deutsche-startups.de 2:55 pm on March 2, 2023
Tags: Aktuell ( 3,092 ), apaleo ( 3 ), Atlantic Labs ( 39 ), berlin ( 1,023 ), DealMonitor ( 684 ), DN Capital ( 17 ), Düsseldorf ( 112 ), edtech ( 259 ), Edurino ( 6 ), Element Ventures ( 5 ), Fintech ( 705 ), FJ Labs, Getmomo, Global Founders Capital ( 54 ), High-Tech Gründerfonds ( 94 ), Isartal Ventures ( 2 ), MedTech ( 16 ), München ( 564 ), NineBarc ( 3 ), RTL Ventures ( 2 ), SHS Capital, Simulands, Tengelmann Ventures ( 13 ), Toolify Robotic, TorAlarm ( 2 ), Ulm ( 10 ), venture capital ( 2,283 ), Visionaries Club ( 32 ), Xito ( 2 ), Zürich ( 98 )

#DealMonitor – Edurino sammelt 10,5 Millionen ein – Simulands bekommt 10 Millionen – Bild kauft Toralarm

Im #DealMonitor für den 2. März werfen wir einen Blick auf die wichtigsten, spannendsten und interessantesten Investments und Exits des Tages in der DACH-Region. Alle Deals der Vortage gibt es im großen und übersichtlichen #DealMonitor-Archiv.

INVESTMENTS

Edurino
+++ DN Capital, Tengelmann Ventures, FJ Labs sowie die Altinvestoren btov, Jens Begemann und Emerge Education investieren 10,5 Millionen Euro in Edurino. Das Münchner EdTech, das von Franziska Steiner und Irene Klemm gegründet wurde, möchte Kinder ab vier Jahren “spielerisch und verantwortungsbewusst an digitales Lernen heranführen”. btov Partners, Emerge Education, Pirate Impact (Fabian und Ferry Heilemann) und Business Angels wie Jens Begemann, Verena Pausder, Ben Drury, Christian Felgenhauer und Maurice Khudhir investierten zuletzt 3,35 Millionen Euro in Edurino. Mit dem frischen Kapital möchte das Unternehmen “global expandieren und das Produktangebot für Vor- und Grundschulkinder sowie die Features für Eltern und ErzieherInnen weiter ausbauen”. Mehr über Edurino

Simulands
+++ Der Tübinger Healthcare-Investor SHS Capital investiert 10 Millionen Euro in Simulands. Das MedTech-Unternehmen aus Zürich, 2019 von Andrea Guidotti gegründet, entwickelt “lebensechte Herz-Simulatoren, an denen Kardiolog:innen komplizierte Eingriffe üben können”. “Ziel der Investition ist es, die Kommerzialisierung des Unternehmens weiter zu beschleunigen und dabei zu unterstützen, die Aus- und Weiterbildung im kardiovaskulären Bereich durch fortschrittliche Trainingslösungen für Ärzte zu revolutionieren”, heißt es in der Presseaussendung.

Getmomo
+++ Jetzt offiziell: Element Ventures, Atlantic Labs, Visionaries Club und Global Founders Capital (GFC) investieren – wie bereits im Juni 2022 berichtet – 3,5 Millionen Euro in Getmomo. Das Berliner Startup, das von Simplo-Gründer Marcel Meitza ins Leben gerufen wurde, positioniert sich als Kredit-Alternative zum “herkömmlichen Mietkautionskonto”. Dabei arbeitet das FinTech mit der “FinTech-Volksbank” VVRB zusammen. Mit Simplo wollten Meitza und Co. zuvor Handwerkern unter die Arme greifen. “In diesem Jahr plant Getmomo als Erweiterung ein Angebot, mit dem Zahlungen abgesichert und zukünftige Cash Flows zugänglich gemacht werden können”, heißt es in der Presseaussendung. Mehr über Getmomo

apaleo
+++ Rockaway Ventures und Serpentine Ventures sowie die Altinvestoren Redalpine und Force Over Mass Capital investieren in apaleo. Das Unternehmen spricht von einer “Erweiterung der Series-A-Investitionsrunde auf 9 Millionen Euro”. Der englische Geldgeber Force over Mass, Redalpine und Bayern Kapital investierten zuletzt 4,5 Millionen Euro in apaleo. Das Münchner Unternehmen, das 2017 von Ulrich Pillau, Martin Reichenbach, Philip von Ditfurth und Stephan Wiesener gegründet wurde, bietet eine cloud-basierte Software rund um das Thema Hotel-Management an. “Die Finanzierungsmittel sollen in erster Linie für den weiteren Ausbau der Plattform verwendet werden”, teilt das Unternehmen mit. Mehr über apaleo

Xito
+++ Der High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) investiert in Xito. Hinter der vom Ulmer Unternehmen Toolify Robotic, 2020 von Dennis Stampfer, Matthias Lutz und Alex Lotz gegründet, entwickelten Software verbirgt sich eine “Low-Code Entwicklungsplattform” rund um das Thema Roboter. “Die Programmierung von Roboteranwendungen wird durch Xito drastisch vereinfacht und beschleunigt”, teilt das Startup mit. Das frische Kapital soll nun in die Produktentwicklung und die Vertriebsaktivitäten fließen. Mehr über Xito

NineBarc
+++ Isartal Ventures, ein Ableger der Wort & Bild Verlagsgruppe, investiert in NineBarc. Hinter dem Berliner Startup NineBarc, von Corey Ellis, Cedric Horstmann und Hans Hosenfeld gegründet, verbirgt sich ein digitaler Nachlassdienst. “Wir sind die erste Plattform in Deutschland, die Deinen digitalen Fußabdruck vollständig abbildet. Wir bieten Dir die Möglichkeit, alles Wichtige sicher zu speichern und so flexibel für die Zukunft zu planen”, verspricht das Unternehmen.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

TorAlarm
+++ Die Bild-Gruppe, gehört zum Medienhaus Springer, übernimmt die Düsseldorfer Fußball-App TorAlarm. “Mit TorAlarm ergänzen wir das Sportangebot der Bild-Gruppe um eine nutzerfreundliche und schnell wachsende Fußball-App”, teilt das Unternehmen mit. Ursprünglich bauten die Brüder Maurice und Marcel Eisterhues die App im Jahre 2012 nur für ihren Vater. 2014 wurde aus dem Hobby-Projekt dann ein eigenes Unternehmen. Die kostenlose und werbefinanzierte App wurde inzwischen über 22 Millionen Mal heruntergeladen. Bereits 2016 erwirtschaftete die sportliche, eigenfinanzierte und profitable Jungfirma einen Umsatz in Millionenhöhe. 2021 erwirtschaftete das Unternehmen einen Jahresüberschuss in Höhe von 976.183 Euro. Auch nach der Übernahmen bleiben die Gründer weiter an Bord. Mehr über TorAlarm

VENTURE CAPITAL

RTL Ventures
+++ RTL Deutschland gründet mit RTL Ventures einen “Venture Fond für Cash und Media Investments”. Ziel sei es, “ein Portfolio aus innovativen Unternehmen in Europa aufzubauen, für die der DACH-Markt ein relevantes Wachstumspotential bietet und die langfristig die Marktführerschaft in ihrer Kategorie anstreben. Dafür stehen dem Investmentteam erhebliche Mittel aus Cash und Media zu Verfügung”. Die Investments von RTL Ventures werden von einem Team um Beate Koch verantwortet. Die Verantwortung für die Medialeistung liegt bei Ute Henzgen und ihrem Unit 3 Team.

Startup-Jobs: Auf der Suche nach einer neuen Herausforderung? In der unserer Jobbörse findet Ihr Stellenanzeigen von Startups und Unternehmen.

Foto (oben): azrael74

#aktuell, #apaleo, #atlantic-labs, #berlin, #dn-capital, #dusseldorf, #edtech, #edurino, #element-ventures, #fintech, #fj-labs, #getmomo, #global-founders-capital, #high-tech-grunderfonds, #isartal-ventures, #medtech, #munchen, #ninebarc, #rtl-ventures, #shs-capital, #simulands, #tengelmann-ventures, #toolify-robotic, #toralarm, #ulm, #venture-capital, #visionaries-club, #xito, #zurich

deutsche-startups.de 2:55 pm on December 9, 2022
Tags: Aktuell ( 3,092 ), AllCup ( 2 ), Armira Growth ( 3 ), Bringman ( 2 ), DealMonitor ( 684 ), Edeka Südwest, FJ Labs, Getir ( 15 ), Gorillas ( 89 ), henQ ( 2 ), IBB Ventures ( 48 ), München ( 564 ), Offenburg ( 8 ), Parkdepot ( 3 ), Recare ( 2 ), Silber Salon ( 2 ), Surplus Equity Partners ( 2 ), venture capital ( 2,283 ), WestTech Ventures ( 6 )

#DealMonitor – Getir schluckt Gorillas – Parkdepot sammelt 15 Millionen ein – Edeka Südwest übernimmt Bringman

Im #DealMonitor für den 9. Dezember werfen wir einen Blick auf die wichtigsten, spannendsten und interessantesten Investments und Exits des Tages in der DACH-Region. Alle Deals der Vortage gibt es im großen und übersichtlichen #DealMonitor-Archiv.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Gorillas
+++ Wie erwartet übernimmt der türkische Quick-Commerce-Anbieter Getir das deutsche Unicorn Gorillas. Ein entsprechender Vertrag wurde nach unseren Informationen heute in Amsterdam unterschrieben. Gorillas wird dabei nur noch mit 1,2 Milliarden US-Dollar bewertet. Die Gorillas-Gesellschafter erhalten rund 12 % an der gemeinsamen Firma. Eine Cash-Komponente in Höhe von 100 Millionen Euro fließt primär an die Gesellschafter, die Gorillas in den vergangenen Monaten eine sogenannte Brückenfinanzierung zur Verfügung gestellt haben. Das Management rund um Gorillas-Gründer Kagan Sümer erhält im Rahmen des Verkaufs einen Deal-Bonus in Höhe von 10 Millionen Euro. Mehr über Gorillas

Bringman
+++ Edeka Südwest, eine Regionalgesellschaft der Edeka-Gruppe, übernimmt den Lieferdienst Bringman – siehe Lebensmittel Zeitung. Ende November 2021 investierte Edeka Südwest rund 1 Million Euro in das Startup aus Offenburg, das von Timo Vetter und Julian Graf gegründet wurde. Bringman kauft in lokalen Edeka-Märkten vor Ort ein und liefert die Waren aus. Bringman liegt innerhalb von drei Stunden oder zu einem gewünschten Liefertermin aus. Mehr über Bringman

INVESTMENTS

Parkdepot
+++ Surplus Equity Partners, Armira Growth und Altinvestor henQ investieren 15 Millionen Euro in Parkdepot. Das Münchner Unternehmen, das 2019 von den Brüdern Jakob und Moritz Bodenmüller, Bastian Pieper sowie Yukio Iwamoto gegründet wurde, hilft Unternehmen wie Edeka, McDonald’s oder Rewe dabei, ihre freien Parkplätze zu vermieten. “Mit über 1.000 Parkflächen sind wir bereits jetzt einer der größten europäischen Parkflächenbetreiber und stehen zugleich erst am Anfang unseres Potenzials”, teilt das Unternehmen mit. Über 200 Mitarbeiter:innen arbeiten für Parkdepot. Der Amsterdamer Risikokapitalfonds henQ investierte gemeinsam mit Altinvestoren 2021 bereits 4,2 Millionen Euro in Parkdepot. Mehr über Parkdepot

Silber Salon
+++ IBB Ventures, FJ Labs, WestTech Ventures und eine Reihe von Angel-Investoren investieren knapp 1 Million Euro in Silber Salon. Das Startup aus Berlin, von Joya Silva gegründet, positioniert sich als “Anbieter von Bildungs- und Unterhaltungsdienstleistungen für ältere Menschen”. Konkret geht es darum, “Menschen die Navigation durch die immer digitaler werdende Welt, durch Kurse und weitere Formate, zu erleichtern und damit gesellschaftliche Teilhabe zu fördern”.

Recare
+++ Die Thieme Gruppe, die sich um “digitale und analoge Angebote in Medizin und Chemie” kümmert, investiert weiter in Recare. “Das Kapital der neuen Runde investiert das Software-as-a-Service-Unternehmen Recare in die technologische Weiterentwicklung seiner Plattform und konzentriert sich dabei insbesondere auf Integrationen und Interoperabilität”, heißt es in der Presseaussendung. Das Unternehmen, 2017 in Berlin gegründet, betreibt einen B2B-Marktplatz für medizinische Versorgungseinrichtungen und Krankenhäuser in verschiedenen Versorgungsbereichen. Zuvor flossen bereits rund 6 Millionen Euro in Recare. Mehr über Recare

AllCup
+++ Das Family Office JJB Vermögensverwaltung, Christoph Harff, Günther Rodemeyer, Matthias Harlfinger und Nicolas Lecloux investieren 450.000 Euro in AllCup – siehe Startbase. Das Startup aus Münster, von Martin Nauen, Sarah Theresa Schulte und Lara Wagemann gegründet, entwickelt eine “Beschichtung, die Produkte hitze- und wasserbeständig macht”. Konkret werkelt das Team daran eine “Eiswaffel in einen essbaren Kaffeebecher” zu verwandeln.

Startup-Jobs: Auf der Suche nach einer neuen Herausforderung? In der unserer Jobbörse findet Ihr Stellenanzeigen von Startups und Unternehmen.

Foto (oben): azrael74

#aktuell, #allcup, #armira-growth, #bringman, #edeka-sudwest, #fj-labs, #getir, #gorillas, #henq, #ibb-ventures, #munchen, #offenburg, #parkdepot, #recare, #silber-salon, #surplus-equity-partners, #venture-capital, #westtech-ventures

deutsche-startups.de 1:55 pm on September 20, 2022
Tags: Aktuell ( 3,092 ), Amavi Capital, berlin ( 1,023 ), Cavalry Ventures ( 30 ), Cherry Ventures ( 60 ), codary ( 5 ), DealMonitor ( 684 ), DTCP ( 5 ), Dynamo Ventures, Earlybird Venture Capital ( 36 ), Educapital ( 3 ), Entrepreneur First ( 12 ), EXKLUSIV ( 387 ), Fanzone ( 5 ), FJ Labs, Flasher ( 3 ), Forwardize ( 2 ), Guru Granola ( 2 ), Heidelberg ( 26 ), Heimkapital ( 5 ), HelloSafe, Hyrise Academy ( 7 ), Ilavska Vuillermoz Capital ( 4 ), Interface Capital ( 4 ), Kiel ( 16 ), LEA Partners ( 13 ), Logistik ( 92 ), München ( 564 ), paretos ( 3 ), Rouvia ( 4 ), Sparkmind.vc ( 2 ), Speedinvest ( 63 ), TrueOcean ( 2 ), uify ( 4 ), UVC Partners ( 28 ), venture capital ( 2,283 ), Visionaries Club ( 32 ), Workist ( 7 ), yabeo Capital ( 2 )

#DealMonitor – #EXKLUSIV Dynamo Ventures investiert in Rouvia – Cherry setzt auf uify – Earlybird investiert in Workist

Im #DealMonitor für den 20. September werfen wir einen Blick auf die wichtigsten, spannendsten und interessantesten Investments und Exits des Tages in der DACH-Region. Alle Deals der Vortage gibt es im großen und übersichtlichen #DealMonitor-Archiv.

