Blockchain Germany - By Startuprad.io

Executive SummaryIn this bonus episode of our expert interview series, Antonio Fatas, Professor of Economics at INSEAD, joins us to provide insights into the current situation with FTX. We've gathered a good deal of information about the collapse so far but there is still much that remains unknown. We delved into some of the known facts surrounding FTX and pondered together on what could happen in the future. It's clear from our discussion that FTX was not a regulated financial institution, and also had its own unique challenges. We'll be keeping an eye out for more developments related to FTX as time goes on to see what other lessons we can learn.I do believe there are other places where entities are insolvent, we just have not seen it yet.Antonio Fatas, Professor of Economics Subscribe HereWe are always sharing new resources with you. Find all of our options below. https://linktr.ee/startupradioFTX suffered from bad management and likely fraud as wellAntonio Fatas, Professor of EconomicsBackgroundAs crypto continues to grow into a new and important market, the digital asset industry has been rocked by the sudden collapse of one of its biggest crypto exchanges - FTX. Led by crypto personality Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX had previously been ranked as the world's third-biggest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume, so its downfall came as quite a shock to crypto investors. This news is sure to cause ripples throughout the crypto industry for a long time, and it serves as another reminder that despite its rising popularity, crypto remains an unpredictable and high-risk gamble. Regulators may now have a different view on the risks and regulations of crypto. Antonio Fatas, Professor of EconomicsThis event echoed Mt Gox's downfall although the underlying problem was quite different. Unlike Mt. Gox which fell victim to hack, FTX merely could not keep up with the sudden demand for withdrawals caused by investors who were losing faith in the platform. The resulting effect sent FTT, their native token, tumbling and kicked off a domino effect causing customers to rush out of the exchange and further crippling its ability to sustain itself, leading inevitably to its demise.I find it very revealing that these tokens that are supposed to work with high inflation, because the central banks are all crazy but this is the way to hold on to your purchasing power. Now that we have inflation, they are collapsing. That to me is a really red flag.Antonio Fatas, Professor of Economics Bitcoin crashed, Ethereum crashed, and almost every other major token did the same. Then Binance stepped in, with the world's number one exchange announcing it would buy FTX and ensure everyone gets repaid. But just as soon as the market settled, Binance announced a U-turn, saying the situation at FTX was beyond recovery. The implications from the complase of FTX will be felt for crypto for the coming years in more an thougher regulations. That is why we will follow the story. We start with a discussion of the situation with our guest. Professor Fatas.The ExpertAntonio is an influential professor of economics with an impressive set of credentials. With a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and a research fellowship at the Centre for Economic and Policy Research in London, he brings broad expertise to his job as a Professor of...

Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups, our startup news wrap-up for December 2022 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on December 19th, 2022. Keep in mind, this news episode covers everything since our last news episode.As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode, which will be January 2023, the first news for 2023. Guys, another year is over! Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog, link belowOur Highlights:Enpal makes huge fundraising in the current environment, more than 800 mn €. Sennder doubles its valuation in the next funding round to 2 bn US$ and has already 60 mn commitments. The funding environment may be bleak, but investors announced new funds for VC and PE investments worth 3.1 bn US$ targeting startups and scaleups in GSA or Europe. One blog asks if the time of Rocket Internet is over, Matter Labs raises 200 mn, a big heist drives a startup into insolvency and Getir buys Gorillas for 1,2 bn US$, a far cry from Gorillas' former 3 bn US$ valuation.Let's talk startups:Top News Enpal FundraisingEnpal could double its valuation in the new funding round. Berlin-based unicorn Enpal closes €855 million in debt funding to accelerate the adoption of solar energy.Sennder Raises New Funds At Double ValuationDigital forwarder unicorn Sennder is raising new money, at a 2 bn US$ valuation. According to the report, they already have 60m commitments.Fundraising For VCs Went Quite Well - More Than 3.1 bn Euros Worth of New Investment Funds Have Been ClosedThe largest is EQT Ventures. It has Money if your startup needs it: EQT Ventures III closes Europe's largest venture capital fund committed to early-stage tech startups. The money will go to early-stage startups in Europe and North America. For more funds, wait for our later section with new fund announcements.A service for our audience: Learn more and send in pitches here: https://eqtgroup.com/current-portfolio/funds/eqt-ventures-iii Has Rocket Internet Already Seen Its Best Years?"Mucho trouble over at Rocket Internet," wrote Robin Wauters in his readworthy newsletter for Tech.eu. The article asks if their era is over. Staff cuts and investment stop point in that direction.Startup Brand RankingJung von Matt publishes their annual GERMAN STARTUP BRAND RANKINGSome of the top 50 startup brands are known from our news: About You, Flink, Numa Group, getquin, Vivid, Flaschenpost, Tier Mobility, Zolar, Enpal, Sono Motors, Trade RepublicMatter Labs raises 200 mn US$Matter Labs, the Berlin, Germany-based developer of zkSync, a solution that reduces the cost of Ethereum transactions, raised $200M in Series C funding https://buff.ly/3UorChpNot Oceans Eleven, But Still BIGBerlin-based luxury watch marketplace Watchmaster was one of the largest marketplaces of its kind. After a spectacular robbery where 10 m € worth of watches have been stolen the company has to file for insolvency https://buff.ly/3Fi3qsG Getir Buys Gorillas And It Is Not Going Well For the Gorillas FounderFirst, this kind of news appeared: Getir will take over Gorillas soon - according to press reports. The negotiations have been dragging on for some time now.Then, we got the confirmation: Getir acquires German competitor Gorillas in $1.2 billion deal - where Gorillas was once valued at 3 bn...

Our Highlights: FTX may be history, BUT a German Blog reports there are several parties interested in buying the European Entity of FTX. FTX also triggered Bitpanda to order a special audit from KPMG. We have some more job cuts, this time the 2nd round. Gorillas may sell itself at 1 bn USD even though they have raised 1.3 bn USD in venture capital already. Air taxis are still hot, Volocopter raises more than 180 m US$ to get closer to certification and Lilium sells 100 Airtaxis to Saudi Arabia. The German VC market is stabilizing, according to KfW Research. Our former guest Creditshelf partners with Goldman Sachs and pockets 100 m Euros. Gitpod, a startup from Kiel convinces the founders of GitHub and Shopify to invest.Let's talk startups:Our Sponsor StartupravenThe best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/Find all options to follow us and subscribe here: https://linktr.ee/startupradioTop News FTX may soon be History, BUTA German blog Finance Forward reports there are several parties interested in buying the European Entity of FTX, which is headquartered in Switzerland. Their information has been spot-on in other cases in the past.Job Cuts Keep Coming - 2nd Round NowProptechs Homeday and McMakler enter the second round of job cuts. Homeday cuts 20 jobs (60 before) and McMakler again 100 employeesGorillas May Sell Itself at a Huge DiscountSequoia-backed grocery startup Getir is close to buying its troubled rival Gorillas in a heavily discounted deal said to be worth less than $1 billion. They have been valued at their series C investment at 2.1 bn US$ and to date they raised more than 1.3 bn US$.Related: Deutsche-Startups uncovered that Gorillas (which is in the process of selling itself) paid 300 m € this year for french competitor Frichti.Lilium Sells 100 Airtaxis Saudi Arabia buys 100 air taxis from Munich -based startup Lilium. The delivery is expected 2025. Before the deal, they also hired former Airbus executive Klaus Roewe. Fingers crossed for them, they did not generate revenue yet, but 841 m Euros in losses so far. Volocopter Raises 182 M US$Volocopter raises $182M to bring air taxi closer to certification, as part of their Series E funding The company is currently testing its two-seater VoloCity air taxi for the requirements set by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Volocopter is looking to certify its aircraft in H2 2023 and generate revenue with rides in 2024.Creditshelf Partners with Goldman SachsOur former guest Creditshelf partners with Goldman Sachs and hits profitability - Goldman Sachs is providing the German alternative lender for SMEs with up to €100m of secured funding. Learn more in our interview with Creditshelf here https://buff.ly/3NVANo1 Creditshelf is Germany's only listed pure-play fintech, offering a credit platform, where investors can grant credit to German small and medium enterprises.Mentioned in this episode:Our EnablersYounium Younium is the subscription management and billing platform for B2B SaaS. Younium brings the transformative infrastructure to manage and grow your business while you focus on the things that matter. https://www.younium.com/ Tvarit Tvarit is an industrial ai startup, that helps companies to reduce rejections by 40%-60% in metal casting, as well as saving up to 18% on energy. Learn more here: https://www.tvarit.com/Startupraven.comStartupraven.com The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: https://startupraven.com/This podcast uses the following...

Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups in October 2022 by Startuprad.io with Chris from Essen, Germany, and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on Thursday, October 20th, 2022.Our Highlights:Another one of our former guests gets a Snoop Dog investment. Quick delivery startup Gorillas seems to sell itself to competitor Getir, according to Bloomberg, despite an earlier announcement they are looking for more investments. Gadget rental service Grover adds 270 m € in venture debt, getting it close to 2 billion €. Our former guest Nuri (formerly Bitwala) had to file for insolvency, now investors jump ship and the company is wound down this year. Volocopter is sued by early crowdfunding backers, Home24 has a takeover offer from a brick-and-mortar furniture retailer and BioNTech takes on cancer. Also, Munich-based travel tech Holidu raises 100 m € in a combination of 75 m equity and 25 m debt funding.Let's talk startups:Our EnablersYouniumYounium is the subscription management and billing platform for B2B SaaS. Younium brings the transformative infrastructure to manage and grow your business while you focus on the things that matter. https://www.younium.com/TvaritTvarit is an industrial ai startup, that helps companies to reduce rejections by 40%-60% in metal casting, as well as saving up to 18% on energy. Learn more here: https://www.tvarit.com/ Invest-in-HessenThis 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:Tech Startups Germany - Startups and Venture CapitalStartupraven.comThe best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early stage startups. Sign up for early access here:Startup RavenTop NewsEurope's Largest Cannabis Funding To DateEurope's largest cannabis funding to date: Snoop Dogg-backed German cannabis startup gets $37.6M Series B led by British American Tobacco learn more about the Entrepreneur of the Year 2021 (German Startup Awards) founder Finn Age Hänsel in our interviewGorillas May Soon Be Bought By GetirDelivery Startup Getir in Advanced Talks to Buy Gorillas (Bloomberg). They write:“Proposed deal for Gorillas would be a mix of cash and equityThe combination would give Getir, which is backed by Mubadala Investment Co. and Sequoia Capital, scale in key European markets including the UK and Germany.Gorillas had previously held talks with a number of competitors about the prospects for a merger or sale of its business, people familiar with the matter said previously.Chief Executive Officer Kagan Sumer said earlier this year that he planned to look for new financing to recalibrate the company to work toward profitability.” Grover Takes Home 270 m €As consumer spending tightens, yet appetites for tech remain the same, Berlin-based Grover sees an uptick in rental interest and is now

Our highlights: Germany is preparing for a potentially rough winter, in many ways. Now Environmental Action Germany (Deutsche Umwelthilfe): Asked Germans not to put up any Christmas lights this season. Startups in GSA keep laying off staff, but also raising significant funds. We have our usually shortened list a bit longer this month, to show that it is not all gloom and doom here. You will also notice that the M&A activity is up, totaling 55 bn US$ in summer 2022 (for all of Europe), and is still going strong. 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: The Authority on German, Swiss and Austrian Startups | Linktree 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: Tech Startups Germany Startupraven.com The best way to identify investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up for early access here: Startup Raven Blog Post Find all links, news and show notes here: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-september-2022-53339fae6ca7

