GROWTH STAGE  

• 

  Armedangels - Sustainable Fashion E-Commerce

  

  Armedangels is a social fashion e-commerce company headquartered in Cologne that focuses on sustainability, fair working conditions, and environmentally-friendly, non-hazardous material. The company sells its clothing online and through conventional distribution channels in five different countries. Armedangels appeals to a strongly growing customer group that places great value on the aforementioned criteria. Since its foundation in 2007 as a pure online shop with just a few T-shirt designs, the company has, in its own view, successfully established itself as a young, sustainable brand. Armedangels generates substantial turnovers, is growing strongly, and employs over 50 staff. The company is winner of the Wirtschaftswoche Entrepreneur Competition and was voted best fashion brand in 2015 by the readers of the lifestyle magazine Intro.

  Share 2.5%
• 

  Auctionata - Livestream auction house

  

  Auctionata was founded in 2012 and auctions objects from various categories such as contemporary art, fine arts, antiques and collectors’ items, Asian art, watches, wine, vintage luxury goods, and classic cars. As the inventor of the live stream auction, Auctionata broadcasts all auctions in real-time using its patented technology so that interested persons worldwide can tune into the auction hall online and bid live via the website or mobile app. According to the company, Auctionata consistently achieves record bids in various categories. With the auction of a Chinese watch for over 3 million euros, the company holds the world record for online auctions.

  Auctionata has merged with its US competitor Paddle8 in March 2016. Subsequently, Auctionata | Paddle8 appointed Dr. Thomas Hesse as CEO, who previously has been President of Corporate Development and New Businesses of Bertelsmann and President of Global Digital Business and US Sales of Sony Music Entertainment.

  Aside from its headquarters in Berlin, Auctionata is also represented by offices in New York, London, Zürich, Rome, and Madrid. Earlybird, Holtzbrinck Ventures, and e.ventures are among the investors.

  Share 0.23%
• 

  ayondo - CFD Trading & Social Trading under one brand

  

  ayondo offers social trading and CFD trading under one brand. Investors can follow the strategies of "top traders" and copy their actions directly from their ayondo account or become a "top trader" themselves and earn additional revenues with every trade.

  ayondo has been awarded "Best Social Trading Platform" at the ADVFN International Financial Awards 2015 as well as the grade "very good" by the finance magazine Euro am Sonntag.

  ayondo Holding is based in Zug/Switzerland and has an office in Singapore. The CFD broker ayondo markets Ltd. (regulated by the FCA) is its subsidiary in London and the ayondo GmbH (regulated by the BaFin) is a subsidiary in Frankfurt am Main. The tech team is based in Toronto. ayondo plans to execute a so-called reverse takeover transaction with a company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX).

  Share 0.57%
• 

  Delivery Hero – Online Food Delivery Service

  

  Delivery Hero is an international online and mobile food ordering and delivery platform founded in 2011. Delivery Hero processes, by their own accounts, millions of orders each month on commission over the Internet with more than 300,000 restaurants in approximately 33 countries connected to its service. Through the website or via the app, users can find restaurants filtered by cuisine in their area, browse menus, read reviews, and order with the appropriate delivery service with a few clicks. The affiliated restaurants pay Delivery Hero a commission for the placing of the orders with the restaurants.

  The company has approximately 2,000 employees in different locations around the world with a staff consisting of more than 700 people working from its Berlin headquarters. Delivery Hero is one of the fastest-growing young tech companies according to The Next Web European Tech5 2015.

  Share 0.06%
• 

  Dr. Z - Nationwide Dentist Network

  

  Dr. Z stands for quality in dental care at reasonable prices and offers an alternative to traditional dental practices. As such, Dr. Z provides the standard benefits that statutory health insurance providers offer, and the full range of private services with a considerable reduction in price. The ISO certification confirms the high quality of all dental care centres.

  The growing dentist network currently comprises more than 25 dental practices and dentistry centres. Dr. Z aims to roll out the business model in all major and medium-sized German cities in order to provide their services nationwide.