INVESTMENTS

Rouvia
+++ sennder-Investor Dynamo Ventures, Cavalry Ventures, Entrepreneur First und mehrere Angel-Investor:innen investieren nach unseren Informationen in rouvia, bisher als Forwardize bekannt. Das Berliner Startup, von Benjamin Noyan und Fuad Becirbasic ins Leben gerufen, kümmert sich um nachhaltige Transportlösungen. Auf der Website heißt es: “Rouvia is the first transport planning and management platform for freight forwarders and logistics teams that integrates all modes of surface transport to unlock cost-efficiencies and environmental opportunities.” Mehr im Insider-Podcast #EXKLUSIV

uify
+++ Cherry Ventures, Visionaries Club und Co. investieren nach unseren Informationen in uify. Das Startup aus Berlin, das von Niels Tonsen, Dominik Picker-Huchzermeyer und Tilmann Roth gegründet wurde, richtet sich an Programmierer:innen. Das Motto dabei lautet: “With Uify’s low-code platform engineers build custom apps together with end users rapidly and at scale. All apps are deployed to a composable workspace, providing them with deep collaborative functionality out of the box. Goodbye, Zoom & Slack.” Mehr im Insider-Podcast #EXKLUSIV

Workist
+++ Earlybird Venture Capital investiert nach unseren Informationen in Workist, früher auch als outsmart.ai bekannt. Das Berliner KI-Startup, das 2019 von Tim Wegner, Alexander Müller und Fabian Brosig gegründet wurde, bietet eine Plattformlösung für die Automatisierung von administrativen Büroarbeiten an. “Workist ermöglicht eine nahtlose Integration und automatisierten Informationsaustausch mit Kunden, Händlern und Lieferanten”, heißt es zum Konzept. Mehr im Insider-Podcast #EXKLUSIV

Paretos
+++ UVC Partners, LEA Partners, Interface Capital und Hannes Ametsreiter investieren 10 Millionen Euro in Paretos. Das Heidelberger Startup, das 2020 von Fabian Rang und Thorsten Heilig, ehemals mooovel, gegründet wurde, möchte “Analyseprozesse für Unternehmen so leicht zugänglich und integrierbar wie ein E-Mail-Programm” machen. So sollen “umfangreiche Datenanalysen ohne Vorkenntnisse oder die Expertise von Data-Science-Spezialisten durchgeführt werden” können. LEA Partners und weitere Investoren sowie Business Angels investierten zuvor bereits 3,5 Millionen Euro in paretos. Mehr über Paretos

Heimkapital
+++ Die Vereinigte Volksbank eG, Amavi Capital, Ilavska Vuillermoz Capital und Altinvestoren wie yabeo Capital, das Family Office Unger und einige Business Angels investieren eine zweistellige Millionensumme in Heimkapital. Das Münchner Startup, das 2019 von Dimitrij Miller, Julia Schabert und Benedikt Wenninger gegründet wurde, ermöglicht Immobilienbesitzern im Alter von mindestens 60 Jahren den Teilverkauf ihrer Immobilie gegen eine Sofortauszahlung. Mehr über Heimkapital

codary
+++ Jetzt offiziell: Speedinvest, der französische Geldgeber Educapital, der finnische Investor Sparkmind.vc, FJ Labs und mehrere Angel-Investor:innen investieren – wie bereits berichtet – in codary. In der aktuellen Investmentrunde fließen 3,5 Millionen Euro in das Unternehmen. Das Berliner Startup, von Amanda Maiwald, Antonia Schein und Nikolaj Bewer gegründet , möchte “Programmieren als cooles Nachmittagshobby etablieren”. Zielgruppe sind dabei Jugendliche. Mehr über codary

TrueOcean
+++ Das Unternehmen Gabler Naval Technology (gehört zur Lübecker Possehl-Gruppe) investiert in TrueOcean. Das Unternehmen aus Kiel, das 2019 von Jann Wendt, Frithjof Hennemann und Onno Bliß gegründet wurde, kümmert sich um das “sichere und effiziente Management von Unterwasser-Vermessungsdaten im Offshore-Bereich”. “Mit der Investition von Gabler sind wir nun in der Lage, unsere Strukturen zeitnah weiter auszubauen und unser Team zu erweitern”, teilt das Unternehmen mit.

Fanzone
+++ Lukas Seiler, Johannes Ranke und Sascha Kojic investieren in Fanzone. Das Berliner Startup, das vom Seriengründer Dirk Weyel gegründet wurde, setzt auf digitale Sammelkarten. Die Nutzer:innen können ihre Karten sammeln und handeln, sowie an Fantasy Sports Challenges teilnehmen. Die ehemaligen Führungskräfte von Sportradar, Sport1 und Discovery sollen “eine aktive Rolle bei der Erweiterung des Geschäftsmodells von Fanzone von einer B2C-fokussierten Multisport-Plattform zu einer B2B2C-Serviceplattform spielen”. Mehr über Fanzone

VENTURE CAPITAL

DTCP
+++ Der Hamburger Venture-Capital-Geber DTCP verkündet das erste Closing des dritten Growth Equity Fonds. Im Topf sind beriets 300 Millionen US-Dollar. “Der Fonds hat Kapital von neuen und bestehenden Investoren, darunter die Deutsche Telekom und SoftBank Group International, sowie weiteren institutionellen Investoren, Pensionsfonds, Großunternehmen und Family Offices erhalten. Bis zum finalen Closing in 2023 erwartet DTCP signifikante zusätzliche Kapitalzusagen von weiteren Investoren”, heißt es in der Presseaussendung. Mit den ersten beiden Growth-Fonds investierte DTCP rund 410 Millionen in 32 Unternehmen. Mehr über DTCP

DIE HÖHLE DER LÖWEN

Flasher
+++ Regal-Löwe Ralf Dümmel und Sales-Löwe Carsten Maschmeyer investieren in der vierten Folge der zwölften Staffel 150.000 Euro in Flasher und sichern sich dabei 20 % am Unternehmen. Das Startup aus Graz, das von Alexander Rech und Ines Wöckl gegründet wurde, setzt auf “intelligente, leuchtende Armbänder”, Ursprünglich wollte das Team 150.000 Euro für 10 % der Firmenanteile einsammeln.

Guru Granola
+++ Pharma-Löwe Nils Glagau investiert in der vierten Folge der zwölften Staffel 120.000 Euro und sichert sich dabei 20 % am Unternehmen. Das Startup aus Köln, das von Lara Schäffer gegründet wurde, setzt auf “Granola aus über 20 natürlich bestehenden Knusper-Toppings”. Ursprünglich wollte die Grüdnerin 00.000 Euro für 15 % der Firmenanteile einsammeln.

Hyrise Academy
+++ Sales-Löwe Carsten Maschmeyer und Beauty-Löwin Judith Williams investieren in der vierten Folge der zwölften Staffel 750.000 Euro in Hyrise Academy und sichern sich dabei 20 % am Unternehmen. Das Berliner EdTech, das 2020 von Michael Land, Alvaro Rojas und Dominic Blank gegründet wurde, positioniert sich als “Online-Akademie, die talentierte Karriere- und Quereinsteiger findet, überein Bootcamp für digitale Jobprofile ausbildet und anschließend bei wachsenden Digitalunternehmen platziert”. Ursprünglich wollte das Team 500.000 Euro für 10 % der Firmenanteile einsammeln. Der Deal platzte nach der Show.

Startup-Jobs: Auf der Suche nach einer neuen Herausforderung? In der unserer Jobbörse findet Ihr Stellenanzeigen von Startups und Unternehmen.

Foto (oben): azrael74

#aktuell, #amavi-capital, #berlin, #cavalry-ventures, #cherry-ventures, #codary, #dtcp, #dynamo-ventures, #earlybird-venture-capital, #educapital, #entrepreneur-first, #fanzone, #fj-labs, #flasher, #forwardize, #guru-granola, #heidelberg, #heimkapital, #hellosafe, #hyrise-academy, #ilavska-vuillermoz-capital, #interface-capital, #kiel, #lea-partners, #logistik, #munchen, #paretos, #rouvia, #sparkmind-vc, #speedinvest, #trueocean, #uify, #uvc-partners, #venture-capital, #visionaries-club, #workist, #yabeo-capital

deutsche-startups.de 1:55 pm on September 13, 2022
Tags: 4L Vision, Aktuell ( 3,092 ), Bad Krozingen ( 2 ), berlin ( 1,023 ), bettr egg ( 3 ), Bordelum ( 2 ), codary ( 5 ), DealMonitor ( 684 ), edtech ( 259 ), Educapital ( 3 ), EXKLUSIV ( 387 ), FJ Labs, food ( 1,015 ), Green Generation Fund ( 12 ), Handly ( 2 ), Handwerk ( 19 ), horizon ( 7 ), Lepaya, Mainz ( 19 ), MÉMOIRE Cosmetics ( 2 ), München ( 564 ), Neggst ( 3 ), NextFolder ( 3 ), Querfeld, Sparkmind.vc ( 2 ), Speedinvest ( 63 ), Suhl ( 3 ), The Delta ( 2 ), trivida ( 3 ), vCoach ( 4 ), venture capital ( 2,283 )

#DealMonitor – Speedinvest investiert in codary – Neggst sammelt 5 Millionen ein – Horizon bekommt 1,4 Millionen

Im #DealMonitor für den 13. September werfen wir einen Blick auf die wichtigsten, spannendsten und interessantesten Investments und Exits des Tages in der DACH-Region. Alle Deals der Vortage gibt es im großen und übersichtlichen #DealMonitor-Archiv.

INVESTMENTS

codary
+++ Speedinvest, der französische Geldgeber Educapital, der finnische Investor Sparkmind.vc, FJ Labs und mehrere Angel-Investor:innen investieren nach unseren Informationen in codary. Das Berliner Startup, von Amanda Maiwald, Antonia Schein und Nikolaj Bewer gegründet , möchte “Programmieren als cooles Nachmittagshobby etablieren”. Zielgruppe sind dabei Jugendliche. Und so funktioniert die Jungfirma: “Im Videochat zeigen unsere Coaches Kindern und Jugendlichen in kleinen Gruppen wöchentlich, wie man programmiert”. Mehr über codary #EXKLUSIV

Neggst
+++ Der grüne Geldgeber Green Generation Fund, die Agrarunternehmen BayWa und RWZ, das Family Office Corecam Capital Partners sowie mehrere Business Angels – darunter Sternkoch Stephan Hentschel und one.five-Gründer Martin Weber – investieren 5 Millionen Euro in Neggst. Das Berliner Startup das von Veronica Garcia Arteaga und Patrick Deufel als bettr egg gegründet wurde, setzt auf eine vegane Ei-Alternative. Green Generation Fund, Zentis Ventures und Co. investierten zuvor bereits in das Unternehmen.

Handly
+++ The Delta und Business Angels wie Julian Teicke, Lucas Cranach,, Jon Oringer und Patrick Andrä investieren 1,5 Millionen Euro in Handly – siehe tech.eu. Das Berliner Startup, das 2020 von Bastian Meyer und Klaas Krüger gegründet wurde, positioniert sich als digitaler Assistent für Handwerker:innen. Zum Konzept schreibt das Team: “We want to enable people to create their ideal living environment, while empowering home service companies to build their business and saving time for a quality life”.

Horizon
+++ Die Investitions- und Strukturbank Rheinland-Pfalz (ISB), Catapult Analytics, Andy Wing, Henry Piney, Sebastian Heinz, Marco Adelt und weitere Business Angels investieren 1,4 Millionen Euro in Horizon. Das Startup aus Mainz, das von Daniel Putsche und Lutz Petrean gegründet wurde, bietet Unternehmen ein Testing-Tool, “das Daten über das Verbraucherverhalten integriert, bevor Kunden wichtige Produkt- und Preisentscheidungen treffen”.

Querfeld
+++ 4L Vision, das Single Family Office des Karlsruher Unternehmers Ralph Suikat, investiert 500.000 Euro in Querfeld. Das Food-Startup aus Berlin, 2016 von Frederic Goldkorn gegründet, rettet krummes Bio-Obst und -Gemüse. “Über unser B2B-Netzwerk können wir jetzt schon deutschlandweit Großküchen beliefern. Das neue Kapital gibt uns die Möglichkeit, weiter in unsere Software zu investieren, unsere Prozesse an allen Standorten zu vereinheitlichen und Querfeld durch”, teilt das Unternehmen mit.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Vcoach
+++ Das niederländische Unternehmen Lepaya übernimmt das insolvente Startup Vcoach. Das Münchner Edtech-Startup, 2020 von Stephanie Mayer, Benjamin Gumpp, Clemens Lechner und Tobias Hölzer gegründet, bietet “skalierbare, App-basierte Soft Skill-Trainings, bei denen Teilnehmende ihre Kommunikationsfähigkeit schnell und nachhaltig verbessern können”. better ventures investierte 2020 eine sechsstellige Summe in vCoach. Im Frühjahr 2020 schlitterte das Unternehmen in die Insolvenz.

DIE HÖHLE DER LÖWEN

NextFolder
+++ Regal-Löwe Ralf Dümmel investiert in der dritten Folge der zwölften Staffel 80.000 Euro in NextFolder und sicherte sich dabei 30 % am Unternehmen. Das Startup aus aus Suhl, von Johannes Baumgart und Valentin Steudte gegründet, setzt auf einen etwas anderen Schulhefter.

Trivida
+++ Sales-Löwe Carsten Maschmeyer, GreenTech-Löwe Nico Rosberg und Familien-Löwin Dagmar Wöhrl investieren in der dritten Folge der zwölften Staffel 1 Million Euro in das Rollstuhl-Startup Trivida, das von Christine Pflaumbaum, Wolf Dietrich Pflaumbaum und Christian Czapek gegründet wurde, und sicheren sich dabei 20 % am Unternehmen. Ursprünglich wollte das Team 1 Million Euro für 10 % der Firmenanteile einsammeln. Der Deal platzte nach der Show.

Mémoire Cosmetics
+++ Pharma-Löwe Nils Glagau investiert in der dritten Folge der zwölften Staffel Mémoire Cosmetics 60.000 Euro in Mémoire Cosmetics und sichert sich dabei 30 % am Unternehmen. Das Startup aus aus Bordelum, das von Levke Lorenzen und Björn Lorenzen gegründet wurde, setzt auf Muttermilchpflege. Ursprünglich wollte das Team 60.000 Euro für 25 % der Firmenanteile einsammeln.

Startup-Jobs: Auf der Suche nach einer neuen Herausforderung? In der unserer Jobbörse findet Ihr Stellenanzeigen von Startups und Unternehmen.

Foto (oben): azrael74

#4l-vision, #aktuell, #bad-krozingen, #berlin, #bettr-egg, #bordelum, #codary, #edtech, #educapital, #fj-labs, #food, #green-generation-fund, #handly, #handwerk, #horizon, #lepaya, #mainz, #memoire-cosmetics, #munchen, #neggst, #nextfolder, #querfeld, #sparkmind-vc, #speedinvest, #suhl, #the-delta, #trivida, #vcoach, #venture-capital

deutsche-startups.de 1:55 pm on June 14, 2022
Tags: Acton Capital ( 12 ), Agon Digital, Airbank ( 9 ), Aktuell ( 3,092 ), anthemis ( 6 ), Augsburg ( 42 ), Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund ( 9 ), Barclays Female Innovators Lab, berlin ( 1,023 ), Blockchain Founders Group, Blockrocket, CoachHub ( 9 ), Creandum ( 26 ), DealMonitor ( 684 ), Distribusion, edtech ( 259 ), Eleet Games ( 2 ), Evli Growth Partners ( 3 ), Fintech ( 705 ), FJ Labs, Fuse Venture Partners ( 3 ), Games ( 199 ), Grupa Pracuj, High-Tech Gründerfonds ( 94 ), Highsnobiety ( 2 ), HR ( 169 ), Ilavska Vuillermoz, Karlsruhe ( 51 ), Laserhub ( 4 ), Lightrock ( 3 ), Molten Ventures ( 3 ), Northzone ( 19 ), Pile ( 3 ), Point Nine Capital ( 23 ), Project A Ventures ( 39 ), qbilon ( 2 ), Schenker Ventures ( 3 ), ShowHeroes ( 3 ), Sofina ( 6 ), Softbank ( 147 ), softgarden ( 2 ), Speedinvest ( 63 ), Stuttgart ( 89 ), venture capital ( 2,283 ), Zalando ( 11 )

#DealMonitor – CoachHub sammelt 200 Millionen ein – Airbank bekommt 20 Millionen – Grupa Pracuj übernimmt softgarden

Im #DealMonitor für den 14. Juni werfen wir einen Blick auf die wichtigsten, spannendsten und interessantesten Investments und Exits des Tages in der DACH-Region. Alle Deals der Vortage gibt es im großen und übersichtlichen #DealMonitor-Archiv.