Executive Summary This episode is part of our Subject Matter Expert Interviews. It will be one in a series over time, keeping up with the development of the central banks and their digital currency. This episode is just the start! We talk to Kimmo, a regtech entrepreneur, who formerly worked at the central banks of Finland, Norway, the Bank of England, ECB, and the Fed in New York City. This episode is a starting point for us, from which we will dive deeper, keeping up with the developments on CBDC. At the Federal Reserve in New York I siumlated attacks on critical infrastructure on the back of the 9/11 attacks. Kimmo Soramäki, Founder and CEO of FNA Subscribe Here We are always sharing new resources with you. Find all of our options below. We want to make sure that we provide what's best for your growing team, so please take a look at these additional ways in which can help! https://linktr.ee/startupradio We work with a lof of clients with three letter acronyms. So we decided to name our company financial network analytics, FNA.Kimmo Soramäki, Founder and CEO of FNA The Expert This episode is part of our Subject Matter Expert Interviews. It will be one in a series over time, keeping up with the development of the central banks and their digital currency. We talk to Kimmo, a regtech entrepreneur, who founded with FNA a company that helps banks, central banks and financial institutions. He has already advisde the central banks of Finland and Norway, been a visiting researcher at the Bank of England and expert at ECB. He also spents a year as research economist at the Fed in New York City. His first software simulated for finish banks the impact of joining the euro zone. When the financial crisis 2008 came, we realized that we don't need an outside attack on the symstem to destabilize it. Kimmo Soramäki, Founder and CEO of FNA Our Sponsor Startupraven A startup's journey can be a tough one, but it doesn't have ́to feel like you're alone on your quest! Invest in others' success with us by joining our community of entrepreneurs who are building amazing things every day - no matter how big or small their ideas may seem at first glance. The best way to find investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up here: https://startupraven.com/ Blog Post Find all links and show notes here: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/fintech-opportunities-in-cental-bank-digital-currency-part-1-839a35c2a1be

Startups in GSA did better than expected. We had a few insolvency filings, but also amazing fundraisings like Celonis 1 bn US$ combination of equity and debt funding. Insuftech Wefox raises 400 m. One can already see the signs of a downturn, M&A activity going up, as well as the news about insolvencies or job cuts/ hiring freezes. But — according to a Bikcom survey — 8 out of 10 startups are still hiring. Deal time our recent guest Qonto buys former guest Penta and there was more in a B2B neobank deal week. Even Allianz had to learn, that one can not buy fintech success and there is more news on Wirecard. We will also bombard you with funding data on Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as global numbers. Keep in mind you can read all our news on our blog https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-summer-2022-wrap-up-603e2c1939ae

Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups in June 2022 by Startuprad.io. My co-host is again Chris from New York. 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 station IBGR.Network. We recorded this new episode on Monday, June 27th, 2022. Keep in mind, that we will have a summer break and be back for you with another news episode on Labor Day, which is September 5th, 2022. In this episode, we will wrap up July, and August. As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode in September. We will also slightly change our publication schedule for this July and August, mostly going to one publication every two weeks. You can keep up to date with our Google Calendar for all publications.  Our highlights: Startups in GSA also shedding headcount, including unicorns that recently raised money. All signs point towards them extending their runway, expecting a recession. Some startups face a challenging fundraising environment, but others like WeFox want to almost double their valuations. Also, Personio and Trade Republic raise additional funds. In our “stay ahead of the curve” section, we have a lot of articles an entrepreneur should read to prepare for the potential downturn. German economic minister Habeck is unveiling his new startup strategy, considering even a minimum investment in VC Funds for German insurers and pension funds. The fast delivery startups seem to hit a wall and even formerly mighty Gorillas now explores strategic options. Let's talk startups: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-june-2022-2651b2b64fe 

We want digital debt to be registered, issued, transferred and eventually traded on our infrastructure. Benedikt Schuppli, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FQX Executive Summary FQX is a Zürich, Switzerland-based fintech with great aspirations. They want to digitize company debt and this digital debt to be registered, issued, transferred, and eventually traded on their infrastructure. Promissory notes are known around the financial world. These instruments are fairly standardized. So, if you put this on a blockchain, you have an extremely powerful financing tool. Benedikt Schuppli, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FQX The Founder This time we interview Benedikt Schuppli (https://www.linkedin.com/in/benedikt-schuppli/), a founder from Switzerland. He is the co-founder and co-CEO of FQX (https://fqx.ch/), a fintech startup from Switzerland offering electronic IOUs. Benedikt is a lawyer by training but took his first job after graduating with a Swiss fintech pioneer named Lykke as Chief Legal Officer. He there realized he wanted to be an entrepreneur and co-founded a smart contract startup called Lexon. The Startup FQX (https://fqx.ch/) is based in Zürich, Switzerland. Promissory notes, a version of IOUs is a stable of company funding in the German speaking area. Now with digitalization they get the ability to become much more widely used and listed on capital markets globally. A single issuance of promissory notes by one issuer is normally between 50-150 million Euros each. According to a recent statistic Q2 2021 alone saw the issuance of promissory notes worth 2,5 bn Euros in Germany, compared to 3,2 bn Euros in Q2 2020. Right now, they have a premium for not being tradable, but this is about to change with FQX. Learn more here: We want digital debt to be registered, issued, transferred and eventually traded on our infrastructure. Benedikt Schuppli, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FQX Executive Summary FQX is a Zürich, Switzerland-based fintech with great aspirations. They want to digitize company debt and this digital debt to be registered, issued, transferred, and eventually traded on their infrastructure. Promissory notes are known around the financial world. These instruments are fairly standardized. So, if you put this on a blockchain, you have an extremely powerful financing tool. Benedikt Schuppli, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FQX The Founder This time we interview Benedikt Schuppli (https://www.linkedin.com/in/benedikt-schuppli/), a founder from Switzerland. He is the co-founder and co-CEO of FQX (https://fqx.ch/), a fintech startup from Switzerland offering electronic IOUs. Benedikt is a lawyer by training but took his first job after graduating with a Swiss fintech pioneer named Lykke as Chief Legal Officer. He there realized he wanted to be an entrepreneur and co-founded a smart contract startup called Lexon. The Startup FQX (https://fqx.ch/) is based in Zürich, Switzerland. Promissory notes, a version of IOUs is a stable of company funding in the German speaking area. Now with digitalization they get the ability to become much more widely used and listed on capital markets globally. A single issuance of promissory notes by one issuer is normally between 50-150 million Euros each. According to a recent statistic Q2 2021 alone saw the issuance of promissory notes worth 2,5 bn Euros in Germany, compared to 3,2 bn Euros in Q2 2020. Right now, they have a premium for not being tradable, but this is about to change with FQX. Learn more here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/fqx-brings-companies-debt-funding-to-the-blockchain-83c8528515a3

Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups in May 2022 by Startuprad.io — in a news recording with Christian Fahrenbach from New York City and Jörn Menninger, from Frankfurt. 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 news episode on Thursday, May 19th, 2022. The next news will go live on June 30th. Keep in mind, that we will have a summer break afterward and be back for you with another news episode on Labor Day September 5th, 2022. In this episode, we will wrap up July, and August. As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode in June. We will also slightly change our publication schedule in the summer — as we have done before. For July and August, we will only post a new episode every other week (July 14th, 28th, and August 11th, as well as August 25th). We will be back to normal at the start of September. We also partner with Artic 15 you get a discount with our code in the show notes at www.medium.com/startuprad-io Artic15 startupradio Our Highlights: We can proudly announce unicorn No 29 Taxfix, No 30 Onefootball and on the downside, RaisinDS loses its unicorn valuation. Really bad news for car sharing: BMW and Mercedes pull the plug on their joint venture. Our 2018 guest ProGlove is sold in a 500 m € deal (525 m US$) and Orderbird is sold in a 100 m € deal (105 m US$). Other unicorns are currently on the hunt for new capital and feel the heat of the current funding environment. Let's talk startups: Find all news and show notes here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-may-2022-de23cf4942e3

Executive Summary Exaloan started out as a rating agency for digital assets. They developed into a global platform to connect crowdlending platforms and institutional investors. They started out with the rating of digital assets. Soon they realized that it makes more sense for them to help investors with the access to lending platforms and building of their portfolio in crowdlending assets using tokenization. Our mission is to close the global financing gap, which is a staggering 5.2 trillion US$, which means there are more than 100 m SMEs that are lacking financing.  Luca Fignani, co-founder and CEO of ExaloanWith our partners we have created a tokenization engine, a digital asset platform, on which we can create a digital token for the loans, we have sourced from crowdlending. This is really a step to the next level. We are joining digital assets with digital lending.  Luca Fignani, co-founder and CEO of Exaloan Subscribe Here We are always sharing new resources with you. Find all of our options below. We want to make sure that we provide what's best for your growing team, so please take a look at these additional ways in which can help! Startuprad.io | LinktreeThe Authority on German Startups The Founder Our guest today is Luca Frignani (https://www.linkedin.com/in/luca-andre-frignani/), the CEO and co-founder of Frankfurt based fintech Exaloan (https://www.exaloan.com/). He is an original Frankfurt boy, with roots in Italy and Czech Republic. Since he is already very international, he spent quite a bit of time studying in France Lille and Nizza. He also spent time in London and Zürich. At one time he also worked as a quant analyst, developing investment strategies. Development banks are seeing crowdlending platforms are a very important tool.Luca Fignani, co-founder and CEO of Exaloan The Startup Exaloan (https://www.exaloan.com/) is a Frankfurt-based fintech company. They are a rating agency for digital assets. It is also working with its clients to give them access to international crowdlending platforms and help them to build a portfolio. They are cooperating with platforms in Germany, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines, just to name a few. Venture Capital Funding ... learn more on our blogpost at www.medium.com/startuprad-io

Welcome to This Month in GSA Startups in April 2022 by Startuprad.io — in a news recording with Christian Fahrenbach ”Chris” from New York City today and me Jörn Menninger “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, the blog Fundscene, and our partner IBGR.Network. We recorded this new episode on Monday, April 25th, 2022. The next news will go live on the 26th of May, the day we celebrate fathers day in Germany. For this reason, we have at this date two publications: the news and an episode on men's health. As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode. We also partner with the EU-Startups Summit and Artic 15 you get a discount at both events with our codes in the show notes www.medium.com/startuprad-io. You can meet Joe in person in Barcelona at the EU Startups Summit on May 12th and 13th. The discount codes are: EU Startups STARTUPRADIO20 Artic15 startupradio Our highlights: Despite slightly declining global VC investments GSA still generates Unicorns. This time we welcomed Grover and Choco officially into the league. Swiss Beqom is not confirmed, but also a massive investment. Apple and Porsche are rumored to work together on joint projects. Gorillas is looking for funding again, after raising a billion US$ (850 m Euros) in September 2021. Germany's second most valuable fintech Mambu had to publish numbers. The corona patron registration app Luca first boomed during the lockdown, then their data protection was questioned, now they pivot to a fintech with the backing of investors including the Wefox founder. Let's talk startups: Find all the links and show notes on our blog www.medium.com/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

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 people3) Metaverse… it maybe a big failure or a big success. There is a fair chance it becomes huge4) 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, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA

Nobody knows what a digital euro will look like. ECB is in the process of exploring the possibility. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert  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 China is with its digital Yuan ahead of Europe or the US. The ECB is investigating the possibility, with the aim of having a digital Euro 2025. We will see China launching the digital Yuan this year. That is almost 5 years ahead.Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert  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/ CBDC is a variant how the Euro will run on a modern infrastructure.Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert  The Expert This interview is part of our series with subject matter experts. Our guest today is Philipp Sandner (https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippsandner/), Professor at Frankfurt School of Management and Finance. There he is head of the Blockchain Center. He is also a member of the fintech advisory council to the German federal government (FinTechRat), Chairman of the International Toke Association, as well as a contributor to Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/philippsandner/).  According to one of Germany's largest newspapers Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Philipp is also one of the 30 most influential economists in the German-speaking area in their ranking for 2018 and 2019. He is also co-founder of the German Blockchain Association. LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippsandner/ Twitter https://twitter.com/philippsandner Wiki https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Sandner   The situation of the Federal Reserve in developing a digital central bank Dollar is like the ECB. Both are early in exploring the topic. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert  The Digital Euro Central banks take inspiration from cryptocurrencies and are actively thinking about introducing their own cryptos, called central bank digital currency (CBDC). There are many podcasts out there talking about CBDC, especially US$, but Startuprad.io is headquartered in the city of the Euro, Frankfurt. So, we thought we shed some light on the perspective from Europe. The European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve are both in the first steps of exploring the possibilities and implications of CBDCs for the Euro and the US Dollar. But there is already a growing market in US$ stable coins, where stable coins in Euro have to stomach losses, due to the negative interest rates in the European Monetary Union (EMU). Tune in to learn more... The difference in the US is that there is already a working alternative, the US$ stable coins. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert    Further Readings / Additional Resources Here is the link to the blockchain master program of Frankfurt School https://www.frankfurt-school.de/home/programmes/master/blockchain-digital-assets The central bank digital currency tracker of the Atlantic Council: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/ CBDC definition https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/central-bank-digital-currency-cbdc.asp Definition legal tender https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/legal-tender.asp Swift https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWIFT Bhutan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan Stable coin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stablecoin Tether coins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tether_(cryptocurrency) Lender of last resort https://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/educational/explainers/tell-me-more/html/what-is-a-lender-of-last-resort.en.html Money multiplier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_multiplier Money Supply M1, M2, M3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_supply Interest rates https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/interestrate.asp   DEFI is dominated by US$ since many people active in crypto calculate their net worth in US$. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert Feedback Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA The Interviewer This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:LinkedInTwitterEmail Keep Up to Date Here is our publication calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=012i27ak525qi3smgjl8v9tbio%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Europe%2FBerlin

