Deep Tech Germany: AI, Robotics & Frontier Innovation by Startuprad.io™

Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss and Austrian (GSA) Startups in March 2022 by Startuprad.io — in a news recording with Chris — not from New York City today and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in radio syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio and our partner IBGR.Network. We recorded this new episode on Monday, March 21st, 2022. The recording is one week earlier than usual, due to the travel schedules of Chris and me. As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode. Our Enablers Invest-in-Hessen This show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Find it all here: https://techstartups.sounder.fm/ Startupraven.com The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/ Our highlights: We have the 100 most influential women in startup and venture capital in Europe. There are two new unicorns to announce in GSA. Unicorn Personio set up a charity fund and Germany’s largest fintech exit (at approx 1 bn US$) is in the making. We have an exclusive interview with the CEO in charge for almost 40 minutes from July 2021. We try to touch on the Russian invasion in Ukraine as lightly as possible, only when it impacts the GSA startup scene since you get more than enough news about this tragedy on ANY OTHER outlet. Please note that this does not mean we don’t care, but it is not our area of coverage. We are also talking about delivery startups and again Wirecard. Not surprisingly, Wirecard will keep the German courts busy for years to come. Let’s talk startups: Find all links and show notes here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podder - https://www.podderapp.com/privacy-policy Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Folge direkt herunterladen Startuprad.io™ - All Rights Reserved | AI & research reference → https://www.startuprad.io/llm

People talk today about the crypto winter, but I went through the time after the Dotcom Bubble burst and there are a lot of similarities here. Wolfgang Männel, Blockchain Investor Subscribe Here Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio A few years ago, I was attracted by the opportunities the blockchain offers. Wolfgang Männel, Blockchain Investor Our Sponsor Startupraven The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/ As a blockchain investor I am currently looking at … 1) Everything that is happening in the DeFi space, especially the new ways of money transfer. 2) The Gaming Sector. It is a market with 3 bn people 3) Metaverse… it maybe a big failure or a big success. There is a fair chance it becomes huge 4) IoT security. For example, a car currently has more than 200 IoT devices. 5) The whole world of financial services, including insurance. Just look at the back offices of asset managers. Wolfgang Männel, Blockchain Investor The Investor Wolfgang Männel (https://www.linkedin.com/in/wolfgang-maennel/) has been working for 30+ years. He was born and raised in Franconia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franconia), close to Nürnberg in Germany. Wolfgang started out in sales, started an agency and joined a consultancy (today Capgemini Invent). Surprisingly he had also a stint at a radio station, focused on classical music called Klassik Radio (https://www.klassikradio.de/). Klassik Radio is also the only public listed radio station in Germany. In between he was also an investor with 3i Group, at the time active in venture capital and private equity. He has also been an investor in turn-around cases during the subprime crisis. If you have seen many crises before, you know how to react. I remember the 1987 Russian crisis, the Dotcom Crash, and more. … It was always followed by a long phase where it as difficult for startups to get any kind of financing. It took years to recover … but the only way after all the crisis was up. The valuations always went up after the recovery Wolfgang Männel, Blockchain Investor He is the co-founder (senior partner) of Blockchain Founders Group BFG, a company builder and venture capital investor. You can apply here: https://www.f6s.com/ look for block rocket. We are looking to be the first or second money in, even pre-revenue. Most companies we invest in have an MVP. Wolfgang Männel, Blockchain Investor Further Readings / Additional Resources · 1987 Dissolution of the Soviet Union: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union · Dot-com bubble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble · Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis · Here is the personality test 16 personalities: https://www.16personalities.com/ I turned to turn-around investing at the time of the sub-prime crisis. Wolfgang Männel, Blockchain Investor Feedback Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback,... Folge direkt herunterladen

