About FoxEducation

• Founded in Vienna in 2016, FoxEducation offers digital solutions to simplify communication and administrative tasks in the education sector. In addition to the SchoolFox app for schools, the company later introduced the KidsFox platform for daycare centers and kindergartens, and TeamFox for clubs. According to the company, today, over 9,000 institutions in the DACH region use FoxApps.

• In the summer of 2021, FoxEducation became part of the Austrian company GoStudent. After the deal, it grew by over 70 percent while several apps were continuously developed since then — including the innovative payment management tool FoxPay. FoxEducation has been part of the Sdui Group since July 2024.

Acquisition details

With the acquisition of FoxEducation, the Sdui Group intends to establish itself as a market-leading edtech provider in the field of communication and messaging for schools and daycare centers in German-speaking countries.

Following the acquisition of FoxEducation, the Sdui Group serves a customer base of 22,000 educational institutions across Europe.

“The acquisition of FoxEducation by the Sdui Group is a significant win for our customers. We are delighted to join forces to further improve everyday life in schools and daycare centers. Our combined expertise will create an even stronger foundation for innovative educational solutions. This partnership will ensure that our customers receive the best possible tools for their educational needs. By combining our resources, we will offer even more comprehensive and effective solutions than before, from which students, teachers, and parents will benefit equally,”

Philipp Fendt, Co-CEO of FoxEducation, shared.

At the same time, Sdui received an additional €21 million from investors, raising a total of €46 million in a Series A round. Summiteer and HV Capital are the lead investors, joined by new and existing investors like Haniel, Brighteye, Michael Hinderer, and HTGF. The company is investing part of this sum in the acquisition of FoxEducation.

About LiveEO

• Founded in 2018 by Daniel Seidel and Sven Przywarra, LiveEO is a provider of earth observation technologies and solutions which provide actionable insights for businesses, resulting in increased safety, efficiency, and sustainability. The startup’s team consists of 130 people.
• The startup has customers around the world, including North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia. Among them are Europe’s largest railway operator, Deutsche Bahn to safeguard its assets, helps a Nigerian pipeline operator tackle oil theft and reduce million-dollar losses and helps to curb illegal logging in Moldova. Other notable customers include E.ON, Iberdrola, and Network Rail.

Investment details

• The leading investor in the fresh round is NordicNinja, the largest Japanese VC based in Europe backing companies tackling the world’s carbon footprint with a focus on climate tech, deeptech, and digital society. LiveEO is also its first investment in Germany.
• Other investor in the round also included DeepTech & Climate Fonds, a new German investment fund supporting support deep tech and climate tech companies on their long-term growth path.

The funding will be used to scale LiveEO AI-powered satellite data for actionable insights to help critical infrastructure operators manage climate risks.

In March 2024, NordicNinja also co-led $24 million round for Griffin, UK’s banking platform.

About Cozero

• Founded in 2020 by Helen Tacke, Fabian Schwarzer, and Tiago Taveira, Cozero is a provider of carbon management software for enterprises. The company develops the Climate Action Platform (CAP) offering seamless tracking, reduction, and reporting capabilities for corporate and product emissions in one end-to-end SaaS solution.

• According to the company, Cozero empowers enterprises to take control of their environmental footprint and de-carbonization journey. It also helps organizations in high-emission sectors align sustainability performance with financial management for comprehensive decision-making. Among its clients are Maersk, Mammut, Nippon Express Europe (NX Group), Funke, and Vodafone.

Our Climate ERP provides a proven technology that facilitates seamless emissions management and a targeted steering of the company and its resources. This enables businesses to not only meet regulatory reporting requirements but also to transform their value chain and product offerings towards premium, low-carbon alternatives. It sets the necessary foundation for companies in a world where financial and carbon accounting are converging. These two management dimensions are becoming more and more interchangeable anyways with the rise of carbon prices,

Helen Tacke, CEO and сo-founder of Cozero, commented on its product.