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 

When I started in crypto, I had to manage so many wallets and platforms, that I could not imagine how complicated it would be for an institutional investor. We started FINOA to help with that. Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA 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 want to be the No 1 crypto custodian for institutional investors in Europe.Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA The Founder In this interview we speak to Henrik Gebbing (https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrik-gebbing-finoa/), the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Finoa, a Berlin-based crypto fintech, which is already one of the hidden champions. They are a global top 5 crypto custodian for institutional investors. Henrik attended Golden Gate University in San Francisco as a Fulbright Scholar and got his MBA at IE Business School in Madrid. He later worked as a consultant with McKinsey, but after 4 years jumped ship to start Finoa. He developed the idea, that would later become Finoa with his roommate (and now co-founder) on the kitchen table in Madrid while studying for his MBA. Globally we want to maintain one of the top 5 spots for crypto custody.Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA The Startup The co-founders started Finoa (https://www.finoa.io/) in Berlin. Their driving idea was – and still is – to support institutional investors to go into crypto. They also support wealthy individuals, who hold substantial amounts of crypto assets of more than 100.000US$. Finoa is a custodian, meaning they keep - on behalf of their clients - their crypto assets save. At the time of the interview, they have around 400 customers. Their clients include the crypto holdings of Rocket Internet, T-Systems, US-based VCs, and hedge funds. In April 2021 they announced a 22 mn US$ Series A funding, which is sizeable for Germany, as well as for crypto at the time. We hold assets for entities in Asia and Silicon Valley, but our focus market is the European Union.Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA Venture Capital Funding FINOA announced their Series A funding of 22 mn US$ in April 2021(LINK). FINOA is open to discussions with investors, but they are not actively looking for new investors. Fintech is fast, but crypto is warp-speed.Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA

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 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 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.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/

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/

Welcome to This Month in German Startups in November 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 Friday, November 19th. All news not included here will be published in our December News (to be published on December 23rd). 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. We are not there yet, so let's get started: Today we have escooter Tier's newest funding and acquisition, N26 pulling the plug on their US operations already in January 2022, and the amazing IPO of Sono Motors on NASDAQ. There are also new unicorns, we proudly present Frankfurt's first unicorn, the insurtech Clark.de. Also, Razor Group (an Amazon shop buyer) becomes a unicorn with a 125 mn US$ fundraising. In November, there is no unicorn tracker. We will keep our eyes open and maybe the next news will have a unicorn tracker companion. Happy Thanksgiving to our US audience! Let's talk startups: Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-november-2021/ 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/ News Text and Show Notes Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-november-2021/

Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io – in a news recording with Chris (from New York City) and me Joe (from Frankfurt am Main). Guys, it is October, it is getting colder outside and cozier inside, so we bring you another “Doppelpack”of our news recording! We bring you another bonus news episode as part of our news coverage of the German startup scene. We recorded this episode on October 25th, 2021, wrapping up October. This is a Bonus Episode following our special coverage of the unprecedented creation of unicorn startups in the German speaking startup scene! 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 Want to be found by Business opportunities or contacted by new investors? Get scouted by us, when we have a matching mandate and enroll your startup in our database: https://forms.gle/DmPtBKJH7MMmJoYo8 We don't sell your data or spam you. We will even reach out to you before we include you in a scouting mandate. Find all the links to our sources and the show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/gsa-unicorn-tracker-october-2021/

This Month in German Startups - October 2021 Welcome to This Month in German Startups in October 2021 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris (Back Home in New York) and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. We recorded this new episode on October 25th. Note that there is also another episode of our unicorn tracker, getting published along with this episode in order to keep the news brief. Today we have to announce that N26 reclaimed the title of Germany's most valuable fintech (but not startup, that is still Celonis), Sono Motors is filing for an IPO in the US - ahead of even delivering their first car -, corona is leaving the first traces in the startup scene, less startups, but more funding for the surviving ones. 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 Want to be found by Business opportunities or contacted by new investors? Get scouted by us, when we have a matching mandate and enroll your startup in our database: https://forms.gle/DmPtBKJH7MMmJoYo8 We don't sell your data or spam you. We will even reach out to you before we include you in a scouting mandate. Find our extensive collection of links, sources and the whole show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-october-2021/

Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io – in a news recording with Chris (from New York City) and me Joe (from Frankfurt am Main). Guys, it is fall and we are back from the summer break! We bring you another bonus news episode as part of our news coverage of the German startup scene. We recorded this episode on September 28th, 2021, wrapping up July, August, and September. This is a Bonus Episode following our special coverage from June! Want to be found by Business opportunities or contacted by new investors? Get scouted by us, when we have a matching mandate and enroll your startup in our database: https://forms.gle/DmPtBKJH7MMmJoYo8 We don't sell your data or spam you. We will even reach out to you before we include you in a scouting mandate. Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-september-2021-unicorn-tracker-bonus/

Welcome to This Month in German Startups in September 2021 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris (Back Home in New York) and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. We recorded this new episode on September 28th. Not that there is also another episode of our unicorn tracker, getting published along with this episode. Have a look. This will be a bit longer recording. Best get a snack and a drink right now. The summer was hot here in Germany in terms of startups, but not so much in terms of temperature. Since we have the weather out of the way. Let's talk startups: Want to be found by Business opportunities or contacted by new investors? Get scouted by us, when we have a matching mandate and enroll your startup in our database:https://forms.gle/DmPtBKJH7MMmJoYo8 We don't sell your data or spam you. We will even reach out to you before we include you in a scouting mandate. Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-summer-wrap-up-july-august-september-2021/

Welcome to This Month in German Startups June 2021 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris (Back Home in New York) and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. We are reporting live from Germany's largest unicorn wave ever. We announce two new unicorns (Scalable Capital and Forto (formerly FreightHub)) and Germany's first Decacorn Celonis, valued at more than 11 bn US$. The 2019 Unicorn Wefox raises large funding of 536 mn € (650 mn US$). About You IPOs for 23 €/share at 4 bn Euro (4.85 bn US$) AND Austria becomes a new most valuable startup with GoStudent (1.4 bn €, 1.67 bn US$), after they had their first unicorn only last month. Plus SolarisBank is rumored to be in talks of a 100 mn Euro VC Deal, which would make them a unicorn as well, to buy up a competitor. Especially active in this frenzy of unicorn creation is Softbank from Japan and Tencent from China. We have a special episode on the unparalleled unicorn creation, which is available on the same channels. If you want to know more about the new Decacorn and unicorns in Germany and Austria you want to listen to this episode as well. We keep here the coverage of unicorns to a minimum. Note: This will be the last news recording before the summer break. There will be no regular news in July or August, but we will be back with news at the end of September, wrapping up the summer news. We are soooooooooo looking forward to the summer that Joe even wears a Hawaii shirt. Be happy for your eyes if you are only listening to this podcast :-) Subscribe Here Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: Linkhttps://linktr.ee/startupradio Find all links, texts, and show notes here on our blog post: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-june-2021/

Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io – in a news recording with Chris (from New York City) and me Joe (from Frankfurt am Main). This is a Bonus Episode covering the Unicorn Stampede in German-speaking countries. This recording is from June 29th, 2021 and all-new unicorns, formed afterward will be covered in our next news podcast, to be published End of September! You may remember that we had another bonus episode last month covering the rise of Berlin-based fintech Trade Republic to become Germany's most valuable startup? There is already a new king in the country with Celonis becoming Germany's first Decacorn (valuation above 10 bn US$, here even 11bn US$). We also see that all of these monster fundings are driven by international investors, especially Softbank from Japan and Tencent from China. Find all links and show notes on our blog post here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/bonus-this-month-in-german-startups-unicorn-stampede/

Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris (Back Home in Germany) and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. Today we are wrapping up May 2021 for you. We talk about the massive Trade Republic funding, making them Germany's most valuable startup. We are talking about SPACs again, Germany’s institutional funds investing in crypto, and 3 bn shots of the corona vaccine. As always, we have a great show for you! Housekeeping - Time to brag Stay safe everyone! We are very happy to have been listed as No 4 on the Welp Magazine list of "20 Best Start-ups Podcasts of 2021" https://welpmagazine.com/20-best-start-ups-podcasts-of-2021/ Station Frankfurt featured our newest internet radio station in an article https://station-frankfurt.de/2021/05/07/das-steckt-hinter-dem-24-7-startupradio-startuprad-io/ Italy-based Startup.info covered our internet radio station as well: The World’s First Internet Radio Station Dedicated to Startups and Tech Companies Just Launched https://buff.ly/3upGZte Top News Trade Republic is now Germany’s most valuable startup with 5.3 bn US$ SPACs In the US the largest wave of SPAC IPOs is already behind us, but in Europe, it is just gaining speed. Frankfurt Stock Exchange expects up to 20 SPAC IPOs in 2021. In all of Europe, they expect more than 30 https://buff.ly/3h0mMqS Amazon Shops are still HOT Berlin’s Razor Group raises $400M to buy and scale Amazon Marketplace merchants – TechCrunch https://buff.ly/2PVJULY Germany rumored to open flood gates to Crypto Investments - Think again 'Damn Huge': Germany Opens Up to Institutional Crypto Funds - Decrypt https://buff.ly/3vvX3dU Joe will talk about this soon - as soon as he gets to it - but the main point one has to understand in German institutional funds is that the investors are regulated and not so much the vehicles. 3bn Shots are coming Corona vaccine producer BioNTech is looking to produce 3bn shots https://buff.ly/2RHzXlA We just passed a small moment in History 80 years ago, on May 11th, 1941 german inventor Konrad Zuse started his Z3. This was one of today's first - maybe The first - modern-day computer. He developed it, to take over statistical calculation he found tiresome https://buff.ly/3eEJ3sB Find all other show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-may-2021/

Welcome to Startuprad.io, we cover the German-speaking startup scene since 2015 with our franchise. Since 2019, we eased access to the German-speaking startup scene further with our special interest podcasts Fintech Germany, Blockchain Germany, Deeptech Germany, and German Startup News. We have been called "The Authority on German Startups" and are a Top 0.5% global podcast, according to Listen Notes. Chartable.com scored us in 2020 a global Top 100 Science Podcast, a global Top 150 Tech Podcast, and a global Top 750 Business Podcast. You can learn more here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio

Today we are wrapping up April 2021 for you. We talk about SPACs, which have been all the rage, but now they get to work. We bring you news about potential SPAC deals with Solarisbank, Infarm, Lilium, and Volocopter. The first three eying a valuation of more than one billion. Also, we have a Gorilla Unicorn.