"We buy the on-site data from a good auditor and re-sell the data to other customers of this supplier."David Schneider, CEO and Co-Founder Qualifyze Our Enabler Invest-in-Hessen This show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Find it all here: https://techstartups.sounder.fm/ "I approached the company for an investment, and they sent me the chief of staff to vet the company. Over a few beers he decided to join me as co-founder, but the company never invested."David Schneider, CEO and Co-Founder Qualifyze The Founder This time our guest is David Schneider (https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%87%BA%F0%9F%87%A6dr-david-schneider-1100a066/), Founder and CEO of Frankfurt-based Qualifyze (https://www.qualifyze.com/), a startup that helps in the chemical and pharma industry with audits. David did see a lot of places while studying in the Netherlands (Maastricht, Rotterdam), National University of Singapore and Università Bocconi in Italy. He was also and intern with JP Morgan in investment banking in London, Rothschild in Frankfurt, or BASF in Ludwigshafen. Before starting his own company, he was working as a consultant for more than 3 years. He tried to attract investment from a steel trading company, and he convinced the person the company sent to become his co-founder. The Startup Qualifyze (https://www.qualifyze.com/) started out as a marketplace for commodity chemical products, called ChemSquare in 2017. They soon realized that in the chemical and pharma industry the required suppliers’ audits are a big hassle and they pivoted to help their clients with digitizing them. These audits are essential for supply chains in the chemical and pharma industry, where faulty ingredients can lead to deaths or damage to equipment or nature. "We decided to get the supplier qualification on our platform to make the chemical platform work and it turned into a new business model." David Schneider, CEO and Co-Founder Qualifyze Venture Capital Funding They raised a Series A funding round, led by HV Capital of 14 mn US$, which was disclosed in November 2021. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podder - https://www.podderapp.com/privacy-policy Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Folge direkt herunterladen Startuprad.io™ - All Rights Reserved | AI & research reference → https://www.startuprad.io/llm

Welcome to This Month in GSA Startups - meaning Germany, Austria and Switzerland, for February 2022 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris from New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio, our partner station IBGR.Network and the Fundscene blog. We recorded this new episode on Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022. Today we bring you everything from a new Switzerland-based unicorn to a new take on quick delivery - pardon the pun. We start out with mega-deal in Gaming: ESL Gaming is sold for 1bn US$, Munich-based Fintechsystems is sold for 120 mn € and Aachen-based Next Ego may accomplish THE turnaround of the whole year, coming out of insolvency, they are looking to list via SPAC, valued at 1.5 bn €. Switzerland has a new unicorn, congratulations to Scandit, Gorillas wants to buy a french competitor and is thinking about a SPAC deal. Also, we have a large update on neobanks in Germany, and they are not all doing well. Let's talk startups: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-gsa-startups-february-2022-44520c52b1eb This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podder - https://www.podderapp.com/privacy-policy Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Folge direkt herunterladen Startuprad.io™ - All Rights Reserved | AI & research reference → https://www.startuprad.io/llm

A Joint Audio-Only Podcast This is the first joint radio program and podcast of IBGR and the Startuprad.io podcast with its radio program Startup.Radio. You may know that IBGR and Startup.Radio are syndication partner, almost from the start of Startup.Radio. I, therefore, welcome William Eastman, founder of the IBGR Network, everybody calls Bill. Subscribe Here Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: Link https://linktr.ee/startupradio Our Sponsor Startupraven The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/ What we have learned Today we bring you insights from Atomico’s State of European Tech 2021 - an annual survey of startups all over Europe taking place annually since 2015. This survey may be the most comprehensive, repeated overview of the European startup and tech scene. This survey is a joint endeavor by Atomico, a London-based VC and PE fund, as well as the annual Slush tech festival in Helsinki, Finland. And, guys, you know a tech festival has to be good, if it can lure people to the freezing cold Helsinki in December. They also add data from providers like S&P and Dealroom in the mix. Startuprad.io had Dealrooms Founder in an interview btw. This is just a start This is just a starting point for you to discover the whole report on your own. It spans more than 350 pages, so we can not give you all the information here. The bottom line is … I would say: The whole continental ecosystem all over Europe has been lacking behind the US and China for quite some time. It looks like they have started to catch up in a big way, despite corona. We see this in increases in the number of investors, startups, fundings (number and size), and the increase in the uni/decacorn herds. The authors see a potential for the whole ecosystem that is now worth 3 Trillion US$ to be worth 24 Trillion US$ in 2030. Learn More here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/what-we-have-learned-from-atomicos-state-of-european-tech-survey-audio-only/ Feedback is always welcome: Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” Google Form for Feedback This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podder - https://www.podderapp.com/privacy-policy Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Folge direkt herunterladen Startuprad.io™ - All Rights Reserved | AI & research reference → https://www.startuprad.io/llm