Investment details

• The fresh Series A round was co-led by Kvanted Ventures, a Helsinki-based early-stage investor founded by Eerik Paasikivi, Maria Wasastjerna, and Axel Ahlström, and ENV, a German €100 million evergreen setup investing in European startups.
• The Paris-based NewAlpha Asset Management, business angels, and advisors from the logistics, manufacturing, and SaaS industries, including Henrik Larsen, Gero Decker, and existing business angels such as Torben Schreiter, and André Christ, also participated in the investment.

Cozero’s journey is a testament to smart financial management and steady growth. With less than 600k€ in funding since its inception, Cozero has managed to double its ARR over the past year. Across industries, companies face mounting pressures to report emissions, reduce their carbon footprint, and streamline supply chain processes. Cozero’s ability to address these challenges aligns seamlessly with Kvanted’s mission of accelerating industrial transformation. We are genuinely impressed by the team’s ability to build a sustainable business model that delivers real impact,

Maria Wasastjerna, Kvanted’s Founding Partner, stated.

Cozero will use the new round to accelerate its international expansion and advance its emission management software.

• The influencer is a renowned German agency for influencer marketing headquartered in Bielefeld. The agency has played a pivotal role in crafting impactful influencer campaigns tailored to the needs of its clients.
• Boksi is a software company operating in the field of influencer marketing and content creation, with over 500 Finnish brands, including Volkswagen, Westfield, and the European Commission in its portfolio. The platform facilitates the connection between brands and influencers.
• Recently, the company closed a €7 million Series A funding round led by 3TS Capital Partners and Nexit Ventures. Now, it actively expands its presence in Germany with the office opening in Hamburg, Germany.

Joining forces with the influencer is a big step for us. We’re bringing together their know-how and strong ties with the creator economy in the German market with our tech solutions to enable us to fast track our growth and serve customers in the German region even better,

Lasse Laaksonen, CEO of Boksi, comments

• The fresh deal grants Boksi access to network of creators and influencers across Germany and gives the influencer’s existing customers access to Boksi’s advanced software solutions. The influencer will continue to operate under its own brand following the deal.

This is the second big acquisition deal by Boksi. In April 2023, the company joined forces with Monochrome, a Finnish creative influencer agency. The deal was aimed at expanding Boksi’s management services.

• Founded in 2018, Retorio develops a platform offering personalized AI coaching and is already used by five of the ten DAX companies with the highest turnover. Its proprietary behavioral intelligence uses video analysis to identify and train successful behaviors of sales, service, and management personnel.

“Our behavior-based AI coaching technology enables global companies to identify and establish patterns of success in sales or service. This helps companies to adapt more quickly to new market conditions and to assert themselves in global competition,”

Dr. Christoph Hohenberger, Co-CEO of Retorio, comments.

• The lead investor in the funding round is SquareOne, a Berlin-based investor specializing in B2B tech. Porsche Ventures and Storm Ventures are also new investors. Family offices of DAX board members and entrepreneurs participated again.
• Existing investors also joined in the round, including Basinghall Partners, Passion Capital, and Sofia Angels Ventures, a Bulgarian investment firm that focuses on technology startups at the pre-seed and seed stages.

Earlier this year, Sofia Angels Ventures invested in several Bulgarian startups such as Icanpreneur, Fabrico, NOLD.

• Retorio will use the fresh funds to strengthen the innovative behavioral intelligence technology that helps global companies to effectively improve sales and services.

• Founded by Ashish Bagri and Armend Avdijaj, GlassFlow is on a mission to democratize the $15b data streaming market. The team is building a platform that enables Python developers to build and transform their streaming data pipelines within minutes while unlocking the full potential of event processing for organizations of all sizes.

“The demand for real-time data processing is skyrocketing, and Glassflow’s streamlined approach is a game-changer. By consolidating complex tools into a single platform, it empowers teams to deliver results in record time. What truly excites us is the stellar team behind Glassflow, led by Armend and Ashish, boasting over a decade of expertise in real-time data processing, with their prior collaborative successes spelling a promising journey ahead,”

Andrew Tymovskyi, Roosh Ventures principal, explained to Tech.eu.

