What’s up New? In ours #StartupTicker we provide a compact overview of the most important startup news of the day (Thursday, February 19th).
#STARTUPLAND: 27 days left!
The next unicorn? You’ll meet it at STARTUPLAND
+++ Our third STARTUPLAND Conference will take place on March 18th at the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne. A fascinating journey into the startup scene awaits you again – with lectures from successful founders, educational interviews and pitches that inspire. More about STARTUPLAND
Live at STARTUPLAND: Björn Keune (Invincible Brands)
Growth, reach, exit – with Invincible Brands, Björn Keune achieved what drives many founders. But behind the visible success, a personal state of emergency developed. In STARTUPLAND, Keune speaks openly about the downside of entrepreneurial high-performance mode: about pressure, loss of control and the moment when it became clear that one’s own system was no longer sustainable. An honest conversation about the dark side of success, about ambition that can tip over – and about the lessons learned from a founder who has noticed that the biggest problems often arise long before they become visible in sales, growth or KPIs.
#STARTUPTICKER
Buena
+++ One cracker follows the next! Just last summer, Berlin-based PropTech Buena raised an impressive $58 million – including from GV (formerly Google Ventures), 20VC (Harry Stebbings), Stride and Capnamic Ventures. According to our information, billionaire New York investor Left Lane Capital has now also joined Buena. Left Lane, which now holds around 8% of Buena, is invested in Choco, Holy and Kittl, among others. The Berlin PropTech Buena, which is led by Matthias Möller, Moritz von Hase, Din Bisevac and Jan Mundin, positions itself as a digital property management company. The strategy also includes the “takeover and digitalization of existing property management companies”. The company, founded in 2016 by Moritz von Hase and Thilo Konzok (who had already left), was previously known as Home. Former YouTube star Bisevac has been leading the newly launched company since 2022. Capnamic, EQT Ventures. Redalpine and FJ Labs invested 11 million euros in PropTech in 2020. By the end of 2023, a total of around 20 million had flowed into Buena or Home. The investment from Left Lane Capital shows that the company is still doing extremely well. More about Buena
Blockbrain
+++ StartupsToWatch: Blockbrain. The startup from Stuttgart, founded in 2022, wants to help companies “securely digitize specialist knowledge, processes and decision logic and make it usable throughout the organization”. The Munich investor Alstin Capital, the London financier 13books Capital, the HARTING Family Foundation, Giesecke+Devrient Ventures, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg Ventures and Mätch VC invested just 17.5 million euros in the company. A total of 22.5 million have flowed into Blockbrain so far. “Blockbrain makes internal know-how from documents and the teams’ expert knowledge quickly usable as knowledge bots, GDPR-compliant and without complex programming,” says Benjamin Kleinschnitz from Alstin Capital about the investment. The Blockbrain team would like to use the fresh capital to expand sales and “market presence in Europe and Great Britain”. More about Blockbrain
One100
+++ Restart with telephone system. The hokify founders Simon Tretter, Karl Edlbauer and Daniel Laiminger, who sold their startup to karriere.at in 2024, are starting up again – with One100. Behind the startup from Weyregg am Attersee is an “AI telephone assistant for medical practices”. This includes, among other things, answering calls, booking appointments and accepting prescription requests. These are all topics that cost many practices a lot of time in their hectic everyday lives. “Many people believe that everything runs online. Everyday practice shows something different: no matter which channel is used to book, language remains central. That’s exactly why we’re building One100,” says founder Edlbauer. In addition to One100, there are a number of other startups working in the segment – such as fonio.ai, mediform and vitas. More about hokify
Remberg
+++ Worth reading! Handelsblatt takes a look behind the scenes at Remberg. The Munich startup, founded in 2018, relies on “an intelligent maintenance platform for industrial companies”. “The number of customers is in the three-digit range, including well-known names such as Edeka, Isar Aerospace and Vaillant,” the report says. In recent years, the team has already raised around 30 million euros – including from Acton Capital. (Handelsblatt) More about Remberg
Advisor
+++ A well-chosen advisor can be an important lever in the founding phase of startups: as a sparring partner, prioritization helper, access to the network, not involved in day-to-day business, but close enough to provide orientation. More in the guest article by Leon Piotrowski and Max Illmer
Startup Radar
+++ It’s that time again – new startups are in the starting blocks! Here are some exciting young companies you should know about. Today we take a look at these startups: VoxDesk.ai, Fintalo, DECD, ParaStruct and Avientus. More on the startup radar
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Investments & Exits
+++ Metafuels collects 24 million +++ eternalbyte receives 1.6 million +++ Organigram buys Sanity Group (valuation: 250 million). More in the deal monitor
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