Welcome to Startupradio rad dot Joe, your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German StartupRadio with news, interviews, and live events. Welcome to our June 2024 wrap up with vital news from the start up and tech entrepreneurship scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less. Heavy task today. But, our startup news is recorded with me, Chris, in New York City, and Joe joining from Frankfurt. Hello, Joe. Hey, guys. Today's news cutoff date is June
25th. As always, all news not included will be, happening in our next news wrap up, and we're gonna kick it off with our highlights. And you go ahead. This this month, roundup of the GSA DACH business and tax orders, we've seen an array of significant movements that are shaping the landscape. Czech 24 has arguably launched the most ambitious marketing campaign of the year in Germany.
Some people even talk about German business history, distributing 5,000,000 free football jerseys from Puma, tapping into the enthusiasm for the Euro cup, and contrasting sharply with Adidas' official team gear. This initiative estimate is estimated to have cost around €100,000,000 and has sparked a vibrant online discourse and driven app downloads despite privacy concerns. In aviation, Lilium is seeking €300,000,000 in government aid to push forward its Lilium Jet. Keep in mind, Lilium
is listed on Nasdaq. The insurtech scene is also buzzing with news of Wefox with an internal strife could lead to a dramatic revaluation far below it its previous 4,500,000,000 high. Meanwhile, clock, clock dot e is preparing for a significant funding round under new leadership aiming to expand
its reach and profitability. And on a larger scale, Amazon has announced an additional 10,000,000,000, yes, b, billion investment in Germany targeting cloud, data storage, and logistics, emphasizing the growing importance of digital infrastructure in the region. As the region's start up ecosystem continues to evolve rapidly, fueled by substantial investments and strategic shifts.
In a significant leap for German tech innovation, DeepL has now clinched the title of Germany's most valuable AI Startupradio a staggering 2,000,000,000 US dollar valuation, eclipsing Aleph Alpha following the DeepL robust 300 million investment.
Meanwhile, Black Semiconductor is injecting a hefty 254,400,000 into Europe's semiconductor industry with plans to establish a state of the art pilot facility in Aachen by 2026, Not to be outdone, Cognigy Cognigy, sorry, from Dusseldorf has garnered 100,000,000 US dollars to enhance AI driven customer service automation supported by brands such as Lufthansa,
Toyota, and Mercedes Benz. Finally, in the mobility sector, Flix is considering a shift in in strategy with a potential private equity investment from EQT that could see a later acquisition of 30%, possibly altering Flick's path to a public offering. Chris, let's talk StartupRadio. Joe, I mean, first off, we, for those not watching us, we have to explain. We are Hawaiian shirts. Yeah. And and if you're watching this, it's your own fault. Yeah. Honestly. My apologies. But it's, it's a segue
into us taking a summer break. We will be back with the summer news wrap up on September 2nd. US Labor Day also sometimes considered to be the, start of election season even though, I mean, we said it it's Tuesday 25th right now, and we are looking at the present presidential debate in 2 days already. So we will see about this. Nevertheless. For everybody who speaks German, we may hint that you do have a podcast in German explaining US
politics. It's called of course, it's in German. It's it's called which I usually listen to during my afternoon walk. Chris, here you go. Well done. We're still not sure about the number of publications we will have during the summer since requests are piling up a bit on our desks. We would assume every other week there might be some new content with the potential to have even weekly publications. So it's promising to
be a really hot summer already. Yeah, and here in New York, we already had our 1st day with more than a 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, Germany is forecasted to have to reach 35 degrees Celsius. Next week, Chris, how much is this in Fahrenheit? I assume a lot. Somewhere in the nineties? Yeah. Joe, yes, 35 is like nineties. Exactly. But since we are also always service oriented here, I, as a European, always struggle with the stupid conversion from Fahrenheit to, Celsius and back and to have any
sense of what any of the Fahrenheit numbers mean. But just recently, I read you just have to think of Fahrenheit as percent. So, 80 degrees Fahrenheit, 80% weather. You know? Okay. That sounds good. I can wear short sleeves. 30% 30, degrees Fahrenheit, which is more or less like 0 Celsius, is like, oh, this is chilly. This sucks. A 100 degrees Fahrenheit, you know, it's a 100% warm. It's too much. Anything above a 100%, way too much. Impossible.
