We are a leading private investor of venture capital in Germany1, listed as one of only a few, therefore, ‘evergreen’ and providing ‘patient capital’.
In the next stage we want to transform us into an open platform for the entire universe of VC investments in Germany.
1Until composition of survey in July 2016, German Startups Group has been the most active private VC since 2012 (Pitchbook European Venture Report 2Q 2016, CB Insights Germany Venture Capital Overview 2015)
The digital revolution causes profound changes. Young technology companies are the driving force for the future growth of employment, tax revenues, individual wealth, and therefore prosperity.
Due to the Internet’s advance into all areas, startups revolutionize products and value creation processes with their innovative strength, thereby reshaping markets and redistributing entrepreneurial wealth.
Our holdings constitute a stage-agnostic cross-section of, in our view, promising German startups – from the seed stage, in which the product is developed, to the early and then growth stage, in which startups already enjoying success undergo high-speed growth.
Peter Thiel, US Internet billionaire: “Berlin has the most potential of all cities in Europe.”
Matt Cohler, Facebook co-founder, active US VC investor: “I’d bet on Berlin.
I believe Berlin has the best shot in the Western world outside of Silicon Valley at becoming a place with a true tech startup ecosystem.“
GROWTH STAGE
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. The Cologne-based fair fashion label generated, according to the company's records, 23 million euros in sales in 2016, a growth of 44%.
Share 2.5%
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 0.5%
Since the foundation of Book a Tiger in March 2014, the co-founders of Delivery Hero, Nikita Fahrenholz and Claude Ritter, have also expanded their offer to business customers in, according to the company's records, more than 200 cities and are by now active in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and The Netherlands. Book a Tiger is one of the "20 of Europe’s Hottest Series A and B Tech Startups" according to CB Insights. Nikita Fahrenholz was ranked second on Financial Times' "Top 10 under 30" list of European tech entrepreneurs in 2015. Apart from German Startups Group, DN Capital, amongst others, is invested in Book a Tiger. Lastly, the Berlin-based startup received a financing in the million range in the course of the extension of its business activities to business customers.
Share 2.3%
On Chrono24, more than 10,000 professional dealers and private sellers from over 90 countries offer more than 250,000 watches. With content in 22 languages, the website attracts more than 350,000 visitors every day. Over 2 million users have already downloaded the Chrono24 apps for iOS and Android.
Chrono24 has largely funded itself. In 2015, New York-based Insight Venture Partners invested 21m euros in Chrono24, amongst others, in a Series-A round.
Share 2.1%
After the acquisitions of its competitor foodpanda in December of 2016 and the restaurant logistics provider Foodora in September of 2015, Delivery Hero processes each month, by their own accounts, orders in the double-digit million range on commission over the Internet, with approximately 270,000 restaurants in more than 40 countries connected to its service. The company has over 6,000 employees in different locations around the world with a staff consisting of approximately 1.000 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 and listed in the Prime Standard segment of Deutsche Börse since 30 July 2017.
Exozet was founded by CEO Frank Zahn. In 2016, Peter Skulimma joined Exozet as Chief Commercial Officer.
Share 50.8%
Share 1.3%
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, approximately 90 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 3.8%
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.
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, according to the company, to eight European countries, is growing dynamically, and achieved a double-digit million revenue already in 2015. 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 1.7%
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 1.4%
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 0.28%
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 1.1%
Remerge has achieved a growth in revenue of over 500% in the first three quarters of 2016 compared to last year’s period, according to the company. The AdTech company’s US business, which has been newly established in 2Q15, is developing excellently as well. By now, Remerge records higher revenues per month than in the entire year of 2015. The Berlin-based 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.
Share 2.0%
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 the FintechGermany Award 2016, was awarded the grade "very good" by the finance magazine Euro am Sonntag, won the Innovation Award for the best automatic online wealth management at the Börsentag 2016, and was named the best robo advisor in Germany by Brokervergleich.de. Scalable Capital is the leading robo advisor in Europe with assets under management of more than 200 million euros. Apart from German Startups Group, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Monk’s Hill Ventures, MPGI, and several buiness angels have invested in Scalable Capital.
EQT Ventures, Target Global, Earlybird, and Rheingau Founders count among the co-investors of Service Partner One.
Share 3.4%
Share 2.4%
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
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.
German Startups Group is involved as lead investor.
Share 18.1%
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 transportation, 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 won the FintechGermany Award in 2016. 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.
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%
eWings was founded in August 2013 by Thilo Hardt, co-founder of Mister Spex and Entrepreneur in Residence of DN Capital London. In August 2015, eWings was ranked among CB Insights' "15 High Momentum German Early Stage Startups". Apart from German Startups Group, DN Capital and Kima Ventures invested in eWings.
The founding team around CEO Sebastian Diemer has already collectively built one of the most successful German FinTech startups in Kreditech, which offers private loans on the basis of a data-driven scoring model. Further investors in Finiata are, among others, Point Nine Capital und Fly Ventures.
Share 2,6%
Pyreg is committed to climate protection and its high-quality machines is not only known for its economical but also its ecological sustainability. A single Pyreg 500 unit – for the production of biochar for instance – effectively sequesters the annual CO2 emissions of up to 500 motor vehicles per year.
Pyreg was nominated in 2016 by the German Institute for Invention for the, according to the institute, oldest innovation award in the world, the Dieselmedaille, as the most sustainable innovation.
German Startups Group has invested in Pyreg along with different holding companies, including Skion GmbH of Quandt heiress Susanne Klatten, and knowledgeable business angels.
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% - plus convertible loan in five figure amount
The AdTech startup has recently expanded its business model through the launch of its Kwizzad platform. The new product enables publishers of mobile apps to integrate the quiz-based ad format themselves, which has been optimised by TVSmiles over the course of three years, and therefore enhance their monetisation. According to the company, the app publishers achieve the highest advertising revenues per thousand impressions compared to other digital advertising platforms. This is due to the fact that the playful engagement with the advertising content allows for an effective realisation of campaign goals. Kwizzad increases TVSmiles’ potential to scale tremendously, according to view of German Startups Group.
CEO Christian Heins previously was part of the executive management of the TV channel 9Live. TVSmiles secured the top spot in the category mobile/app in the Gründerszene Growth Ranking 2016.
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% - plus convertible loan in six figure amount
Wunder, runner-up at the Webfuture Award 2014, is already active in various countries, with India and the Philippines among them. Gunnar Froh, founder and CEO of Wunder, previously was operations manager at Airbnb. German Startups Group is invested in the mobility startup alongside with Partech Ventures, amongst other venture capital providers, as well as a group of renowned business angels.
*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 above-mentioned 20 minority stake holdings that are of particular significance to German Startups Group represent 89% of the total value of all 37 active minority stake holdings.
Christoph Gerlinger has gained over 20 years of management experience in the Internet industry, in which he has founded a number of businesses, experiencing all the accompanying highs and lows. One of the businesses he founded is Frogster Interactive Pictures AG, which he took public and managed as CEO for seven years. Prior to that, he was Head of German operations for Infogrames/Atari and CFO of CDV Software Entertainment, which he took public as well. Christoph was named one of the 50 most interesting founders by the German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche, was appointed external expert of the discussion group “Digitalisation” and member of the digital commission by the national board of the CDU and is alumnus of Singularity University’s Executive Program class of 2017. Christoph Gerlinger holds a graduate degree in Business Administration and is a qualified banker. Christoph occasionally releases own articles and gives interviews in various publications.