  Share 4.0%
• 

  Exozet – Creative Technologies

  

  Exozet is a repeatedly awarded digital agency for "Creative Technologies" – the seamless combination of technology and design in the digital media. In addition to media conglomerates such as the BBC or Axel Springer, big-name brands and organizations such as Red Bull, Audi, or Deutsche Telekom, and startups such as Wooga, LaterPay, and Magine TV rely on the agency. Exozet realizes projects across various digital platforms: from desktops and mobile devices to smart TVs.

  Exozet was founded by CEO Frank Zahn and employs approximately 130 staff in Berlin, Potsdam-Babelsberg, and Vienna. In 2016, Peter Skulimma joined Exozet as Chief Commercial Officer.

  Share 50.5%
• 

  Fiagon - MedTech for ENT Navigation

  

  Fiagon is a MedTech startup that develops and manufactures innovative surgical navigation systems of the latest generation with its patented “Flexsensor” technology. With its electromagnetic navigation technology, Fiagon, together with world-renowned doctors, set a new standard in medical ENT navigation in recent years. This, in the company's view, unique technology is already being used internationally, from the headquarters in Hennigsdorf near Berlin, beyond European borders as well as the US and China for oral and maxillofacial surgery, neurosurgery, and spine surgery. According to its own preliminary statements, Fiagon recorded a turnover of more than 5 million euros in 2015 and shows strong and sustained growth.

  Share 1.3%
• 

  Friendsurance – Insurance FinTech

  

  In 2010, the founders of Friendsurance realized that many people own insurances that they rarely or never use. Insurance companies, however, do not demonstrate appreciation for cautious and fair behaviour. Therefore, Friendsurance developed a new insurance principle, which rewards insurance customers with premium cash backs if they remain free of claims. Insurance customers form small groups and part of their insurance premiums are pooled. In case the group members remain claim free, they each get part of the money in the pool back at the end of the year in form of a cash back. Typically, every year over 75% of those who use the Friendsurance principle receive a cash back on their premiums.

  Currently, the Friendsurance principle can be used for personal liability, householders’, legal, and electronics insurances of renowned providers. Insurances closed directly on www.friendsurance.de already include the Friendsurance principle free of charge.

  Friendsurance's vision is to make insurances cheaper for everyone. Currently, more than 80 employees work for this goal at the company's headquarters in Berlin. Friendsurance cooperates with many insurance providers.

  Apart from the German Startups Group, e.ventures and the technology investment fund Horizons Ventures of the Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing count among the shareholders.

  Share 2.4%
• 

  Fyber - Mobile Advertising Monetization Strategies

  

  Fyber (formerly SponsorPay), founded in 2009, is an AdTech company and provider of mobile advertising monetization strategies for app developers and publishers. Fyber is able to automatically optimize and manage ad revenues with the aid of a unified mobile supply side platform, for example through an ad marketplace on which the offering of mobile ads by app developers and publishers is brought together with demand from advertisers using real-time bidding. Within this, advertisers are given the opportunity to reach over 150 million monthly unique app users. Fyber was recently chosen by VentureBeat as one of the Top 10 Mobile Advertising Companies, and it has approximately 180 employees across its headquarters in Berlin and branches in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Istanbul, Seoul, and Tokyo.

  German Startups Group had an indirect share in Fyber by means of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV). The SPVs sold their shares to a company listed on the stock exchange in October 2014.
• 

  Juniqe - Online Shop for Art, Apparel, and Accessories

  

  Juniqe is an e-commerce shop for ‚affordable art’, which offers exceptional motifs from international artists as posters and art prints for the walls as well as printed on shirts, tech cases, stationery, and home textiles. The production is made to order, which is why the business model does not require a large inventory and generates higher margins. Additionally, the offered products cause lower return rates than is the case with conventional e-commerce providers.