So this is the my new system. And just think of Fahrenheit as percent, and you're all good. See, I just Googled it. Of course, I did. 35 degrees Celsius or 95 degrees Fahrenheit for everybody who's newly listening to this. Always, when Chris does have a siren in the background, he's off the hook. If we don't hear any sirens in the background when he's recording from New York, he owes me a bagel when I'm there next time. Bagels are
piling up. So, yeah, our video podcast will, go live on June 27th, available 24 hours before for channel members, who can't wait to see us in the Hawaiian shirts. Audio podcast goes live on, Thursday, June 27th as well. You can always tune in to our Internet radio station, which more than a 100000 people did altogether over all platforms. And we also have many media partners there including but not limited to Tech EU and Stanford University Radio Show. Laptop Radio you can find all this at www.
Startup.radio. You can get your content to your inbox if you subscribe to Substack. And we as always, we have all our channels at Linktree, linktrue.ee/startupradio, Joe word. And we also have enablers for this. This recording is supported by HDIA and the enterprise Europe network, Hessen. This recording was made possible by HKI, Hessen Trade and
Invest, and the enterprise Europe network Hessen. These organizations have made tremendous contributions to helping start up businesses succeed and thrive, providing a range of services from helping to find grants to ongoing partnerships. By taking advantage of these resources, start up companies can network and develop innovative strategies for success on the international
stage. The dedicated support of HTI and the enterprise Europe network Hessen, also e n Hessen, is paramount in providing StartupRadio businesses with the tools for lasting success. Look at our dedicated podcast in partnership with them, tech startups Germany, or of course, again, as we said, in the link tree.
Now dig a little bit into the top news. Right, Chris? Everybody's talking about Euro cup here in Germany right now, especially, since Germany has successfully moved out of the group phase as number 1 in their group. But I do believe it wasn't the most difficult. Neither Italy Joe Spain nor France nor Portugal. So it was okay. Check 24 just accomplished the biggest marketing campaign in Germany this year is a question.
Check 24 has made waves in its latest marketing campaign distributing 5,000,000, yes, 1,000,000 free jerseys from Puma ahead of the European championship. This bold move estimated to to have cost around €100,000,000 aims to tap into the football market and attract a younger audience. The jerseys, which have flooded fan zones and social media, contrast sharply with the official DFB, the German Football Association,
teams' jerseys made by Adidas. Czech 24 founder Heinrich Blaser sees this as long term investment in the brand despite criticism from customer advocates who warn about data privacy. The campaign has not only boosted app downloads but also sparked discussions and Bemis online. While some applaud the innovative approach, others questions the true cost of the free jerseys. What everybody has to see is also the the background story that Puma and Adidas have been
founded by competing brothers. So this is just a continuation of this fight. And I do believe a lot of people at Adelas are currently pretty mad at, check 24 and, of course, Ooma. Air taxis still in the news. Remember that we talked last news about Vodacopter and their, Menninger their self imposed deadline of flying during the Paris Olympics this summer and the failure to secure more than 50 1,000,000 state guarantees.
Lilium is now in the headlines. The Bavarian e v t o l, Ifto Ifto developer, is seeking 300,000,000 in government aid to bridge financing gaps for a Stellium jet. Meanwhile, competitor Volocopter is also vying for funding. 1st manned flood expected this year. Details in the link here in the show notes at Handelsblad. Also, the news of Lilium come after last month, we covered 150,000,000 funding. We've hinted this already in
our in our headlines. Wefox suffers from internal power struggle with a potential 4 1,000,000,000, yes, 1,000,000,000 US dollar valuation drop. There seems to be power struggle that wefox, as always, the company as a whole is suffering. This is what we
know. According to several articles in the newspapers and blogs, Mubadala, an important investor at Wefox, a sovereign wealth fund, pushes for sale of, 2 UK's Ardonga Ardonga valuing the Berlin based IntriTech at only €550,000,000 far below the last valuation reported by TechCrunch to be €4,500,000,000 in May 2023. Other investors prefer injecting fresh capital. Decision time looms.