• Roosh Ventures is one of the investors this round. It is a Kyiv-based entrepreneurs-led, generalist VC firm investing in early-stage companies during their pre-seed to Series A round across the EU and US markets. The firm was co-founded by Kyle Ukho, Serhiy Tokarev, and Den Dmytrenko on the basis of Roosh.
• Other investors included High-Tech Gründerfonds, Robin Capital, and TinyVC, as well as angel investors Thomas Dohmke (CEO of GitHub), Heikki Nousiannen (CTO of Aiven), Serhii Sokolenko (ex-head of Streaming Analytics at Google), and Prof. Dr.-Ing Roland Fassauer (Co-founder of Intershop).

More about the deal

• Quantum Systems is more than just a drone manufacturer. According to the company, it is an aerial data intelligence company that provides multi-sensor data collection products to government agencies and commercial customers.
• The fresh round comes at the time when UAVs are playing an increasingly critical role in military conflicts. In Ukraine they have provided surveillance, helping artillery to be more accurate, as well as dropping bombs on the enemy directly.
• Quantum Systems deployed its drones like Vector to the battlefield, allowing the company to test its AI and swarming technologies in real-life conditions. Its full product line includes commercial UAVs Trinity Pro, Trinity F90+, and QBase 3D software, as well as government line: Vector, Scorpion, Trinity Tactical, and QBase Tactical software.

“Recent geopolitical events have made it crystal clear that we as venture capital investors can no longer afford to ignore the complexities of defense technology, which includes dual-use concepts with multiple applications. That’s why we’re proud to continue to back Quantum Systems in becoming a major dual-use player that strengthens European and Western tech resilience,”

Uwe Horstmann, General Partner, Project A Ventures, comments.

• HV Capital and DTCP led the Series B round. The round was also followed by Project A Ventures, Thiel Capital, Bayern Kapital, Omnes, and Airbus Ventures.
• After the round, the company became the first in Europe to raise over €100 million on dual-use technology, serving both commercial and defense customers.

How will Quantum Systems use the money

The funding will enable Quantum Systems to ramp up the production allowing to continue to support Ukraine through multiple deliveries of Vector drones, driving innovations in AI capabilities, endurance, and further system architecture integrations to the battle management systems.

In addition to production increase, Quantum Systems is opening an in country support, launching a manufacturing and Research and Development center in Ukraine. In general, the funding will boost the resilience of the whole of Europe.

• Founded in 2012 by Marcin Ratajczak, Inuru is the manufacturer of low cost OLED micro lighting and electro lighting labels and films (elf). The company’s goal is to enlighten the world with paper-thin Surface Lighting to turn every product into an useful piece of art. So far, the manufacturer has registered 25 patents and received over 20 industry awards.

“Adamed’s investment validates the pressing need for improved medication delivery. Our OLED labels empower brands to enhance medication adherence and help patients regain control over their health,”

Marcin Ratajczak, founder and CEO of Inuru, said

• Thanks to the fresh funding Inuru will be able to expand into new businesses that can profit from more visible and interactive labels and spread its technology to a larger audience.

The investors this round are:

• Aper Ventures, a Warsaw-based venture capital fund investing around €1-4 million in deep tech and hardware solutions in co-investor model. Recently, the fund invested in United Robots, a British deeptech startup.
• ARIA FUND, an independent PE and VC fund management company run by professionals with a variety of business backgrounds.
• Adamed, a pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with over 30 years of experience, founded on the basis of Polish scientific advances and a patent portfolio.

You can read more about Aper Ventures in our 20 Most Active Polish VC funds ranking for H1 2023, here.

About Purpose

• Purpose was founded by Okitonga Memba, Lucas Christel, and Lennart J. Christel. The company develops an end-to-end solution that creates a 3D digital twin, giving owners a complete overview of the energy status of their property. 
• The company helps transform properties and portfolios into sustainable assets, providing energy-efficient upgrades, green subsidies, and financing. The solution enables lasting value, reduced environmental impact, and peace of mind for property owners and asset managers.