  The company was founded in 2013 by a team of former managing Casacanda employees in Berlin (Casacanda was acquird by Fab.com in 2012). Juniqe already ships to 13 European countries and plans to increase its international standing. In August 2015, Juniqe was ranked first on CB Insights' list of "15 High Momentum German Early Stage Startups". The founders appeared on the Forbes list "30 Under 30" in the area retail and e-commerce in January 2016.

  Share 0.94%
• 

  Mister Spex – Brand Glasses Online

  

  Mister Spex is an online retailer for branded eyewear. Through the Internet, the company offers an extensive range of high quality prescription glasses, sunglasses, and contact lenses at competitive prices. In addition to the broad product range, price transparency and price savings, customers also benefit from free services such as eye tests and the adjustment of glasses thanks to local partner opticians in Germany. The company also has its own optician workshop in Berlin with final assembly and quality control.

  In July 2013, Mister Spex acquired the Swedish online eyewear shops Lensstore and Loveyewear and the Norwegian online optician Lensit.no. Mister Spex is also present in other European countries with own online stores. Mister Spex is winner of the eCommerce Award for Excellence 2015.

  Apart from German Startups Group, Goldman Sachs, Scottish Equity Partners, Grazia Equity, XAnge, and DN Capital count among the shareholders of Mister Spex.

  Share 1.0%
• 

  Onefootball - Largest online football platform

  

  The mobile, web, and smartwatch app Onefootball is, according to the company, the largest online football platform in the world with over 20 million users in approximately 200 countries. As one of the most prominent German startups, Onefootball gives football fans various ways to inform themselves about their favourite teams through news, live results, and statistics. It also allows fans to actively engage with these clubs through social features and betting as well as tipping opportunities.

  Union Square Ventures, one of the most successful American venture capital investors, Klaus Hommels’ VC fund Lakestar, prominent business angels, and sports goods manufacturer Adidas, which also acts as a strategic partner, are some of Onefootball’s investors. Onefootball was chosen by Google as one of the top 50 Android apps globally in 2014 and 2015. Furthermore, Wired Magazine counted it as one of the „100 hottest European startups 2015“. Onefootball was featured at the WWDC 2016, Apple's major developer conference, as one of only a few German apps.

  Share 0.35%
• 

  reBuy – The Easy Buy and Sell Platform

  

  reBuy.de is the easy online shop for buying and selling on the Internet and one of the German market leaders in ReCommerce sector. Users can buy and sell electronic and media articles like cell phones, tablets, books, software, consoles, or eBook readers for fixed prices. Afterwards they send the goods in a package to reBuy.de and get the selling price immediately transferred to their bank account. Customers cannot only sell, but also buy quality-tested goods, which are shipped within two working days because all products are in stock at a large logistic centre next at the headquarters in Berlin. reBuy.de employees approximately 500 people.

  German Startups Group is invested in reBuy together with well-known investors such as DuMont Venture, Hasso Plattner Ventures as well as Iris Capital and OP Ventures.

  Share 1.2%
• 

  Simplesurance – One-Click Online Insurance for Purchases

  

  In partnership with reputable insurers, Berlin-based simplesurance offers consumers individual product insurance through their brands Schutzklick and Klikzeker. For example, insurance against iPhone breakage or warranty extensions can be bought directly at the point of online sale with just a few clicks and at very reasonable conditions. The online shop earns a commission and can offer its customers an additional service, while simplesurance earns a margin on all insurance policies sold online. In addition, the portals schutzklick.de, schutzklick.at, and klikzeker.nl offer direct insurance plans to end customers.

  Share 2.4%
• 

  SoundCloud - Social sound platform

  
• 

  Tictail - Free E-Commerce Platform

  

  Tictail enables all retailers, even so-called mom-and-pop-stores, to open a free online shop within minutes and without previous knowledge of any kind, just by using the Tictail mobile or desktop app. According to the company, the storeowners can thereby quickly and effortlessly accept orders online, alongside their stationery retail store and thus generate additional turnover. At the same time, Tictail aggregates the offered products of all retailers on their platform and therefore forms a digital shopping mall of sorts that helps the individual retailer immediately draw online visitors. Furthermore, storeowners can distribute their products and services via paid additional features such as Facebook shop integration. Tictail’s goal is, through the mobilisation of the fragmented retailer scene, to become the most popular e-commerce platform worldwide. The technological focus lies on an interactive, user-friendly design that can be intuitively used by storeowners without any prior knowledge.

