Tara is a political analyst from PANALIS. PANALIS is Germany’s and likely also Europe’s No 1 software tool for policy analysis for associations and industry groups. You can find the interview with the two founders dating to April 2019 on our blog post here: www.medium.com/startuprad-io

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All governments have 100 days before the press hikes up their scrutiny. Since Mr. Scholz was sworn in on December 8th, 2021 as the 9th chancellor of Germany, the first 100 days will be over on March 18th, 2022. So we took the opportunity to have a look at what is potentially on the cards for

The interview was recorded before the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, so there is no mention. We focus on what to expect from the German Government in very broad terms. Note that the current situation, with Ukraine and Corona, may totally derail the coalition contract, which is what we discuss right now. But for now, we can only discuss what we know. So let’s dive in.

“The main message is that 2021 was an exceptional year. 2021 saw an 150% growth of startup investments in Europe”Thomas Kösters – Managing Director DEEP Ecosystems

This is just the kick-off for our cooperation with the DEEP Ecosystem and we will bring you at least four more episodes with them. All data available here and discussed in our episode is only available here with us. Let us know what you would be interested in for the next episodes. 

“We detected the uptick in Lisbon early, when we started. We asked ourselves if we are wrong as no one else was talking about Lisbon as a startup hub.”Thomas Kösters – Managing Director DEEP Ecosystems 

Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: Link https://linktr.ee/startupradio 

“Seed rounds are actually a lagging factor of the success of a startup hub”Thomas Kösters – Managing Director DEEP Ecosystems 

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DEEP Ecosystem is a company founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, also the entity behind the https://startupheatmap.eu/. The company is an analytics company focusing on startup hubs in Europe. They are actively tracking more than 100 cities across all of Europe, from Meetups in the respective cities, to the share of female founders and all the accelerators active in the cities and even much more.

Thomas Kösters (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-k%C3%B6sters-8602a247/)is our guest today, he is the Managing Director. Before he started with the startup heatmap, he was working for companies like Siemens, Microsoft, and EIT Digital.

The data we are sharing here is nowhere else legally accessible. We are sharing here exclusively an excerpt of the Q4 Startup City Signals report, with more than 10 pages of exclusive data.

You can find all data here (hint: it is interactive when you hover with your cursor over it).

https://infogram.com/1pe2qp17963ej1bm75jlwzk23nhl1ky39zw?live

Nobody knows what a digital euro will look like. ECB is in the process of exploring the possibility. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert

Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: Link https://linktr.ee/startupradio

China is with its digital Yuan ahead of Europe or the US. The ECB is investigating the possibility, with the aim of having a digital Euro 2025. We will see China launching the digital Yuan this year. That is almost 5 years ahead.Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert

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CBDC is a variant how the Euro will run on a modern infrastructure.Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert

Vinovest enables you to invest in fine wine. They work with master sommeliers, quantitative analysis, and their global network to help you build a great wine portfolio. The best thing: You can decide what to do with every single bottle, including getting it shipped to you to enjoy it. Learn more here: https://zen.ai/startupradio Using this link gives you 2 months of fee-free investing.

This interview is part of our series with subject matter experts. Our guest today is Philipp Sandner (https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippsandner/), Professor at Frankfurt School of Management and Finance. There he is head of the Blockchain Center. He is also a member of the fintech advisory council to the German federal government (FinTechRat), Chairman of the International Toke Association, as well as a contributor to Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/philippsandner/).  According to one of Germany’s largest newspapers Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Philipp is also one of the 30 most influential economists in the German-speaking area in their ranking for 2018 and 2019. He is also co-founder of the German Blockchain Association.

• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippsandner/

The situation of the Federal Reserve in developing a digital central bank Dollar is like the ECB. Both are early in exploring the topic. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert

Central banks take inspiration from cryptocurrencies and are actively thinking about introducing their own cryptos, called central bank digital currency (CBDC). There are many podcasts out there talking about CBDC, especially US$, but Startuprad.io is headquartered in the city of the Euro, Frankfurt. So, we thought we shed some light on the perspective from Europe. The European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve are both in the first steps of exploring the possibilities and implications of CBDCs for the Euro and the US Dollar. But there is already a growing market in US$ stable coins, where stable coins in Euro have to stomach losses, due to the negative interest rates in the European Monetary Union (EMU). Tune in to learn more...

The difference in the US is that there is already a working alternative, the US$ stable coins. Philipp Sandner, Blockchain Expert

• Here...