INVESTMENTS

CoachHub
+++ Die Late-Stage-Investoren Sofina und SoftBank sowie die Altinvestoren Molten Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, HV Capital, RTP Global, Signals Venture Capital und Speedinvest investieren 200 Millionen US-Dollar in CoachHub. Das Berliner EdTech-Startup, 2018 von den Seriengründern Yannis und Matti Niebelschütz (MyParfüm) ins Leben gerufen, verbindet Führungskräfte und Mitarbeiter:innen von Unternehmen mit Coaches. “Die jüngste Finanzierungsrunde wird die weitere Expansion vorantreiben, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf den Vereinigten Staaten liegt. Das Unternehmen plant, seine Mitarbeiterzahl von 850 weltweit auf mehr als 1.000 bis zum Jahresende zu erhöhen”, heißt es in der Presseaussendung. Insgesamt flossen nun schon 330 Millionen Dollar in die Jungfirma. Zuletzt übernahm CoachHub die Coaching-Sparte des österreichischen Unternehmens Klaiton und den französischen Wettbewerber MoovOne. Über den geplanten Einstieg von Softbank haben wir bereits Ende März im Insider-Podcast berichet. Mehr über CoachHub

Distribusion
+++ Das Private Equity-Unternehmen Lightrock sowie die Altinvestoren Creandum und Northzone investieren 30 Millionen Euro in Distribusion. Das Berliner Startup, 2013 von Julian Hauck, Johannes Thunert und Bastian Porzner als Fernbusssuche Fahrtenfuchs gegründet, positioniert sich inzwischen als “B2B ground transportation marketplace”. In der Selbstbeschreibung heißt es: “Distribusion connects hundreds of coach/bus, rail and public transport providers worldwide to a global network of travel retailers, including OTAs, mobility platforms, meta searches, GDSs, travel agency chains, and more”. Anfang 2019 übernahmen Creandum und Northzone im Rahmen einer Pay to play-Runde die Mehrheit (56 %) an Distribusion. Nun scheint das Unternehmen wieder auf Kurs. Lightrock hält nun knapp 22 % an Distribusion. Creandum und Northzone halten nun noch 45 % der Distribusion-Anteile. Mehr über Distribusion

Airbank
+++ Molten Ventures und Speedinvest investieren 20 Millionen US-Dollar in Airbank. Das Berliner Startup, das 2021 von Christopher Zemina und Patrick de Castro Neuhaus gegründet wurde, kann man als eine Art CFO-Cockpit bezeichnen. “Mit dem frischen Kapital will das Startup sein Team von derzeit 40 Mitarbeitern vergrößern und das Geschäft in Europa ausbauen”, heißt es in der Presseaussendung. New Wave, Speedinvest, Calm/Storm Ventures, Tiny.VC und einige Angel-Investoren investierten zuvor bereits 2,5 Millionen Euro in Airbank. Mehr über Airbank

Laserhub
+++ Der finnische Geldgeber Evli Growth Partners, Fuse Venture Partners und FJ Labs, Schenker Ventures sowie Altinvestoren wie Project A Ventures, Point Nine Capital und Acton Capital investieren eine ungenannte Summe, sicherlich aber eine zweistellige Millionensumme, in Laserhub. Das Startup aus Stuttgart, das 2017 von Adrian Raidt, Christoph Rößner und Jonas Schweizer gegründet wurde, betreibt eine “Online-Plattform für die Beschaffung von maßgeschneiderten Blech- und Drehteilen”. Mit dem frischen Kapital möchte das Unternehmen “seine führende Position im Bereich digitaler Plattformen in Europa massiv ausbauen”. Bis Ende 2020 flossen bereits rund 11 Millionen Euro in Laserhub. Mehr über Laserhub

Pile
+++ Anthemis, Ilavska Vuillermoz, Barclays Female Innovators Lab, Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund sowie Business Angels wie Carolin Gabor, Max Tayenthal, Jens Lapinski, Mario Götze, Niklas Jansen, Christian Reber, Maex Ament, Gloria Bäuerlein und Jenny Dreier investieren 2,8 Millionen Euro in Pile – siehe FinanceFWD. Das Berliner FinTech, hinter dem insbesondere Penta-Gründerin Jessica Holzbach steckt, setzt auf Crypto-as-a-Service. Zielgruppe sind Startups, Neobanken und andere FinTech-Firmen.

qbilon
+++ Bayern Kapital sowie die beiden Family Offices Vetos und DI Beteiligungs GmbH (Iglhaut) investieren eine “gut sechsstellige” Summe in qbilon. Das Startup aus Augsburg, das 2019 von Simon Lohmüller, Melanie Langermeier, Thomas Driessen und Julian Kienberger gegründet wurde, kümmert sich um die Erfassung und Optimierung hybrider IT-Landschaften. “Mit dem eingeworbenen Kapital soll das Produkt technisch weiterentwickelt werden, zusätzliche Analysefunktionen erhalten und für neue Einsatzbereiche erweitert werden”, teilt das Startup mit.

Eleet Games
+++ Blockchain Founders Group und Blockrocket sowie Gameforge-Gründer Alexander Rösner investieren in Eleet Games. Das Unternehmen aus Karlsruhe, vom ehemaligen Gameforge-Chef Carsten van Husen gegründet, positioniert sich als Spieleschmiede, die “sowohl traditionelle als auch Blockchain-Spiele anbietet”. “Im Mittelpunkt steht einzig das Spielerlebnis, die Crypto-Komponente bleibt optional”, teilt das Unternehmen mit.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

softgarden
+++ Das polnische HR-Unternehmen Grupa Pracuj, das Arbeitgeber bei der Rekrutierung, Bindung und Entwicklung von Mitarbeitern unterstützt, übernimmt das Berliner HR-Unternehmen softgarden. “Es handelt sich um die größte internationale Übernahme der vergangenen Jahre durch ein polnisches Tech-Unternehmen in Deutschland sowie in der DACH-Region. Die Transaktion hat einen Wert von fast 118 Millionen Euro”, teilen die Unternehmen zur Übernahme mit. softgarden, 2005 von Dominik Faber und Stefan Schüffler gegründet, wird nach eigenen Angaben derzeit von 1.700 Arbeitgeber:innen eingesetzt. 140 Mitarbeiter:innen arbeiten derzeit für das Unternehmen, das seit 2018 zu Investcorp Technology Partners gehört. 2020 erwirtschaftete softgarden einen Umsatz in Höhe von rund 22 Millionen Euro. Mehr über softgarden

Highsnobiety
+++ Der Berliner Modegigant Zalando übernimmt die Mehrheit an Highsnobiety. Das Berliner Unternehmen, das von David Fischer gegründet wurde, startete 2005 als Turnschuh-Blog. Seitdem entwickelte sich die Plattform vom privaten Blog zum weltweit bekannten Lifestyle-Magazin. “Highsnobiety wird als strategischer und kreativer Berater von Zalando fungieren und in den Bereichen inspirierendes Storytelling und Sortimentsgestaltung unterstützen”, heißt es in der Presseaussendung. Reimann Investors, Felix Capital und Co. investierten in den vergangenen Jahren rund 8 Millionen Euro in Highsnobiety. Das Unternehmen erwirtschaftete 2021 einen Umsatz in Höhe von rund 22 Millionen Euro. Mehr über Highsnobiety

Agon Digital
+++ Das Berliner Unternehmen ShowHeroes, ein Produzenten für Videos, die für mobile Einsätze und Social Media-Kanäle optimiert sind, übernimmt die italienische Performance-Marketing-Agentur Agon Digital. “Ziel dieses Zusammenschlusses ist es, das innovative ShowHeroes Group Angebot in Deutschland sowie in weiteren europäischen Märkten konsequent auszubauen”, teilt das Unternehmen mit. ShowHeroes wurde 2016 von Ilhan Zengin, Mario Tiedemann und Dennis Kirschner gegründet

VENTURE CAPITAL

High-Tech Gründerfonds
+++ Der Bonner Seed-Investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) verkündet das First Closing seines vierten Fonds. 400 Millionen sind bereits im Topf. “Das Second Closing erfolgt noch in diesem Jahr und damit deutlich schneller als noch beim Vorgängerfonds. 40 Unternehmen aus unterschiedlichsten Branchen beteiligen sich am HTGF IV, vor allem der Mittelstand ist stark vertreten, hinzu kommen zahlreiche Großunternehmen und Family Offices”, teilt der Geldgeber mit.

Startup-Jobs: Auf der Suche nach einer neuen Herausforderung? In der unserer Jobbörse findet Ihr Stellenanzeigen von Startups und Unternehmen.

Foto (oben): azrael74

#acton-capital, #agon-digital, #airbank, #aktuell, #anthemis, #augsburg, #auxxo-female-catalyst-fund, #barclays-female-innovators-lab, #berlin, #blockchain-founders-group, #blockrocket, #coachhub, #creandum, #distribusion, #edtech, #eleet-games, #evli-growth-partners, #fintech, #fj-labs, #fuse-venture-partners, #games, #grupa-pracuj, #high-tech-grunderfonds, #highsnobiety, #hr, #ilavska-vuillermoz, #karlsruhe, #laserhub, #lightrock, #molten-ventures, #northzone, #pile, #point-nine-capital, #project-a-ventures, #qbilon, #schenker-ventures, #showheroes, #sofina, #softbank, #softgarden, #speedinvest, #stuttgart, #venture-capital, #zalando

deutsche-startups.de 1:55 pm on September 27, 2021
Tags: 26 Homes ( 3 ), 468 Capital ( 62 ), Aktuell ( 3,092 ), berlin ( 1,023 ), Blossom Capital ( 7 ), boston ( 67 ), commsor ( 3 ), ConTech ( 26 ), DealMonitor ( 684 ), Dorm Room Fund ( 2 ), eqt ventures ( 24 ), EXKLUSIV ( 387 ), FJ Labs, Flexcavo ( 7 ), Frontify, General Catalyst ( 76 ), High Sage Ventures, Picus Capital ( 41 ), Pink Capital, port ( 5 ), PropTech ( 166 ), RemNote, Revaia, Rivus Ventures, soma capital ( 11 ), St. Gallen ( 10 ), Tenderloin Ventures, venture capital ( 2,283 ), VR Ventures ( 10 )

#DealMonitor – Frontify sammelt 50 Millionen ein – Flexcavo bekommt 7,5 Millionen – Lena Gercke investiert in 26 Homes

Im aktuellen #DealMonitor für den 27. September werfen wir wieder einen Blick auf die wichtigsten, spannendsten und interessantesten Investments und Exits des Tages in der DACH-Region. Alle Deals der Vortage gibt es im großen und übersichtlichen #DealMonitor-Archiv.

INVESTMENTS

Frontify
+++ Revaia (ehemals Gaia Capital Partners) und High Sage Ventures sowie die Alt-Investoren EQT Ventures, Blossom Capital und Tenderloin Ventures investieren 50 Millionen US-Dollar in das Schweizer Startup Frontify. Das Unternehmen, das 2013 von Roger Dudler in St. Gallen gegründet wurde, betreibt eine Plattform, über die Unternehmen ihren Markenauftritt verwalten können. EQT Ventures, Blossom Capital, Datartis Ventures und Tenderloin Ventures investierten zuletzt bereits 22,3 Millionen Dollar in Frontify. Über 200 Mitarbeiter:innen wirken bereits für die Jungfirma. Zu den Kunden von Frontify gehören unter anderem Lufthansa, KIA, Vodafone, Maersk, Dyson und Allianz. Mit dem frischen Kapital möchte das Unternehmen “das Wachstum weiter vorantreiben – sowohl in der Produktforschung und -entwicklung als auch bei der Einstellung von Talenten in den USA, der Schweiz und darüber hinaus, um das derzeitige Team zu verstärken”. Mehr über Frontify

Flexcavo
+++ VR Ventures, Picus Capital, Rivus Ventures und FJ Labs sowie Business Angels wie Felix Jahn, Max-Josef Meier, Florian Huber, Florian Seubert und die Alasco-Gründer investieren 7,5 Millionen in Flexcavo. Bei Flexcavo aus Berlin, das von Picus Capital angeschoben wurde, dreht sich alles um das Mieten von Baumaschinen. “Wir kombinieren unsere Mietflotte mit innovativer Technologie, um gemeinsam mit Ihnen den Einsatz von Baumaschinen zu optimieren”, teilen die Jungunternehmer mit. “Das neue Kapital soll vor allem in den Ausbau des Teams, die Weiterentwicklung der Software sowie den deutschlandweiten Ausbau des Netzwerks für Baumaschinenvermietung fließen”, teilt das ConTech, das von Benedict Aicher und Leonhard Fricke gegründet wurde, mit.

RemNote
+++ General Catalyst, 468 Capital, Soma Capital und Dorm Room Fund investieren 3 Millionen US-Dollar in das deutsch-amerikanische Startup RemNote. Das Unternehmen aus Boston, das von 2020 von Deutschen Moritz Wallawitsch und dem US-Amerikaner Martin Schneider gegründet wurde, positioniert sich als “Online-Umgebung für Lernen und Wissensvermittlung”. Das frische Kapital soll “für laufende Produktinnovationen und den Ausbau des Teams aus Ingenieuren, Designern und Forschern verwendet” werden.

26 Homes
+++ Amorelie-Gründerin Lea-Sophie Cramer und Model Lena Gercke investieren nach unseren Informationen eine unbekannte Summe in 26 Homes. Das Berliner Startup, das von Dorothea Metasch gegründet wurde, beschreibt sich als “neuen Weg, um Immobilien zu entdecken”. Zum Konzept, das über einen Newsletter funktioniert, heißt es weiter: “Wir sind der Follow-Button für Eigentumswohnungen”. #EXKLUSIV

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Port
+++ Das New Yorker Unternehmen Commsor übernimmt Port. Das Berliner Startup, das 2020 von Jake Stott, Nick Dijkstra und Kevin Dykes gegründet wurde, kümmert sich um Community-Wachstum. In der Eigenbeschreibung heißt es: “Navigate your community. Port helps you grow, engage, and retain your members. Wherever they are”. Die Hauptstädter schreiben: “It was totally unexpected that only 18 months into our voyage, we would receive an acquisition offer we couldn’t refuse”.

Achtung! Wir freuen uns über Tipps, Infos und Hinweise, was wir in unserem #DealMonitor alles so aufgreifen sollten. Schreibt uns eure Vorschläge entweder ganz klassisch per E-Mail oder nutzt unsere “Stille Post“, unseren Briefkasten für Insider-Infos.

Startup-Jobs: Auf der Suche nach einer neuen Herausforderung? In der unserer Jobbörse findet Ihr Stellenanzeigen von Startups und Unternehmen.

Foto (oben): azrael74

#26-homes, #468-capital, #aktuell, #berlin, #blossom-capital, #boston, #commsor, #contech, #dorm-room-fund, #eqt-ventures, #fj-labs, #flexcavo, #frontify, #general-catalyst, #high-sage-ventures, #picus-capital, #pink-capital, #port, #proptech, #remnote, #revaia, #rivus-ventures, #soma-capital, #st-gallen, #tenderloin-ventures, #venture-capital, #vr-ventures

TechCrunch 1:00 pm on August 13, 2021
Tags: Apps ( 1,721 ), eCommerce ( 783 ), FJ Labs, food ( 1,015 ), food delivery ( 74 ), foundation capital ( 18 ), Funding ( 1,793 ), Grocery store ( 29 ), Investo, JAM Fund ( 4 ), Javier Gonzalez, Jonathan Lewy, Justin Mateen ( 7 ), latin america ( 248 ), Luis Mario Garcia, Mexico ( 449 ), online food ordering ( 43 ), Orchata, Rappi ( 6 ), Recent Funding ( 1,306 ), Startups ( 5,133 ), TC ( 10,178 ), Venture Friends, Y Combinator ( 311 )

Orchata raises $4M, aims to build a ‘Gopuff for Latin America’

Luis Mario Garcia grew up in Mexico making deliveries for the grocery stores in his neighborhood. After honing his startup skills in San Francisco, he returned to Mexico with the idea of building a software company.

