market scene. So that means they're going out of the
retail market into the business market. That concludes our fintech news. And I hand over again to Chris. Yes. And while we're talking a bit, general news, in this general news segment, we cover the latest developments across the tech and startup landscapes, also including some of the established companies where we think they are and when we think they are important. This time, it is about legal battles, AI breakthroughs, regional startup spotlights, and
even robotic innovations. Germany's most valuable startup has filed a lawsuit against the software giant SAP as reported by Antifa. This, legal battle could have significant implications for the German tech sector, and, it might be interesting to see how Celonis, that being that, highest, most valuable startup, is actually fighting SAP. The lawsuit actually, takes place in San Francisco, And, it's about fees that SAP is asking for, and Salona says this is actually hindering competition.
Shifting to the forefront of innovation, from, like, the backroom fighting to the forefront of innovation, Business Insider has highlighted a list of German AI start ups that are making waves in the industry, showing that there are companies pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence also in Germany. And a look at startup communication challenges is provided by Deutsche Startups. The website's reports that 73% of startup press releases are deemed overly promotional and lacking
informative informative content. So, yeah, we can also only advocate for this because it highlights the needs for more balanced communication strategies within the start up ecosystem. Highlighting new players in the start up scene, Deutsche Start Up has showcased a lineup of new start ups, including Admi, Navu, Satellite, MobilityDexter, and Mimicry AI. Just dropping some of the names here. If you wanna know more, you can have a look at Deutsche Startups. And DeepSeek
GBPR, compliance is under scrutiny. We already talked about this in the, highlight section or in the previous section. The state data protection authorities are reviewing deep seek for GDPR compliance in Germany according to Security Insider. Overall, definitely an investigation that underscores the importance of data privacy in the AI sector, something I think we will talk a lot about in months and years to come.
Deutsch shifting to regional startup spotlights, Deutsche Startups has highlighted seven exciting start ups from Munich that are making a name for themselves. I won't rattle them here because I imagine they are lacking too many vowels anyway. Another in their names. Another regional startup scene is highlighted in Aachen. Also in, Deutsche startups, they have found 11 young companies to know in Aachen, a, like, mid sized town in North Rhine Westphalia in the West Of Germany. Also
known for a very good technical university. And for being in medieval times the, seed of the German not king even, like the German Caesar. Charlemagne. There you go. Looking at startup hub growth, Silicon Canal Canals reports on, the significant growth of the Leipzig SpinLab startup hub, underscoring the city's emerging status as a tech center. So, also, here we see that that's a city in Eastern
Germany. We see that, really, innovation and innovation clusters are happening all over the country right now. Look into EdTech, trending topics reports that GoStudent has further reduced earnings for its two tutors. So we will see whether, they will actually be able to maintain their roster of tutors online. Moving from human help to robotic innovation, Machine and Mark reports that the circus robot is ready for series manufacturing. They
hope it's gonna be a significant milestone in robotics technology. You can read more about that in the show notes. And finally, a look into drone innovations. Wingcopter is expanding its capabilities from medical cargo deliveries to surveying missions, reports TechEU, and expansion widening drones the drones application. And lastly, a robotics AI acquisition, Agile robots has acquired Odeering according to German,
business news, paper Handelsblatt. This acquisition is a move to improve the AI of the robotics company. Back to you. Yes. And back to creative destruction. We're covering layoffs, insolvencies, and the stark realities faced by some companies. MacMarkler announces yet another round of layoffs. They have announced another round of layoffs just two month after its previous workforce reduction as reported by Business Insider, and we
already talked about it as well. Moving to a struggle in biotech industry, Bluebird Bio Bio seeks acquisition. Amidst gene therapy challenges, Bluebird Bio facing significant challenges in the gene therapy sector is seeking acquisition according to transcript. This development underscores the difficulties and high risks associated with innovative die biotech ventures. Legal tech startups are also facing headwinds. Right now, legal
tech startup fights for insolvency. Right now a legal tech startup has filed for insolvency as reported by Handelsblatt. This news highlights the competitive nature of legal tech market and challenges startup face in scaling. The insurance market the insurance tech market isn't immune as well. Element insurance declares insolvency according to efforts at this event marks a significant setback for the insurtech sector
highlighting the risk of this market. Moving from insurance to travel freeway camper rental fights also for insolvency. The Lilium story continues with employee issues. Lilium faces employee issues with unpaid salaries and insolvency funds including and Lilium is facing employee issues including unpaid salaries and problems with insolvency funds according to business insider. This adds another layer of complexity to the company's existing challenges. A radio station is also in facing insolvency.