  According to the company, more than 125,000 retailers from approximately 140 countries already use Tictail. The Tictail app was rewarded, already at its launch in 2014, as “best new app” by Apple as well as Google. Apart from German Startups Group, Balderton Capital, Creandum, and Acton Capital Partners count among the shareholders.

  Share 1.2%

  EARLY STAGE  

• 

  Amorelie - Sensual E-Commerce

  

  Since the beginning of 2013, Amorelie has stood for a sensual lifestyle online shop that offers a high quality portfolio as well as compelling functionality. Presented in a friendly and exclusive environment full of joie de vivre, Amorelie attracts confident, modern women and couples. The product range covers toys, exclusive lingerie, and sensual products, such as erotic literature. Passion, physical well-being, sex, and happiness are the main focus of Amorelie, which showcases a stylish, innovative, and accessible Lovestyle-world instead of intimidating “erotic products” of low quality.

  The team of founders held key roles before. Lea-Sophie Cramer previously was Vice President Asia of both Rocket Internet and Groupon, while Sebastian Pollok was an analyst at e.ventures in San Francisco and an entrepreneur also at Rocket Internet.

  German Startups Group invested together with well-known co-investors, such as SevenVentures, TA Ventures, Paua Ventures, Otto Capital, and Cherry Ventures, alongside whom it sold its shares to 7Commerce GmbH, the strategic investment arm of ProSiebenSat.1 Media, in March 2015.
• 

  Book a Tiger - Online booking service for cleaners

  

  Book a Tiger is a full service platform that lets users book cleaners online through an easy-to-use booking system and offers an alternative to the predominantly illegal private employment of cleaning professionals. Book a Tiger offers its users various benefits like tax deductibility of the services, flexible booking via smartphone, insurance coverage as well as the certainty of a professional cleaning since the cleaners are selected through a rigorous evaluation process.

  Since its foundation of Book a Tiger in March 2014, the co-founders of Delivery Hero, Nikita Fahrenholz and Claude Ritter, have expanded their business to, according to the company's records, more than 200 cities and are also active in Austria, Switzerland, and The Netherlands by now. The company is based in Berlin. Book a Tiger is one of the "20 of Europe’s Hottest Series A and B Tech Startups" according to CB Insights.

  Apart from German Startups Group, DN Capital, amongst others, is invested in Book a Tiger.

  Share 1.3%
• 

  Ceritech – Winning & Project De­velopment of Rare Earth Metals

  

  Ceritech develops a procedure that enables the company to win Rare Earth Metals at low costs from the residue of gypsum production and is convinced that it can offer the material profitably despite reduced market prices. Ceritech is preparing partnerships with two large foreign fertilizer plants, which generate great amounts of phosphogypsum as a byproduct of the production of phosphoric acids, from which Ceritech can extract Rare Earth Metals.

  According to the current state of technology, Rare Earth Metals constitute an essential, almost non-substitutable raw material for high tech products like smartphones, tablets, and electronic cars. Rare Earth Elements are especially indispensable for the realization of the energy turnaround in Germany since they are required for the construction of solar cells, energy-saving illuminants, high performance magnets for electric motors, wind turbines, and fusion reactors. As of now, Chinese companies are the largest supplier of Rare Earth Metals and have held a near monopoly position over the past years.