That’s when he met his co-founder Javier Gonzalez and the pair started Orchata in 2020, a mobile app enabling consumers to get groceries delivered in 15 minutes, with no substitutes and at supermarket prices. Products delivered include fresh fruit, beverages, bread, medicine and household essentials, Garcia told TechCrunch.

Orchata does this by operating a network of micro fulfillment centers — it is already operating in two cities — with technology for efficient picking and hyperfast delivery.

Online food delivery sales in Latin America are projected to reach $9.8 billion by 2024, with the global pandemic driving demand for faster delivery, according to Statista. Garcia sees three different waves in this market: the first one being traditional supermarkets, where you can spend hours, which led to the second wave of food delivery companies, including some big players in the region — for example Rappi in Colombia, which in July raised $500 million in Series F funding at a $5.25 billion valuation in a round led by T. Rowe Price, and Cornershop in Chile, which was acquired by Uber in 2019.

However, Garcia said many of these services still take more than an hour from order to doorstep and may require phone calls if an item is not available. He wants to be part of a third wave — software that is integrated with inventory and delivery that is super fast, and no substitutions.

Colombian on-demand delivery startup Rappi raises ‘over’ $500M at a $5.25B valuation

“This is similar to what is going on around the world, but there is a huge opportunity to bring convenience, to be the Gopuff for Latin America, and we want to build it first in the region,” Garcia said.

The Monterrey-based company was part of Y Combinator’s summer 2020 cohort and on Friday announced a $4 million seed round from a group of investors, including Y Combinator, JAM Fund, FJ Labs, Venture Friends, Investo and Foundation Capital, and angel investors Ross Lipson, Mike Hennessey, Brian Requarth and Javier Mata.

Jonathan Lewy, co-founder of Grin Scooters and founder of Investo, is also an investor in Rappi. He said Garcia was building a product for the end user, with the key being the building of the infrastructure and inventory. Lewy believes Garcia understands how quick delivery should be done and that it is not just about offering a mobile app, but building the technology behind it.

Meanwhile, Justin Mateen, general partner at JAM Fund, and co-founder of Tinder and an early-stage investor, met Garcia over a year ago and was one of the company’s first investors. He said Garcia’s and Gonzalez’s initial idea for the model of grocery stores was still not solving the problem, but then they pivoted to doing fulfillment and inventory themselves.

“He fits the mold of what I look for in a founder, and he is the type of founder that doesn’t give up,” Mateen said. “Luis finally agreed to let me double down on my investment. The model makes sense now, he is on to something and it is now going to be about execution of capital as he scales.”

Both Mateen and Lewy agree that there will be similar apps coming because food delivery is such a large market, but that Orchata has a clear advantage of owning the customer experience from beginning to end.

Having only launched four months ago, Orchata is already processing thousands of orders and is seeing 100% monthly growth. The new funding will enable Orchata to expand into three new cities in Mexico. Garcia is also eyeing Colombia, Brazil, Peru and Chile for future expansion.

The company is also targeting multiple use cases, including someone noticing a forgotten item while cooking to consumers shopping for the week or teenagers needing food for a party.

“We are going to be super convenient to customers, and we think every use case for food delivery will be this way in the future,” Garcia said. “We will eventually introduce our own brands and foods with the goal of being that app that is there anytime you need it.”

Last-mile delivery in Latin America is ready to take off

#apps, #ecommerce, #fj-labs, #food, #food-delivery, #foundation-capital, #funding, #grocery-store, #investo, #jam-fund, #javier-gonzalez, #jonathan-lewy, #justin-mateen, #latin-america, #luis-mario-garcia, #mexico, #online-food-ordering, #orchata, #rappi, #recent-funding, #startups, #tc, #venture-friends, #y-combinator

TechCrunch 3:00 am on August 4, 2021
Tags: Apps ( 1,721 ), Automotive ( 908 ), big sur ( 6 ), Brazil ( 454 ), car dealership ( 3 ), eCommerce ( 783 ), FJ Labs, Funding ( 1,793 ), Fundings & Exits ( 2,233 ), Instacarro, J Ventures ( 2 ), latin america ( 248 ), Recent Funding ( 1,306 ), rise capital ( 2 ), Rocket Internet ( 38 ), sao paulo ( 28 ), startup ( 116 ), Startups ( 5,133 ), venture capital ( 2,283 )

Brazilian digital auto marketplace InstaCarro revs up with $23M in funding

InstaCarro, a digital marketplace that connects used car sellers to dealers in Brazil, has raised $23 million in a Series B round of funding.

Notably, U.S.-based firms co-led the investment, including J Ventures, FJ Labs and Rise Capital. Spain’s All Iron Ventures and Big Sur also participated in the financing, among others. With the latest round, São Paulo-based InstaCarro has now raised more than $56 million since its 2015 inception.

As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in people all over the world buying and selling things online, with cars being no exception. InstaCarro plans to use its new capital in part to capitalize on the shift and “aggressively” expand its reach within Brazil.

Until this year, the startup operated only in São Paulo. In the first half of this year, it launched operations in eight new cities, and is now also live in Campinas, Curitiba, Joinville, Santos, Brasília, Goiânia, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte.

For context, the startup compares itself to Carvana in the U.S., Chehaoduo in India and Carro in Indonesia.

CEO Luca Cafici started InstaCarro after having co-founded a car classified startup in Asia with Rocket Internet. That experience, according to Cafici, taught him that “car classifieds were not solving the problems people had when selling their own cars.”

Inspired by the early success of Auto1 in Europe, he decided to return to Latin America to build a similar model, with an exclusive initial focus on Brazil because it is the third largest car market in the world.

Today, InstaCarro is one of the largest used car buyers in Brazil, according to Cafici. Since its inception, the company has transacted more than R$1 billion, or US$193.2 million, working with over 35,000 people seeking to sell their cars to dealers. The startup has been growing 21% month over month since the start of COVID, and has been profitable since 2019. Profitability is up by nearly 10x compared to pre-pandemic levels, Cafici said.

InstaCarro raises $22 million to tackle Brazil’s $50 billion used-car market

Looking ahead, InstaCarro aims to become a “full-service” car trading platform after hearing from customers that they would be interested in buying a car directly through its platform as well.

Under its current model, the process seems straightforward. When a customer sells their car through InstaCarro, the company comes out to their home to inspect the car, taking more than 150 pictures, and then auctions the car through its network of over 4,000 dealers across Brazil. Customers receive a bid for their car in 24 hours, and InstaCarro pays out the customer the same day and handles all of the paperwork, according to Cafici.

“The auction is a key component to achieve a great price, as there is no agreement on what the true value of a used car is,” he added. “The more dealers you talk with, the higher price you get.”

The startup also plans to use its new capital to “improve the coverage” of its home inspection model and improve the efficiency of its digital auction process, Cafici said. It, naturally, intends to also do some hiring. InstaCarro has 120 employees, and it plans to double that number by 2022.

Prior to the pandemic, the company had partnered with major supermarket chains to create inspection points. But with the onset of the pandemic, it began inspecting cars at the sellers’ homes, which has proven to help the company move and grow faster, Cafici said.

“The pandemic forced us to reinvent our business model. Before the lockdowns, most of our operations depended on central inspection sites, which we had to shut down overnight in March 2020,” he told TechCrunch. “For our customers, our dealers, and our team, last year was challenging and scary. Our team worked hard to reinvent our business model around home inspections, so that we could continue doing business in a safe way. We started going to our client’s driveway instead of having them come to an inspection site.”

Today, over 90% of the company’s customers choose to do everything online.

John Nordin of J Ventures said his firm was impressed by the way the company shifted its business model after COVID hit and is “now growing faster than ever.”

“We see digital car dealerships finding success in markets across the world, from the U.S. to the U.K., Indonesia and Mexico,” Nordin said. “The team or teams that build a digital car dealership in Brazil have a lot of work cut out for them, not only to figure out how to fit the model to Brazilian consumers, but also to handle the operational challenges of buying and selling a huge volume of cars every day. InstaCarro has the right team to tackle the challenges ahead.”

Mexican unicorn Kavak raises a $485M Series D at a $4B valuation

#apps, #automotive, #big-sur, #brazil, #car-dealership, #ecommerce, #fj-labs, #funding, #fundings-exits, #instacarro, #j-ventures, #latin-america, #recent-funding, #rise-capital, #rocket-internet, #sao-paulo, #startup, #startups, #venture-capital

TechCrunch 11:03 am on July 21, 2021
Tags: Amazon ( 829 ), Brazil ( 454 ), Colombia ( 147 ), e-commerce ( 690 ), eCommerce ( 783 ), FJ Labs, Funding ( 1,793 ), Fundings & Exits ( 2,233 ), Hernan Kazah ( 2 ), Kaszek ( 4 ), Kingsway Capital ( 5 ), latin america ( 248 ), Mercado Libre ( 6 ), Mexico ( 449 ), mexico city ( 30 ), online marketplaces ( 11 ), Presight Capital ( 9 ), Recent Funding ( 1,306 ), startup ( 116 ), Startups ( 5,133 ), Stefan Florea, Upper90 ( 7 ), Valoreo ( 2 ), venture capital ( 2,283 )

Valoreo raises $30M more to acquire e-commerce brands across LatAm

Just over five months after securing $50 million in debt & equity, Valoreo has closed on a $30 million Series A funding round.

Mexico City-based Valoreo aims to invest in, operate and scale e-commerce brands as part of its self-described mission “to bring better products at more affordable prices” to the Latin American consumer.

Valoreo (which the company says is an extension of the Spanish word “valor,” meaning to add value), acquires merchants that operate their own brands and primarily sell on online marketplaces such as Amazon and Mercado Libre. The company targets brands that offer “category-leading products” and which it believes have “significant growth potential.” It also develops brands in-house to offer a broader selection of products to the end customer.

The startup was founded in late 2020 and has since swelled to more than 100 employees throughout Latin America. It has also since completed “multiple” acquisitions of local brands operating across a variety of industries, such as beauty, fitness and home goods.

California-based Presight Capital and Kingsway Capital out of the United Kingdom co-led the round, which also included participation from existing backers such as Kaszek, Upper90 and FJ Labs. The company declined to break down how much equity it raised in its seed round, but including debt, Valoreo has secured $80 million since inception.

It plans to use the new capital mostly to continue acquiring e-commerce brands across Mexico, Brazil and Colombia as well as to do more hiring.

Tech in Mexico: A confluence of Latin America, the US and Asia

The company says its model differs from that of its U.S.-based competitors (such as Thrasio and Perch) in that it is tailored to “the specific needs of the Latin American market and is specifically focused on the Latin American end customer.”

Valoreo aims to help entrepreneurs who may lack the resources and access to capital to take their businesses to the next level.

At the time of its seed raise, co-founder and co-CEO Stefan Florea told TechCrunch that the company takes less than five weeks typically from its initial contact with a seller to a final payout.

Then, the acquired and developed brands are integrated into the company’s consolidated holding. By tapping its team of “specialists” in areas such as digital marketing and supply chain management, it claims to be able to help these brands “reach new heights” while giving the entrepreneurs behind the companies “an attractive exit,” or partial exit in some cases.

Generally Valoreo acquires the majority of the business, with the purchase price typically being a combination of an upfront cash payment and a profit share component so sellers can still earn money.

Hernan Kazah, co-founder and managing partner of Kaszek, said the firm doubled down on its investment in the startup after seeing its “impressive growth over the past few months.”

Valoreo is not the only Latin American startup focused on this space. In April, Merama announced it had raised $60 million in seed and Series A funding and secured $100 million in debt.

The money was raised “at well over a $200 million valuation,” co-founder and CEO Sujay Tyle said at the time.

Armed with $160M in funding, LatAm’s Merama enters the e-commerce land grab

#amazon, #brazil, #colombia, #e-commerce, #ecommerce, #fj-labs, #funding, #fundings-exits, #hernan-kazah, #kaszek, #kingsway-capital, #latin-america, #mercado-libre, #mexico, #mexico-city, #online-marketplaces, #presight-capital, #recent-funding, #startup, #startups, #stefan-florea, #upper90, #valoreo, #venture-capital

TechCrunch 3:00 pm on July 9, 2021
Tags: Alex Bouaziz ( 2 ), articles ( 507 ), Artificial Intelligence ( 1,417 ), Burger King ( 7 ), ceo ( 585 ), cyan-banister ( 2 ), Elliot, employment ( 32 ), Europe ( 2,708 ), FJ Labs, London ( 144 ), Pete Flint ( 6 ), recruitment ( 34 ), TC ( 10,178 ), United States ( 4,473 )

Frontier launches with $2.8M round by NFX, to let low-skilled job candidates book their own interview

Frontier, which bills itself as a “new kind of vertically-integrated jobs marketplace” launches today with a $2.8M investment round led by NFX in the US, and backed by London’s firstminute Capital, FJ Labs, Cyan Banister, Ilkka Pannanen, Alex Bouaziz, Liquid 2 and several other funds and angels.

Frontier’s schtick is that it pre-tests applicants, weeds out the best candidates, and then allows them to directly book interviews with the employers, thus saving time and money in the hiring process.

But Frontier isn’t going after complex roles here. Its aimed at companies who need a high volume of low-skilled workers. Among its customers so far are Carrol’s (the largest franchisor of Burger King) and Concentrix.

Elliot O’Connor, Founder and CEO of Frontier said: “We believe the hiring experience is a fragmented workflow for both employer and jobseeker, which dramatically slows down the time-to-fill for positions and leads to rigid labor markets – something the world can’t afford right now. To fix hiring, a platform must own more of the hiring funnel than job platforms currently do, and use that position to redefine the experience.”

Elliot told me over a call that they are not using an algorithm in the AI sense of the word. It also removes unconscious bias by applying skill-based assessments: “We’re focused on high volume, low skilled workers, so for example, customer support or retail or warehouses. So we’re just assessing for things like typing speed etc. No one’s going to look at the resume. It’s a rule-based system so that the company does get to set the rules themselves. There’s no AI.”

He added: “We’ve gone and eaten up a lot of the different pieces of software that are out there and combined them into a single vertically integrated whole. So we’ve got a screening software that’s basically modular so every customer gets their own screening, according to their own criteria and the machine does it for them. So at the interviews they’re going to have qualified candidates.”

Pete Flint, NFX General Partner said: “Frontier is changing the entire talent sourcing process by providing an on-demand experience that’s already present in so many parts of life. Shortening the window of finding work and making hires is creating substantial benefits across large segments of the labor market. The network effects embedded in Frontier’s product and business model make it completely different to the traditional incumbents.”

#alex-bouaziz, #articles, #artificial-intelligence, #burger-king, #ceo, #cyan-banister, #elliot, #employment, #europe, #fj-labs, #london, #pete-flint, #recruitment, #tc, #united-states

TechCrunch 7:01 am on July 7, 2021
Tags: Armilar Venture Partners ( 3 ), broker ( 15 ), ceo ( 585 ), co CEO ( 6 ), Coldwell Banker ( 3 ), economy ( 295 ), Europe ( 2,708 ), Fabrice Grinda ( 2 ), finance ( 1,065 ), FJ Labs, founder ( 62 ), France ( 852 ), geneva, investment ( 78 ), Italy ( 487 ), Kronos, Lakestar ( 22 ), Lisbon ( 7 ), money ( 184 ), New York ( 195 ), OLX Group ( 2 ), online marketplace ( 17 ), Portugal ( 62 ), Private Equity ( 404 ), property technology ( 4 ), Prudence Holdings ( 2 ), roofstock, Sotheby's ( 42 ), Spain ( 235 ), Spotify ( 246 ), Stoneweg ( 3 ), TC ( 10,178 ), technology ( 643 ), United States ( 4,473 )

Real estate platform Casafari raises $15M to allow PE to buy single-family homes at scale

Just a Spotify used VC and PE backing to acquire the assets of the music industry so that we must now all rent our music via subscription, rather than own it for life, so a PropTech startup plans to follow a similar strategy for single-family homes.