How to keep your Cryptos Safe?I recommend to be always a bit paranoid. Alessandro Avagliano, Head of Security at Bitwala Subscribe HereFind all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: Link https://linktr.ee/startupradio If you have a considerable amount of money in crypto, make sure the least number of people knows about it. Alessandro Avagliano, Head of Security at Bitwala The Head of SecurityIn this interview, we walk to Alessandro Avagliano, the Head of Security and Infrastructure at Berlin-based crypto challenger bank Bitwala (https://www.linkedin.com/in/aavagliano/). Allesandro has been with companies like Sun Microsystems, Oracle, or Rocket Internet before, but joined Bitwala 2019 as head of security. One of the safest solutions is still a paper wallet, stored in a safe place, … maybe even across locations. Alessandro Avagliano, Head of Security at Bitwala Affiliate LinksLooking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye For retail investors, the safest way may be paper-based storage, with some liquidity in a wallet. Alessandro Avagliano, Head of Security at Bitwala The Challenge In this interview, we are talking about best practices on how to keep your cryptocurrencies and crypto-assets safe as a private investor. We talk about different levels of safekeeping and even have an idea how Elon Musk could keep his cryptos safe. You can learn more in the blog post here: https://www.bitwala.com/blog/knowledge/ Other Interview We already published our interview with Bitwala’s founder in April 2020. We talk to Benjamin about his life, the idea behind Bitwala, and solve the secret behind its name. Learn more in this interview here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/meet-berlin-based-cryptocurrency-challenger-bank-bitwala/

Subscribe HereFind all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: Link https://linktr.ee/startupradio The Subject Matter ExpertThis is one of our Subject Matter Expert interviews, where we try to bring you some specialized knowledge. Christian Flasshoff (https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-flasshoff/) was a founding member of the International Token Standardization Association (https://itsa.global/). In this interview, we talk to him about what NFTs are and how they may impact the music industry, the art market, and many more aspects of life. Tune in to learn more …

This Month in German Startups – March 2021Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io – in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. Today we are wrapping up March 2021 for you. We talk about Austria’s first unicorn Bitpanda, a Samwer attempt at a German Tesla, SPACs, indoor farming, open positions at N26, and much more. Follow us Find all our social media channels, our podcasts, and our internet radio station here: https://linktr.ee/startupradio Housekeeping – Time to brag Stay safe everyone! Startuprad.io was placed by Listen Notes in the global Top 0.5% of podcasts (out of more than 2 million they are tracking). These are the Top Venture Capital Companies in Germany (2021) by Welp Magazine London), with an honorary mention of Startuprad_io https://buff.ly/3qAfzyA Startuprad.io now has an Alexa Skill for it’s internet radio station: https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B08YP37X9K Affiliate Linkssaw the improvement in audio and video quality in the last few months? Part of it was the AI audio filter Krisp and the online recording tool Riverside.fm. You can get an account at both of them with an affiliate link from us here: Krisp https://ref.krisp.ai/u/u5bbe231d7 Riverside http://www.riverside.fm/?via=joern Find all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-march-2021/

This Month in German Startups - February 2021Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. Today we are wrapping up February 2021 for you. There is great news in the German startup scene, the much anticipated Auto1 IPO generated two new tech billionaires, Europe’s first Tech SPAC lists in Frankfurt, more Wirecard details, we talk about Trade Republic and Gamestop, as well as the billion exit of Berlin-based AdJust. Follow us on Social MediaInstagram https://www.instagram.com/startuprad.io/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/4837115/ Twitter https://twitter.com/startuprad_io Keep Up to DateHere is our publication calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=MDEyaTI3YWs1MjVxaTNzbWdqbDh2OXRiaW9AZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ Affiliated LinksWhy not learn from entrepreneurs and executives who are open to share their favorite books. We skimmed through some recommendations and that is what we found. Recommended by: Bill Gates “Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker” https://amzn.to/2XAENlBRecommended by: Jeff Bezos “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras” https://amzn.to/2RGKGKeRecommended by: Elon Musk “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel” https://amzn.to/2REbHhwRecommended by: Tony Hsieh “Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan” https://amzn.to/34KgraQRecommended by: Warren Buffet “Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street by John Brooks” https://amzn.to/2K92z06Recommended by: Tim Cook “Competing Against Time by George Stalk and Thomas Hout” https://amzn.to/3cjMMYn Housekeeping - Time to brag Stay safe everyone! In the meantime you can tune in to our internet radio station, the worlds first 24/7 dedicated to startups and tech companies! https://s2.radio.co/sb16d65602/listen - We will soon be available on many platforms, for now: https://raddio.net/373202-startupradio/ https://radio.streamitter.com/station/startupradio-89HNV Top NewsWe have two new tech billionairesThe IPO of Auto1 went spectacularly well and skyrocketed on the first day of trading on February 4th, surging 45%. We took a look at the data and realized that this was the first tech IPO in a long time that generated new tech billionaires in Germany. Bloomberg: SoftBank-Backed Auto1 Soars in Debut After $2.2 Billion IPO https://buff.ly/2YLTm5jReuters: UPDATE 2-AUTO1 shares go into top gear in Frankfurt debut https://buff.ly/3pLaOSmRead more in our blogpost here: At recording this Auto1 IPO turns founders into billionaires https://buff.ly/3oY45EA Related: The story from the side of one of their first investors: How VC fund DN Capital invested in car marketplace Auto1 8 years ago and landed an $8 billion IPO winner https://buff.ly/3abVPMO N26German regulator, stung by past failings, extends oversight of N26 - sources https://buff.ly/2Ymp88F German mobile bank N26 is thinking of making its first acquisition https://buff.ly/3ckRpVq Trade Republic, Reddit and GameStopBerlin-based SolarisBank needed four years to get to 400k customers, but the next 600k came within half a year says their chief commercial officer Jörg Diewald, many of them have to be attributed to Trade Republic https://buff.ly/3oEKLMc Our take on this topic: https://www.startuprad.io/berlin/gamestop-reddit-and-fintech-trade-republic/ Note: There will be a follow-up on yet another blog post from our side, with hearings of Roaring Kitten and profits for hedge funds. We're nothing like Robinhood, says Berlin-based broker Trade Republic | Sifted https://buff.ly/3bAqNOq iCarPorsche's Cayenne Boss Dr. Manfred Harrer (48) is hired by Apple. He was rumored to be one of the best engineers in the company. Is the iCar around the corner? https://buff.ly/36x2SNM Game over for Mapify?Founders of Berlin-based traveltech Mapify “the Instagram of travel" give up "evaluating options." Their current investors include Lakestar and Atlantic Labs https://buff.ly/39BbzZp (We will come back to Lakestar, keep them in mind). AdJust Exit for 1.2 bn US$ (990 m Euro)AppLovin buys Berlin-based mobile marketing company AdJust and pays 1,2 bn US$ https://buff.ly/3pQCm9P according to Deutsche Startups, who published the priceRelated: Apploving said to acquire Berlin-based Adjust in a 1 bn $ deal https://buff.ly/2NVhrV2 Wirecard We keep you updated, just a small selection of news here. Keep in mind there is still an investigative committee ongoing. Deutsche Bank fires supervisory board member Schütz over email correspondence with Wirecard CEO Braun https://buff.ly/3tGjs7QGerman finance oversight BaFin places one employee on leave due to internal investigations in trading in Wirecard shares before the scandal became public https://buff.ly/2YywIgGGermany's highest court ruled that EY auditors have no right to refuse to give evidence, now the parliamentary committee will invite the auditors and EYs CEO for Germany https://buff.ly/3s01zzi The Digital EuroECB keeps working on digital Euro. Italien central banker said the ECB is looking at the digital Euro for their instant payment system "Target Instant Payment Settlement TIPS" as a first step https://buff.ly/3ji4xMJ The Audio Interview You can subscribe to our podcasts here Ecosystem Why we need to start looking at Europe as one tech ecosystem https://buff.ly/3cdZWJU It's IPO time! Here are 30+ European tech companies most likely to go public this year great list by Tech_eu https://buff.ly/39lB3de including German startups Auto1, SUSE, Mister Spex, About You and N26What U.S. Startups Get Wrong About Expanding into Europe https://buff.ly/3rIR5EA Iconiq Capital, the US investment firm backed by Silicon Valley elites like Mark Zuckerberg, is expanding to Europe https://buff.ly/3anUdj4 Hubs Note: The order of news and cities is only due to the time when we discovered the news. HeidelbergAleph Alpha, Heidelberg-based AI startup raises 5.3 m Euros (6.4 m US$) from investors LEA Partners and #Berlin-based 468 Capital https://buff.ly/2YhD0kL Frankfurt Startups in the Area around Frankfurt, called Rhine-Main raised more than 1 bn Euros in 2020 our research shows (1.12 bn US$): https://rhinemainvc.medium.com/looking-back-at-the-corona-year-4a8e8806e4cfLakestar SPAC I: First tech-focused SPAC in Europe successfully launches on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange https://buff.ly/3aGFQXn We talked to one of the founders of Frankfurt-based Iconic Lab, which wants to be the largest crypto asset manager in Europe: https://buff.ly/3dBR94V Münster The founders of beverage delivery startup Flaschenpost just sold their company to German food giant Oetker, now they invest in an HRtech startup from Münster - Echometer, which better enables agile work https://buff.ly/2YfmTUO Tübingen Germany #BioTech #startup Curevac, which listed on NASDAQ in summer 2020 - working on a corona vaccination - is planning to raise additional capital, which could amount to 600 m US$ https://buff.ly/3t1PkDS Düsseldorf Düsseldorf-based SME financing platform Compeon closes 15 m € Series C #VentureCapital funding with government-backed NRW Bank joining previous investors including Quatar Development Bank https://buff.ly/39tdJu7 Munich Egym receives 28 m € #VentureCapital for the production of connected gym equipment. In spring 2020 they had to let go 100 of 450 employees https://buff.ly/2O3hmyP Austria Australian Unicorn Canva buys Vienna-based Kaleido AI. Kaleido offers a service where one can automatically cut the picture of a human out of the background https://buff.ly/3aIohVL Austrian crypto startup "Startup Hero" issuer of the Herocoin gets acquired by international gambling group Novomatic, also from Austria https://buff.ly/3d695nY Switzerland Swiss listed travel portal HolidayCheck raises 47 m Euro by selling new shares https://buff.ly/2Z5td1z Liechtenstein Liechtenstein-based VC MIG gets 340 m € payout from their investment in Mainz-based BioNTech https://buff.ly/3jjsHq3 Companies Fintech and CryptocurrenciesMastercard to open up network to select cryptocurrencies https://buff.ly/3d0AzLM, but not the ones you may thinkMastercard will support cryptocurrencies—but not the ones you think https://buff.ly/3p9MTvDFinleap was once a fintech company builder in #Berlin with 80 employees at peak. Now there are around 20 left to manage existing investments and there may be 20 more work on innovations for corporates in the future https://buff.ly/3u1BrWEHere’s why the former Global Head of Google Payment, former COO of Venmo have backed the €20M Seed round of this fintech https://buff.ly/2M9YoWs Funding News (a very tiny collection, of what we see) Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date here. Berlin-based #traveltech Getyourguide fills war chest with additional 80m € loan, after a convertible of more than 100 mn € last year, looking for targets https://buff.ly/3s8x5LP Autonomous driving startup Recogni, with locations in San Jose and Munich, gets two new investors Bosch and Continental are investing together, this is new for German OEMs https://buff.ly/3k62Q52New VC Funds#Dublin and #London-based #VC firm Frontline has raised its third seed fund of €70m to invest in #B2B #startups across #Europe looking to take on the US. https://buff.ly/3tGEGmmEurazeo gets €340 million in additional commitments to its growth strategy - tech.eu https://buff.ly/2YOrqxOTCV Captial raised 4 bn US$ #VentureCapital fund, aiming for German #startups https://buff.ly/36nPBHw The VC's past investments include Netflix and AirbnbSPACs will be here pretty soon! Lakestar plans to raise 200-300 m Euros for a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) to be listed on a German stock exchange https://buff.ly/2MI3w47 - Listing already happened by now ⇒ Frankfurt NewsRocket Internet plans to list a SPAC in New York, with a volume of more than 100 mn Euros https://buff.ly/3a2vT6b Technology SPAC Rocket Internet Growth Opportunities files for a $250 million IPO at #NYSE - backed by #Berlin-based #RocketInternet https://buff.ly/2LGkeRp More exitsKinnevik, once an important and trusted Rocket Internet investor now wants to sell all Zalando shares worth 5,5 bn € (6.6 bn US$) https://buff.ly/2Zt6o89 Shell buys Berlin-based electric car charging firm ubitricity https://buff.ly/3pZWd6A Not a direct exit, but preparing for some: Berlin Brands Group commits $302M to acquire D2C and Amazon merchants – TechCrunch https://buff.ly/3t7hc9o Berlin-based startup Branded raises 123,5 m Euros (150 m US$) to buy up Amazon Shops https://buff.ly/3jyi7LWGerman home appliance company Miele buys majority stake in #Berlin-based Kptncook, in which they have already been an investor. Kptncook offers recipes in their app https://buff.ly/3a57j4F All Other NewsMDAX listed tech company Teamviewer want to grow their revenue in the next two years to 1 bn Euros https://buff.ly/3jCfzwsHome24: Growth slows from +54% in Q3 to +50% in Q4 read more here: https://buff.ly/3tM6upb The 1st Unicorn by #German #investor Carsten Maschmeyer in the USA / Startup "Modern Health" with 1.17 ... https://buff.ly/3dbD6THGermany based HDI insurance (a subsidiary of Hannover Re) wants to invest more in startups - especially #cybersecurity https://buff.ly/2Nzjiyw Zalando interested in buying beauty platform Flaconi to add to their second foray in beauty https://buff.ly/3u5WPdiQuandoo, the #Berlin-based platform for table reservations axes 20% of their workforce https://buff.ly/3pDnrjq Stay ahead of the curveVenture Capital and Private Equity Funds trends for 2021 https://buff.ly/3bdMIKW

