Startupnews week 36 - 2025

Investments

MUVN secures seven-figure pre-seed financing

The Hamburg-based transportation platform MUVN, which has recorded over 23,000 downloads since April 2025, has closed a seven-figure pre-seed round. Investors include Daniel Beutler, Baltic Business Angels and Benjamin Otto. MUVN brings together free loading spaces with transport requests and thus opens up logistics to private individuals. With the new capital and initial partnerships, such as with Arndt Mobility and Hertz, the start-up is planning to scale across Germany. The founding team consists of Katharina Kreutzer, Massimo Sabatino and Emre Aydin.

Austria plans location fund to mobilize capital

During the government meeting, Federal Chancellor Stocker announced the creation of a location fund. The aim is to mobilize private capital for infrastructure, companies and the capital market in Austria. Together with other measures and an investment of 1 billion euros, the fund is intended to provide impetus for the business location and strengthen competitiveness.

Ketryx receives 39 million US dollars in Series B financing

The start-up Ketryx, which specializes in regulated AI, has raised 39 million US dollars in a Series B round, led by Transformation Capital. This brings the total funding to over 55 million US dollars. Ketryx is developing a platform that automates compliance documentation in real time and thus accelerates the introduction of AI-supported products in the life sciences sector. Three of the world's five largest medtech companies are already using the solution. Ketryx intends to use the new capital to drive its expansion in the USA and Europe - including the Vienna site.

aiomics secures 2 million euros pre-seed

The healthtech startup aiomics has closed a pre-seed round of 2 million euros. The company's aim is to use an AI-supported "Healthcare Co-Pilot" to reduce the documentation burden in the healthcare sector and make data usable along the entire supply chain. The platform captures documents, handwriting and speech in a validated workflow, recognizes gaps in real time and delivers structured data directly back into existing systems. Investors include Vorwerk Ventures, Calm/Storm, Norrsken Evolve and rule30, complemented by several business angels. With the fresh capital, aiomics plans to expand its activities in Europe.

Awards & Events

Science4Life startup competition launches new round

The start-up initiative Science4Life has launched the new round of its industry-specific start-up competition. Start-up teams from the fields of life sciences, chemistry and energy can submit three-page idea sketches online until October 6, 2025. The competition accompanies start-ups from the initial idea through the development of the business concept to the business plan and offers prize money of over 60,000 euros as well as access to a network of experts with over 300 specialists, coaching and topic-specific webinars. The best teams also have the opportunity to further develop their ideas at the digital Science4Life Academy Day in November. Since 1998, over 10,200 participants have benefited from the competition, including successful companies such as Tubulis and Reverion. The competition is divided into three phases - idea, concept and business plan phase.

French Tech in Germany Awards 2025 in Düsseldorf

The French Tech in Germany Awards will be presented for the third time on September 10, 2025. For the first time, this will be an official part of the Startup Week Düsseldorf program. The award ceremony will take place from 6:30 pm in the Turbine Hall of Stadtwerke Düsseldorf and will bring together around 250 guests from startups, investors, industry, politics and business. Awards will be presented in five categories: Best GreenTech, Best BeautyTech, Best VC/Investor, Best DeepTech/AI Innovation and Best Woman in Tech. A public vote, which ran until the end of August, will be included in the jury's decision. The event is supported by numerous partners such as L'Oréal Deutschland, Stadtwerke Düsseldorf and Wirtschaftsförderung Düsseldorf. After Berlin (2023) and Munich (2024), Düsseldorf is the third location for the awards, which showcase the innovative strength of the French-German tech community.

Mergers & Acquisitions

VIG acquires majority stake in Moldasig

Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) has acquired 80% of the shares in Moldasig S.A., making it the largest insurer in the Republic of Moldova with a market share of around 30%. Moldasig, founded in 2002, is one of the leading non-life insurers in the country with a market share of around 14% and has more than 100 branches. With a solid financial position, high reserves and a solvency ratio of 218.5%, the company is considered to be in a stable position. The transaction not only strengthens VIG's position in the region, but also the economic footprint of Austria, which is already one of the most important foreign investors in the country. VIG has been active in Moldova since 2014 and also serves around 120,000 customers there through its subsidiary Donaris.