Casafari, a real estate data platform in Europe based out of Lisbon, Portugal, has raised a $15 million Series A funding round led by Prudence Holdings in New York. But, crucially, it has also secured a $120 million “mandate” from Geneva-based private equity investors Stoneweg, among other PE players, in order to buy-to-let residential and commercial real estate. The startup already has operations in Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy.

Other investors include Armilar Venture Partners (the Portuguese VC behind unicorns Outsystems and Feedzai), HJM Holdings, 1Sharpe (founders of Roofstock), and FJ Labs (Fabrice Grinda, founder of OLX Group), as well as existing investor Lakestar.

Founded by Mila Suharev, Nils Henning, and Mitya Moskalchuk in 2018, Casafari is taking advantage of Europe’s often chaotic real estate data to achieve its goals, due to the lack of a unified Multiple Listings Service (“MLS”).

Casafari plans to aggregate, verify and distribute this data via its platform, hunting down single-family homes as an asset class for institutional investors.

According to Nils Henning, CEO, “CASAFARI has built a unique ecosystem, which connects brokers, developers, asset managers, and investors and enables sourcing, valuation, underwriting and deal collaboration on single units in all asset classes. We are very excited to represent important institutional clients like Stoneweg and others, in deploying their capital into fragmented acquisitions at scale, bringing more liquidity to the market and generating more transactions to the broker clients of our platform.”

Private investors are already using the platform. Since launching in 2018, Casafari has been used by Sotheby’s International Realty, Coldwell Banker, RE/MAX franchises, Savills, Fine & Country, Engel & Voelkers, Keller Williams, and important institutional investors and developers like Stoneweg, Kronos, Vanguard, and Vic Properties.

Mila Suharev, Casafari’s Co-CEO and CPO said: ”There are currently around 70 billion euros in dry powder in Europe that could be allocated in acquiring residential property in a buy to let strategy, and basically there’s no offer available. The property will be collected in portfolios, consisting of single units that pension funds, private equity real estate funds, want to build in Europe as they do in the US.”

What Casafari’s is doing is largely following the playbook of what Roofstock in the US did: an online marketplace for investing in leased single-family rental homes. Roofstock has raised $132.3 million to date.

#armilar-venture-partners, #broker, #ceo, #co-ceo, #coldwell-banker, #economy, #europe, #fabrice-grinda, #finance, #fj-labs, #founder, #france, #geneva, #investment, #italy, #kronos, #lakestar, #lisbon, #money, #new-york, #olx-group, #online-marketplace, #portugal, #private-equity, #property-technology, #prudence-holdings, #roofstock, #sothebys, #spain, #spotify, #stoneweg, #tc, #technology, #united-states

TechCrunch 12:00 pm on June 1, 2021
Tags: alex wilhelm ( 10 ), api ( 181 ), Argentina ( 115 ), Bank ( 103 ), Banking ( 133 ), barcelona ( 29 ), belvo ( 3 ), Brazil ( 454 ), ceo ( 585 ), Chile ( 86 ), co CEO ( 6 ), Colombia ( 147 ), CTO ( 78 ), David Velez ( 15 ), driver ( 76 ), editor ( 7 ), finance ( 1,065 ), financial services ( 172 ), FJ Labs, Founders Fund ( 56 ), Funding ( 1,793 ), Fundings & Exits ( 2,233 ), Kaszek ( 4 ), kibo ventures ( 3 ), latin america ( 248 ), Mexico ( 449 ), mexico city ( 30 ), nubank ( 34 ), online food ordering ( 43 ), Open Banking ( 21 ), open finance ( 5 ), Peru ( 77 ), Rappi ( 6 ), Recent Funding ( 1,306 ), sao paulo ( 28 ), startup ( 116 ), Startups ( 5,133 ), TC ( 10,178 ), technology ( 643 ), Twilio ( 51 ), Uber ( 357 ), VC ( 13 ), venture capital ( 2,283 ), WISE ( 6 ), Y Combinator ( 311 )

Belvo, LatAm’s answer to Plaid, raises $43M to scale its API for financial services

Belvo, a Latin American startup which has built an open finance API platform, announced today it has raised $43 million in a Series A round of funding.

A mix of Silicon Valley and Latin American-based VC firms and angels participated in the financing including Future Positive, Kibo Ventures, FJ Labs, Kaszek, MAYA Capital, Venture Friends, Rappi co-founder and president Sebastián Mejía (Rappi), Harsh Sinha, CTO of Wise (formerly Transferwise) and Nubank CEO and founder David Vélez.

Citing Crunchbase data, Belvo believes the round represents the largest series A ever raised by a Latin American fintech. In May 2020, Belvo raised a $10 million seed round co-led by Silicon Valley’s Founders Fund and Argentina’s Kaszek.

Belvo scores $10M from Founders Fund and Kaszek to scale its API for financial services

Belvo aims to work with leading fintechs in Latin America, spanning across verticals like the neobanks, credit providers and personal finance products Latin Americans use every day.

The startup’s goal with its developer-first API platform that can be used to access and interpret end-user financial data is to build better, more efficient and more inclusive financial products in Latin America. Developers of popular neobank apps, credit providers and personal finance tools use Belvo’s API to connect bank accounts to their apps to unlock the power of open banking.

As TechCrunch Senior Editor Alex Wilhelm explained in this piece last year, Belvo might be considered similar to U.S.-based Plaid, but more attuned to the Latin American market so it can take in a more diverse set of data to better meet the needs of the various markets it serves.

So while Belvo’s goals are “similar to the overarching goal[s] of Plaid,” co-founder and co-CEO Pablo Viguera told TechCrunch that Belvo is not merely building a banking API business hoping to connect apps to financial accounts. Instead, Belvo wants to build a finance API, which takes in more information than is normally collected by such systems. Latin America is massively underbanked and unbanked so the more data from more sources, the better.

“In essence, we’re pushing for similar outcomes [as Plaid] in terms of when you think about open banking or open finance,” Viguera said. “We’re working to democratize access to financial data and empower end users to port that data, and share that data with whoever they want.”

The company operates under the premise that just because a significant number of the region’s population is underbanked doesn’t mean that they aren’t still financially active. Belvo’s goal is to link all sorts of accounts together. For example, Viguera told TechCrunch that some gig-economy companies in Latin America are issuing their own cards that allow workers to cash out at small local shops. In time, all those transactions are data that could be linked up using Belvo, casting a far wider net than what we’re used to domestically.

The company’s work to connect banks and non-banks together is key to the company’s goal of allowing “any fintech or any developer to access and interpret user financial data,” according to Viguera.

Viguera and co-CEO Oriol Tintoré founded in May of 2019, and was part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 batch. Since launching its platform last year, the company says it has built a customer base of over 60 companies across Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, handling millions of monthly API calls.

This is important because as Alex noted last year, similar to other players in the API-space, Belvo charges for each API call that its customers use (in this sense, it has a model similar to Twilio’s).

Image Credits: Co-founders and co-CEOs Oriol Tintore and Pablo Viguera / Belvo

Also, over the past year, Belvo says it expanded its API coverage to over 40 financial institutions, which gives companies the ability to connect to over 90% of personal and business bank accounts in LatAm, as well as to tax authorities (such as the SAT in Mexico) and gig economy platforms.

“Essentially we take unstructured financial data , which an individual might have outside of a bank such as integrations we have with gig economy platforms such as Uber and Rappi. We can take a driver’s information from their Uber app, which is kind of built like a bank app and turn it into meaningful bank-like info which third parties can leverage to make assessments as if it’s data coming from a bank,” Viguera explained.

The startup plans to use its new capital to scale its product offering, continue expanding its geographic footprint and double its current headcount of 70. Specifically, Belvo plans to hire more than 50 engineers in Mexico and Brazil by year’s end. It currently has offices in Mexico City, São Paulo, and Barcelona. The company also aims to launch its bank-to-bank payment initiation offering in Mexico and Brazil.

Belvo currently operates in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.

But it’s seeing “a lot of opportunity” in other markets in Latin America, especially in Chile, Peru and Argentina, Viguera told TechCrunch. “In due course, we will look to pursue expansion there.”

Fred Blackford, founding partner of Future Positive, believes Belvo represents a “truly transformational opportunity for the region’s financial sector.”

Nicolás Szekasy, co-founder and managing partner of Kaszek, noted that demand for financial services in Latin America is growing at an exponential rate .

“Belvo is developing the infrastructure that will enable both the larger institutions and the emerging generation of younger players to successfully deploy their solutions,” he said. “ Oriol, Pablo, and the Belvo team have been leading the development of a sophisticated platform that resolves very complex technical challenges, and the company’s exponential growth reflects how it is delivering a product that fits perfectly with the requirements of the market.”

Latin America’s digital transformation is making up for lost time

#alex-wilhelm, #api, #argentina, #bank, #banking, #barcelona, #belvo, #brazil, #ceo, #chile, #co-ceo, #colombia, #cto, #david-velez, #driver, #editor, #finance, #financial-services, #fj-labs, #founders-fund, #funding, #fundings-exits, #kaszek, #kibo-ventures, #latin-america, #mexico, #mexico-city, #nubank, #online-food-ordering, #open-banking, #open-finance, #peru, #rappi, #recent-funding, #sao-paulo, #startup, #startups, #tc, #technology, #twilio, #uber, #vc, #venture-capital, #wise, #y-combinator

TechCrunch 3:06 pm on May 12, 2021
Tags: api ( 181 ), Argentina ( 115 ), biz stone ( 5 ), Brazil ( 454 ), buenos aires, finance ( 1,065 ), financial technology ( 104 ), Fintech ( 705 ), fintech infrastructure ( 4 ), FJ Labs, Google ( 1,330 ), Index Ventures ( 38 ), latin america ( 248 ), Marqeta ( 15 ), mastercard ( 25 ), Max Levchin ( 12 ), mexico city ( 30 ), Monashees ( 5 ), money ( 184 ), online payments ( 46 ), Payments ( 233 ), payments infrastructure ( 5 ), PayPal ( 111 ), Pomelo, Recent Funding ( 1,306 ), sao paulo ( 28 ), startup ( 116 ), Startups ( 5,133 ), stone, TC ( 10,178 ), tripadvisor ( 7 ), United States ( 4,473 )

Pomelo raises $9M to build a payments infrastructure for LatAm fintechs

Pomelo, a startup building a fintech-as-a-service platform for Latin America, has raised $9 million in a seed round of funding.

The Buenos Aires-based startup’s new infrastructure aims to allow fintechs and embedded finance players to launch virtual accounts and issue prepaid and credit cards via “compliant” onboarding processes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital payments all over the world, and Latin America is no exception. While the majority of transactions are still done in cash, there are still over a billion cards in the region.

Cards have an estimated payments volume of $900 billion per year, and yet 95% of these transactions are being processed by local incumbents, asserts Pomelo. This is a problem the company’s founders experienced firsthand in previous roles, and are eager to solve by creating a new payments infrastructure.

“We know from previous experiences…that building a fintech, and particularly issuing cards, in Latin America is a real nightmare,” said Pomelo co-founder and CEO Gaston Irigoyen. “It takes anywhere from 12 to 18 months to launch a simple prepaid card, and unfortunately companies have to go through the painful experience of repeating the process in every market where they operate.”

Pomelo’s goal is to solve the problem by creating a new generation of financial services infrastructure that allows companies to build a fintech business and launch cards “much faster” throughout Latin America. For now, the three-month-old company is in its infancy — the pre-product phase, which makes it even more notable that the company managed to raise such a large seed round.

Clocktower Technology Ventures makes $25M bet on Latin American fintechs

This round caught our eye for a few other reasons. For one, the three co-founders of the Buenos Aires-based startup were former executives at Mastercard, Google LatAm, Mercado Pago and Naranja X. CEO Irigoyen was an early employee at Google LatAm. He is also a third-time founder with two exits (one to TripAdvisor) and former CEO of Naranja X, Argentina’s largest neobank, with millions of customers. Juan Fantoni was the former director of fintech at Mastercard, where he signed issuing deals with a number of large companies. And Hernan Corral was the CPO of Naranja X and previously head of digital accounts & cards at Mercado Pago.

Next, the caliber of Pomelo’s investors. U.S.-based Index Ventures and Brazil’s monashees co-led the funding round, which also included participation from QED’s Fontes, Max Levchin’s SciFi, Latitud, Biz Stone’s Future Positive, 20VC, Addition, FJ Labs and a16z’s Angela Strange, as well as the founders of Marqeta, Rappi, Auth0, Kavak, Loft and RecargaPay.

If you’re looking for comparisons to U.S.-based fintechs, Irigoyen said it’s got a little bit of Galileo, Marqeta and Stripe in what it’s building out.

Caio Bolognesi, partner at monashees, said his firm has been very bullish on the financial infrastructure space as a whole. They were drawn to Pomelo in part because its founders had been senior tech executives at leading fintech companies in the region and because many of its portfolio companies had already manifested the need for a better solution in this space.

Index Ventures’ Mark Fiorentino agrees that the company’s founder-market fit was crucial in his firm’s decision to invest.

“They have the DNA of the most well-known payments companies within the LATAM fintech ecosystem… and have lived through the pain points and keyed in on this opportunity through firsthand experience,” he said.

In general, Fiorentino believes that while the need for embedded financial products is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in the Latin American market, it’s important to note that the region “is far from a carbon copy” of the U.S. market with different dynamics.

For one, he said, existing solutions in the Latin American market are either “outdated” offerings from legacy financial institutions or “subpar” iterations from U.S. incumbents.

“It takes over 12 months for a business to spin up a plastic or digital card for itself. And because most legacy processors are owned by banks or large financial institutions that have been around for decades, pricing is inflexible and expensive,” Fiorentino told TechCrunch. “And if that wasn’t enough of a headache, stable reliability has been a huge pain point with these issuer processors. Pomelo is building the dev-first, self-serve API solution to address this clear market need.”

Looking ahead, Pomelo plans to use its new capital in part to open offices in São Paulo, Brazil and Mexico City, and hire dozens of people in those cities as well as in its home base of Argentina. The company currently has about 15 employees, 11 of which are engineers. It of course plans to continue building out its offering.

Latin America’s digital transformation is making up for lost time

#api, #argentina, #biz-stone, #brazil, #buenos-aires, #finance, #financial-technology, #fintech, #fintech-infrastructure, #fj-labs, #google, #index-ventures, #latin-america, #marqeta, #mastercard, #max-levchin, #mexico-city, #monashees, #money, #online-payments, #payments, #payments-infrastructure, #paypal, #pomelo, #recent-funding, #sao-paulo, #startup, #startups, #stone, #tc, #tripadvisor, #united-states

TechCrunch 2:08 pm on April 15, 2021
Tags: Accel ( 96 ), banks ( 4 ), Brazil ( 454 ), ceo ( 585 ), CFO ( 28 ), Companies ( 196 ), e-commerce ( 690 ), finance ( 1,065 ), FJ Labs, Goldman Sachs ( 56 ), Kevin Efrusy ( 4 ), latin america ( 248 ), Olist, online shopping ( 105 ), Opera ( 216 ), redpoint ventures ( 12 ), sao paulo ( 28 ), series D ( 4 ), Softbank ( 147 ), TC ( 10,178 ), valor capital ( 4 )

Goldman Sachs leads $23M in funding for Brazilian e-commerce startup Olist

Olist, a Brazilian e-commerce marketplace integrator, has raised $23 million in a Series D round extension led by new investor Goldman Sachs Asset Management that brings its total Series D financing to $80 million.