We focus on everything, besides the large solar parks, which is actually 99% of the overall market. Johannes Burgard, Founder and CEO of SOLYTIC Subscribe Here Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: Link https://linktr.ee/startupradio Our Sponsor Startupraven The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/ The inefficiencies of small solar installations … kind of smacked me in the face. Johannes Burgard, Founder and CEO of SOLYTIC The Founder We talk to Johannes Burgard (https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannesburgard/), CEO and Founder of Berlin-based SaaS startup SOLYTIC (https://www.solytic.com/). Johannes started out with studying engineering, with stints in Chile and London. After graduation he worked at Airbus, did an MBA and then started out with his entrepreneurial journey. Johannes had his first contact with solar cells during his graduate studies, which really did not let him go afterwards. He worked in a large corporate in project efficiency, which made him aware of all the inefficiencies in small solar installations. To help the small solar owner he decided to found SOLYTIC. We analyze the performance and efficiency of small solar installations with our analytics software. Johannes Burgard, Founder and CEO of SOLYTIC The Startup SOLYTIC (https://www.solytic.com/) is a software-only company. They provide analytics services to small PV installation owners as Software as a Service, to improve effiency. The company merged early on with another solar software company, which lead to five founders in total. Solytic focuses on decentralized solar installations (everything except large solar parks). We want to provide an end-to-end solution. We offer a marketplace with suppliers connected to the analytics software. Johannes Burgard, Founder and CEO of SOLYTIC Venture Capital Funding Solytic has already raised 6,5 mn Euros Venture Capital. They closed their first round in December 2017. They closed their Series A funding in February 2020. At the time of the interview Solytic is fundraising and they intend to close the round at the end of Q1 2022. We work B2B. We don’t approach customers directly, but we are working with the service providers of the small installation owners. Johannes Burgard, Founder and CEO of SOLYTIC This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podder - https://www.podderapp.com/privacy-policy Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Folge direkt herunterladen Startuprad.io™ - All Rights Reserved | AI & research reference → https://www.startuprad.io/llm

This Month in German Startups - January 2022 Happy New Year guys! Welcome to This Month in German Startups in January 2021 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris from New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in radio syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio and our partner IBGR.Network. We recorded this new episode on Monday, January 24th, 2022. All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode. There will also be a special episode on Atomico’s State of European Tech 2021 together with Bill, the founder of the IBGR Network, as an audio-only podcast. This is a new year with 365 blank new pages, so let's write the best story possible. Our highlights: The last year was amazing for the German startup scene, there are now officially 25 unicorns and we feel that there will be more. 60 mn for sunfire from the federal government, Go Student’s tutors and students start to critique the company, Tado is looking to IPO via a SPAC. Also Cherry Ventures had been good in snatching up stakes in unicorns early. Now Cherry raises their 4th fund. Let's talk startups: Tune in to our Internet Radio Station here: www.startup.radio Startuprad.io is globally a Top 75 Science Podcast, Top 125 Tech Podcast, and Top 650 Business Podcast (Chartable.com) Subscribe Here Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio Our EnablersInvest-in-Hessen This show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Find it all here: https://anchor.fm/techstartupsgermany Startupraven.com The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/ All show notes and news links are here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-germany-austria-switzerland-january-2022/ This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podder - https://www.podderapp.com/privacy-policy Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Folge direkt herunterladen Startuprad.io™ - All Rights Reserved | AI & research reference → https://www.startuprad.io/llm

We try to do for books, what Spotify is doing for music and Netflix is doing for movies: A personalized recommendation. Ben Kohz, COO and Co-Founder READ-O Tune in to our Internet Radio Station here: https://www.startup.radio/ There are over 70.000 newly released books in Germany alone each year. How can you find the next book to read? Ben Kohz, COO and Co-Founder READ-O  Subscribe Here Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: Link https://linktr.ee/startupradio There were years in my life – around the Harry Potter time – I read a lot of books. I stopped because I could not find more books to read. Ben Kohz, COO and Co-Founder READ-O Our Sponsor Startupraven The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/ We assume there are more than one million reviews for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Book 1) alone. Ben Kohz, COO and Co-Founder READ-O  Partnership with CONTENTshift This interview is in association with CONTENTshift, the accelerator program of the Association of the German Book Publishers & Booksellers. You can learn more here https://www.contentshift.de/. The winners are announced during the Frankfurt Book Fair each year https://www.buchmesse.de/en. The accelerator program aims to push the boundaries of publishing. The next application phase is just around the corner. Have a look: https://www.contentshift.de/en/contentshift/news/two-startups-share-first-prize-at-contentshift-2021-congratulations-to-bottalk-and-read-o We tried to find out, why do you read? … You want to feel emotions. … So, we want to find out which emotions are stimulated by which books. That is why we came up with an emotional profile. Ben Kohz, COO and Co-Founder READ-O  The founder We interview Ben Kohz COO (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-kohz-547024137/) and Co-Founder of READ-O (https://read-o.com/), one of the two winners of the 2021 CONTENTshift accelerator program. Ben studied political sciences but ended up in the food industry after graduation. He started to put up vending machines for farm produce in Munich. We are currently working in German, but our AI can analyze more languages. Ben Kohz, COO and Co-Founder READ-O  The Startup The startup READ-O (https://read-o.com/) is an app, that allows you to discover new books, based on administration. The app does this by applying AI. The AI of READ-O deduces an emotional profile of a book from the reviews on the internet. With their technology, they can establish a profile with even 10 reviews. Each review for us has the same value, from a normal person or the New York Times. Ben Kohz, COO and Co-Founder READ-O  Venture Capital FundingREAD-O is currently raising close to 1 mn US$ in new funding. Half is already committed. They want to finish fundraising end of March. Our AI analyzes the reviews and the contained emotions. Ben Kohz, COO and Co-Founder... Folge direkt herunterladen