“This milestone is an important day for the entire Purpose team, underlining our dedication to our mission of decarbonising the built world as the green partner to the real estate industry,”

Purpose team commented.

Speedinvest and Atlantic Labs

• Austrian VC firm Speedinvest led the round. It is one of Europe’s most active early-stage investors with more than €1 billion under management and 40+ investors based in Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, and Vienna. Its most recent deals include: Resourcify, Mercanis, and Sylvera.

“Europe’s building sector is in urgent need of innovative solutions as it strives to achieve climate neutrality. We have strong confidence in Purpose Green’s team and cannot wait to see them grow and expand their business operations in Germany and beyond. We are convinced that their platform will play a pivotal role in Europe’s energy transition and become the real estate industry’s preferred partner,”

Andreas Schwarzenbrunner, Partner in Speedinvest’s Climate Tech and Industrial Tech team, says.

• Atlantic Labs is another lead investor. It is a pan-European early-stage venture capital firm, headquartered in Berlin, Germany. The fund’s focus areas include climatetech, digital health, future of work, AI & data, mobility and logistics, industrial automation, fintech, and proptech.

Purpose is looking for talent

Thanks to the fresh capital, Purpose is planning to expand its team. Currently, the startup is looking for a new Working Student in Architecture near Berlin.

• Proxima Fusion is a fusion energy company based in Munich, Germany. It aims to build power plants based on the stellarator concept, which is a type of fusion device that harnesses the power of the stars using strong magnetic fields. The solution may offer the possibility to revolutionize the world of clean and sustainable power generation.

“Stellarators offer the most robust and clearest path to fusion energy. The Proxima team has the energy and the speed that we need. They are ecosystem players, with a thrilling sense of ambition building on top of the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator – a masterpiece of German leadership,”

Ian Hogarth from Plural comments.

• Plural Platform is one of the lead investors in the startup. It is an Estonian investment platform “set up for the unemployables”. The firm invest serious time and early stage venture capital in a new wave of world leading tech from Europe.
• UVC Partners is another lead investor. It is a German VC firm investing up to €10 million in European B2B startups. High-Tech Gründerfonds and the Wilbe Group also joined in the round.
• Thanks to the fresh funds, Proxima Fusion is able to further develop their fusion power plants designs. Over the next few years, the company plans to deploy a new high-performance stellarator and build world’s first plant by the 2030s.

• Founded in 2018 by Niko Karstikko and Sebastian Emberger, Bob W develops a rental platform. It offers a smart and sustainable alternative to hotels and short-stay rentals. According to the company, it provides guests with five-star, contactless service in locally-designed apartments within handpicked neighbourhoods.
• Currently, the service operates 27 aparthotel and coliving properties across Europe, including in the UK, Spain, Finland, Italy, Norway, Greece, Estonia, and now in Germany.

“With Bob W, we have found the perfect home for our team and our portfolio of boutique aparthotels in Germany and the Netherlands. We strongly believe in Bob W’s potential to become the market leader in alternative accommodations in Europe and are delighted that Charly will play its part in it,”

Jona Schaeffer, Charly Hospitality founder, comments.

• By acquiring Charly Hospitality, the company added seven properties to its catalogue located in Germany’s Bonn, Munich, Berlin, Lübeck, and Cologne, as well as Amsterdam in the Netherlands. All of these properties will transition to the Bob W brand tech platform and suite of apps during 2023.

• Bob W aims to continue expanding quickly across Europe, particularly in Germany, which it expects to be its largest market by the end of 2024.

In October 2022, Bob W managed to raise €21 million during its Series A funding round. And in May that year, Bob W acquired its Estonian competitor Estonishing Stay to expand its short-stay rental platform.

