Startupnews week 46 - 2024

Trade Republic pays out over 1 billion euros in interest. Green Club increases crowdinvesting target to two million euros. ContextSDK and Wizz partner up. German Business Angels Day 2024 in Mainz. Family business career day at SMS group. Conduktor closes 30 million dollar financing round. Omnidocs and Xential merge. Rosberg Ventures reaches 100 million dollars in assets under management. Starting signal for the Saxon Transfer Prize 2025. clockin receives millions in funding. Figure of the week.

Trade Republic pays out over 1 billion euros in interest

Trade Republic has passed on more than 1 billion euros in interest directly to customers in Europe since launching its interest offer in January 2023. The savings platform is setting a new standard by passing on the full ECB interest rate of currently 3.25 percent per year with no upper limit. With this success, Trade Republic is now beginning to gradually introduce a current account function that enables transfers, salary receipts and payments - while at the same time earning interest on the balance. With free ETF savings plans, a card with 1 percent saveback and innovative savings solutions, Trade Republic is positioning itself as a serious player in the European banking sector.

Financing rounds

Green Club increases crowdinvesting target to two million euros

Green Club, a delivery service specializing in salads and bowls, has raised one million euros from over 350 private crowd investors within two weeks. We reported on the call about the round. The funds raised via the Wiwin investment platform came mainly from North Rhine-Westphalia, with an average of over 2,400 euros per investor. In view of the high demand, Green Club increased the target of its financing round to two million euros in order to offer further investors investment opportunities. The proceeds are intended to drive the company's expansion in Germany, including new locations in Mannheim and Stuttgart.

Conduktor closes 30 million dollar financing round for expansion in the USA

Conduktor, an enterprise data management platform specializing in data streaming, secured a total of 30 million US dollars in a Series B round led by RTP Global with participation from M12, Ansa and Accel. The company plans to use the funding to expand in the USA and to drive forward product development in order to meet the growing demand for real-time data. Conduktor, which helps companies such as BMW and Lufthansa optimize their data streaming strategies, offers a proxy-based solution that ensures data quality and compliance directly at the source. The company aims to support regulated industries in particular, such as the financial and healthcare sectors, in the secure management of sensitive real-time data.

clockin receives millions in funding to digitize European SMEs

The startup clockin has closed a seven-figure financing round led by D11Z Ventures and SCALEHOUSE Capital to drive the digitalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe. With a user-friendly app for time tracking and task management, clockin is particularly targeting the "deskless workforce" - employees without a fixed office workplace. With the new funding, clockin aims to expand its product portfolio and increase its market presence in Europe to give SMEs in traditional industries such as trade and hospitality access to digital tools and AI-supported processes.

Cooperations, M & A

ContextSDK and Wizz partner up

Edge AI startup ContextSDK has partnered with social app Wizz from developer Voodoo's portfolio to improve user engagement through context-based in-app interactions. With the help of ContextSDK's technology, which adapts app offers to real user contexts, Wizz was able to increase its conversion rate by 81 percent and its lifetime value by 20 percent. Through precise timing, Wizz achieved 80 percent of potential sales with only 20 percent of previous notifications, underlining the efficiency and potential of such context-sensitive approaches.

Omnidocs and Xential merge to form European document powerhouse

Omnidocs, a Danish provider of document creation software, is acquiring the Dutch company Xential, which also specializes in document creation and automation solutions. The merger will create a European "document powerhouse" offering an extended product range for the public and regulated sectors in Europe and the USA. Main Capital Partners, the majority shareholder of both companies, will remain the majority shareholder after the merger and is pursuing the goal of building leading international software groups through strategic mergers.

Fund

Rosberg Ventures reaches 100 million dollars in assets under management

Nico Rosberg's investment company Rosberg Ventures now manages 100 million dollars following the launch of a second fund of funds. The former Formula 1 world champion has established himself as an investor and connects German entrepreneurial families with leading venture capital firms and high-growth start-ups worldwide. The new fund, which was set up at the beginning of 2024, raised 78 million dollars in less than a year, while a first, informal fund from 2023 already comprises 22 million dollars. Rosberg emphasizes that the success of his model shows how much the German economy relies on innovation and access to cutting-edge technology.

Awards & Events

German Business Angels Day 2024 in Mainz

From November 23 to 25, 2024, the "German Business Angels Day" will take place in Mainz, the largest meeting of business angels and start-ups in Europe with around 700 participants and over 150 exhibiting start-ups. Organized by Business Angels Deutschland e. V. (BAND) and supported by the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Economic Affairs and Business Angels Rheinland-Pfalz, the event offers extensive networking opportunities, knowledge workshops and insights into the start-up ecosystem. Highlights include the awarding of the "Golden Nose" to the Business Angel of the Year and the start-up exhibition, where over 150 companies present their innovations.

Family Business Career Day at SMS group: 650 talents met 50 leading family businesses

At the "Family Business Career Day" on November 8, 2024 at the new SMS Campus in Mönchengladbach, 650 selected talents met 50 leading German family businesses such as B. Braun, OBI and the Vaillant Group. Under the motto "Sustainability through innovation", the event, organized by the Entrepreneurs Club, offered over 1,000 individual interviews and numerous stand talks, during which the applicants from over 50 nations were able to get to know over 5,000 vacancies. Family businesses, which account for 90 percent of all companies and 60 percent of jobs in Germany, presented themselves as attractive employers with a focus on sustainability and individual development. Jochen Burg, CEO of SMS group, emphasized the importance of promoting young talent for the company, which relies on innovative talent for projects such as "#turningmetalsgreen". The next Family Business Career Day will take place on June 6, 2025 at Bürkert in Ingelfingen.

Starting signal for the Saxon Transfer Award 2025

The competition for the Saxon Transfer Award 2025 was launched at the Saxon Transfer Forum in Dresden. The competition is looking for innovative knowledge and technology transfer projects between Saxon research institutions and companies. Applications are open until March 10, 2025, with prize money of up to 50,000 euros, public relations work and access to the futureSAX network up for grabs. For the first time, awards will be presented in the spin-off, patent exploitation and cooperation categories. The award ceremony will take place in June 2025 at the Saxon Innovation Conference.

Figure of the week: 8% of all German companies in 2022 were start-ups

(Destatis) Around 252,000 new companies were founded in Germany in 2022, which corresponds to 8.0% of all companies. This represents an increase in the start-up rate of 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous year. At the same time, around 274,000 more companies were closed than newly founded, which corresponds to a closure rate of 8.7%. The highest start-up rates were recorded in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector (12.6%), followed by education and teaching (11.3%). There were a particularly high number of start-ups among small companies with no employees, while the start-up rate among larger companies was significantly lower.