Luca app receives 30 million euros

The funding is intended to help realign the app. One of the investors is being criticized because of his Russian backers.

The company that operates the Luca app Culture4Life has received 30 million euros for the realignment of its app, according to Finance Forward reports. In future, the Luca app will help to digitize the restaurant industry. The money for the project comes from investors Ramin Niroumand and Julian Teicke. Both are also set to join the company's board of directors. Target Global is also investing in Luca. According to Finance Forward has close ties to Russia. This is because one of the founders of the investment firm is Alexander Frolov, the son of a Russian oligarch of the same name, who is apparently also a backer of the fund.

Luca founder Patrick Henning would emphasize that the agreement with Target Global was made before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The investment firm also assured him that no sanctioned persons were involved and that the company strongly condemned the war.

Henning launched the Luca app together with Philipp Berger. According to the start-up, around 450,000 restaurants and cultural establishments and around 40 million citizens have registered with Luca during the pandemic. With the new funding, the app now wants to find solutions to enable people to book, order and pay in restaurants and hotels. To this end, the founders want to develop the "Luca Pay" service and work with the ID verification service IDnow.