Startup & Tech News from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland by Startuprad.io™

Startuprad.io's 8th annual Fintech Review: expert guests on the year FTX collapsed, why fintech valuations peaked before the coming valley, and what's next — embedded finance and the crypto projects with genuinely sustainable business models. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: The annual DACH fintech reference for a pivotal year...

December 2022 in DACH: solar scale-up Enpal raises over €800M in a tough market, and freight-tech Sennder doubles its valuation to $2B. Joe Menninger and Chris Fahrenbach close out the year with the month's biggest rounds. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: Two marquee raises in a down market — energy and logistics — showing whe...

November 2022 in DACH: FTX's fallout spreads — Bitpanda orders a KPMG special audit — Gorillas may sell at $1B after raising $1.3B, Volocopter raises $180M and Lilium sells 100 air taxis to Saudi Arabia, while Kiel's Gitpod lands the GitHub and Shopify founders as investors. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: A dense entity mont...

Europe isn't a set of competing startup hubs — it's increasingly one network. Startups begin at a university knot, move through accelerators, and raise in one of Europe's top-12 fundraising hubs, leaving R&D, teams, and investors in their wake. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: A reframing that changes how you read the whole Eu...

October 2022 in DACH: Gorillas moves to sell itself to rival Getir, gadget-rental firm Grover adds €270M in venture debt toward a ~€2B valuation, and crypto bank Nuri (formerly Bitwala) files for insolvency — plus a Snoop Dogg-backed round. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: The consolidation-and-failure phase of the downturn ma...

September 2022 in DACH: as Germany braces for a hard energy winter, startups keep both cutting staff and raising big — while European M&A activity surges to $55B over the summer. Joe Menninger and Chris Fahrenbach show it's not all doom and gloom. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: The downturn's push-and-pull in one month — cut...

Kimmo Soramäki — founder and CEO of FNA, and a veteran of the central banks of Finland, Norway, the Bank of England, the ECB, and the New York Fed — opens a series on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs): what they are, why they matter, and where they're heading. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: CBDCs will reshape the rails...

The July–August 2022 wrap-up: DACH holds up better than feared, with Celonis raising $1B in equity and debt and WeFox €400M — even as downturn signs mount, M&A rises, and Qonto acquires Penta in a B2B-neobank consolidation week. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: Two mega-rounds and a neobank consolidation at the top of the mark...

June 2022 in DACH: startups — even recently-funded unicorns — shed headcount to extend runway ahead of a recession, while WeFox eyes nearly doubling its valuation and Personio and Trade Republic raise more. Economy Minister Robert Habeck unveils a startup strategy that could mandate VC allocations for German insurers and pension funds. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes...

European startups raised $28.2B in Q1 2022 — the second-highest quarter on record — but is it a lagging indicator? The seed funnel is already shrinking, even as fintech, deeptech, health, and AI generate 50,000+ jobs and a 90% jump in openings. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: A well-timed warning: record top-line funding mask...

May 2022 across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland: Joe Menninger and Chris Fahrenbach round up the month's startup funding, deals, and ecosystem signals. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: Part of the continuous DACH signal record — the May 2022 read as the market began to turn from its 2021 highs. In this episode, we cover: The...

April 2022 across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland: Joe Menninger and Chris Fahrenbach round up the month's startup funding, deals, and ecosystem signals. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: Part of the continuous DACH signal record — the April 2022 read from the top of the cycle. In this episode, we cover: The month's top DACH...

Daniel Faloppa, founder and CEO of Equidam — which has helped value 130,000+ startups — shares exclusive data on DACH startup valuations, and why headlines about the best-funded startups give founders the wrong idea of what's normal. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: Valuation is the number founders get most wrong. This is a da...

March 2022 across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland: Joe Menninger and Chris Fahrenbach round up the month's startup funding, deals, and ecosystem signals. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: Part of the continuous DACH signal record — the March 2022 read as war in Europe began to reshape sentiment. In this episode, we cover: The...

As Chancellor Olaf Scholz completes his first 100 days, political analyst Tara from PANALIS — Germany's leading policy-analysis software for associations and industry groups — assesses what the new government means for founders and investors. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: Policy is a variable founders under-price. This is a...

2021 was exceptional: European startup investment grew 150%. Thomas Kösters, Managing Director of DEEP Ecosystems, shares the Q4 2021 data — including how they spotted Lisbon as a rising hub before anyone else was talking about it. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: A benchmark for the peak year — and an early, correct call on L...

Blockchain expert Philipp Sandner on the digital euro and why stablecoins matter — how the ECB is exploring a digital euro, why China's digital Yuan is years ahead, and what it all means for the future of payments in Europe. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: The digital-euro debate shapes the rails under all of European fintech...

February 2022 in DACH: a $1B gaming mega-deal as ESL Gaming is sold, Munich's FinTecSystems exits for €120M, and Switzerland mints a new unicorn — plus a fresh take on quick delivery. Joe Menninger and Chris Fahrenbach round up the month. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: Peak-cycle deal flow: a billion-dollar gaming exit and a...

Joe Menninger and Bill Eastman, founder of the IBGR Network, dig into Atomico's State of European Tech 2021 — the definitive annual survey of Europe's startup ecosystem — and what its findings mean for founders and investors. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: Atomico's survey is the reference dataset for European tech. This is...

January 2022 across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland: Joe Menninger and Chris Fahrenbach open the year with the month's startup funding, deals, and ecosystem signals. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: Part of the continuous DACH signal record — the opening read of 2022, before the market turned. In this episode, we cover: The...

Startuprad.io's annual Fintech Review for 2021 (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland): a panel including Paolo Sironi, OptioPay's Oliver Oster, and Epap's Janis Dust on the year banks digested a decade of digitalization in two — and why crypto and the metaverse moved to center stage. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: The annual DA...

December 2021 in DACH: banking-tech Mambu raises a monster $266M round, Volocopter calls off its SPAC IPO to a backlash from early crowd investors, and quick-commerce Jokr keeps scaling — plus a new unicorn. Joe Menninger and Chris Fahrenbach close the year. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: The end of the easy-money era in one...

Joe Menninger walks through the highlights of Germany's most comprehensive startup survey — the German Startup Association's annual Deutscher Startup Monitor, run since 2013 — and what its data reveals about the state of the German ecosystem. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: The Deutscher Startup Monitor is the reference datas...

November 2021 in DACH: N26 pulls the plug on its US operations, solar-car startup Sono Motors goes public on NASDAQ, and e-scooter firm Tier lands fresh funding and an acquisition. Joe Menninger and Chris Fahrenbach round up the month. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: Two defining moves in one month — a neobank's US retreat an...

October 2021 in DACH: N26 reclaims the title of Germany's most valuable fintech (Celonis still the most valuable startup overall), Sono Motors files to IPO in the US before delivering its first car, and COVID leaves its first marks — fewer startups but more funding for the survivors. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io Why this episode matters: The market...