You are listening to the audio track of a YouTube interview. Find all the interviews at YouTube.com/Startupradio Iconic holding wants to be the largest Crypto Asset Manager in Europe The idea for Iconic Funds came from investor demand, to invest in cryptocurrencies with more traditional vehicles. Maximilian Lautenschläger, COO and Co-Founder Iconic Holding The FounderMaximilian Lautenschläger (https://www.linkedin.com/in/maximilian-lautenschl%C3%A4ger/) grew up in the beautiful city of Heidelberg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg). He stayed in the Rhein-Neckar Metropolitan Area (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine-Neckar) to study in Ludwigshafen and took every opportunity to study abroad. After university, he started out working in consulting and found his passion in alternative investments. He started as an analyst of private equity funds, moving to a venture developer position. Before joining Iconiq Lab, he has been a startup investor himself. I am not the guy who said in 2014 Bitcoin is the thing. Maximilian Lautenschläger, COO and Co-Founder Iconic Holding The StartupIconic Holding is the parent company of Iconic Funds. Iconic Holding originally started out as Iconiq Lab, an accelerator for ICOs, based in Frankfurt. After the end of the ICO craze, they decided what to do next and so they evolved into a crypto asset manager and Blockchain VC. The new structure was renamed to Iconic Holding (no more q). The crypto asset manager is called Iconic Funds (https://funds.iconicholding.com/invest/) and the blockchain venture capital arm is called Iconic Lab (https://lab.iconicholding.com/, https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/iconiq-lab). You can find their blog on Medium here (https://iconicholding.medium.com/). Iconic Funds offers to accredit investors hedge funds, a fund domiciled in Malta and also exchange-traded notes, to get exposure to cryptocurrency. There was this craze about a thing we have never heard before, an ICO. Maximilian Lautenschläger, COO and Co-Founder Iconic Holding Venture Capital FundingIconic Holding is currently preparing the series B round. Bitcoin for me is digital gold Maximilian Lautenschläger, COO and Co-Founder Iconic Holding The Audio InterviewYou can subscribe to our podcasts here Further Readings / Additional ResourcesUCITS https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/ucits.asp WM Daten is a financial service provider, a competitor of Bloomberg and S&P, amongst others, with a strong focus on the German-speaking area: https://www.wmdaten.de/index.php Asset Manager https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asset_management_firms Custodian https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/custodian.asp FeedbackReach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA The InterviewerThis interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email Follow us on Social MediaInstagram https://www.instagram.com/startuprad.io/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/4837115/ Twitter https://twitter.com/startuprad_io

My Football Space Connects Fans with Clubs GloballyAfter almost 20 years in consulting … it was a good time to think about what I wanted to do in my life, what I have a passion for. Alex Schlicher, Founder My Football Space Media PartnershipThis podcast is in media partnership with the FinTech Forum (http://www.fintechforum.de/). The FinTech Forum - launched 2013 in Frankfurt am Main - is the first and largest hub for FinTechs in Continental Europe, with a community of more than 12.000 companies. With more than 17 events, with more than 270 startups on stage, and more than 1.000 investors and financial institutions. FTF alumni have raised $310mn+ in funding and resulted in exits worth $300mn+ . I was not really looking for founding a company. The idea came to me since I am passionate about innovative technology, finance and sports. Alex Schlicher, Founder My Football Space The FounderIn this interview, we are talking to Alex Schlicher, a former management consultant, turned entrepreneur (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-schlicher-cfa-953660/). Alex started out with vocational training in retail banking, foreign exchange trader, and a management consultant in capital markets, where he worked for several consultancies. While he worked in FX trading (Foreign Exchange), he learned how derivatives are working and are structured. He is a born “Frankfurter Bub” (a native Frankfurt boy). In his past, he was also in charge of building up the German business for a London-based consultancy. After almost 20 years in consulting, he decided to do a re-set and spent some more time with his family. Alex has been passionate about sports all his life and is a fan of Frankfurt-based Bundesliga Club Eintracht Frankfurt. Alex currently pursues an executive MBA at Frankfurt School for Management and Finance, in one of these classes the idea of My Football Space “hit him” as he said. The initial trigger for setting up a company was really driven by technology, because I saw the potential of the technology. Alex Schlicher, Founder My Football Space The Startup Alex founded the sports tech startup My Football Space (https://myfs.de/). He got the idea for his startup while one of his professors talked about everything of value is on the Blockchain in the future. So it instantly struck him this may include football in one way or another. Initially, they thought about investing in football players, but changed this amazingly fast, since it was too much like an investment. They do not want to change the memberships of the sports clubs, as they are popular for example in Germany with Bundesliga. This is not available to many people all over the world, this is what they want to change. This is something everybody shares, the passion, the emotion for the sport. It is a very global thing. There is no difference between a fan in Australia, Asia, the US, or Europe. Alex Schlicher, Founder My Football Space The Bundesliga Club Bayern München has globally more than 100 million fans, according to Alex. On the other side of those fans there is only a fraction really a member of the sports club (300.000). The app also helps the club to understand its digital fans and give them matching offers. My Football Space AppTheir app for membership for fans will be available in app stores like Google or Apple towards End of 2021. Venture Capital FundingThe company already closed two financing rounds, one by business angels and one by the management team. Currently, they are looking to close the next funding round in 2021 Q2 or Q3. Blockchain is really stepping out of its baby shoes. The maturity level is really reaching a tipping point where mass adoption in a lot of industries is about to start. Alex Schlicher, Founder My Football Space Further Readings / Additional Resources Bundesliga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesliga Eintracht Frankfurt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eintracht_Frankfurt Frankfurt School of Management and Finance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School_of_Finance_%26_Management FeedbackReach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA The InterviewerThis interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email Follow us on Social MediaInstagram https://www.instagram.com/startuprad.io/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/4837115/ Twitter https://twitter.com/startuprad_io Keep Up to DateHere is our publication calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0?cid=MDEyaTI3YWs1MjVxaTNzbWdqbDh2OXRiaW9AZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ

Tangany Offers a White-Label Custody Solution for Crypto AssetsOur clients do not need to apply for a license to become a custodian, we already are and offer our service. Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany Media PartnershipThis podcast is in media partnership with the FinTech Forum (http://www.fintechforum.de/). The FinTech Forum - launched 2013 in Frankfurt am Main - is the first and largest hub for FinTechs in Continental Europe, with a community of more than 12.000 companies. With more than 17 events, with more than 270 startups on stage, and more than 1.000 investors and financial institutions. FTF alumni have raised $310mn+ in funding and resulted in exits worth $300mn+ . Our level of paranoia level is right at the top. The security for crypto assets must be even on a higher level than for banks. Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany The FounderWe talk to the CEO and Co-Founder Martin Kreitmair (https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-kreitmair). He is not only with Tangany, but also a member of the Board of Germany’s blockchain association called Bundesblock (https://bundesblock.de/). He has a master’s in computer science and has been working at a startup for more than seven years, where he was hired as the 7th employee and saw the company grow. First, we were two founders, …joined by former colleagues from an agency. Martin Kreitmair, CEO and Co-Founder Tangany Martin became interested early in Blockchain and Bitcoin but was no miner – which he partly regrets now

This Month in German Startups - January 2021 Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City. This is the first news episode of 2021, but you can have a look at our 2020 review. Today we are wrapping up January 2021 for you. There is great news in the German startup scene, from two new unicorns to a much anticipated IPO of Auto1 (will be raising at least 1.5 bn Euros), Delivery Hero goes VC and there may be Amazon TV/Radio in Germany. Housekeeping - Time to brag Just a bit of bragging today: Listen Up! Here’s Your Guide To European Tech And Startup Podcasts In English https://buff.ly/39S3qyR Top NewsWe have two new unicornsMambu - Germany’s newest Fintech Unicorn offers Banking Software as SaaS https://buff.ly/3oNEHC2 - Without them, no N26. They provide the software, which enables challenger banks like them.Munich-based HR scaleup Personio lands €103.5 million Series D funding and a €1.4 billion valuation https://buff.ly/35QYn0pRelated: Start-Up Personio Joins Circle of Unicorns - Technical University of Munich - School of Management https://buff.ly/2YgKm7W Delivery Hero raises 1.2 bn in fresh capitalDelivery Hero raises 1.2 bn Euros (1.47 bn US$) in new funding, selling "in hours" 9.44 mn new shares for 132 Euros each https://buff.ly/394ZFFQRelated:Delivery Hero starts their own Corporate Venture Fund called DX Ventures with 50 m Euros https://buff.ly/2MPUt11 Auto1 IPOAuto1 IPO will be raising a minimum of 1.5 bn Euros (2.2 bn US$) https://buff.ly/3plC62nOlder articles related to this IPO - you can see the fundraising went up 500 million More details of the planned IPO of Auto1 Group emerge. They want to list in 2021 Q1 in Frankfurt in Prime Standard. Out of 1 bn € to be raised 250 m will pay back convertibles, 750 m will be invested in further growth https://buff.ly/38Hq0uz Used-car platform AUTO1 to float in Frankfurt, looking to raise 1 bn Euros from selling new shares, with a valuation of 6-8 bn Euros https://buff.ly/3bxbWWx Amazon TV or Radio Station in Germany?Amazon has filed paperwork in Germany to get a broadcast license. The filing dates to November 2020 https://buff.ly/3bW0Mur Wirecard We keep you updated, just a small selection of news here. Keep in mind there is still an investigative committee ongoing. Oliver Samwer from Rocket Internet gave a private loan to Markus Braun from Wirecard of 75 mn Euros (91 m US$), which he demanded back rather harshly, shortly before Wirecard filed for insolvency https://buff.ly/3bW2ITUIn Austria, an investigation against former Wirecard COO Marsalek is ongoing in potential bribery of an employee of Austrian constitution protection (like their NSA). He is supposed to have checked the solvency of porn site hosts for Mr. Marsalke https://buff.ly/39eVNDz Ecosystem Slack users in Germany were greeted in the new year with a big outage covering most of the first working day of the new year 2021 https://buff.ly/3972zd0 January 4thTech workers want to relocate to Germany more than any other country in the world https://buff.ly/2Jims8n Germany starts with the test of a countrywide patient file, called "E-Patientenakte." The users can carry around all their medical files (x-rays, reports ...) on their smartphone and grant their physician access https://buff.ly/3hHb3M4Berlin remains the capital of German Venture Capital in 2020. EY tracked 314 financing rounds, out of a total of 743 they found. according to their data, VC funding declined in #Germany in 2020 by 15% to 5.3 bn Euros (6.45 bn US$) https://buff.ly/3oMxaDEIn the most recent fintech ranking #Frankfurt is losing position No 3 to Hamburg and now only scores at No 4 https://buff.ly/3o5IeKU Hubs Note: The order of news and cities is only due to the time when we discovered the news. FrankfurtFrankfurt-based provider of high performance computing Northern Data raises 52.5 mn Euros (64 m US$) #VentureCapital https://buff.ly/2KOccFcFrankfurt-based insurtech Clark raises 85 mn US$ (69 mn Euros) #VentureCapital, with lead investor Tencent (owner of Wechat) https://buff.ly/3nCyzeq we have an interview with the CEO for you here: XXXFrankfurt: Developing towards an epicenter of the German games industry - Frankfurt Valley https://buff.ly/39iZKao DarmstadtWe interviewed the Darmstadt based robotics software startup Energy Robotics in June 2020, where they already talked about their intention to raise Venture Capital. Now they closed their 2 mn Euros VC round: Earlybird and several Business Angels like Paul Achleitner, Gerhard Roiss, Martin Klässner, and Andrej Henkler invest 2 m Euros Venture Capital in Energy Robotics https://buff.ly/3qhA43kYou can learn more about them in our interview here: https://buff.ly/3fgyUQ0Merck KGaA snaps up German CDMO in boost to mRNA portfolio — including for Covid-19 https://buff.ly/2KauK2q Heidelberg/WalldorfSAP Unit Qualtrics Heads for IPO https://buff.ly/3pyBwOz MunichNew unicorn Personio is from MunichMunich-based Konux raises 80 m US$ #VentureCapital from Impact Investor Sanno Capital and Athos, The Family Office of Strüngmanns (Hexal), and existing investors (e.g. Alibaba). Konux builds intelligent sensors for Industry 4.0 https://buff.ly/3idMl6iMunich fintech Fidor Bank (a German fintech pioneer) is split up and sold to two bidders, Ripplewood Advisors form New York and Steria Mummert from Paris https://buff.ly/2MFo6SPepsi backs #Munich-based scented air drinks startup "Air Up" https://buff.ly/3i9vTDT HamburgtecHHub is the new 35 m Euro Entrepreneurship Center in Hamburg to keep founders in the city. Until the project is completed the city is thinking about a makeshift container solution https://buff.ly/3hL7If3 FreiburgInsight Partners and existing investors invest 100 m US$ #VentureCapital in Freiburg-based Jedox, the company offers enterprise performance management software for company planning and analysis https://buff.ly/2MPUt11 SwitzerlandZurich-based Blue Horizon Ventures is a VC focused on sustainable food, now they close their first fund with 183 mn Euros (221 m US$) with more than 100 investors from 20 countries. https://buff.ly/3a7l69Z Companies Food - Always a good topic to talk aboutDish Order: German grocery wholesaler Metro is partnering with Google to offer a competing offer to Lieferando. The clue for restaurants: There is no fee https://buff.ly/35TEEgvGerman food giant Dr. Oetker had their own beverage delivery service Durstexpress. Then they bought Flaschenpost, doing the same reportedly for 1 bn €. Now they merge Durstexpress in Flaschenpost https://buff.ly/3qB3Jov?utm_source=linkedinFintech / FinanceInvestors value Berlin-based Trade Republic with 600 m Euros (735 m US$) https://buff.ly/3hs0v36N26 Eyes IPO With Hiring Of New CFO https://buff.ly/3sXBUstN26 granted a banking license in Brazil https://buff.ly/3s2lGxK Vanguard will be starting an investment portal in Germany. They hired the „Head of Clients“ from market leader Scalable Capital for their based-Berlin team, headed by Jesper Wahrendorf (Ratepay) and Andreas Bittner (Solarisbank) https://financefwd.com/de/vanguard-scalable-thomas-wolff/Sibylle Strack, former CEO of #Berlin-based fintech Kontist hired at Deutsche Bank as Chief Growth Officer BizBanking https://buff.ly/2LhWClrBerlin-based fintech incubator Finleap shifts focus to test products for corporate clients, they don't want to be entrepreneurs any more https://buff.ly/3mgSHCc New VC FundsAnt Financial plans to start a fintech Venture Capital fund in Berlin https://buff.ly/3qyAtic20 health insurer in Germany invest in Berlin-based VC Heal Capital's 100 mn fund, to invest in health tech startups https://buff.ly/38XWmS3Keep in mind the news of the Delivery Hero fund from before Selection of investmentsDigital road freight forwarder Sennder raises $160M Series, plans European expansion – TechCrunch https://buff.ly/35Eu9gR Peter Thiels' Valar fund joins other investors in a 21 mn Euros #VentureCapital round for credit card #fintech Moss from #Berlin. They were registered in summer 2019 and now valued at 100 mn Euro https://buff.ly/38F6rTQ Global Savings Group raises € 12 Million in their most recent financing round https://buff.ly/35aumID All Other NewsNot even half of the German employees would recommend Tesla as an employer reports German tech blog t3n. Applicants post in forums and websites about chaos and arrogance https://buff.ly/35bZqrc?utm_source=-custom-by-source-0- Which startups have footballers invested in? https://buff.ly/3hcuWdG Including investments of Mario Götze (Frankfurt-based Qualifyze), Philipp Lahm, and Matts HummelsElliott Stake Complicates Rocket Internet’s Plan to Delist https://buff.ly/2MjL1muBerlin-based #grocery delivery service (you still buy from a supermarket) named Gorillas raises 44 m US$ #VentureCapital https://buff.ly/2IPM7F0 Stay ahead of the curveWhere Challenger Banks & Incumbents See The Next Digital Banking Opportunity: Seniors and the underbanked https://buff.ly/35jRIf3Top Investors Fueling The Renewable Energy Tech Ecosystem - CB Insights Research https://buff.ly/3bieHKXCharting retail banking revenues by generation https://buff.ly/2L9b9zD