  Share 6.1%
• 

  CRX Markets - Supply chain finance platform

  

  CRX Markets is a Munich-based supply chain finance platform that allows suppliers to sell claims against their clients, i.e. to securitize the bundled claims, without the involvement of an intermediary, e.g. a factoring bank, and to automatically trigger a bidding contest between institutional investors as sellers in order to maximize revenue from the sale of the claims and ensure that money is received earlier. According to the company, the customers benefit from a stabilized supply chain and the optimisation of circulating assets. Furthermore, the marketplace created by CRX Markets also offers, in our opinion, companies, banks, and investors attractive investment opportunities through its transparent structure and competition-oriented methods. Founder and manager Moritz von der Linden and supervisory board member Carlo Kölzer are the founders of the highly successful foreign exchange trading online platform 360T, which was acquired by Deutsche Börse in 2015.

  Share 1.8%
• 

  Software Solutions for review management

  

  Since 2009, Customer Alliance supports hotels worldwide with the help of various products in collecting and integrating customer centric data as well as realising their revenue potential.

  With its product "Review Analytics", Customer Alliance provides a reliable 360° review management solution for the thorough and professional handling of online reviews. It manages online reviews and provides essential statistics for quality management.

  Additionally, the tool "Price Analytics" supports hotels in doing effective pricing by tracking the price structure of competitors and by warning hoteliers about changes on the business market in advance.

  „Booked“, the newest product by Customer Alliance, is a responsive booking engine that enables hotels to implement an easily-maintained booking widget on their websites, with which customers can quickly and directly book hotel rooms. Thus, hotels can reduce their commission payments.

  Since its foundation in 2009, by now more than 3,500 hotels from more than 35 countries use the software solutions of Customer Alliance. The international team consists of approximately 100 employees.

  Share 1.9%
• 

  Itembase – Organizing Tool for Online Purchases

  

  itembase enables online shops through its DataConnect technology to seamlessly synchronise data relevant to webshops with almost any service, tool, or solution. Thus, e-commerce operators can sync their data automatically with their accounting system, their supplier service, their marketing activities, as well as their analysing tools, almost without additional implementation effort. In return, the webshop service and solutions providers are no longer forced to develop implementation options for the different e-commerce platforms. With the data aggregated through DataConnect, the, according to the company's records, more than 100.000 affiliated online shops can additionally compare their revenues, shopping carts, customer loyalty, etc. and optimise them accordingly.

  Share 3.8%
• 

  realbest - online transaction platform for real estate

  

  realbest is the first online transaction platform for real estate that digitalises the significant steps within the purchase and sales process. The company, founded in 2013 and based in Berlin, sells real estate across Germany from private and professional property sellers through its online network of qualified real estate agents and financial service providers. According to the company, this network reaches over 2.5 million potential buyers. Currently, over 350 million euros worth of real estate offering can be found on realbest.

  Co-investors include Obotritia Capital from Rolf Elgeti, Ventech as well as immotech ventures from the property developer Marius Marschall von Bieberstein.

  Share 2.7%
• 

  Remerge - App Retargeting

  

  Remerge’s mission is to empower app developers to accelerate user and revenue growth through an integrated app-retargeting platform using audience management tools with access to over 350,000 apps according to the company's records. The Remerge platform allows app users to be segmented into specific target groups, which can then be reached in different apps by way of real-time display advertising with customized campaigns globally. According to the company, this reduces scatter losses and therefore increases the advertisers’ impact as well as the revenue of the app publisher by increasing the click rates.

  CEO and founder Pan Katsukis previously co-founded the mobile advertising company madvertise. The Berlin company is winner of the Angel's Choice Award of the Web Summit 2015 and one of the "3 Companies to Watch" according to Online Marketing Rockstars. Apart from German Startups Group, Point Nine Capital counts among the co-investors.

  Share 1.6%
• 

  Savedo - Online platform for fixed-term deposits

  

  Savedo is an independent marketplace for fixed-term deposits in Europe. The finance portal offers German investors the opportunity to invest their money in fixed deposits with above-average interest rates in the euro area. A team of approximately 20 experts works to identify the best European fixed-term deposit offerings for their customers, so investors can invest their capital in the best fixed deposits free of charge and without hassle. According to the company's records, over 300 million euros have been invested via the platform so far. Co-investors are XAnge, Kreos Capital London, Point Nine Capital, DvH Ventures, Cherry Ventures, and WeltN24.