"If you can order a pizza with an AI bot, … you should also be able to order the analysis of a company with an AI bot." Pavol Sikula, Founder and CEO AskBrian.ai Subscribe Here Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: Link https://linktr.ee/startupradio Our Sponsor Startupraven The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/ "The first skill was actually “AskBrian, tell me a joke”" Pavol Sikula, Founder and CEO AskBrian.ai Our Cooperation with the German AI Association (KI Bundesverband) This is the first interview in our series with the KI Bundesverband (https://ki-verband.de/en/), Germany’s association for artificial intelligence. The association has 350 members consisting of startups, experts, and corporates. KI Bundesverband is therefore one of Germany’s largest associations dedicated to AI, with members from AgTech, Fintech, BioTech, Cybersecurity, Manufacturing, Logistics, and many more fields of business. In the interview series, we will have members of the association giving you a glimpse in what is going on in AI in Germany. The Founder Our interview guest this week is Pavol (https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavol-sikula/), CEO and Founder of AskBrian (https://www.askbrian.ai/) a virtual AI assistant for professionals. The idea of AskBrian stems from Pavol’s background in management consulting, where he spent more than a decade with Roland Berger and Stern Steward & Co, in restructuring. In his spare time, Pavol is also a kid’s soccer coach. "All of our data is securely hosted, GDPR compliant, in Germany." Pavol Sikula, Founder and CEO AskBrian.ai The Startup AskBrian is the AI assistant for busy professionals like management consultants or investment bankers. It helps by automating everyday tasks like listed and private company profiles, translations in multiple languages, making PowerPoint more attractive, and converting documents e.g. PDFs and Pictures to the format of your choice e.g. Word. https://www.linkedin.com/company/askbrian-gmbh/ https://www.askbrian.ai/ https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/askbrian/  Venture Capital Funding AskBrian closed already two funding rounds, for undisclosed amounts. They intend to raise another funding round in Q1 2022. Original Post Find all links and show notes on the original post here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/askbrian-is-the-digital-assistant-all-busy-professionals-need/ This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podder - https://www.podderapp.com/privacy-policy Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Folge direkt herunterladen

HoHoHo Welcome to This Month in German Startups in December 2021 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris from New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. We recorded this new episode on Monday, December 20th. All news not included here will be published in our next news episode. There will also be our annual Fintech Review on December 25th and we will be back with an AI startup interview on January 13th. So we take a few weeks off around the holidays. Happy Holidays! We are not there yet, so let's get started: Today we bring you another new unicorn, a monster funding of 266 mn US$ at Mambu, Volocopter calls off its SPAC IPO and gets a backlash from its early crowd investors, also Jokr is now the 3rd quick delivery unicorn - in record time - and we have an update on Sono Motors. We also take a look at the State of European Tech survey by Atomico and several news pieces on the German Venture Capital Market, as well as VC in general. Let's talk startups: Subscribe Here Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio Enablers Invest-in-Hessen This show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Find it all here: https://anchor.fm/techstartupsgermany Startupraven The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/ Find all links and extensive show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-december-2021/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/deeptechgermany/message This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podder - https://www.podderapp.com/privacy-policy Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Folge direkt herunterladen Startuprad.io™ - All Rights Reserved | AI & research reference → https://www.startuprad.io/llm