The blog, Finance Forward, writes about the power struggle between the is between the founders and the new CEO, Marc Hartigan. They write the founders want to avoid him getting elected for the board of directors. The blog, Das Investment, the investment, wraps up neatly. Mubadala Investment would profit from a sale. The valuation has dropped considerably. Founders and some investors want a new start because according to Bloomberg, the founders would end up
empty handed in a sale to AO and DACH. Mubadala would profit most from a divestiture. The future depends on the election of the new next supervisory board. And, of course, we keep you updated. In a stark contrast, also in the insurance insure tech space, Clark, Clark
dotde. Christopher Oster, we had him in 2 interviews and you can look down here in the show notes the last video interview I had with him in the 100,000,000 round, is peacefully transitioning from his operational role at Clark to join the supervisory board. His leadership has been pivotal, and we're excited to see the impact he'll make in his new role. Congrats, Christopher. There's a link to his personal
LinkedIn update. And you can learn more about him along this journey with our 2 interviews with him over time. Plus another article, InsureTech StartupRadio Clark is gearing up for massive one 100,000,000 funding round under the new CEO, Menninger Kaltier with plans for expansion and increased profits. Clark is set to make waves in the industry. More details, of course, as always in the link. And the last top news and I'll hand it over to Chris.
After announcing €7,800,000,000 investment last month, Amazon announced another €10,000,000,000 additional investment this month. They are focusing on cloud storage in Rhein Main area and expanding its logistics network. This brings the total investment in Germany to 70.8 €1,000,000,000 just announced this year alone. Joe, both investments are focusing on building more or less their infrastructure in Germany. And I hand it over to Chris who has important news about AI. Yes. And a bit shorter,
top news here. In the AI world, we see that DeepL is going to become, Germany's most valuable AI StartupRadio surpassing Aleph Alpha. Because DeepL got a $300,000,000 investment and now hit a $2,000,000,000 valuation, they build their reputation with, machine translation and, actually holding their own against Google Translate and JetGPT, I'd say. There's more than €250,000,000 for Black Semiconductor because they secured €254,400,000 in a series a funding to
boost Europe's semiconductor industry. With the money or in in terms of business business strategy, they are set to open up a cutting edge pilot fill facility in Aachen by 2026. And Cognigy from Dusseldorf raises a $100,000,000 to supercharge AI customer service, automation, or a Zeo Growth, leads this series c funding round, which is supposed to fuel research and development and Joe with expansion of the brand. Joe far, clients include Lufthansa, Toyota, and Mercedes Benz.
We will see who else will join that group. And Flix considers a private equity, investment as you already said. There's big moves in mobility. Investor EQT is in early talks to potentially acquire 30% stake in Flix, powerhouse between FlixBus and Flix Train, the company here in the US owning what used to be Greyhound, and, which also could probably lead that investment could also probably lead to a delayed
IPO. You can learn more in our interview with Jochen Engert, who at that time was CEO at Flix, and there you can get some background about the company. I'm handing it over back to you to brag for a quick second, and then I'm taking over again. Yeah. There's actually not a lot to brag about. Our new website is online. You can register there on the website to get alerts every time we post new content. Note, not all blog posts are moved there yet. So that means you may get a lot of,
alerts that we posted something just because we're migrating this. But don't worry. Start registering in September. We'll remind you of this again, And you will notice that we've already migrated more than 40 blog posts and are working hard on publishing more. If you're looking, to partner with us, look no further. There is a link to our Passionfruit storefront. Chris, you always seem to me like a ecosystem guy. Yeah. Big picture
guy. So ecosystem news is, the part of the show where we talk about everything surrounding the StartupRadio scene that is affecting it. At first, we have a look at the worldwide ecosystem where we see that the meta verse and ARVR investments are cooling off even though Apple obviously introduced with huge fanfare the Vision Pro, which also now has a German release date, it seems though that these seeds are losing interest to 2024
is on track for the lowest funding in years for these technologies. And, I mean, even, even for the vision pro, I have already read a couple of swan songs saying, okay. This is gonna be, this is gonna go down the same way as the Google Glasses. We will see. Europe, European ecosystem. There are signs of recovery for the European StartupRadio market market after a tough 2023.