"We buy the on-site data from a good auditor and re-sell the data to other customers of this supplier."David Schneider, CEO and Co-Founder Qualifyze

This show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Find it all here: https://techstartups.sounder.fm/

"I approached the company for an investment, and they sent me the chief of staff to vet the company. Over a few beers he decided to join me as co-founder, but the company never invested."David Schneider, CEO and Co-Founder Qualifyze

This time our guest is David Schneider (https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%87%BA%F0%9F%87%A6dr-david-schneider-1100a066/), Founder and CEO of Frankfurt-based Qualifyze (https://www.qualifyze.com/), a startup that helps in the chemical and pharma industry with audits. David did see a lot of places while studying in the Netherlands (Maastricht, Rotterdam), National University of Singapore and Università Bocconi in Italy. He was also and intern with JP Morgan in investment banking in London, Rothschild in Frankfurt, or BASF in Ludwigshafen. Before starting his own company, he was working as a consultant for more than 3 years. He tried to attract investment from a steel trading company, and he convinced the person the company sent to become his co-founder.

Qualifyze (https://www.qualifyze.com/) started out as a marketplace for commodity chemical products, called ChemSquare in 2017. They soon realized that in the chemical and pharma industry the required suppliers’ audits are a big hassle and they pivoted to help their clients with digitizing them. These audits are essential for supply chains in the chemical and pharma industry, where faulty ingredients can lead to deaths or damage to equipment or nature.

"We decided to get the supplier qualification on our platform to make the chemical platform work and it turned into a new business model." David Schneider, CEO and Co-Founder Qualifyze

They raised a Series A funding round, led by HV Capital of 14 mn US$, which was disclosed in November 2021.

Vinovest enables you to invest in fine wine. They work with master sommeliers, quantitative analysis, and their global network to help you build a great wine portfolio. The best thing: You can decide what to do with every single bottle, including getting it shipped to you to enjoy it. Learn more here: https://zen.ai/startupradio Using this link gives you 2 months of fee-free investing.

Welcome to This Month in GSA Startups - meaning Germany, Austria and Switzerland, for February 2022 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris from New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio, our partner station IBGR.Network and the Fundscene blog.

We recorded this new episode on Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022. Today we bring you everything from a new Switzerland-based unicorn to a new take on quick delivery - pardon the pun.

We start out with mega-deal in Gaming: ESL Gaming is sold for 1bn US$, Munich-based Fintechsystems is sold for 120 mn € and Aachen-based Next Ego may accomplish THE turnaround of the whole year, coming out of insolvency, they are looking to list via SPAC, valued at 1.5 bn €. Switzerland has a new unicorn, congratulations to Scandit, Gorillas wants to buy a french competitor and is thinking about a SPAC deal. Also, we have a large update on neobanks in Germany, and they are not all doing well.

Let's talk startups:

https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-gsa-startups-february-2022-44520c52b1eb 

Vinovest enables you to invest in fine wine. They work with master sommeliers, quantitative analysis, and their global network to help you build a great wine portfolio. The best thing: You can decide what to do with every single bottle, including getting it shipped to you to enjoy it. Learn more here: https://zen.ai/startupradio Using this link gives you 2 months of fee-free investing.

When I started in crypto, I had to manage so many wallets and platforms, that I could not imagine how complicated it would be for an institutional investor. We started FINOA to help with that.

Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA 

Vinovest enables you to invest in fine wine. They work with master sommeliers, quantitative analysis, and their global network to help you build a great wine portfolio. The best thing: You can decide what to do with every single bottle, including getting it shipped to you to enjoy it. Learn more here: https://zen.ai/startupradio Using this link gives you 2 months of fee-free investing.

We want to be the No 1 crypto custodian for institutional investors in Europe. Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA 

In this interview we speak to Henrik Gebbing (https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrik-gebbing-finoa/), the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Finoa, a Berlin-based crypto fintech, which is already one of the hidden champions. They are a global top 5 crypto custodian for institutional investors. Henrik attended Golden Gate University in San Francisco as a Fulbright Scholar and got his MBA at IE Business School in Madrid. He later worked as a consultant with McKinsey, but after 4 years jumped ship to start Finoa. He developed the idea, that would later become Finoa with his roommate (and now co-founder) on the kitchen table in Madrid while studying for his MBA.

Globally we want to maintain one of the top 5 spots for crypto custody. Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA 

The co-founders started Finoa (https://www.finoa.io/) in Berlin. Their driving idea was – and still is – to support institutional investors to go into crypto. They also support wealthy individuals, who hold substantial amounts of crypto assets of more than 100.000US$. Finoa is a custodian, meaning they keep - on behalf of their clients - their crypto assets save. At the time of the interview, they have around 400 customers. Their clients include the crypto holdings of Rocket Internet, T-Systems, US-based VCs, and hedge funds.

In April 2021 they announced a 22 mn US$ Series A funding, which is sizeable for Germany, as well as for crypto at the time.

We hold assets for entities in Asia and Silicon Valley, but our focus market is the European Union. Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA 

FINOA announced their Series A funding of 22 mn US$ in April 2021(LINK). FINOA is open to discussions with investors, but they are not actively looking for new investors.

