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We are again astonished about the reach of our podcast and interest in the GSA startup scene. At the time of writing this newsletter the podcasts of Startuprad.io are scoring in more than 45 podcast charts e.g., on Apple Podcasts, Chartable, and Spotify.

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Winners of the German Startup Awards #GSA22

Meet the German Entrepreneur of the Year — Co-Founder of Flix, which now owns Greyhound #GSA22

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Jochen Engert won the German Startup Award 2022 as German Entrepreneur of the Year. He is the co-founder of Munich-based Flix a unicorn recently valued at 3 bn US$ and the owner of Greyhound Lines. He shares in this interview his entrepreneurial journey, and his experience in winning 90% of the local long-distance bus market in less than a decade, without owning even one bus. We talk about the rough times during COVID when the service was shut down for 8 weeks, their expansion into different countries, acquisitions, and investments. He also shares some experience from his business angel investments.

“We are getting to profitability pretty soon” Jochen Engert Co-Founder Flix

Meet Filip, One of Germany’s Most Successful Early Stage VCs from Cherry Ventures #GSA22

Filip is a founding partner of Cherry Ventures, one of Germany’s most important seed investors. Their portfolio includes unicorns like Flixbus, Auto1 Group, Forto, Infarm, and well-known startups like Amorelie, Kitchen Stories, Flaschenpost, Spryker, and Superlist. Their portfolio also includes our former guests: Qualifyze, Sanity Group, and Rows. Filip has a background as an entrepreneur himself, so he and Cherry approach startup investing differently. Tune in to learn more about him and the VC.

“We have software helping us to find good startups, for example, if you are head of product at a good startup and change your title to ‘working on something new’ we get notified.” Filip Dames, Founding Partner Cherry Ventures

QiTech Recycles Plastic Waste in 3D Printing Filament #GSA22

Milan graduated in 2022 from Highschool and is the founder of QiTech, a company that recycles bottle caps to create the plastic filament used in 3D printers. He was recently awarded the Newcomer of the Year at the German Startup Awards 2022. Milan has been working hard to grow QiTech into a successful business. In addition to selling the ink for 3d printers call filament, QiTech also sells the machines they use to produce the filament. This innovative approach to recycling has earned Milan recognition as an outstanding young entrepreneur. With his creative solution to the problem of plastic waste, Milan is positively impacting the environment and paving the way for a more sustainable future.

In plastic recycling you have to get down to the details, there is a lot of ‘greenwashing.’ Milan von dem Bussche, Founder QiTech

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News and Deep Dives

Fintech Review 2022 — Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

Welcome to a Startuprad.io tradition, airing on December 25th. A review of the most important events in Fintech from the perspective of our guests for the 8th year in a row right now. The most important development in the fintech world was for most guests the FTX collapse. During the recordings agreed that fintech investments have seen a peak — there will be a valley behind it, but there will be new investment records achieved after the expected recession. As next hot topics emerged embedded finance and crypto. Not all crypto will be hot again, only with a sustainable business model, there is a future according to our guests. Actually, some guests welcomed a shakeout of the market — albeit it should not have been that violent and long. Tune in for the rest.

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Bonus: What We Know About the FTX Collapse?

In this bonus episode of our expert interview series, Antonio Fatas, Professor of Economics at INSEAD, joins us to provide insights into the current situation with FTX. We’ve gathered a good deal of information about the collapse so far but there is still much that remains unknown. We delved into some of the known facts surrounding FTX and pondered together on what could happen in the future. It’s clear from our discussion that FTX was not a regulated financial institution, and also had its own unique challenges. We’ll be keeping an eye out for more developments related to FTX as time goes on to see what other lessons we can learn.

This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — December 2022 Wrap-Up

Enpal makes huge fundraising in the current environment, more than 800 mn €. Sennder doubles its valuation in the next funding round to 2 bn US$ and has already 60 mn € commitments. The funding environment may be bleak, but investors announced new funds for VC and PE investments worth 3.1 bn US$ targeting startups and scaleups in GSA or Europe. One blog asks if the time of Rocket Internet is over, Matter Labs raises 200 mn, a big heist drives a startup into insolvency and Getir buys Gorillas for 1,2 bn US$, a far cry from Gorillas’ former 3 bn US$ valuation.

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Our Founder Interviews

9am.works Is The “Operating System” for Freelancers

9am.works is a startup platform explicitly designed for freelancers. Founded by Marc, a serial entrepreneur formerly with Team Europe Ventures and the founder of Sommelier Prive, Huus, code control, and 9am.works. The platform makes it easy for freelancers to find jobs, invoice clients, and get paid quickly and securely — most for free! It also helps companies in most steps of working with freelancers from searching and hiring to payment processing. Bootstrapped since its launch in 2016, 9am.works is transforming how freelance work is being done.

UniApp Helps Students to Find the Best International University for Them And Apply There

UniApp is an ed-tech startup from Germany, that helps international students to prepare for their study abroad and helps in the application process, both on their platform. They help students to find the right place to study for undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as online-only programs. Their portfolio includes now universities and colleges in 27 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Singapore, and Canada. The tool also works as a CRM for universities and colleges to streamline their international applicants.

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December in 5 Minutes