Existing backer Redpoint Ventures, which first put money in Olist in 2015, also participated in the latest round. With this latest infusion, Olist has now raised over $126 million since its 2015 inception. This round is reportedly its last before the company plans to go public, according to Bloomberg.

SoftBank led the first tranch of Olist’s Series D in November as well as the company’s $46 million Series C in 2019. Valor Capital, Velt Partners, FJ Labs, Península and angel Kevin Efrusy had previously invested in the first tranche of the Series D.

Olist connects small businesses to larger product marketplaces to help entrepreneurs sell their products to a larger customer base. The company was founded with the mission of helping small merchants gain market share across the country through a SaaS licensing model to small brick and mortar businesses.

As of October 2019, Olist had more than 7,000 customers and used a drop-shipping model to send products directly from stores to clients around the country, allowing them to grow with a capital-light model.

Today, Olist says its platform provides tools that support “all the stages of an e-commerce operation” with the goal of helping merchants see “rapid increases in sales volume.” It currently has about 25,000 merchants on its platform.

The startup is no doubt benefiting from the pandemic-fueled e-commerce boom taking place all over the world as more people have turned to online shopping. Latin America, in general, has been home to increased e-commerce adoption. The region’s $85 billion e-commerce market is growing rapidly with projections of it reaching $116.2 billion in 2023.

As evidence of that, Olist says its revenue tripled to a record number in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the previous year, although it did not provide hard figures. It also reportedly doubled revenue in 2020, according to Bloomberg.

Olist Store, the company’s flagship product, gives merchants a way to manage product listings, logistics and store payments. It also offers “a unique sales experience” through channels such as Mercado Livre, B2W and Via Varejo. The product saw a record GMV in the first half of the year, which was up 2.5 times over the same period in the prior year, the company said.

Latin America’s digital transformation is making up for lost time

Last year, Olist launched a new product, Olist Shops, giving users the ability to create a virtual showcase “in less than 3 minutes” that also offers payment checkout tools and integration with logistics operators. Shops has interfaces in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, and since its launch, it has attracted more than 200,000 users in 180 countries, according to Olist.

“The pandemic has accelerated digitalizing business processes around the world, thus spurring e-commerce growth in a surprising way,” said Tiago Dalvi, Olist’s founder and CEO, in a written statement.

The company plans to use its new capital to invest in technology and products, pursuing new mergers and acquisitions and boosting its internationalization process. This is on top of two acquisitions Olist made last year — Clickspace and Pax Logistica, which gave Olist entry into the heated logistics space with more than 4,000 registered drivers.

Specifically, CFO Eduardo Ferraz said the company is in preliminary discussions with ERPs, retailers, and companies with complementary solutions to its own.

“That is why we also decided to expand the investment in our Series D and bring Goldman Sachs as another relevant investor to our cap table,” he said.

David Castelblanco, managing director and head of Latin America Corporate and Growth Equity Investing for the Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said his firm was impressed with how Olist empowers SMBs to generate more revenue.

“Tiago and the Olist team are incredibly customer oriented and have created an innovative technological solution for their e-commerce clients,” he added.

Olist is operating in an increasingly crowded space. In March, we covered São Paulo-based Nuvemshop’s $90 million raise that was led by Silicon Valley venture firm Accel. That company has developed an e-commerce platform that aims to allow SMBs and merchants to connect more directly with their consumers.

#accel, #banks, #brazil, #ceo, #cfo, #companies, #e-commerce, #finance, #fj-labs, #goldman-sachs, #kevin-efrusy, #latin-america, #olist, #online-shopping, #opera, #redpoint-ventures, #sao-paulo, #series-d, #softbank, #tc, #valor-capital

TechCrunch 7:23 am on March 30, 2021
Tags: Antoine Nussenbaum, articles ( 507 ), Asia ( 1,250 ), Brazil ( 454 ), ceo ( 585 ), Cherry Ventures ( 60 ), Deliveroo ( 36 ), energy ( 296 ), Europe ( 2,708 ), felix capital ( 15 ), FJ Labs, Health ( 2,372 ), latin america ( 248 ), leader ( 32 ), manual, online food ordering ( 43 ), TC ( 10,178 ), United Kingdom ( 324 ), United States ( 4,473 ), well being ( 4 )

Men’s health startup Manual raises $30M Series A from US and European investors

Men’s health and wellbeing startup Manual has raised a $30m Series A round from US-based Sonoma Brands and Waldencast, and Manual’s existing European investors Felix Capital and Cherry Ventures. FJ Labs and the GISEV Family Office also participated in the round. The cash will be used for product development and international expansion. Manual provides diagnostics, treatments and ongoing care and plans to expand across Europe, Asia and Latin America. The company has already expanded to Brazil.

Manual is competing with Numan (raised $13M), also from the UK (Manual launched a month earlier than them). In the US it is competing with Ro (raised $876.1M) and Hims (listed). All these brands tend to focus on issues like vitamins and erectile dysfunction, with the, often common refrain of, ‘normalizing’ the idea that men should look after themselves better, across a number of fronts and removing stigma’s around sexual health. It performs blood tests and other tests to analyze heart health, gut health, testosterone, sleep, energy, and immunity. They are pushing at a large market, as men historically avoid doctors.

Manual app

George Pallis, CEO and Founder, previously led marketing at Wise and Deliveroo. In a statement he said: “We’ve been encouraged to see men of all ages increasingly turning to Manual to solve multiple health problems, with almost half of our customers seeking help for more than one issue. It’s clear that a health concern may have more than one cause, and we can provide customers with the ability to treat their health in a more holistic way. Using different treatments to understand and improve their wellbeing.”

Speaking to during an interview Pallis added: “We built our own teleconsultation product and have different applications for the blood test offering. When you get your results we will offer a clinician, we’ll walk you through all the data and the learnings. We offer tools where people can monitor their progress and have regular check-ins with our medical team.”

Antoine Nussenbaum, co-Founder and partner of Felix Capital, commented: “There is still much work to be done to remove the taboo when it comes to men looking after their wellbeing and talking openly about health concerns. But we’re starting to see a shift happen amongst consumers.”

Kevin Murphy, Managing Director of Sonoma Brands, commented: “Manual exists to empower men to take better care of themselves and to live fuller lives by doing so. George and his team have the clarity of vision and the skill to make Manual a leader in this exciting and important area.”

#antoine-nussenbaum, #articles, #asia, #brazil, #ceo, #cherry-ventures, #deliveroo, #energy, #europe, #felix-capital, #fj-labs, #health, #latin-america, #leader, #manual, #online-food-ordering, #tc, #united-kingdom, #united-states, #well-being

deutsche-startups.de 3:20 pm on March 25, 2021
Tags: 10x Group ( 7 ), 83North ( 7 ), Aktuell ( 3,092 ), AML RightSource, APIC Investments ( 2 ), btov Partners ( 39 ), Cherry Ventures ( 60 ), DealMonitor ( 684 ), evernest ( 7 ), felix capital ( 15 ), Fintech ( 705 ), finway ( 8 ), FJ Labs, Green Motion, Hamburg ( 1,430 ), Hype Innovation, IBG Beteiligungsgesellschaft Sachsen-Anhalt, Innospot, LEDCity, Leuna, München ( 564 ), Passcon, Paxly, PropTech ( 166 ), seed+speed Ventures ( 5 ), SellerX ( 25 ), SICTIC ( 3 ), Smart Infrastructure Ventures ( 7 ), unicorn ( 119 ), venture capital ( 2,283 ), Zürich ( 98 )

#DealMonitor – Gorillas bekommt 244 Millionen (und wird zum Einhorn) – PlusDental sammelt 35 Millionen ein – SellerX bekommt 26 Millionen

Im aktuellen #DealMonitor für den 25. März werfen wir wieder einen Blick auf die wichtigsten, spannendsten und interessantesten Investments und Exits des Tages in der DACH-Region. Alle Deals der Vortage gibt es im großen und übersichtlichen #DealMonitor-Archiv.

INVESTMENTS

Gorillas
+++ Tencent, Coatue, DST Global und Co. investieren stattliche 244 Millionen Euro in den sehr jungen Flash-Supermarkt Gorillas, der im März 2020 von Kagan Sümer und Jörg Kattner (nicht mehr an Bord) gegründet wurde. Wie bereits mehrmals berichtet, suchte der Online-Supermarkt Gorillas zuletzt 100 Millionen Euro. Nun ist es sogar deutlich mehr geworden. Das Startup, das Lebensmittel in wenigen Minuten liefert, erreicht bei dieser Investmentrunde zudem tatsächlich eine Bewertung von mehr als 1 Milliarde Dollar – und somit Einhorn-Status. “So schnell wie noch kein Startup in Europa zuvor”, teilt das Unternehmen stolz mit. Erst Ende 2020 sammelte Gorillas 37 Millionen Euro ein – vor allem vom New Yorker Hedgefonds Coatue. Die Bewertung soll damals nach unseren Informationen bei rund 160 Millionen (Pre-Money) gelegen haben. Neben den genannten Investoren sind auch Greenoaks, Fifth Wall und Atlantic Food Labs an der Jungfirma beteiligt. Wie das Unternehmen mitteilt sei mal seit der Series-A-Runde im Dezember, also in den vergangenen drei Monaten, “um das Zehnfache gewachsen”. In den vergangenen zehn Monaten ist Gorillas in über zwölf Städte expandiert – darunter Amsterdam, London und München – und baute mehr als 40 sogenannte “Mikro-Fulfillment-Center” auf. “Die neue Finanzierung wird genutzt, um das Wachstum weiter voranzutreiben. Gorillas will in mehr als zehn Länder mit über 50 Städten expandieren, darunter auch Paris. Zeitnah wollen sie den Schritt in die USA gehen, beginnend in New York”, teilt das Unicorn mit.

PlusDental
+++ Jebsen Capital investiert gemeinsam mit Fußballprofi Mario Götze und den Alt-Investoren – darunter unter anderem HV Capital, Lakestar, Cadence Growth Capital und Kreos Capital – 35 Millionen Euro in das junge Berliner Startup PlusDental. Zuletzt investierte der Münchner Private-Equity-Fonds Cadence Growth Capital rund 10 Millionen Euro in PlusDental. Das Startup, das 2017 unter dem Namen SunshineSmile von Constantin Bisanz, David Khalil, Peter Baumgart und Lukas Brosseder ins Leben gerufen wurde, positioniert sich im Bereich “digitale Zahnmedizin und ästhetische kieferorthopädische Korrekturen mit transparenten Zahnschienen”. Geführt wird das Grownup von Baumgart, Brosseder und Eva-Maria Meijnen. Insgesamt flossen nun schon knapp 100 Millionen Euro in das Unternehmen. 400 Mitarbeiter:innen wirken derzeit für PlusDental. “In 2022, I want PlusDental to become Germany’s first woman-led Unicorn”, schreibt Gründer Brosseder auf Linkedin. Wobei die Aussage ziemlich schräg ist, immerhin führen zwei Männer und eine Frau das Unternehmen. Und gegründet wurde PlusDental bekanntlich von vier Männern. Und Männer halten auch die Mehrheit an PlusDental.

Anzeige
+++ In unserem Newsletter Startup-Radar berichten wir einmal in der Woche über neue Startups. Alle Startups stellen wir in unserem kostenpflichtigen Newsletter kurz und knapp vor und bringen sie so auf den Radar der Startup-Szene. Jetzt unseren Newsletter Startup-Radar abonnieren und 30 Tage kostenlos testen!

SellerX
+++ 83North und Alt-Investoren wie Cherry Ventures, Felix Capital, Zalando-Gründer David Schneider und der ehemalige Amazon-UK-Chef Christopher North investieren 26 Millionen Euro in den Amazon-Shop-Aufkäufer SellerX – siehe sifted. Erst im November 2020 verkündete der Thrasio-Klon eine 100-Millionen-Investmentrunde. Das Startup, das 2020 von Malte Horeyseck (Dafiti-Gründer) und Philipp Triebel gegründet wurde, kauft – wie dutzende andere Unternehmen – amazon-Shops an und versucht diese zu noch größerem Erfolg zu bringen. “SellerX has now acquired 20 businesses, across a portfolio of evergreen direct to consumer goods. This includes: garden and household goods, art supplies, pet supplies, DIY tools, supplements, beauty products, baby products and fitness tools”, heißt es im Artikel. 120 Mitarbeiter:innen arbeiten für SellerX.

Evernest
+++ Jetzt offiziell: Das österreichische Immobilien- und Handelsunternehmen Signa investiert – wie bereits Ende Januar berichtet – über seinen Ableger APIC Investments in das Hamburger PropTech Evernest. “Neben dem Bestandsinvestor Project A Ventures überzeugte das PropTech-Unternehmen mit seiner technologiegetriebenen Maklerplattform auch die beiden neuen Investoren FJ Labs und APIC”, teilt das Unternehmen mit. In der neuen Investmentrunde fließen 6 Millionen Euro in in der junge Makler-Startup, das 2019 von Christian Evers, zuletzt Chief Digital Officer bei Engel & Völkers, gegründet wurde. Salopp formuliert verkauft das Unternehmen teure Immobilien in Großstädten.

finway
+++ Jetzt offiziell: btov Partners investiert – wie bereits berichtet – zusammen mit dem Angel-Verbund 10x Group (Andreas Etten, Felix Haas, Jan Becker und Robert Wuttke) 2,1 Millionen Euro in in das junge Münchner FinTech finway. Das Unternehmen positioniert sich irgendwo zwischen Software für Finanzbuchhaltung und Kreditkartendienst im Stil von Moss. Die Bajuwaren schreiben: “Wir unterstützen Mitarbeiter in Organisationen durch effiziente und automatisierte Finanzprozesse”. Gegründet wurde das Unternehmen 2020 von Csaba Krümmer, Jennifer Dussileck und Philipp Rieger. Die Bewertung liegt nach unseren Informationen bei rund 7,5 Millionen Euro.

LEDCity
+++ “Eine Gruppe von Business Angels – unter anderem aus dem Investorenverein SICTIC – und ein Kunde” investieren 2 Millionen 2 Millionen Franken in LEDCity. Das Zürcher Unternehmen kümmert sich um bedarfsgerechte Beleuchtung. KI-optimierte Algorithmen sorgen dabei , dass das Licht “lokal und effizient gesteuert wird”. Dadurch passe sich das Beleuchtungssystem automatisch an die Umgebung an und regulierr die Beleuchtungsintensität dezentral und stufenlos.

Paxly
+++ seed+speed Ventures, Smart Infrastructure Ventures, die IBG Beteiligungsgesellschaft Sachsen-Anhalt (IBG) sowie der Business Angel Roland Fassauer und Signavio-Gründer Torben
Schreiter investieren eine sechsstellige Summe in Paxly. Das deutsch-österreichische Startup mit Sitz in Leuna positioniert sich als “B2B-Einkaufsplattform für Wellpappe”. “Wir sagen langen Lieferantenrecherchen, mehrseitigen E-Mail-Verläufen und endlosen Telefonaten den Kampf an”, teilt die Jungfirma, die von Thomas Auer und Torsten Beyenbach gegründet wurde, mit.

EXITS

Innospot
+++ Die Ideenmanagementfirma Hype Innovation, 2001 als Spin-off von DaimlerChrysler gestartet, übernimmt Innospot. Das Münchner Unternehmen, 2017 von Josef Seidl und Daniel Buschmann gegründet, entwickelt eine SaaS-gestützte Start-up-Scouting-Lösung. “Basierend auf einem KI-gesteuerten Scraping-Ansatz bietet die Plattform ein umfassendes Tool, um frühzeitig neue Partner und Technologien zu identifizieren und einen nachhaltigen Wettbewerbsvorteil zu gewinnen”, schreibt das Unternehmen in eigener Sache. Innospot kam bisher ohne Investoren aus, Hype Innovation wird seit 2019 von Main Capital unterstützt.