• Founded in 2019 by Kris Gunciarz and Daniel Carter, Innential develops a corporate education platform. It enables businesses to assess the competency needs of their talent, link them with personalized growth plans, and monitor their career progress. According to the company, it can increase employee retention by over 20%.
• The tool offers access to over 30 educational platforms, including Udemy, Pluralsight, Coursera, and edX. It is primarily used by companies employing between 100 and 1500 employees, mainly from the technology industry. The portfolio includes Nortal, Luko, and SMA, with over 5000 specialists actively using the tool to date.
• bValue Fund is the lead investor in the round. It is a Poland-based specialized growth equity investment firm that partners with tech businesses in CEE. Recently in March 2023, bValue announced its exit from Renters.pl.
• Tar Heel Capital Pathfinder, a Warsaw-based venture capital fund and an experienced venture builder, Campus Founders, and an international group of business angels also participated in the funding.
• The fresh funds will enable Innential to enhance the product’s technological capabilities and expand its sales teams in both the Polish and European markets. 

• Founded in 2021 by Christopher Cederskog and Stefan Braun, Sunhero provides custom-built solar panel solutions installation and management services to residential consumers. Recently, Sunhero joined Enpal and Zolar to offer consumers a hassle-free method of installing customized photovoltaic solar systems on their homes, be that either purchasing outright or renting for a 20-year period. 
• The fresh round of investment was co-led by Berlin-based climate tech VC Planet A and consumer-focused firm Vorwerk Ventures.
• The Vienna-based early-stage firm Speedinvest has also joined the funding round. In February 2022 Speedinvest already co-led the $4 million seed round for Sunhero, with Spain’s All Iron Ventures participating. Among recent investment of Speedinvest is €2.4 million round for trawa, a German energy startup.
• With this funding round, Sunhero will expand its presence in the Spanish market. In addition, the startup will focus on software development and product line expansion, with plans to launch our EV charger offering shortly.

• trawa empowers companies to switch to green electricity using its solution that analyses a business’s energy consumption, spending, and impact and then gets to work. From here, trawa identifies an optimized, cost-effective, and energy procurement plan that supports decarbonization through a mix of sources (wind, solar, etc.). 

“trawa aims to make renewable electricity from wind and solar parks accessible to industrial companies of all sizes and thereby drive the clean energy transition. We develop simple and affordable electricity products and services that businesses understand and that help our customers decarbonize their operations,”

team of trawa claims on its LinkedIn.

• Austrian early-stage venture capital firm, Speedinvest together with German investor Magnetic co-led the pre-seed round. Recently Speedinvest led €2 million for another German startup konfetti, which builds a platform to find and book local workshops, courses, and events. 
• The round also saw participation from co-investors London-based TinyVC and Berlin-based The Delta, along with multiple business angels joined.
• With the fresh funds, trawa will develop its AI-based electricity procurement software, acquire licenses and partners to serve its customers end-to-end. Also, the startup aims to grow its team.

• Founded in 2018 by Samir El-Alami, Nicklas Teicke, Anna Von Stackelberg, Sebastian Lau, and Alexandru Boghean, with Julian Teicke as a founding investor, Doctorly builds disk-based operating (DOS) for medical practices that give patients full access to their health records and data. The startup claims that its solution can reduce 50% time on admin tasks for doctors to enable them to focus on providing care. 

“We know that medical professionals are very open to digitization, but because their mandatory, core practice software is so old and unable to integrate with modern technologies, they are simply trapped in the past. This has a knock-on effect on patients and the wider healthcare industry. This is the biggest blocker to innovation in primary healthcare, and we have built a new operating system that works for them,”

Samir El-Alami, CEO and co-founder of Doctorly, said.

• The startup was supported by Vancouver-based WELL Health Technologies which focuses on healthcare providers, Hong-Kong-based Horizons Ventures with some of the latest exits in Skype, Siri, Facebook, Summly, and Waze, and German venture studio The Delta.
• Among leading investors are Austrian VC funds Speedinvest which recently led €2 million round for German konfetti, UNIQA Ventures that led €10 million round for Madrid-based health tech startup ifeel in November 2022, and Calm/Storm that supported Austrian startup Hi.health in a €6 million round. 
• With the fresh investment, Doctorly plans to accelerate its growth in Germany, deliver new features and functionality, and help to reduce costs and time for healthcare professionals.

• Launched in 2021 by Tobias Fezer and Wolfgang Mauer, konfetti is building a platform to find and book local workshops, courses, and events. The platform offers over 3,000 events in 250 cities of Germany and Austria. According to the company, more than 750 partners already use the SaaS solution.