This Month in German Startups - 2020 Review Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City. This is an annual tradition, where we look at the past year and forward into the coming one. Not to mention, we have been totally wrong last year with the outlook, so we are more sticking to the review this year. Today we bring you an overview of the German startup corona aid, an overview of the German startup scene, lists of top startup stories, a few outlooks on 2021, and a bit of wine :-) Ecosystem European Startup Scene 2020 - Snapshothttps://2020.stateofeuropeantech.com/chapter/state-european-tech-2020/article/exec-sum/ 8 crucial takeaways from Atomico's recently-launched The State of European Tech 2020 report | via Silicon Canals https://buff.ly/3m6MxVg ‘Megarounds’ helped European Tech ecosystem growWhile many founders found it more challenging to get funding, 2020 is on track to be a record year, with potential to surpass $41B invested, driven by more $100M+ deals.Germany is projected 23 bn US$Low capital, pivoting the product, and sales decline hit founders hardest in 2020International investment hasn’t dried upFrance is the only one of Europe’s three largest markets to grow in 2020. London remains the biggest investment hub in 2020Travel sector gets notably low investmentsInvestment in purpose-driven tech companies soarsGender and racial inequality still prevails in the European tech ecosystem List: 10 biggest healthtech stories of 2020 https://buff.ly/3aQlnjv The guinea pigs of Germany’s new healthcare revolution BioNTech: the German biotech startup behind the coronavirus vaccine Hot or not: Where European VC funding went in 2020 by Pitchbook https://buff.ly/3nMSzf7 - Difference to Atomico ⇒ Different source for data ... UK still has the largest VC market in total (13.7 bn $), but Germany (6.8 bn $) grew three times as fast with 10.9% vs UK’s +1.7% BUT this may also be due to Brexit. We will see what 2021 brings. According to Pitchbook France grew by an astonishing 25.4% to a total of 6.1 bn $. The other markets in Europe surpassing 1 bn $ are Sweden (3.2 bn$), Spain (1.4 bn$), and Finland (1.2 bn$). These are the 10 largest funding rounds of Europe in 2020 https://buff.ly/2W1KGX8 including AUTO1 Group, Tier Scooters and Lilium from Germany German Startup Scene 2020 - Snapshot Deutscher Startup Monitor https://deutscherstartupmonitor.de/ This is an annual survey by the German startup association, this year more than 1.900 startups participated.The largest share of the - participating startups - (note, there is a bias here) have been inBerlin 17,7%Rhein-Rhur (Cologne, Düsseldorf, …) 12.8%Munich 6.5%Hamburg 5.8%This is one of the reasons we try to highlight so many startups from different areas, since not only every 5th startup is in Berlin. Please note that we try to have approx. 20% of our interviews from Berlin, to give these startups also a fair representation.On average a startup in the survey employed 14.3 employees, up from 13.3 in 2019 and 12.3 in 2018. Despite Corona, 90% were planning to hire people. 15.9% of founders are female in this survey, slightly up from the previous years (15.7% in ‘19 and 15.1% ‘18)Universities play a central role as a core for a startup cluster, especially Germany’s Technische Hochschule (technical universities aka TU) e.g. TU München, KIT, RWTH Aachen, LMU München, Universität Mannheim, Universität Bremen, WHU, TU Berlin, TU Darmstadt and FU Berlin.~ 20% of founders have a migration backgroundThe most important technology is AI, more than 26.7% of startups had a SaaS business model68.8% of all startups focus on B2B, 26.5% on B2C, and 4.7% on B2G (Business to Government)The most important funding sources are the founder's own savings (used by 78.4%), government programs (used by 44.3%), and business angels (used by 31.6%). Actually, only 18.6% of participating startups have VC funding, while 42.3% want funding. DO YOU HEAR THIS INTERNATIONAL INVESTORS?Startups in Berlin (39,0%), Munich (28,8%), and Hamburg (22,1%) are the most frequently funded by Venture Capital Fintech Survey by Comdirect Comdirect is an online bank with a small startup program. They are part of Commerzbank group and conduct an annual fintech survey in Germany. Some highlights here: Volume of top 3 deals down by more than 50%12 fintechs with more than 100 m Euros fundingTop 20 funded fintechs get more money than the other 414 fintechsThe top fintech locations Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and Hamburg raised 72% of all VC fundinghttps://www.comdirect.de/cms/ueberuns/de/presse/fintech-studie-2020-wagniskapital.html Venture Capital in Germany A list of Germany's largest Venture Capital Rounds in 2020 https://buff.ly/2JTtJM1 Germany’s Corona Aid for StartupsGermany extends it’s two billion (2,43 bn US$) startup corona aid program from spring 2020 until June 30th, 2021, since not all two billion Euros of the original program have been spent. The two billion have been equally divided into two pillars - called Pillar One and Pillar Two.Pillar One (1 bn €, 1.2 bn US$) is direct aid for startups, who already have external investors. As of December 31st, 860 mn Euros (1 bn US$) have been committed by KfW, which administers all of the money. You can learn more here on their website about the program, unfortunately in German only (https://www.kfw.de/inlandsfoerderung/Unternehmen/KfW-Corona-Hilfe/Start-ups.html). KfW will also provide aid to startups and companies with a “strong relation to Germany”, which may also apply to your company? Check their website. Pillar Two (1 bn €, 1.2 bn US$) is a matching facility, were on a 1:1 basis the government matches investments. As of December 31st, 2020 only 556 million Euros ( 676 mn US$) have been committed. This program is administered by KfW, the development banks of each state (yes, 16 different ones and you have to apply at the bank in your state) and the government’s ERP fund, if you are already receiving funds from the ERP fund. Learn more here (yes, German only) https://www.kfw.de/inlandsfoerderung/Unternehmen/KfW-Corona-Hilfe/Start-ups.html. Again, you don’t need to be a German company, but only have your economic focus on Germany. Check the website if you think that may apply to you. Important: Your company must have steered clear of economic problems in 2019. Here is some more information, where you can also find more details: Germany’s startups have 2 bn Euros (2,43 bn US$) corona aid to draw upon (Known as Pillar One): https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Pressemitteilungen/2020/20200401-sart-ups-bekommen-2-milliarden-euro.html Plus there has been a Pillar Two, called the matching facility. Here the government (KfW) matches private investments in startups (50/50). https://kfw-capital.de/corona-matching-fazilitaet/ You can learn more here at the website of the German Business Angel Association, since the programs differ by state https://www.business-angels.de/aktueller-status-zur-saeule-ii-in-den-einzelnen-bundeslaendern/ More good news: The corona aid is extended to June 30th 2021: https://www.business-angels.de/%ef%bb%bfbrandneues-16-2020-start-up-corona-schutzschild-bis-30-06-2021-verlaengert/ How has Covid impacted Germany, Austria, and Switzerland’s startups? | Sifted https://buff.ly/3mLVgMM Hubs Frankfurt Rhine-MainLook-back at 2020 in the Rhein Main Startup Ecosystem - Frankfurt Valley https://buff.ly/3nBVPcB Frankfurt Rhein Main attracted multiple international companies in 2020 - Frankfurt Valley https://buff.ly/3nCU7HUThe most important startup exists in 2020 https://buff.ly/3pXop9Y including Emma, Bettzeit, Lizza and Mailtastic from the Rhine-Main AreaRhinemain.vc (Joe’s project) tracks venture funding of any kind in the Rhine-Main Area. We tracked 28 deals, in total 894 m Euros (skewed towards large rounds with BioNTech’s fundraising due to the development of corona vaccine and placement of additional shares and convertibles). Official publication to follow soon ...MunichMunich has a list of the Top 10 most important investments https://buff.ly/3bwig0k, headed by Lilium with 240 mn US$. Remember, we talked about it in the news. HamburgHad a great wrap-up: VCs holding back, Corona aid did not always help and the mood was still overall positive. Thank you for this amazing wrap-up.https://buff.ly/39rqzbe 2021 Outlook(s)We collected some outlooks, but they may be totally wrong, like last year. Only thing we can say for sure is that Germany is going to invest 10 bn € in VC funds, which in turn will invest in German startups. As said before, a few hundred millions from the corona aid for startups are also left. If we could beat corona soon, the second half of the year promises to be great for startups in Germany. Germany launches €10bn ‘Future Fund’ for startups. But will it go far enough? | Sifted https://buff.ly/2WhCHFzAnalysis: From famine to feast, investment in European tech startups roars back https://buff.ly/38taDop The World in 2021: five stories to watch out for | The Economist https://buff.ly/2KQlsbSWhat Will Life Be Like After the Pandemic? https://buff.ly/2KQdNdNWhat’s Coming for the Fintech Industry in 2021 - IMC Grupo https://buff.ly/3aEqNhf Top Fintech Trends in 2021 https://buff.ly/34WZaMJ 6 strategy and innovation insights from MIT Sloan Management Review | MIT Sloan https://buff.ly/3nzKB8e Detour You guys know we like to end on a high note and sometimes take detours … :-) German wine consumption has risen during times of corona. On average a German has bought 20.7 Liters of wine (700 oz for the Americans here) in last year’s harvest season, roughly 2.5 bottles per month. https://www.deutscheweine.de/presse/pressemeldungen/details/news/detail/News/wein-pro-kopf-verbrauch-gestiegen/

