Record sum demanded on DHDL

The Swiss come to Germany and first of all deliberately demand the highest sum ever heard on DHDL. But they have good arguments.

No one has ever asked for a higher sum on Die Höhle der Löwen: On Monday evening, the show ran again on the screens, the three investors and one investor were allowed to evaluate ideas and include them in their portfolio. With Scewo, however, they all had to swallow. Five million euros was what the start-up wanted for ten percent of the shares, which would mean a company valuation of 50 million euros.

The start-up has developed an electric wheelchair that can drive up and down previous barriers such as stairs. To do this, a small caterpillar is installed next to the wheels on the wheelchair. It also compensates for the incline so that sitting up straight is always possible. The wheelchair can manage a slope of ten percent on its own, and it can manage a slope of up to 72 percent with the caterpillar. In addition, the whole chair can raise the seat to reach the top shelf in the supermarket or eye level when talking. It is controlled via smartphone and a joystick. Priced at over 30,000 euros, Scewo has sold 30 power wheelchairs so far.

"We always say we're building the Tesla of wheelchairs!" says Bernhard Winter on the show. He is one of the founders of Scewo, along with Thomas Gemperle and Pascal Buholzer. In the end, it is not enough for an investment from Nico Rosberg, Carsten Maschmeyer, Ralf Dümmel or Dagmar Wöhrl. But it didn't hurt the Swiss: after the recording, they raised eight million euros in a financing round to push ahead with an expansion, as the Cologne-based local paper Express learned.