Ego FM seeks investors to survive this insolvency. A large company closes a recently acquired startup, Mars, Yes, the company from the with the chocolate bars, ends food spring operations after six years. Mars had decided to end food spring operations six years after acquiring the Berlin based fitness brand for €250,000,000. This decision underscores the volatile nature of brand acquisition and market strategies. After so much bad news, let's end on a
high note with Chris. I was so irritated. I was reading up about, Foolspring just now. What a, like, €250,000,000. It's a lot of money. Anyway, we're ending our broadcast with a burst of positive news showcasing the resilience and dynamic dynamism of the start up scene, because we can see that despite the challenges we are talking about, significant funding rounds and strategic acquisitions, are demonstrating that investor confidence is still
there. Market opportunities exist. So let's have a look at some of the highlights. Tektai has successfully raised €52,000,000 from prominent investors, signaling confidence in the company's growth potential. And it's a, company it's a tech company. Moving to Switzerland, Spalter, Swiss yeah, Spalter has secured $52,000,000 in a series b funding round. Finsmez has some details here. Spata is a provider of real time intelligence
for commodity traders. A major series a funding is the funding round of Unique, which has raised $30,000,000, demonstrating investor interest in their approach to agentic AI workforce technology. Vital has secured €14,200,000, in investment. They have a company that works on digital reusable packaging solutions, and was also on, Diehule Derleuwen, Germany's version of Shark Tank. In the e mobility market, we are also seeing funding successes.
Dans, an e mobility startup, has raised €12,000,000, highlighting the continued investment in sustain sustainable transportation solution. Obviously, they have the best name of the whole month with Dan's. It was actually also founded by the founders of SoundCloud, two of the founders, and it's a, mobility subscription service. Seed funding is also prevalent. Alpine Eagle has secured €10,250,000 in seed funding, signaling early stage investor confidence in their business. And now let
yep. And now let's talk a little bit m and a here. Now let's shift some key acquisition. Lohmann Rauscher acquires teleder teledermatology startup. Oh, sorry. Online doctor. Lohmann L and R has acquired the teledermatology startup, meaning Online Skin Doctor, yes, marking a strategic expansion into the digital health sector. MoneyCap reports on the acquisition. A Tesla subsidiary makes a acquisition. A Tesla subsidiary acquires parts of Mans Heutlingen, formerly, insolvent company.
And, they that is an investment in advanced manufacturing technology, SWR reports. And finally, in acquisition in EdTech space, Educated acquires EdTech Pioneer Pierce Solution. Educated, one word, has acquired Pierce Solution, a pioneer in EdTech AI. This move is a strategic consolidation in the education technology sector, TechEU reports. A lot, a lot. And I learned I should have taken an allergy pill.
Yeah. Me too. And we do have a lot of stuff that didn't make it into the news in, by stay ahead of the curve. For example, somebody tracked Jeff Bezos in Westbank's twenty twenty five. Agile robots acquire Odorin. Kit and IBM, work cooperate on generative AI and so on and so forth. So there is still a lot. We are always looking for ways to make our show better. Please please, leave us feedback in the feedback form here. And, of course, you can always talk directly to us.
There are links to our LinkedIn profile and Twitter x profile in the show notes. Chris, it was a pleasure working with you as always. Thank you very much. Thank you. Have a nice spring, everyone. Bye bye. Bye. That's all, folks. Find more news, streams, events, and interviews at www.startupgrad.io. Remember, sharing is caring.