News from the startup world week 39

Malin Posern becomes a partner at Project A UK. Partnership between vialytics and Lobbe. Spoontainable is sold to Stroodles. Registration for the Frankfurt Spring open. Flawless secures $2.2 million seed funding.

Project A appoints Malin Posern as Partner and Managing Director UK

Project A has announced the appointment of Malin Posern as Partner and Managing Director for the UK, with the aim of strengthening its operating model in the UK and Nordics. Malin will lead Project A's growing London office and focus on early stage investments in the region. Project A is committed to expanding its operational VC model across Europe in collaboration with its Berlin hub. With her extensive experience in the UK and the Nordics, Malin will strengthen Project A's presence and support start-ups in the UK and the Nordics. This move underlines Project A's commitment to the European ecosystem and its aim to nurture the next generation of start-ups in the region, based on its impressive track record of investing in local companies.

Flawless secures $2.2 million in seed funding

Flawless, the platform for data-driven business process management, has secured $2.2 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by 42CAP, with participation from Picus Capital, Dreamcraft Ventures, and Oktogon Ventures. Within a year, Flawless has evolved from an operational process monitoring solution to a platform that helps companies manage complex business processes by enabling data integration, customized dashboards, and automated monitoring. Customers, including e-commerce and marketplace companies, report efficiency gains from using the platform.

In addition, Flawless welcomes Wolfgang Wörner, former founder of Sixfold, as a new co-founder. The funding round is backed by investors experienced in building successful B2B SaaS businesses, and the company plans to use these funds to further its product development and global expansion.

New partnership between vialytics and Lobbe

The Stuttgart-based software company vialytics has entered into a strategic partnership with the Iserlohn-based environmental and waste management group Lobbe to drive digitalization in cities and municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia and parts of Hesse. As part of this partnership, Lobbe waste disposal vehicles regularly collect image data of the road surface using vialytics' AI-based road management system. This data serves as the basis for managing infrastructure and road inventory, accelerating route control and enabling city and municipal customers to automatically receive digital overviews of their road infrastructure. This innovative approach promises time and resource savings for municipalities and demonstrates how artificial intelligence can support administration. vialytics is a leading road management system that is already used in over 300 municipalities in seven countries, while Lobbe is one of the leading environmental and waste management companies in Germany.

Joachim Schreiner becomes CRO at Parloa

Joachim Schreiner, former Head of Salesforce Germany, will become Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at Berlin-based AI company Parloa from October 1, 2023. In his new role, he will be responsible for the global revenue strategy and lead the customer-facing teams. Parloa is a market leader in the use of conversational AI in customer service, enabling companies to automate customer calls and chats and process inquiries efficiently. Schreiner brings more than 35 years of experience in the technology industry and has been instrumental in successfully building Salesforce's German business. He sees Parloa as an opportunity to help shape the future of communication and support the company in its ambitious growth plans and international scaling. Parloa CEO Malte Kosub is looking forward to Schreiner's expertise and emphasizes his passion for improving customer service through software solutions.

Frankfurter Sprungfeder 23 - registration open until 8.10.

Since 2015, the Marketing Club Frankfurt has been presenting the coveted "Frankfurter Sprungfeder" award to promising start-ups that are on their way to becoming established brands. The award winners are not only characterized by innovative business ideas, but also by successful marketing strategies. Once again this year, prizes with a total value of over 100,000 euros are up for grabs, including media services and coaching. Interested start-ups have until October 8, 2023 to apply, and the pitch event will take place on November 6. Further information is available on the website https://frankfurtersprungfeder.de/

Spoontainable is sold to Stroodles

The German start-up Spoontainable, which specializes in sustainable alternatives to disposable tableware, has been sold to the British company Stroodles Eco-Tableware. The founders Amelie Vermeer and Julia Piechotta will remain with the company as advisory board members. Over the past five years, Spoontainable has successfully developed edible cutlery alternatives made from salvaged cocoa and oat shells and sold them in over 15 countries. The new owner, Stroodles, already offers sustainable tableware alternatives and this strategic move opens up opportunities for market expansion and synergy in process optimization. Customers can continue to purchase products from Spoontainable and the range will be expanded. The founders are withdrawing from the operational business in order to drive sustainability efforts in the food service industry worldwide.