Fintech is fast, but crypto is warp-speed. Henrik Gebbing, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FINOA

You can find all the links and show notes here: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/meet-finoa-they-want-to-build-a-crypto-bank-3761c485e04d 

Topics of this interview are: Cryptocurrencies, Crypto, Crypot Bank, Entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, crypo custody, crypot assets, safekeeping, securities custody, b2b, institutional investments, institutional investors, services for institutional investors

This is the first joint radio program and podcast of IBGR and the Startuprad.io podcast with its radio program Startup.Radio. You may know that IBGR and Startup.Radio is a syndication partner, almost from the start of Startup.Radio. I, therefore, welcome William Eastman, founder of the IBGR Network, everybody calls Bill.

Find all options to subscribe to our newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel or listen to our internet radio station here: Link https://linktr.ee/startupradio

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Today we bring you insights from Atomico’s State of European Tech 2021 - an annual survey of startups all over Europe taking place annually since 2015. This survey may be the most comprehensive, repeated overview of the European startup and tech scene. This survey is a joint endeavor by Atomico, a London-based VC and PE fund, as well as the annual Slush tech festival in Helsinki, Finland. And, guys, you know a tech festival has to be good, if it can lure people to the freezing cold Helsinki in December. They also add data from providers like S&P and Dealroom in the mix. Startuprad.io had Dealrooms Founder in an interview btw.

This is just a starting point for you to discover the whole report on your own. It spans more than 350 pages, so we can not give you all the information here. The bottom line is … I would say: The whole continental ecosystem all over Europe has been lacking behind the US and China for quite some time. It looks like they have started to catch up in a big way, despite corona. We see this in increases in the number of investors, startups, fundings (number and size), and the increase in the uni/decacorn herds. The authors see a potential for the whole ecosystem that is now worth 3 Trillion US$ to be worth 24 Trillion US$ in 2030.

https://www.startuprad.io/blog/what-we-have-learned-from-atomicos-state-of-european-tech-survey-audio-only/ 

Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” Google Form for Feedback 

We focus on everything, besides the large solar parks, which is actually 99% of the overall market.Johannes Burgard, Founder and CEO of SOLYTIC

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The inefficiencies of small solar installations … kind of smacked me in the face.Johannes Burgard, Founder and CEO of SOLYTIC

The Founder 

We talk to Johannes Burgard (https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannesburgard/), CEO and Founder of Berlin-based SaaS startup SOLYTIC (https://www.solytic.com/). Johannes started out with studying engineering, with stints in Chile and London. After graduation he worked at Airbus, did an MBA and then started out with his entrepreneurial journey. Johannes had his first contact with solar cells during his graduate studies, which really did not let him go afterwards. He worked in a large corporate in project efficiency, which made him aware of all the inefficiencies in small solar installations. To help the small solar owner he decided to found SOLYTIC. 

We analyze the performance and efficiency of small solar installations with our analytics software.Johannes Burgard, Founder and CEO of SOLYTIC

The Startup 

SOLYTIC (https://www.solytic.com/) is a software-only company. They provide analytics services to small PV installation owners as Software as a Service, to improve effiency. The company merged early on with another solar software company, which lead to five founders in total.

Solytic focuses on decentralized solar installations (everything except large solar parks). 

We want to provide an end-to-end solution. We offer a marketplace with suppliers connected to the analytics software.Johannes Burgard, Founder and CEO of SOLYTIC

Venture Capital Funding 

Solytic has already raised 6,5 mn Euros Venture Capital. They closed their first round in December 2017. They closed their Series A funding in February 2020. At the time of the interview Solytic is fundraising and they intend to close the round at the end of Q1 2022.

We work B2B. We don’t approach customers directly, but we are working with the service providers of the small installation owners.Johannes Burgard, Founder and CEO of SOLYTIC

This Month in German Startups - January 2022 

Happy New Year guys! Welcome to This Month in German Startups in January 2021 by Startuprad.io - in a news recording with Chris from New York City and me Joe, from Frankfurt am Main. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in radio syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio and our partner IBGR.Network.

We recorded this new episode on Monday, January 24th, 2022. All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode. There will also be a special episode on Atomico’s State of European Tech 2021 together with Bill, the founder of the IBGR Network, as an audio-only podcast.

This is a new year with 365 blank new pages, so let's write the best story possible.

Our highlights: The last year was amazing for the German startup scene, there are now officially 25 unicorns and we feel that there will be more. 60 mn for sunfire from the federal government, Go Student’s tutors and students start to critique the company, Tado is looking to IPO via a SPAC. Also Cherry Ventures had been good in snatching up stakes in unicorns early. Now Cherry raises their 4th fund.

Let's talk startups:

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www.startup.radio 

Startuprad.io is globally a Top 75 Science Podcast, Top 125 Tech Podcast, and Top 650 Business Podcast (Chartable.com)

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Our EnablersInvest-in-Hessen 

This show was made possible by Hessen Trade and Invest with their brand Invest-in-Hessen. You can learn more about them here (https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/). We also run a dedicated sub-podcast with all interviews and news in cooperation with them. Find it all here: https://anchor.fm/techstartupsgermany

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All show notes and news links are here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-germany-austria-switzerland-january-2022/