Passcon
+++ Das amerikanische Anti-Money Laundering-Unternehmen AML RightSource übernimmt Passcon. Das Hamburger Unternehmen, das 2016 von Corinna Reibchen gegründet wurde, positioniert sich als “Anti-Financial-Crime (AFC) One Stop Shop”. In der Presseaussendung heißt es: “Passcon provides operational and advisory coverage worldwide, with 300 team members and more than 10 offices across EMEA, APAC, and North America. As Managing Director of AML RightSource, Corinna will continue focusing on international sales and operations, leveraging over 20 years of experience in financial services and AFC consulting”.

Green Motion
+++ Das Energiemanagement-Unternehmen Eaton übernimmt das Schweizer Unternehmen Green Motion. “Das Ziel beider Unternehmen ist es, ihre Spitzentechnologien in den Dienst der globalen Energiewende zu stellen. Green Motion wird damit zu einer Tochtergesellschaft von Eaton. Die Geschäftsführung bleibt bestehen” – berichtet Moneycab. Green Motion, 2009 gegründet entwickelt Hard- und Software, die das Laden von Elektrofahrzeugen durch eine breite Palette von AC- und ultraschnellen DC-Ladegeräten ermöglicht.

PODCAST

Insider #98
+++ Schon die neue Insider-Ausgabe mit Sven Schmidt gehört? In der aktuellen Folge geht es um: Amazd, Pitch, Planet A Ventures, Dance, Blok, likeminded, GraphCMS, Klaus Hommels, Fit Analytics, Patient 21, Enpal, Babbel, Volocopter, Lampenwelt, About You und Mister Spex.

Abonnieren: Die Podcasts von deutsche-startups.de könnt ihr bei Amazon Music – Apple Podcasts – Castbox – Deezer – Google Podcasts – iHeartRadio – Overcast – PlayerFM – Podimo – Spotify – SoundCloud oder per RSS-Feed abonnieren.

Startup-Jobs: Auf der Suche nach einer neuen Herausforderung? In der unserer Jobbörse findet Ihr Stellenanzeigen von Startups und Unternehmen.

Foto (oben): azrael74

#10x-group, #83north, #aktuell, #aml-rightsource, #apic-investments, #btov-partners, #cherry-ventures, #evernest, #felix-capital, #fintech, #finway, #fj-labs, #green-motion, #hamburg, #hype-innovation, #ibg-beteiligungsgesellschaft-sachsen-anhalt, #innospot, #ledcity, #leuna, #munchen, #passcon, #paxly, #proptech, #seedspeed-ventures, #sellerx, #sictic, #smart-infrastructure-ventures, #unicorn, #venture-capital, #zurich

TechCrunch 4:50 pm on March 12, 2021
Tags: AI ( 293 ), Artificial Intelligence ( 1,417 ), Europe ( 2,708 ), finance ( 1,065 ), Fintech ( 705 ), FJ Labs, Fundings & Exits ( 2,233 ), madrid ( 23 ), Recent Funding ( 1,306 ), Startups ( 5,133 ), TaxDown

TaxDown banks ~$3M for tech that helps people get their taxes done

Madrid-based TaxDown, which automates income tax filing by calculating regional deductions due to users so they don’t have to navigate complex tax rules themselves, has raised €2.4 million (~$3M) in seed funding.

US-based FJ Labs has joined TaxDown’s investment board as it closes the seed round. It says all its previous investors participated in the round, including James Argalas (Presidio Union); Abac Nest, Abac’s venture capital business; Baldomero Falcones, the former Chairman at Mastercard; and the founders of Jobandtalent, Juan Urdiales and Felipe Navío (another Madrid-based startup).

Jobandtalent takes $120M from Softbank to enter the US market

For the past three years TaxDown been offering a service in Spain but is now eyeing international expansion, as well as further growth in its home market.

Last year, it says it managed more than €29M in taxes for users — delivering savings of €4M+ to users.

Its target is to hit 500,000 users in Spain this year. While international expansion is planned for the second half of 2021, with TaxDown saying it’s focused on other European and Latin American markets.

“From the beginning, our ambition has been to help people fill in their taxes all over the world. That is why we developed our proprietary software/tax language that allows a tax expert with no coding capabilities to translate the tax law into calculation and logic that can be interpreted by our backend seamlessly,” says Enrique García, CEO and co-founder. “This tax language allowed us to launch in Spain in 4 months with only one tax consultant. We are confident that we can launch a new country in only 6 months.”

“The tax filing process is far from being simple,” he goes on, explaining how its tech simplifies income tax filing in Spain. “Currently, when using the Spanish Tax Agency tax-filling tool, taxpayers need to manually apply deductions on their tax forms. The problem is, with national regional deductions being different in each region in Spain, taxpayers often do not even know they’re entitled to those deductions. Thus, by not applying them to their tax form, they lose money. What TaxDown does is leverage the advanced Spanish Tax Agency technology, which offers an API to request the financial data related to a taxpayer — always with prior authorization from the user — with 2.000+ datapoints.

“Once we have that, our algorithm ‘RITA’ is capable of understanding the user’s personal and financial data, select the optimum questions that the user needs to answer — an average of 9 over a database of 3.000+ – and precisely calculate the tax return, with no errors.”

“Technology is the heart of TaxDown,” he adds. “Besides our algorithm RITA that has been trained with over 40.000+ tax returns, today we also use AI to help our ‘taxers’ with tips on how to lower future tax bills, and we have started working on live income tax simulation for our users throughout the entire year.”

García says TaxDown calculated more than 42,000 tax returns last year with a team of just two in-house tax experts — thanks to proprietary internal tools which allow them to handle this scale (by being “80x more efficient than the Spanish average”, as he puts it). He adds that further efficiency gains are expected.

“We have developed a machine-learning tool that flags the tax returns that need to be reviewed before filing based on historical data. Thus, we continuously increase the percentage of tax returns that are automatically submitted with no manual intervention,” he tells TechCrunch, adding: “Thanks to this feature, we expect to improve our efficiency at least 5x versus last year.”

According to García, TaxDown has never had any filings rejected for inaccuracies because he says its algorithms continually run tests and validate the information with the authorities. “Furthermore, our technology can flag errors in real time in case that there is a discrepancy, so our tax experts can manually check the tax return form if needed,” he adds.

Its business model — currently — is a sort of twist on freemium, in that it will only charge users if the income tax savings it calculates for them exceed €35.

García says that so far an average of three out of 10 users see financial savings from using its tool — but he suggests it’s not only savings that motivate users; he says they also want reassurance that they are taking “the best approach with their taxes: doing them effortlessly, correctly, with all the guarantees, tapping for experts’ live help at any time, ensuring the best result they can get, and of course knowing that we have their backs in case of an audit”.

Given that wider relationship it’s building with users, TaxDown sees potential to evolve its business model by expanding to offer additional fintech services, such as financial advice, in the future.

“Our vision goes far beyond income tax return preparation, we believe that tax data is becoming one of the most valuable data assets for people (take Trump’s tax returns for example), and we want to assess our ’taxers’ based on the best and more qualitative information that we can get,” says García. “Therefore, in the future we want to be a trusted financial advisor not just for taxes, but for personal finances as well. We believe we are well positioned to be an intermediary between our users and financial institutions.”

Boast.ai raises $23M to help businesses get their R&D tax credits

What’s going on with fintech venture capital investment?

#ai, #artificial-intelligence, #europe, #finance, #fintech, #fj-labs, #fundings-exits, #madrid, #recent-funding, #startups, #taxdown

TechCrunch 5:44 pm on March 8, 2021
Tags: america ( 55 ), e-commerce ( 690 ), FJ Labs, food ( 1,015 ), Kentucky ( 133 ), Max Ventures ( 2 ), Meat ( 117 ), Nashville ( 9 ), slow ventures ( 15 ), TC ( 10,178 ), Tribeca Venture Partners ( 2 ), United States ( 4,473 ), USDA ( 5 )

Porter Road’s sustainable, whole animal butchery raises $10 million to expand across the U.S.

In the nearly ten years since it launched as a whole animal butchery out of a storefront in East Nashville, the founders of Porter Road have wanted to herd America’s meat industry down a new path.

Now the company has $10 million in financing from investors including L37 Ventures, River Park Ventures, Middleland, FJ Labs, Kelvin Beachum along with previous investors MAX Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners, and Slow Ventures to bring that mission to a broader swath of the country.

Since the company bought its own slaughterhouse back in 2015 and expanded to e-commerce in 2018 it has been shipping its selections of lamb, beef, pork, chicken and sausages from local farms to tables across the U.S.

Porter Road wants to herd the meat industry in a new direction

The new money will be used to scale the company’s sustainable agriculture and its pasture-raised meat for the direct-to-consumer business, its shop in Nashville, and for wholesale distribution to restaurants around the country.

It’s going to expand its operations in Princeton, Ky with a new USDA processing facility that’s 4.5 times larger to meet new demand. That move will create 80 new jobs in the small town and is part of a broader agricultural renaissance in Kentucky.

“It’s easy to back founders who are as comfortable on the manufacturing line as they are in the boardroom, and who see the world differently and have the deep domain expertise to execute on that vision,” said L37 Partner Randall Ussery in a statement. “They have spent years perfecting the Porter Road way which no company nor incumbent can replicate overnight. They are a category killer in the meat industry and have built a moat around their brand.”

Porter Road delivery box of a selection of its steaks, sausages and bacon. Image Credit: Porter Road

One indication of the ways in which Porter Road differs from its larger competitors is in the way it handled the COVID-19 pandemic at its facilities.

Due to its limited production schedule and measures like staggered break times, mask requirements and social distancing rules, the company was able to avoid having any outbreaks at its facilities, according to the company’s co-founder and chief executive, Chris Carter. “We had a handful of people who got sick, but [COVID-19] didn’t spread in Princeton,” said Carter.

And despite the push for more plant-based diets, Carter says that his company’s focus on pasture-raised animals and whole animal butchery should appeal to folks who care about sustainable production. “We care about our farmers and we care about the way our animals are raised,” said Carter. “That’s the whole point of what we’re doing… Porter Road is about animal utilization. It’s about honoring the life of an animal so we find an outlet for every single piece.”

Porter Road is expanding its product line into cooking tallow and fats, and cross cut bones for bone marrow dishes, Carter said.

“The food system is broken and in need of a substantial change. Today’s consumer is demanding a deeper level of connection to their food and can see past misleading labels and buzzwords,” said Carter, in a statement. “We are delivering trust, transparency, and flavor so no one has to compromise, all while supporting our farmers.”

#america, #e-commerce, #fj-labs, #food, #kentucky, #max-ventures, #meat, #nashville, #slow-ventures, #tc, #tribeca-venture-partners, #united-states, #usda

TechCrunch 2:00 pm on March 3, 2021
Tags: Banco Sabadell, finance ( 1,065 ), financial inclusion ( 12 ), financial technology ( 104 ), fintech startup ( 20 ), FJ Labs, Funding ( 1,793 ), Fundings & Exits ( 2,233 ), latin america ( 248 ), Mexico ( 449 ), mexico city ( 30 ), payroll ( 8 ), Recent Funding ( 1,306 ), Startups ( 5,133 ), TC ( 10,178 ), venture capital ( 2,283 ), Village Global ( 14 ), XYZ Ventures ( 3 )

Minu, a Mexico City-based, pay-on-demand startup, lands a $14M Series A

Many of the startups raising capital in Mexico are focused on financial inclusion, aiming to level the playing field in a country that is largely unbanked and has a burgeoning middle class.

One such company, minu, a Mexico City-based, pay-on-demand startup, announced Wednesday that it has raised $14 million in a Series A round of funding led by FinTech Collective.

New investors VEF, XYZ Ventures, and FJ Labs, as well as DocuSign founder Tom Gonser and Gusto CFO Mike Dinsdale also participated in the financing. Existing backers QED, Next Billion Ventures, and Village Global also put more money in the company.

The financing — which included $2.5 million in debt from Banco Sabadell Mexico — brings minu’s total raised since its 2019 inception to a total of $20 million.

Co-founders Nima Pourshasb, Rafa Niell, and Paolo Rizzi were driven to build out a pay on demand offering in Mexico.

“We really think the lack of financial health is one of the key drivers slowing the potential and productivity of Mexican society,” Pourshasb said.

Latin America’s digital transformation is making up for lost time

Minu aims to solve the employee liquidity gap between paychecks in an effort to help people see reduced financial stress and avoid expensive loans. The company offers 24×7 instant access to employees’ earned wages for a $2 fixed withdrawal fee.

Today, minu has over 100 large enterprise clients including TotalPlay, Telefonica, Scotiabank, OfficeMax, Rappi, Adecco, Manpower, Cap Gemini, and public sector clients such as the Electoral Institute of the State of Mexico. It saw its transaction volume and revenue grow by 18 times in 2020, albeit from a small base. The company declined to reveal hard revenue figures.

Minu operates under the premise that the liquidity gap is profound in Mexican society. An estimated 70% of workers live from paycheck to paycheck with average wages of $550/month, noted Pourshasb. And only 37% of Mexicans over 15 years old have a bank account, according to recent World Bank stats.

“Some people are continuously getting loans — at very high interest rates — to cover recurring expenses such as food and transport,” Pourshasb said.

Minu’s first product offers instant, 24-7 access to earned wages.

“This is money that is already earned,” Pourshasb said. “Our users have an app to see how much is available and if they need those funds, they can instantly receive them.”

The company’s distribution model is B2B so it works alongside large enterprises to offer access to the wages as a benefit for employees. Businesses are attracted to that model, Pourshasb explained, because they don’t have to pay for it or change their payroll process.

“We integrate with payroll so the process is automated and there’s no added work for them,” he added. “It also doesn’t affect cash flows. These are upfront funds so if someone withdraws money, it gets deducted from payroll.”

Some employers do subsidize the cost of the transaction fee for employees.

Looking ahead, minu says it will use its fresh capital to boost its headcount of 60 as well as expanding its offering to include financial education, savings, smart spend and insurance products. The company also plans to expand outside of Mexico.

Carlos Alonso Torras, who leads Latin America investing for New York-based FinTech Collective, believes that minu leverages “a strong combination of an exceptional founding team and auspicious macro trends.”

“We see the company’s current product as the basis for a platform that will offer an array of necessary financial products to a very underserved demographic,” he wrote via email. “Minu is already creating a moat vis a vis competitors via deep integrations, high client satisfaction and a broadening financial wellness offering. As the early mover in a market whose characteristics are conducive to the success of pay on demand, the immediate growth potential is remarkable, and Minu is uniquely positioned to excel.”

The investment marks the firm’s fifth in Mexico. Overall, FinTech Collective says it seeks and backs entrepreneurs “who are rewiring how money flows through the world.”

“Due to COVID, we are seeing a pandemic stricken world where hundreds of millions of people are facing greater financial instability, and we believe that fintech has a vital role to play in accelerating the emergence of a spending middle class underserved by traditional financial systems,” Torras added.

Fintechs in Mexico have been busy. Last week, Stori raised a $32.5 million Series B round with the goal of “becoming Mexico’s leading credit card issuer for the rising middle class.”

Also in February, Flink raised $12 million in a Series A led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Accel.

Current and upcoming trends in Latin America’s mobile growth

#banco-sabadell, #finance, #financial-inclusion, #financial-technology, #fintech-startup, #fj-labs, #funding, #fundings-exits, #latin-america, #mexico, #mexico-city, #payroll, #recent-funding, #startups, #tc, #venture-capital, #village-global, #xyz-ventures

TechCrunch 4:16 pm on January 28, 2021
Tags: e-commerce ( 690 ), eCommerce ( 783 ), FJ Labs, Lorem, Shopify ( 106 ), Startups ( 5,133 ), TC ( 10,178 )

Storetasker revamps its Shopify developer marketplace

Storetasker is an online marketplace focused on connecting Shopify merchants with developers and other experts who can help grow their business.

The product is now owned by the startup previously known as Lorem. Co-founder and COO Charlie Fogarty explained that while Lorem originally had a broader mission of connecting small businesses and developers, “We realized that Shopify and e-commerce was by far our best customer segment … so we basically acquired our main competitor, Storetasker, and merged the two business” under the Storetasker name.