Flowbox takes over Dreaminfluence

The Swedish SaaS company Flowbox has acquired the Danish company Dreaminfluence, exceeding the 1,000 customer mark in Europe with an annual revenue (ARR) of around EUR 9 million. Dreaminfluence, founded in 2018, offers an influencer marketing platform and works with over 200 companies, including Estée Lauder and Mondelēz. With the acquisition, Flowbox further expands its position as a UGC platform in Europe and integrates Dreaminfluence's creator network into its offering. The combined company employs over 60 people across offices in Stockholm, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

Personnel

Flanks appoints new COO and launches expansion in the DACH region

European wealthtech Flanks has appointed Sebastian Henrichs as Chief Operating Officer and at the same time announced its market entry in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Henrichs, who previously led the German FNZ platform with a volume of over 120 billion euros, will drive Flanks' international growth strategy and in particular support the expansion in DACH and the UK. Flanks offers a platform that connects financial institutions with over 400 banks, standardizes customer data and thus enables a complete overview of assets. The aim is to provide wealth managers with a secure, AI-supported solution in an industry characterized by succession, consolidation and digitalization.

Erik Wilde becomes Head of Enterprise Strategy at Jentic

Dublin-based AI infrastructure company Jentic has appointed Erik Wilde, an internationally recognized expert in API strategies and standards, as Head of Enterprise Strategy. Wilde, who previously worked as an OpenAPI ambassador, author and lecturer, will support companies in the secure and standards-based introduction of AI agents. With his many years of experience in research, standardization and consulting, he brings extensive expertise in the areas of API management and enterprise architecture. Jentic aims to provide companies with an open and secure foundation for integrating AI agents into existing API ecosystems and is currently expanding the closed beta of its standards-based agent service.

Finanzen.net Group with new leadership

The finanzen.net Group is expanding its management team to four members and setting the course for the next phase of growth. Muhamad Chahrour (39), previously Managing Director of the GGW Group and long-standing manager at flatexDEGIRO, will take over the role of CEO by January 1, 2026 at the latest. The previous CEO Maximilian von Richthofen (45) will take on responsibility for finance as Group CFO and will also support Investor Inflexion with growth projects. The management team will be complemented by Lennart Libercka (40) as future Chief Product Officer and Karsten Kuhla (50), Managing Director of finanzen.net ZERO since July. The personnel changes are related to the integration of the previously separate business units into a fully integrated product and information platform.

Further news

Startup association calls for clear innovation strategy

The Startup Association accuses the German government of a lack of clarity and too little speed in its startup policy. Despite 1,500 start-ups in the first half of 2025 and strong AI growth, many young companies are coming under pressure. Chairwoman Verena Pausder calls for Germany to "focus everything on innovation" in order to overcome the recession and reform backlog. The association is calling for a consistent strategy with clear responsibilities, less bureaucracy and better access to capital. It takes a critical view of laws such as the Collective Bargaining and Fund Risk Limitation Act, and a positive view of approaches such as the Location Promotion Act, albeit with room for improvement. Transparency in the WIN initiative, a capital market union and more attractive exit markets in Europe are needed to turn Europe from a startup country into a scaleup country.

Finom launches "AI Accountant" after successful beta in Germany

Finom has launched its AI-supported accounting solution "AI Accountant" for all customers in Germany following a test phase. The software automates processes such as document entry, transaction reconciliation, tax returns and deadline management and is based on a multi-agent system. According to Finom, there was a high demand for digital alternatives to traditional tax advice during the beta phase. At the start, the solution is primarily aimed at the self-employed and freelancers, but will gradually be expanded to include more complex corporate structures and will later be offered in other European markets.

Octonomy expands into the USA

The Cologne-based AI company Octonomy, which has been active in the DACH region since February 2025, is now entering the US market. With its "AI octo-Workers", Octonomy automates complex support requests via chat, email and voice in a quality that it claims is equivalent to human responses - even with complex data such as ERP information or technical documents. The US team is led by SaaS expert Aaron Landman, who has international go-to-market experience. CEO Sushel Bijganath emphasizes that Octonomy delivers practical and reliable AI instead of generic solutions. With this expansion, the company, which was founded in 2024, is continuing its internationalization strategy and aims to offer an alternative to existing tools, particularly in customer service.

FRYTE Mobility shows first e-truck charging process with automated reservation

FRYTE Mobility, together with Bosch Road Services and Hubject, presented the first automated reservation process for e-truck charging points according to the OCPI standard at the Intercharge Network Conference. This will enable fleet operators to book charging processes directly from the route planning in advance, creating more planning security for freight transport and better utilization of the charging infrastructure.