IPOs and late stage funding are picking up. Early stage deals are heating up with major funds like Creandum announcing a new €500,000,000 euro investment. We expect to see more unicorns and start up exits in the near future. All of it can be read in-depth at Siftit. And, affecting the start up industry in Europe is also the, discussion about chat control. And so far, there's no majority about that in the European Union. The member states are unable to
agree on a position on chat control today. Council presidency has removed the Joe from the agenda because it did not have a sufficient majority. So, the if you wanna know more about the chat protocol and the, oversight that was planned, you can have a look in the show notes with articles from netspolitik and privateinternetaccess.com.
And in the German ecosystem, we always take a short look at the e for business climate index for Germany, in which the, poll participants given given insight in what they expect business how they expect business to develop in the near future. And then we are being communicated a point number, a numb yeah, an index number. That index number dropped to 88.6 in June from 89 point 3 in May, Menninger, well, there might be some more
pessimism in the market growing. The current situation assessment stayed unchanged though, and I mean, it's still the same story as has been for a couple of months now, maybe even years. The German economy struggles to overcome stagnation and doesn't do, doesn't show as much of a dynamic growth as other other countries do maybe, for example, the US. The, which also leads us to, specific numbers in terms of the economy, and, we see a slight growth mostly boosted by construction and
exports. German GDP rose 0.2% in the Q1. Private consumption remains a challenge, though. So the question remains if, customer spending can drive a further recovery in the future or not. Moving on from the ecosystem to, more specific news from several start up regions in Germany, where, as always, we can tell you, well, there are some hidden gems in cities of general start up interest. We're not looking at everything. But, you have a quick
sentence about Frankfurt and then moving on to Dusseldorf. I had thought when you talked about that, when you think about the German economy growing by only 2 point 0.2% in a quarter, that is even in a quarter more than a few small, GDPs of small nations here in the world. So, relatively speaking, we're not growing fast, but I think in absolute terms, it would still be an impressive number. Yeah. Write in mind, just keep in mind the news from clog.de and Dusseldorf.
Dusseldorf may not seem like a StartupRadio hub, but it has all the right ingredients. AUX money's CEO highlights the city's tech community, talent access, and quality of living. Read more about them in the tech.eu article. Chris, you wanna take over a little bit? Yeah. Looking a bit at, the StartupRadio that are Austria and Switzerland. In Austria, there was a scoop where about the EdTech unicorn GoStudent, because it turned out that GoStudent is behind the comparison site, and funneling
leads to their own tutoring services at GoStudent. So the site is now being redesigned for better transparency, and we got a full story about that in the show notes. Austria is also set to launch 3 new business angel consortia, boosting early stage StartupRadio investments with €10,000,000 from the start up invest and, start up invest boosting scaling potentials
program. Exciting times ahead for Austrian start ups, we think. Looking at Switzerland, FINMA has initiated bankruptcy proceedings against Flobanca's aid due to insufficient capital and overindebtedness. The Swiss bank's license was revoked, and deposits up to a 100,000 Swiss francs will be repaid to clients. Moving on to general news, tech news, and the company news section where we zoom in even more and talk a bit about specific developments in specific companies.
First off, though, let's talk a bit about new funds in case of you are looking for money, which only also is a selection Fabian, which, with offices including in Munich, announces the first close of its bioeconomy fund 1 at €75,000,000 aiming for a 150,000,000 overall. The fund will invest in innovative biotech companies across food, agriculture, materials, and environmental
tech. Porsche and CICC launch a venture capital fund to invest in Chinese automotive startups, collaboration that aims to drive innovation and strengthen early stage investments in China's dynamic market. More about that in the show notes Show notes. Greentech News, you're Rian. Yeah. We moved this out of the, creative destruction. We didn't make it. Waldemar Zayla announced the, the temporary end of Zweihorn Energy despite 6 figure crowdfunding.