Meet Berlin-based Fintech Bitbond, the Company Behind Germany's First Regulated Security Token Offering In spring 2019 we issued our tokenized bond and with that, we established tokenized securities in Germany. Radoslav Albrecht, Founder and CEO of Bitbond Media PartnershipThis podcast is in media partnership with the Crypto Assets Conference, an event taking place each year in spring and autumn in Frankfurt, organized by the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and their Blockchain Center. You can learn more about the conference here: https://www.crypto-assets-conference.de/ You can learn more about Philipp Sandner, head of the Blockchain Center in our interview with him here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/the-german-bill-to-permit-crypto-securities/ What we are most interested in is to speak to companies, who are interested in tokenization. … to partner up with Bitbond to enhance their tokenization capabilities Radoslav Albrecht, Founder and CEO of Bitbond The InterviewFind all the links, show notes, and the automated transcript here on our blog post: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/podcast-meet-berlin-based-fintech-bitbond-the-company-behind-germanys-first-regulated-security-token-offering/

This Month in German Startups - December 2020 Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City. Welcome to the Chris-mas edition :-) Today we are wrapping up December 2020 for you. Please keep in mind that due to the holidays and the current lockdown in Germany we are recording this news on December 15th. All news not included here will be part of our January warp-up and there will be a 2020 review 2021outlook as well. Today we bring you news about the 10 bn investment package of the German government, the new DAX, Peter Thiel’s investments in Germany, Taxes, AI, and much more. EnablerThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/ Find all options to subscribe here:

The BISON App Allows Uncomplicated and Reliable Trading of Cryptocurrencies on the Smartphone We were the first to provide crypto buying and selling from an in Germany licensed institution. Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart Media Partnership This podcast is in media partnership with the Crypto Assets Conference, an event taking place each year in spring and autumn in Frankfurt, organized by the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and their Blockchain Center. You can learn more about the conference here: https://www.crypto-assets-conference.de/ You can learn more about Philipp Sandner, head of the Blockchain Center in our interview with him here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/the-german-bill-to-permit-crypto-securities/ The Chief Digital Officer This time we talk to Ulli Spankowski (https://de.linkedin.com/in/ulli-spankowski-08652916, https://twitter.com/uspankowski?lang=en, https://www.crunchbase.com/person/ulli-spankowski ) a fintech and blockchain entrepreneur, who sold his company to the Stuttgart Stock Exchange, which than promoted him to be the CDO (Chief Digital Officer). He is an economist by training, who did his PhD in market microstructure. He co-founded his fintech startup with co-founders from Slovenia. We met with the CIO of Börse Stuttgart - back then - and discussed what can be done with financial markets in the future, if you completely rethink it, based on blockchain technology. Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart Affiliate Links Is your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye Bitcoin was much bigger in Slovenia. When my co-founder told me to do something in bitcoin, I said … Bit-What? Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart The Startup Back in 2013, Ulli founded his startup Sowa Labs together with co-founders from Slovenia, which he met during an EU funded project during his Ph.D. Thesis. The idea of aggregating data from across the web and social media on cryptocurrencies evolved into cryptocurrency trading. They then sold the startup to the Stuttgart Stock Exchange in 2017 and developed what has become their BISON app: https://bisonapp.com/en/ (App Store, Google Play Store). This was not a bad move, since Börse Stuttgart is the market leader in Europe as a trading venue for retail structured products and one of the 10 largest stock exchanges in Europe. We started out with cryptocurrencies, but we are planning to move gradually into security tokens. Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart When I was attending conferences [at the beginning of cryptocurrencies] I always said “The biggest problem of cryptocurrencies is that no one cares about them” Ulli Spankowski, CDO Börse Stuttgart Further Readings / Additional Resources Market Microstructure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_microstructure Börse Stuttgart: https://www.boerse-stuttgart.de/en/ Multilateral trading facility: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilateral_trading_facility Euwax (The market for retail structured products, not related to BISON, but we talk about it as an offering of Börse Stuttgart): https://www.boerse-stuttgart.de/en/investing/euwax-segment/ OTC Trading: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/otc.asp AML: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/aml.asp Feedback Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA The Interviewer This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email

Amazing Blocks can tokenize Any Asset LegallyMedia PartnershipThis podcast is in media partnership with crypto assets conference, an event taking place each year in spring and autumn in Frankfurt, organized by the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and their Blockchain Center. You can learn more about the conference here: https://www.crypto-assets-conference.de/ You can learn more about Philipp Sandner, head of the Blockchain Center in our interview with him here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/the-german-bill-to-permit-crypto-securities/ The asset can be located anywhere, as long as it is legally owned by the SPV. Nicolas Weber, Amazing Blocks The Interview PartnerWe talk to Nicolas Weber (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas97weber/), in charge of business development Germany for Amazing Blocks (https://my.amazingblocks.io/). Blockchain has the ability to disrupt every aspect of business. Nicolas Weber, Amazing Blocks Affiliate LinksWhy not learn from entrepreneurs and executives who are open to share their favorite books. We skimmed through some recommendations and that is what we found. Recommended by: Bill Gates “Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker” https://amzn.to/2XAENlBRecommended by: Jeff Bezos “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras” https://amzn.to/2RGKGKeRecommended by: Elon Musk “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel” https://amzn.to/2REbHhwRecommended by: Tony Hsieh “Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan” https://amzn.to/34KgraQRecommended by: Warren Buffet “Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street by John Brooks” https://amzn.to/2K92z06Recommended by: Tim Cook “Competing Against Time by George Stalk and Thomas Hout” https://amzn.to/3cjMMYn Liechtenstein implemented the Token Act as a complete new law, other than for examples Switzerland, which is currently looking at adding to existing laws. Nicolas Weber, Amazing Blocks Find all the links and show notes on our blog here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/amazing-blocks-can-tokenize-any-asset-legally/

This Month in German Startups - November 2020 Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City. Today we are wrapping up November 2020 for you with an update on German startups working on corona vaccines, Flixbus, Finleap, Rocket Internet’s ongoing delisting, and a potential digital Euro Enabler This recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/ Find all options to subscribe here: Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio Podcast iTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bfl Spotify https://spoti.fi/3kCcgoB Housekeeping - Time to brag We have only one thing to say: Stay safe everybody! Be grateful for what you have! Affiliated Links Why not learn from entrepreneurs and executives who are open to share their favorite books. We skimmed through some recommendations and that is what we found. · Recommended by: Bill Gates “Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker” https://amzn.to/2XAENlB · Recommended by: Jeff Bezos “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras” https://amzn.to/2RGKGKe · Recommended by: Elon Musk “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel” https://amzn.to/2REbHhw · Recommended by: Tony Hsieh “Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan” https://amzn.to/34KgraQ · Recommended by: Warren Buffet “Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street by John Brooks” https://amzn.to/2K92z06 · Recommended by: Tim Cook “Competing Against Time by George Stalk and Thomas Hout” https://amzn.to/3cjMMYn Show Notes, Links and more reading https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-november-2020/

Follow-Up with the Bloomberg of Crypto – CoinAnalystAfter the interview in 2018, we entered the crypto winter. Pascal Lauria, CEO and Co-Founder CoinAnalyst The FounderThis interview is a follow-up to our interview in July 2018. At this time we talked with Pascal about the upcoming ICO of CoinAnalyst. Pascal Lauria (https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascallauria/) is the CEO and Co-Founder of CoinAnalyst (https://coinanalyst.tech/en/insights/), the Frankfurt-based startup still wants to be the “Bloomberg for Crypto.” The last few years for Crypto has been extremely hard. Pascal Lauria, CEO and Co-Founder CoinAnalyst PatreonLearn about our interviews hours before they are released, help in the selection of the startups we interview or even suggest startups to be interviewed, by becoming a Patron: https://buff.ly/32bZ4zW DueDashIf you don’t like Patreon, there is DueDash. DueDash is a Social Network, for startups and investors. We have a group of supporters there as well. You can join the group there: https://buff.ly/2R90PYp Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye During the Crypto Winter, no one wanted to talk or hear about Crypto. … I was advised to reflect that in my pitch deck. Pascal Lauria, CEO and Co-Founder CoinAnalyst The Startup CoinAnalyst (https://coinanalyst.tech/en/insights/), the Frankfurt-based startup still wants to be the “Bloomberg for Crypto.” They are themselves a spin-off of Frankfurt-based startup Cogia (https://www.cogia.de/de/), which was also founded by Pascal, where he is still the CEO. CoinAnalyst claims to have created a unique tool that helps crypto investors make more accurate predictions while trading. On their platform, they show Trends, Sentiment, Influencer talk about Crypto Currencies, Word Signals, Forecasts, and AI filtered high impact news. This all together is applicable to crypto coins, stocks and forex. They also have the COY token (https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/coinanalyst), which they issued during the ICO in 2018. Disclaimer on Coins and TokensPlease seek professional advice, before jumping into the risky crypto space. You may want to talk to your investment advisor, as well as your tax advisor. The investments in crypto-assets are always very risky and could lead to a loss of all of your investments in a very short time. Please make your research and due diligence! This podcast provides no investment advice. Initial Exchange OfferingAt the time of publication, the COY token will have made its debut on a new crypto exchange, called an IEO (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_exchange_offering) at LaToken Exchange (https://latoken.com/). Additionally, they are going to “burn” one billion COYs from the hard cap (https://academy.binance.com/glossary/hard-cap). In Equities, this would be called a “reverse split” (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/reversesplit.asp) two for one. Pascals and Joe's advice - MediationJust put on your headphones and listen to a guided meditation to get you relaxed and sleep better and deeper. For example here is one channel Joe likes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4jWo5kiyOCt4PnvF4jbaLg The Video Interview is set to go live on September 14th 2020 19.00 CET (Frankfurt/Zürich)https://youtu.be/yynVxYW6e0M The Audio Interview will go live at the same timeThe Audio Podcast will be published next week. Subscribe to our podcasts here Interview form 2018You can find the interview, announcing their ICO, here https://youtu.be/hU1hCM90xdc According to Pascal they raised more than one million Euros in cash and did a lot of swaps (meaning the exchange of COY tokens for other tokens). None the less, they did not raise as much money as they wanted to. They coined their token for 0.01$ and at the time of the recording was trading at approx. $0.002 (according to CoinGeko.com) two years down the road. Until recently (this interview will go live on September 15th) it was only available on one exchange. FeedbackReach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA The InterviewerThis interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email

