Highlights of November - Female Entrepreneurs and Green Startups
We are wrapping up November for you. We shifted gear and started with two weekly publications, so there is a lot of great content here. We are looking forward to your feedback.
House Keeping
We had to change the podcast hosting service in November, if you experience any trouble getting our audio content, please let us know!
We Started a Podcast Covering Female Entrepreneurship in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
Thank you to our Enablers
Invest-in-Hessen, TVARIT, Younium, Keeper Security, and Next Big Thing AG.
The Network of European Startup Hubs 101 (Podcast and Report)
You have it all wrong. Europe is not full of competing startup hubs. They are increasingly forming a network for startups. The startups start at one knot in the network (frequently a university), move on to an accelerator, and end up in one of Europe's top 12 fundraising hubs to raise funds, sometimes becoming a unicorn. On their way, the startups leave traces, like R&D capabilities, sales teams, groups, investors, and so on. So they are not really the product of a city, but a continent with free movement. in our blog post you will find the link to a 115-page report that includes much more data.
Learn more here.
We are also traveling again, so you don't have to. Our first event coverage in two years was split into two separate episodes from Brussel, attending the European Angel Investment Summit.
Interviews from the European Angel Investment Summit (1/2)
The European Business Angel Network (EBAN) is an organization that brings together business angels from all over Europe. The aim of the organization is to provide a forum for business angels to share best practices and learn from each other. EBAN also offers training for new business angels who want to get involved in startup investing. The organization held one of its two annual conferences in Brussels recently, bringing together business angel investors from all over the continent. This year’s conference was particularly important, as it provided a much-needed opportunity for startup founders to connect with potential investors. With the COVID-19 pandemic causing economic uncertainty, many startups are struggling to secure funding. The conference offered a unique opportunity for startups to pitch their businesses to a large group of potential investors. EBAN director Jacopo Losso spoke about the importance of business angels in the current climate, saying “business angels are more important than ever in these challenging times.”Losso went on to say that business angels “provide the seed funding that is essential for many startups.” The conference was a valuable opportunity for startup founders to meet with potential investors and get their businesses off the ground.
Learn more here.
Female Founders at the European Angel Investment Summit (2/2)
The conference offered a unique opportunity for startups to pitch their businesses to a large group of potential investors. The conference was a valuable opportunity for startup founders to meet with potential investors and get their businesses off the ground.
300 seed-stage startups applied to be at this event of which 25 have been chosen. The event took place in Brussels.
We focused on startups from Germany and made short interviews with them on-site. If you want one or more of these startups back for a full interview, let us know in the comments or via email. The event was a great opportunity to network and exchange ideas with other startup founders, business angels, and VC investors from all across Europe.
Learn more here.
Meet INZMO one of Europe’s Fastest Growing Insurtech Startups
Executive Summary
We hear from Meeri, who is the co-founder of INZMO (Insurance on Mobile). She co-founded the Berlin-based insurtech which helps to make simple insurance contracts via an app. The simple approach also made them one of the fastest-growing insurtechs in Europe. In the interview we talk about her journey from a corporate lawyer to an entrepreneur, pivoting and founding INZMO. We also talk about how a simple insurance contract via an app could turn 50 bn € sitting on bank accounts productive again. Tune in to learn more.
We also had two interviews with green startups, helping to make the world we live in a better place:
Green Startup CleanHub Fights Ocean Plastic Together with Brands
Executive Summary
Meet Joel Tasche, CEO, and Founder of CleanHub, a green startup on a mission to fight ocean plastic pollution. They enter partnerships with brands to remove plastic waste. They use the proceeds to collect plastic waste in areas, that don’t have waste management systems in place. So this plastic is not ending up in the ocean. Hear about the company’s approach to helping save the planet and what positions they are looking to fill.
The interview with traceless materials is also the first interview in our exclusive series with the German Startup Association, interviewing some of the Winners of the German Startup Awards.
Green Startup Traceless Replaces Plastics With Compostable Materials #GSA22
Johanna Baare is the founder of Traceless Materials, a startup that produces compostable materials to replace plastic. She was recently awarded the German Startup Award for “Female Newcomer of the Year 2022.” Congratulations, Johanna! The award is presented by the German Startup Association. Baare’s company is just one of many startups fighting plastic pollution. It’s estimated that 40% of today’s plastic waste ends up in the environment. This has devastating consequences for wildlife and ecosystems. Traceless Materials’ products will decompose in nature in two to ten weeks, without leaving any trace. Baare is one of many female entrepreneurs leading the charge against plastic pollution. We need more innovators like her to create a cleaner, greener future for us all.
This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — November 2022 Wrap-Up
Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups, our startup news wrap-up for November 2022 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt.
Our Highlights:
FTX may be history, BUT a German Blog reports there are several parties interested in buying the European Entity of FTX. FTX also triggered Bitpanda to order a special audit from KPMG. We have some more job cuts, this time the 2nd round. Gorillas may sell itself at 1 bn USD even though they have raised 1.3 bn USD in venture capital already. Air taxis are still hot, Volocopter raises more than 180 m US$ to get closer to certification and Lilium sells 100 Airtaxis to Saudi Arabia. The German VC market is stabilizing, according to KfW Research. Our former guest Creditshelf partners with Goldman Sachs and pockets 100 m Euros. Gitpod, a startup from Kiel convinces the founders of GitHub and Shopify to invest.
MedTech Startup Selfapy Offers Psychological Help Without Wait #GSA22
Nora is the CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based Medtech Selfapy, a major provider of prescribable digital therapy solutions in Germany. She is the winner of this year's German Startup Award for Female Founder of the Year 2022 and a Forbes 30 under 30. She is a psychologist by training with degrees from York and Cambridge but decided to join startups early on, to later found Selfapy. Self-pay fills the void for patients while they are waiting for psychological treatments, which may take three to six months. After a long journey they now even have a reimbursement certification for German health insurers.
UnternehmerTUM Helps Entrepreneurs to Start World-Class Companies #GSA22
UnternehmerTUM helps experienced entrepreneurs and students to start, accelerate or fundraise to build world-class companies including but not limited to Flix, Celonis, Blickfeld, Isar Aerospace, Konux, tado, e-bot7, ProGlove or Lilium. At the 2022 German Startup Awards, UnternehmerTUM won the Special Award for their work. Therefore we interview Stefan, its COO in our series with the German Startup Association, and learn more about him and their programs.