Changes included legal issues, market complexity, and customer adoption barriers. Basically, he was doing a very annoying all pink trash image everywhere present advertisement for potential solar installations on the balcony that should generate energy and just didn't work out. Moving on to the fintech news, only 1 in 5 fintech founders would start again in Germany due to excessive bureaucracy and insufficient venture capital. Fintechs wait 2 years for
buffer approval. The coalition's effort, receive a grade of simply sufficient according to the, survey of the German StartupRadio association. Other One's Fintech subsidiary called Mobifin has officially failed. A bit of shareholder dispute, sounds familiar, and mismanagement led to its downfall despite initial high hopes the project has turned into a €1,000,000
euro loss. Two news concerning trade republic. Number 1, they end their partnership with Solaris Bank in Berlin, opting for established banks like Deutsche, JPMorgan, HSBC, and Citi. The new broker now entrust customer funds to these major banks. More links, of course, in the show notes and trade Joe republics experience problems with paying dividends for their, for shares their shareholder their customers hold in their portfolio.
Sorry. They, they, answer questions. Of course, link in the show notes, and I think by now, they might have already fixed that bug. Chris, you wanna do some general news? Sure. And looking at, the time, I'm gonna just, like, rattle it off. Northvolt's €2,000,000,000 deal with BMW has been canceled due to production delays. It's the Swedish battery manufacturer, which is now also reviewing its plant factory in Borlanger, Sweden.
More about that at Zifdet. Celonis, Germany's most valuable startup, is reinventing itself as they say, despite nearly 40% growth. Their IPO is delayed as they revamp technology to harness AI advancements better. They are expected to surpass $1,000,000,000 in revenue this year. After the big fireworks of Gurkillas, which burned fast and bright, not all delivery
concepts seem to suffer. So we see that Flush and Paz, one of the few survivors of the delivery boom, likely surpassed €500,000,000 in revenue in 2023 despite staff reductions. OTCA expects a diff a significant growth in 2024. So maybe FlashPost might also outpace rivals like Picnic and Knuspa. We may add for our audience abroad that OTCA is basically a large conglomerate of food companies started originally by a a person with a family named OTCA with, with ingredients for baking.
Yeah. A bit like, I would say, probably, like, general meals or something. Yeah. I don't know. They're also in into muesli a lot. But not all delivery, ideas do well. Berlin's pharmacy delivery service, Mayd, m a y d, has filed for insolvency. Once operating in 70 cities, they face financial struggles and competition. The app already experienced outrage outrageous outages. The exploration company from Munich receives order from the European Space Agency to build a space capsule in order to
deliver freight to the ISS. Peugeot partners with German StartupRadio, v a y, to revolutionize delivery services with teledriving technology, aiming to make autonomous vehicles obsolete. The we got big news for Uber. One's a fierce competitor
is now expanding its partnership with German taxi providers. So the Uber app is now available to all taxi operators across Germany, and the German military army, the German army, Bundeswehr, is exploring new drone defense solutions and Startupradio Titan Technologies may have what it needs, a 3 d printed AI equipped kamikatsu drone with speeds up of up to 250 kilometers per hour. It apparently is able to take down larger drones. More about that in. Let's talk
a bit about creative destruction. Creative destruction. Of course. As always, does creative destruction. And I have to tell you, Chris, this is getting shorter and shorter, and the fundraisers are getting longer and longer. I think we turn the corner here. Berlin based, known for personalized accessories, declares insolvency. Munich 3 d lidar tech company, Plickveld, is insolvent. Founded in 2017, it raised over €42,500,000 but faced financial hurdles. 2022 revenue was
€1,900,000 with loss of 12,600,000. Woah. That's staggering. They raised their last funding in 2023. And, of course, you can learn more in the show notes. And Austria, Vienna based start up Spoon, formerly Tolstoy, known for its AI driven restaurant management software, files for bankruptcy after selling its vegan restaurant division last fall. Chris, you want to end on a high note? Of course. So we are highlighting a couple of successful fundraising
and exits here. Keep in mind, it's a small selection. It's just for us that the news here and the total value show how resilient the start up scene is. We included, as always, only some select fundraisings above €5,000,000 or $5,000,000. This month, there were so many announcements that, as always, nearly. So as you're saying, like, mood is picking up that we could not include all funds raised. So a couple of highlights here. Yes.