  Savedo is the first startup from the FinTech company builder FinLeap.

  CEO Christian Tiessen previously founded the startup Casacanda, which was sold to Fab.com in 2012. Xange, Kreos Capital London, Point Nine Capital, DvH Ventures, Cherry Ventures, and WeltN24 count among the co-investors.

  Share 1,0%
• 

  Scalable Capital - Asset Management Technology

  

  With the help of modern risk management technology, Scalable Capital provides access to cost-efficient, professional asset management - a kind of financial investment that used to be reserved for wealthier investors due to the costs associated with personal investment advisors. The FinTech startup, founded in December 2014 in Munich, provides their customers with a globally diversified ETF portfolio, tailor-made to the personal risk profile of each user, supervised and managed around the clock. The individual risk tolerance of the investor is the benchmark for all investment decisions.

  CEO Erik Podzuweit previously was Co-CEO of Westing and Executive Director at Goldman Sachs. Scalable Capital is an authorised wealth manager by the BaFin and the FCA. The company is winner of the Angel's Choice Award of the Web Summit 2015 and was awarded the grade "very good" by the finance magazin Euro am Sonntag. Apart from German Startups Group, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Monk’s Hill Ventures, MPGI, and several buiness angels have invested in Scalable Capital.

  Share 2.7%
• 

  Service Partner One - Smart Office Management

  

  Service Partner One digitalises the multi-billion market for office management that, up until now, has been served almost exclusively in an analogue way. It bundles services, such as cleaning, maintenance, relocations, and deliveries of e.g. beverages, fruit baskets, or office equipment on one platform. Office managers and employees can quickly and effortlessly book the services in one central location via iPad. The long-term customer retention that Service Partner One enjoys as an all-in-one service provider offers the opportunity for cross-selling of additional products and services. Service Partner One has already rolled out their services to more than 350 offices. The Berlin-based company currently has approximately 70 employees and is strongly expanding in order to become the leading online platform for office management in Europe.

  EQT Ventures, Target Global, Earlybird, and Rheingau Founders count among the co-investors of Service Partner One.

  Share 3.4%
• 

  TVSMILES – Mobile Advertising

  

  TVSmiles has developed a highly efficient form of advertising in the growing market of mobile advertising, by means of so-called quiz ads. TVSmiles offers advertising companies an alternative to traditional forms of advertising, which consumers often have to involuntarily endure in order to get to the content that they actually want to consume. The advertising company can place quiz ads in the TVSmiles mobile app – launched in September 2013 – through which users can voluntarily and in a playful way inform themselves about the company and answer corresponding quiz questions. Through the interaction with the company, users can collect points and redeem them for rewards. On the one hand, according to TVSmiles, users are much more receptive to the advertising brand and its message. On the other hand, this leads to a high level of customer loyalty since TVSmiles continuously creates incentives for users to interact with the advertising company. This also enables TVSmiles to collect information about user behaviour and product preferences. The mobile advertising company plans that third-party providers of various platforms, apps, and devices will be able to develop and implement TVSmiles ad formats themselves, which would substantially increase their reach and sales potential.

  CEO Christian Heins previously was part of the executive management of the TV channel 9Live.

  The business model of the company located in Berlin is based on, according to TVSmiles' records, more than 3 million downloaded apps, through which the users can be addressed on a consistent basis. TVSmiles employs three distribution channels: traditional advertising, digital advertising as well as direct/affiliate advertising. Active users spend more than 90 minutes a month using the app, according to TVSmiles.

  Share 8.5%

*We publish investments and hence the shares of companies that are in our portfolio at our sole discretion, if and when the time is thought best by the portfolio company itself and by us. Thus the following list raises no claim to completeness. The following 25 minority stake holdings that are of particular significance to German Startups Group represent 88% of the total value of all 46 active minority stake holdings.