The acquisition (which included the Storetasker product and expert network, but not the team) actually took place last year, and Fogarty said, “We’ve spent the last 10 months basically rebuilding the product from the ground up. We’ve taken years of learning and combined it into a rebrand, a new product and a new end-to-end customer experience.”

The core proposition is still the same, however. A Shopify merchant should be able to visit Storetasker, describe their project in simple terms and then within a few hours, Storetasker will match them up with one of the experts in the network, who they can work with directly.

Storetasker has already been used by more than 30,000 brands on Shopify, including Boll & Branch, Chubbies, Aisle, Alpha Industries, Truff Hot Sauce and Branch Furniture. Fogarty said the average project size is just $300 and usually involves adding custom designs and unique features to a Shopify store.

Image Credits: Storetasker

You could use a general marketplace like Upwork or Fiverr to find a freelance developer, but where Storetasker has conducted more than 5,000 interviews to vet its talent and picks the right expert for each customer, Fogarty said that on other platforms, “You have to sift through unvetted talent … The hiring burden is placed on the brand.”

Plus, he noted that brands can use Storetasker for more than development help — they also use it to find experts on conversion and “all the different aspects of e-commerce.”

In addition to the new product, Storetasker is also announcing that it raised $3.2 million in Series A funding last year from Flybridge, Founder Collective, and FJ Labs.

Looking ahead, Fogarty said he sees plenty of room to grow while remaining focused on the Shopify ecosystem. After all, there are more than 1 million stores on the platform, with $200 billion in total sales to date.

As e-commerce booms during the pandemic, Shopify accelerates

#e-commerce, #ecommerce, #fj-labs, #lorem, #shopify, #startups, #tc

TechCrunch 2:38 pm on December 21, 2020
Tags: Amazon ( 829 ), Artificial Intelligence ( 1,417 ), Co-founder ( 226 ), Companies ( 196 ), coo ( 35 ), Ebay ( 45 ), estonia ( 36 ), Europe ( 2,708 ), FJ Labs, game.co.uk, Gamestop ( 50 ), inreach ventures ( 3 ), Lithuania ( 38 ), online gaming ( 6 ), partner ( 111 ), Pipedrive ( 6 ), retailers ( 69 ), TC ( 10,178 ), unicorn ( 119 ), United States ( 4,473 ), Vinted ( 4 )

After lockdowns boost gaming marketplace Eneba, it raises $8M from Practica and InReach

Eneba, a marketplace for gamers that sells games and other products, has raised a $8M round of funding from Practica Capital and InReach Ventures. The funding is described as a ‘combination’ of a Seed and Series A round. Also participating in the funding for the Lithuanian startup was FJ Labs and a group of Angel investors including Mantas Mikuckas, COO of Vinted. The investment highlights once again the strength of the Baltics region as tech ecosystem, after Lithuania produced its first Unicorn in the shape of Vinted, and Estonia’s added Pipedrive to its unicorns list.

With the increased shift to digital entertainment during the pandemic, the startup has managed to garner much more US traffic. Launched in 2018 by two Lithuanian school friends, Vytis Uogintas and Žygimantas Mikšta, Eneba says it has attracted 26 million unique users because of its security features, ‘one-click to buy’ gamer experience and fingerprinting technology. The site also optimizes its localized gaming experiences to show locally trending gaming products. Eneba’s platform is designed to reduce risky transactions, simplifies the refunding process, and deals with fraud threats.

Co-founder and CMO, Žygimantas Mikšta said: “We had a lot of new users coming to Eneba during these uncertain times. While it was extremely satisfying to see our numbers increasing tenfold, there was a challenge to meet the demand. To better reflect our user numbers, we had to quickly expand our team to 130.”

Security has risen up the agenda in online gaming as virtual goods and services connected to games can be highly susceptible to fraud or theft. Although it competes with outlets like Amazon, eBay, and retailers like Gamestop, Game.co.uk, Eneba think they’ve found a better, tailored online pre/post-buying experience for gamers, while addressing the risk problems for sellers and buyers in the gaming world.

Donatas Keras, partner at Practica Capital said: “We are thrilled to be backing Vytis and Žygimantas. We’ve been impressed by their ability to execute at such speed as their company quickly scales, and to drive an incredible product with a unique value proposition for gamers.”

Co-founder of InReach Ventures, Roberto Bonanzinga, said: “In Europe we have a tradition of building successful companies in the gaming space. We are very excited to have discovered Eneba thanks to our AI platform when the company was unknown and under the radar. We have been extremely impressed by what the founders have been able to build in such a short amount of time.”

#amazon, #artificial-intelligence, #co-founder, #companies, #coo, #ebay, #estonia, #europe, #fj-labs, #game-co-uk, #gamestop, #inreach-ventures, #lithuania, #online-gaming, #partner, #pipedrive, #retailers, #tc, #unicorn, #united-states, #vinted

TechCrunch 1:02 pm on November 17, 2020
Tags: ceo ( 585 ), CTO ( 78 ), economy ( 295 ), Europe ( 2,708 ), FJ Labs, money ( 184 ), renting ( 6 ), TC ( 10,178 ), United Kingdom ( 324 )

Construction rental startup YardLink raises funding from Speedinvest Networks

YardLink allows construction companies to obtain critical equipment faster than traditional equipment rental companies. It’s now raised a £1.7m seed round, bringing the total it’s raised to date to £2.4m. The round was led by Speedinvest Network Effects, with participation from FJ Labs.

Construction sites often have to hire equipment, but the centralized nature of the traditional hire market means suppliers can be slow to deliver, leading to downtime on-site, and delayed projects. Traditional suppliers include HSS Hire, Travis Perkins, Speedy Hire, Sunbelt Rentals. But YardLink aims to speed this process up with a digital-first, marketplace approach. It has a network of 100 suppliers with over 1,400 equipment depots across the UK.

The construction industry faces new guidelines to prevent the spread of coronavirus, such as having to provide portable site cabins and accommodation for its workforce. This, coupled with tight availability in the market and more demand for renting equipment, rather than buying it.

The global market for construction equipment rental is around $70bn.

The team consists of Neeral Shah (Founder and CEO), Matt Bloor (CCO) and Daniel Morris (CTO) .

#ceo, #cto, #economy, #europe, #fj-labs, #money, #renting, #tc, #united-kingdom

TechCrunch 11:30 pm on November 1, 2020
Tags: david gilboa, FJ Labs, Gaia ( 5 ), Mexico ( 449 ), mexico city ( 30 ), rise capital ( 2 ), TC ( 10,178 ), Warby Parker ( 10 )

GAIA Design has raised more capital to become the West Elm of Mexico

Designing higher end furniture for Mexico’s rising middle and upper-middle class consumers has netted the Mexico City-based GAIA $15 million in a new round of funding.

The bridge round will take the company through to a much larger capital raise planned for 2021 as the company capitalizes on the growth of e-commerce in Mexico.

A 2019 report from JP Morgan put the e-commerce market in Mexico at around $22.6 billion, and that’s with online sales only accounting for just 1.7% of the overall retail market. JP Morgan expects the market to increase at a 12.6% growth rate annually.

As with everything else, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital services as the country’s population looks to practice safe social distancing and reduce the spread of the virus. For those consumers who can afford to shop online — even for high value products like furniture — they are, according to GAIA chief executive Philippe Cahuzac.

At GAIA the new funding will be used to add new features to the company’s online service, including consultations with interior designers, the development of curated looks, and the ability for customers to create design sketches and visualizations for products in the home. The company expects to also double down on its sales and marketing efforts with the new cash.

GAIA’s funding also helps extend the company’s vision of supporting small and medium-sized Mexican furniture producers through financial products, training and revenue management tools and educational offerings.

With its investment, IDB Invest joins existing investors in the company including Rise Capital, Capital Invest, VARIV
Capital, French Partners, FJ Labs, and Warby Parker co-founder David Gilboa .

Launched by Raffaello Starace, Hassan Yassine, and Cahuzac the company started as an online retailer exclusively, but now has expanded to 15 showrooms in Monterrey, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Puebla and Queretaro.

“We want to offer a branded and frictionless urban experience to the modern Mexican consumer,” said Cahuzac in a statement. “In five years we built the leading digital player in the home category in Mexico.”

#david-gilboa, #fj-labs, #gaia, #mexico, #mexico-city, #rise-capital, #tc, #warby-parker

deutsche-startups.de 1:55 pm on October 22, 2020
Tags: About You ( 12 ), Acapela ( 6 ), Aktuell ( 3,092 ), breathe ilo, Carbomed Medical Solutions, Com2Us, Dance ( 21 ), DealMonitor ( 684 ), Dr. Hettich Beteiligungen, Dresden ( 39 ), Entrepreneur First ( 12 ), FemTech ( 43 ), FJ Labs, Grapevine, Graz ( 18 ), Hamburg ( 1,430 ), High-Tech Gründerfonds ( 94 ), Holtzbrinck Ventures ( 21 ), IPO ( 159 ), Kapital ( 13 ), Lakestar ( 22 ), Limehome ( 14 ), Novum, OOTP Developments, Orderlion ( 3 ), Peter Park, Picus Capital ( 41 ), Schrott24, Statkraft Ventures ( 5 ), UVC Partners ( 28 ), venture capital ( 2,283 ), Visionaries Club ( 32 ), Wein ( 5 ), Wien ( 171 )

#DealMonitor – Dance bekommt 15 Millionen – About You plant IPO – UVC Partners legt 150 Millionen-Fonds auf

Im aktuellen #DealMonitor für den 22. Oktober werfen wir wieder einen Blick auf die wichtigsten, spannendsten und interessantesten Investments und Exits des Tages. Alle Deals der Vortage gibt es im großen und übersichtlichen #DealMonitor-Archiv.

INVESTMENTS

Dance
+++ Holtzbrinck Ventures investiert 15 Millionen Euro in das junge Berliner Mobility-Startup Dance, das von den Soundcloud-Gründern Alexander Ljung und Eric Quidenus sowie Jimdo-Macher Christian Springub gegründet wurde. Hinter Dance verbirgt sich ein Subscription-Service für E-Bikes. Schon vor dem Start investierte der Berliner Kapitalgeber BlueYard in Dance. Zudem investierten auch Szeneköpfe wie Ilkka Paananen (Supercell), Jeannette zu Fürstenberg (La Famiglia), Kevin Ryan (Alleycorp, Doubleclick und MongoDB), Neil Parikh (Casper) und Bjarke Ingels (BIG Architects) in das sehr junge Unternehmen. Das Unternehmen ging im Juli mit einem Invite-only-Programm in Berlin an den Start.

Limehome
+++ Holtzbrinck Ventures, Lakestar und Picus Capital investieren weitere 10 Millionen Euro in das Münchner Startup Limehome. Das junge Unternehmen, das 2018 von Lars Stäbe und Josef Vollmayr gegründet wurde, mietet Wohnungen an und richtet diese als Apartments zur kurz- und langfristigen Miete ein. Lakestar, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Picus Capital und Global Growth Capital investierten erst Anfang dieses Jahres 21 Millionen Euro in Limehome.

Schrott24
+++ Statkraft Ventures, der Wagniskapitalableger des norwegischen Energiekonzerns, investiert gemeinsam mit FJ Labs sowie Gisbert Rühl, Vorstandschef des Duisburger Stahlhändlers Klöckner, 2,8 Millionen Euro in Schrott24 – siehe WiWo Gründer. Der Altmetall-Marktplatz wurde 2016 von Alexander Schlick und Jan Pannenbäcker gegründet. Das Grazer Unternehmen sicherte sich zuletzt auch eine EU-Förderung in Höhe von 1,2 Millionen Euro.

breathe ilo
+++ Der aws Gründerfonds investiert 3 Millionen Euro in das österreichische Femtech Carbomed Medical Solutions, das den Fruchtbarkeitstracker breathe ilo anbietet. Entwickelt wurde das Gerät von dem Reproduktionsmediziner Ludwig Wildt und Medizintechniker Horst Rüther. “Nur ein Jahr nach dem Marktstart liegt der Exportanteil bei bereits 80 Prozent – mit 75 Prozent davon ist Deutschland der Hauptabsatzmarkt, wo breathe ilo seit Januar diesen Jahres verfügbar ist”, teilt das Startup mit.

Acapela
+++ Visionaries Club, Entrepreneur First und Business Angels wie Christian Reber (Pitch und Wunderlist) sowie Taavet Hinrikus (Transferwise) investieren 2,5 Millionen US-Dollar in das Berliner Startup Acapela. Das Berliner Unternehmen, das von Dubsmash-Gründer Roland Grenke und Heiki Riesenkampf, zuletzt Google, gegründet wurde entwickelt eine asynchrone Meeting-Plattform. Über die Plattform sollen Unternehmen flexibler als per Videobotschaft und persönlicher als per Slack kommunizieren können.

Peter Park
+++ Ein deutsches Family-Office investiert eine siebenstellige Summe in das Münchner IoT-Startup Peter Park. Das 2019 von Maximilian Schlereth, Florian Schaule, Patrick Bartler und Stefan Schenk gegründete Unternehmen entwickelt ein modulares Betriebssystem für Parkflächen. “Mit der neuen Finanzierung wird der Fokus auf das konsequente Wachstum des Teams gelegt, was als Fundament für die anstehende Internationalisierung dient”, teilt die Jungfirma mit.

Novum
Dr. Hettich Beteiligungen und der High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) investieren eine siebenstellige Summe in Novum. Das 2014 in Dresden gegründete Startup entwickelt eine Technologie, die das Großspeichermonitoring von Batterien auch offline möglich macht. “Mit dem frischen Kapital soll das Produktportfolio im Bereich Großspeicher und 2nd life Schnelltests für die Automobilindustrie erweitert werden”, teilt das Unternehmen mit.

EXIT

OOTP Developments
+++ Der südkoreanische Spiele-Entwickler Com2Us, bekannt für Summoners War, übernimmt das deutsche Studio OOTP Developments. Seit 1999 setzt OOTP mit Sitz in Hollern-Twielenfleth auf PC-Sportsimulationen wie Out of the Park Baseball und Franchise Hockey Manager. OOTP stieg erst im Januar beim The Walking Dead-Studio Skybound Entertainment. Weitee Zukäufe sind geplant.

Grapevine
+++ Das Wiener Startup Orderlion, eine Bestell-App für Gastronomen und Lieferanten, übernimmt das Wein-Startup Grapevine. “Mit Grapevine kommt nun ein Startup dazu, dass bisher (der Name verrät es bereits) im Weinsegment unterwegs war und etwa 200 Winzer als Kunden aufgebaut hat” – berichtet Trending Topics. Orderlion wurde 2017 von Stefan Strohmer und Patrick Schubert gegründet. Die Jungfirma konkurriert mit Startups wie Choco, Rekki und Co.

IPO

About You
+++ Der Modeversender About You bereitet seinen Börsengang vor – siehe manager magazin. “About You, bei der letzten Finanzierungsrunde 2018 mit knapp einer Milliarde Euro bewertet, soll beim Börsengang einen Marktwert von mindestens drei Milliarden Euro anstreben. Wächst man weiter wie bisher, hoffen manche gar auf fünf Milliarden Euro”, heißt es im Bericht. Als Termin ist März 2021 anvisiert.

VENTURE CAPITAL

UVC Partners
+++ Der Münchner Kapitalgeber UVC Partners legt seinen dritten Fonds (150 Millionen Euro) auf. “Die Investorenbasis des neuen Fonds ist breit gestreut und reicht von erfolgreichen Startup-Unternehmern wie den FlixBus-Gründern über institutionelle Investoren und Family Offices bis zu Familienunternehmen und Corporates”, teilt der Geldgeber mit. UVC Partners investiert vorrangig in “herausragende europäische B2B-Startups”. Im zweiten UVC-Fonds waren 82 Millionen.

Achtung! Wir freuen uns über Tipps, Infos und Hinweise, was wir in unserem #DealMonitor alles so aufgreifen sollten. Schreibt uns eure Vorschläge entweder ganz klassisch per