A lot of money, but since biotech is not our main focus, the news ended up down here. ITM from Garching raised a €188,000,000. It's a Munich Munich based radiopharmaceutical biotech and aims to advance precision therapeutics for how to treat cancer tumors and to expand manufacturing cap capabilities. ESA Aerospace secures an additional 65,000,000 in funding, raising its series c to €220,000,000. It's backed by the NATO Innovation Fund and aims to launch its spectrum rocket this year.
Also, I ESA Aerospace secures, in addition, an €85,000,000 80? €18,500,000 growth lawn Loan? Good lord. They're not, like, on the green lawn. An €18,500,000 growth loan to gear up for the rocket production. The investment comes from California's Atell Ventures, and it will fuel their mission to launch small to medium sized satellites to enhance connectivity. Empower 0. M power 0. Joe, m power 0. I was like, m accent circonflex 0. M to the power of 0, I think it's it's it's
yeah. $35,000,000 in a series a funding. I guess most of it goes to the person who named the company. The Zouk based decentralized infrastructure layer for crypto dollar issue issuance plans to expand operations and development. It's led by Bain Capital. Recap raises $14,600,000 in the series a funding led by Entre Capital, financing and data insights platform that will expand operations and
business reach in Germany and the Netherlands. Then more AI news, DeepJudge, which is an AI driven legal search startup, raised $10,700,000 in seed funding led by Koju Kwaju. Funds will support expansion and team growth to meet customer demands. ARX Robotics secures €9,000,000 and funding to to revolutionize autonomous ground systems, also backed by the NATO Innovation Funds and other investors. Joe they wanna boost military and civilian applications with scalable
but modular robots. Restate raises $7,000,000 in seed funding led by Redpoint Ventures. It's founded by Apache Flink's Fling's cocreator and aims at simplifying building distributed applications with an innovative workflows as code system. Atmio, a Hamburg based Startupradio, raises €5,100,000 in seed funding in order to combat Metan emissions. They are it's led by Notion Capital, and the round is going to fuel product development and team expansions.
ETHRIS, Munich based biotech secured a $5,000,000 funding from the Gates Foundation to advance RNA therapeutics and vaccines. With this boost, they are able to fast track ETH 47 and inhaled, mRNA candidate for respiratory diseases. And it's a small investment, but still knows Joe noteworthy quick save for Compion. It's a it's a sort of based b to b financial marketplace, voided insolvency avoided insolvency, thanks to a swift investment from 2 shareholders that
injected €1,000,000. And that came just weeks after the parent company, Doc Financial, went bankrupt. We have some fundraisers from Switzerland. Neuraj concept raises $27,000,000 in series b, the Lausanne based 3 d deep learning platform for product engineering and wants to accelerate global growth and meet customer demand in Europe, Asia Pacific, and the US. And Swiss blockchain firm, Liq, loses $22,000,000 in a major cyber attack. Despite the breach, the company assures customers
that their funds are safe and will be reimbursed. And fundraising from as Austria from Africa. Fundraising from Austria is a blank today. So this is a wrap. We will be back on September 2nd. And, actually, guys, if you want to have more, just let us know. If you want to have less, let us know. But, actually, I have to admit, doing more is simple. You just include more content, but actually doing really, more paragraphs, digging a little bit deeper into news is what we like. That's why the shop
news are getting a little bit bigger, and we go over the rest. I agree. No news to stay ahead of the curve. In summer, just, like, stay in the curve. That's our recommendation. As always, it was a pleasure talking to you, wrapping up the news with you, and we will be back together on September 2nd, Labor Day in the US. Also, my birthday. Wonderful. Looking forward. Thank you. Auf Wiedersehen. Bye bye.
Bye bye. Cheers. Cheers. That's all, folks. Find more news, streams, events, and interviews at www.startuprad.i0. Remember, sharing is Carrie.