The German Bill to Permit Crypto SecuritiesIn terms of large countries, Germany is a fast mover in blockchain legislation Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert Labor Day SpecialSince the USA are one of our biggest markets we publish some specials on federal holidays. This is one of those occasions. Despite this we stick to our publication of Video on Thursday and podcast the following night, so you all have the content on your devices the next morning. Our GuestCurrently, there is a piece of legislation in the law-making process, to permit securities issued on the blockchain in Germany. Due to this step, we talk to Philipp Sandner (https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippsandner/), a blockchain expert, Professor of Frankfurt School of Management and Finance, Head of the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center, Member Fintech Council (FinTechRat) of the German Federal Ministry of Finance, and member of several expert groups on the blockchain. The Bill to become Germany's Crypto Securities LawWe are talking about a bill to revolutionize the German capital market since you could move existing securities on the blockchain, as well as emit securities completely without "paper" on the blockchain. The new system is designed so that also startups also could run blockchains for crypto securities. You can find the proposed bill in German here: https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/Gesetzestexte/Gesetze_Gesetzesvorhaben/Abteilungen/Abteilung_VII/19_Legislaturperiode/2020-08-11-einfuehrung-elektronische-wertpapiere/0-Gesetz.html The US is lagging behind in terms of legislation, but they have some great startups in terms of crypto trading and crypto securities. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert The Video interview will go live on Labor Day 2020 (September 7th) at 19.00 CEThttps://youtu.be/uPaea39mDig The Audio Interview is set to go live on the same daySubscribe to our podcast(s) here Current SituationDuring our interview, Philipp refers to an already existing law in Germany, for which you can find an article here on the website of the German finance oversight body BaFin. The small country of LiechtensteinLiechtenstein, a country of fewer than 50.000 people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein), nestled in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. The whole country of Liechtenstein is just 2.7 times larger than the Island of Manhattan (http://www.comparea.org/LIE+r2552485#:~:text=Liechtenstein%20is%202.7%20times%20larger%20than%20Manhattan%20(NYC%20borough).&text=Liechtenstein%20is%202.7%20times%20larger%20than%20Manhattan%20(NYC%20borough)). The capital Vaduz has a population of fewer than 6.000 people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaduz), but you should not underestimate them. Liechtenstein is leading in Europe in Crypto-LegislationPhilipp takes a few minutes in our interview to bring the point home, but Liechtenstein and Switzerland are leading in Europe in Crypto Legislation, followed by countries from Baltic states. Not far behind in Germany with the bill we discuss. For further reference, here is the Liechtenstein Token Act: https://impuls-liechtenstein.li/en/blockchain-act-liechtenstein/ Future SituationThe law will likely come into force in January 2021. There are small changes to be expected, but the law should pass mostly in the current form, according to observers. This will allow for the conversion of normal securities, we assume bonds in the interview, can be converted in crypto securities early next year. Also, the issuance of crypto securities can happen early next year. We are excited about the opportunity. EU PerspectiveIn September 2020 the European Commission is trying to catch up in digital services. There are multiple proposals and strategies on the European Level coming up. Out of those Philipp names seven landmark proposals from the European Commission this September. There are seven landmark proposals coming from the European Commission in September 2020. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert With the current bill, Germany may be more than three years ahead of European legislation. Further ReadingsFormer appearances Summer School 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3plqKBpWFI Medium Blog https://medium.com/@philippsandner Custody of „crypto values“ aka cryptocurrencies in Germany – an English overview by the German financial services oversight body BaFin https://www.bafin.de/SharedDocs/Veroeffentlichungen/EN/Merkblatt/mb_200302_kryptoverwahrgeschaeft_en.html Feedback Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA The InterviewerThis interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email

NGRAVE offers the most secure end-to-end solution in the world for managing digital assetsYou cannot brute force our private keys. You cannot predict our private keys. The private key is generated on the spot, even we as the manufacturer do not know your private key. There are no back-doors in our device. Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE The FounderThis time we talk to Ruben Merre, the CEO and Co-Founder (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruben-merre/, https://medium.com/ngrave) of NGRAVE (https://www.ngrave.io/), which offers a highly secure solution to manage one’s digital assets. Ruben originally stared out with a business engineering degree. He not only worked as a strategy consultant, contributor to Hackernoon (https://hackernoon.com/u/ruben.merre) but also is a bestseller online investment instructor at UDEMY (https://www.udemy.com/user/rubenmerre/). This interview is part of our ongoing media partnership with Accelerator Frankfurt (https://www.acceleratorfrankfurt.com/). In 2019 a record 4.5 bn US$ in cryptocurrencies was stolen… we still see the same trend. Hacks are increasing in size and in frequency … Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE PatreonYou can now support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=35246148 if you like what you see and hear consider to support us, so we can keep bringing you great content. Affiliate Links Is your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye There are no solutions to own your crypto, how it should be. Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE The StartupOfficially the startup NGRAVE (https://www.ngrave.io/, https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ngrave´), based out of Brussels, Belgium. The story started as the former project of one of the three co-founders was hacked and approximately 10 million US$ worth in Ethereum was stolen. The old project was shut down and NGRAVE was founded to provide a secure way of storing digital or crypto assets. Venture Capital FundingNGRAVE is looking for funding in the second half of 2020. There are no backdoors in our product. Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE Indiegogo CampaignAt the time of the interview, the campaign was not yet launched. At the time of the publication the campaign already ended, but they raised more than 380.000 € (more than 450.000 US$), achieving more than 1.500% of their goal of 25.000 € (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zero-the-most-secure-easy-to-use-crypto-wallet#/). Our device looks like a small smartphone. The device is completely disconnected from the world, so no hacker can access it. …. Nobody can ever steal the private keys, because they are never exposed. Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE Pre-order the Device (NGRAVE Zero)For everybody who missed the Campaign, you can buy the device here: https://www.ngrave.io/products/zero. This is not an affiliate link. The Video Interview is set to go live on Thursday, August 27th 19.00 CEThttps://youtu.be/NZoSbjoRJzg You generate your private key at first activation of your NGRAVE Zero. Your biometric data like your fingerprint, but also external data like the ambient lighting at that moment. That makes statistically a unique key. Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE The Audio PodcastSubscribe to our podcasts here We build our backup as a stainless-steel puzzle. It survives if your house burns down and since it is a puzzle – no one who random finds it – will know your private key Ruben Merre, CEO and Co-Founder NGRAVE Further Readings / Additional Resources IBAN https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/iban.asp Blockchain Hacks https://www.investopedia.com/news/largest-cryptocurrency-hacks-so-far-year/ Private Key https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/private-key Feedback Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA The InterviewerThis interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email

Our founderA summer message from our founder Jörn “Joe” Menninger (LinkedIn, Twitter, Crunchbase) in times of Corona. https://www.instagram.com/p/CCGvgRhIKAw/ Hello and welcome, everybody, this is Joe – Founder and Host – of Startuprad.io. It is the beginning of July and I wanted to take the opportunity to reach out to you. First, I wanted to wish you a great summer – as great as it can be under the current circumstances. Second, I wanted to let you know that for July and August we take some time off. Our news is in the regular summer break – Enjoy your summer in New York Chris! We will also publish interviews only every other week. We normally used summer to publish interviews from our backlog, but since there have been almost no events we attended in person, there is less backlog. We will be back to a weekly publishing schedule in September. Until then, enjoy your time and thank you to all our listeners, who made us reach the podcast charts in now 35 countries across the world. The last ones added have been Hong Kong and Kuwait. If you like our podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon. Have a great summer and see you again in September! PatreonYou can now support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=35246148 if you like what you see and hear consider to support us, so we can keep bringing you great content. Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye Feedback – Suggest Interview Partners and moreReach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA Video – Enjoy the summer – As much as you can and stay safehttps://youtu.be/cmCgRkvO7xY

This Month in German Startups - May 2020If you are new to our podcast(s), we are wrapping up the startup news of the German-speaking area in a monthly recording from Frankfurt and New York. Have a look at our website www.startuprad.io or www.startup.radio and you will find all the links to our recordings and the articles we are quoting from there. Some of the source articles are in English, some are in German. Reach out to usOur audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA Find the hosts here:Jörn “Joe” Menninger joe@startuprad.io / Twitter / LinkedIn / Video Interview (2018)Christian “Chris” Fahrenbach chris@startuprad.io / Twitter / Homepage / Video Interview (2018)PatreonIf you like our podcast, consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/startupradio EnablerThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/ Together with our enabler, we are running a podcast called “Tech Startups Germany”, which will focus on startups at a Serie A stage or even more mature. You will also find all the videos we produce for this podcast on our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/startupradio. This podcast is available directly on our device as an audio and video podcast. Yes, Startuprad.io makes the first downloadable video podcast. Find all options to subscribe here:

Learn from an Indian-born entrepreneur, who raised 35 mn Euros Venture Capital in Germany"Hessen is the natural home for startups and entrepreneurs" Gunjan Bhardwaj – Founder and CEO Innoplexus The Enabler of our InterviewThis recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/ Together with our enabler, we are running a podcast called “Tech Startups Germany”, which will focus on startups at a Serie A stage or even more mature. You will also find all the videos we produce for this podcast on our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/startupradio. This podcast is available directly on our device as audio and video podcast, yes, Startuprad.io makes the first downloadable video podcast. Find all options to subscribe here: Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio onlyiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflDeezer http://bit.ly/2Qbh1rlTuneIn http://bit.ly/2M8vpznStitcher http://bit.ly/34xTANOTech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - VideoiTunes https://apple.co/2M8ZxKJ The Startup FounderOur interview partner is again Gunjan Bhardwaj (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gunjan-bhardwaj-b321a32/), not the actor. He is a former EY and BCG consultant, as well as a TED speaker. He likes to work a lot, so he is also the author of the book “Inside the Cockpit: Navigating the Complexity of Drug Development with AI and Blockchain” (https://amzn.to/2QYI1eL). “Frankfurt … it is the center of Europe, it is so super connected.” Gunjan Bhardwaj – Founder and CEO Innoplexus PatreonYou can now support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=35246148 if you like what you see and hear consider to support us, so we can keep bringing you great content. "Everybody has to chart his or her own course. I am a deep believer in instinct." Gunjan Bhardwaj – Founder and CEO Innoplexus Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye Interview Part 1This is part two of a series of interviews with Gunjan. You find part one of our interview here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/meet-innoplexus-the-startup-which-fights-all-diseases/ “… but I also have to say that investors in this part of the world look at the long term picture … but once they are convinced, they are partners for the long term” Gunjan Bhardwaj – Founder and CEO Innoplexus One Day Commute to New YorkOne of the things Gunjan likes about Frankfurt is its great connectivity. With the connections of Frankfurt Airport (IATA Code FRA, therefore know as Fraport) you can get on a plane, meet in New York in the afternoon and be back in Frankfurt early the next morning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraport Germany is one of the best places to start a company. Gunjan Bhardwaj – Founder and CEO Innoplexus Advice in FundraisingInnoplexus counts among its investors HCS (https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/hcs-beteiligungsgesellschaft), as well as Christian Angermayer of Aperion (https://www.crunchbase.com/person/christian-angermayer), as well as EOS VC (https://vc.eos.io/partners/finlab/), the venture capital arm of Block.one. According to a report by FAZ they have already raised 35 mn Euros and are looking for 40 million more (https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/unternehmen/start-up-innoplexus-ein-google-der-pharmabranche-16473990.html). "No funding event is easy, but what is easy in life?" Gunjan Bhardwaj – Founder and CEO Innoplexus Gunjan strongly recommends doing your due diligence, he likes to quote one of his teachers who said that assuming means "making an ass of you and me”

The interview was originally published on June 13th 2019 on www.startuprad.ioMedia PartnershipThis interview is in media cooperation with Frankfurt Forward (https://www.frankfurtforward.com/startups/cashlink). In a startup with three founders, one is only focused on raising venture capital. Michael Duttlinger CEO and Co-Founder of CASHLINK during the Startuprad.io Interview The IntervieweeIn this interview, we are talking with Michael Duttlinger, who is Co-Founder and CEO of CASHLINK. CASHLINK is a tokenization platform for startups, where they can tokenize phantom shares. We want to reduce the time a founder spends on raising venture capital. Michael Duttlinger CEO and Co-Founder of CASHLINK during the Startuprad.io Interview The StartupYou can learn more about the technical aspects and what CASHLINK does in our audio-only podcast here: https://www.startuprad.io/interviews/cashlink-wants-to-digitalize-venture-capital/ Due to the recent interview with CASHLINK we focus more a bit on the German VC scene, rather than the startup itself. You can learn a lot about the functioning of the German VC market during this interview. We thought: Venture capital can be more flexible and easier. Michael Duttlinger CEO and Co-Founder of CASHLINK during the Startuprad.io Interview Further ReadingDuring the interview we are talking about: • Rhine-Main-Area: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_Rhine-Main • RhineMain.vc: https://rheinmain.vc/ or go directly to the Medium blog: https://medium.com/@RhineMainVC • Handelsregister (Germany’s company register): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_register