Ex-Audi boss Stadler advises start-up

Newonads wants to lead local sports clubs into digital advertising, and the start-up has the support of former Audi boss Rupert Stadler.

He is currently still on trial for his alleged involvement in the VW Group's diesel scandal, but Rupert Stadler is also involved in completely different topics: The ex-Audi boss advises the start-up Newonads. "I can contribute my management experience here," Stadler tells the Handelsblatt. The start-up, managed by Florian Holste, is part of the consulting and marketing company Achtzig20, whose Managing Director is also Holste.

Newonads is initially getting involved in the local marketing of sports clubs, which it wants to support with the placement of advertising away from Google on platforms such as Instagram and LinkedIn. Newonads is primarily targeting first to third division clubs in soccer, basketball, volleyball, handball and ice hockey. "No one has ever served the local area before," Holste told Handelsblatt, attributing this primarily to the differentiation of the market.

The Newonads team currently consists of seven employees; in December, the start-up raised one million euros from an Austrian family office, name unknown. Newonads is currently valued at ten million euros, writes Handelsblatt.

Newonads is currently also supported by former professional footballer Manfred Bender and Thai boxing world champion Dardan Morina. They also have contacts with sports clubs. But Newonads also benefits from its Ingolstadt-based parent company Achtzig20, which works with THW Kiel and Hannover 96, for example.