“Paper and pen, telephone and e-mail are no longer up-to-date and customer-oriented. We solve exactly that and by integrating the konfetti checkout, course providers can expand their website with a powerful online shop,”

Tobias Fezer explains.

• Speedinvest, a Vienna-based early-stage venture capital firm, led the €2 million seed round. Launched in 2011 as a €10 million fund, Speedinvest now has over €1 billion assets under management and offices in Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, and Vienna. Recently, the fund started а new €3 million fund of funds.
• The round also saw participation from co-investors Peak, Angel Invest, the Atomico Angel Fund, and platform expert Sameer Singh.
• With the fresh funds, konfetti will be able to expand and introduce new features to the platform and its own SaaS products.

• Founded in 2021 by Germans Dean Hastie, Dmitrij Miller, and Bulgarian Peter Grouev, Tapline develops a SaaS funding platform that allows for swift onboarding, provides clients with a proprietary tech-enabled credit score, and a free financial dashboard to monitor various metrics of users’ businesses daily. 
• Tapline is focused on B2B and B2C business models, especially in the DACH and fast-growth CEE market. The platform can deploy capital in less than 48 hours after client onboarding. To date, Tapline has made €100 million in SaaS finance requests and has accomplished 100% successful pilot trades. 

“Ultimately, we can provide a quick, transparent, and non-dilutive capital solution to founders, so they can continue to focus on what they do best: building innovative businesses. During the current economic uncertainty, our platform will allow SaaS companies to continue focusing on growth,”

 says Dean Hastie, сo-founder and CEO. 

• The UK-based hedge fund and technology platform Fasanara Capital provides debt funding of €30 million in the fresh round. The €1.7m equity round is led by the Czech VC firm V-Sharp Venture Studio, that focuses on early stage startups in logistics, e-commerce, and fintech. 
• In this round also participated one of the most active Czech VC fund Depo Ventures and Slovak 365.fintech due to AIN.Capital. Antler, Black Pearls VC, Impetus Capital, and several business angels also joined.
• Tapline will spend the fresh investment to increase sales and marketing efforts, accelerate product development by hiring people for key product positions, and to tap into the exponentially growing SaaS market. 

“A Russian publisher asked me to translate my C++20 book. I told them that I require that the dedication for the Ukraine people is translated and inside the book.

The dedication of “C++20 – The Complete Guide” is as follows: To the nation of Ukraine and all the children, women, men, and soldiers killed in a terrible war driven by a Russian dictator.”

Josuttis wrote in Twitter.

The publisher answered: “We care for IT, not politics.” But Nicolai didn’t accept that as an excuse. So he declined the offer.

“Starting a war, killing people, and bombing energy and water infrastructure is not politics; it is a violation of fundamental human rights. So, you care for C++ more than for human rights? Sorry, no Russian translation,”

Nicolai explains.

Some user on Twitter offered Nicolai to make the Ukrainian translation instead. And the author replied, he will be “happy to hand over Ukraine rights for free”.

About Nicolai Josuttis

Nicolai is a notable author of technical literature, in particular numerous books about C++ programming language. The “C++20 – The Complete Guide”, mentioned above, is currently available in English. He is also the author of some German books about SOA, Object-Orientation, C++, and OSF/Motif, and co-author of the German UML dictionary. 

Nicolai worked as technical manager, systems architect, senior consultant for system integration, and senior programmer. He supports Ukraine struggling at unprovoked war laucnched by Russia, and dedicated his last book to the people of Ukraine.

Why is it important

While Ukrainian civilians are under everyday shelling and bombing by Russian troops willing to destroy Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, Russian civilians remain silent acting like nothing wrong is happening. Their typical excuse sounds like they are “out of politics”. But, as Nicolai aptly noted, killing people – is not a politics, it is a terrorism.

Russia is a terrorist state and all Russians are responsible for its crimes.

• Founded in 2015 by Daniel Strieder, Jorg Skornschek and Michael Handler, Credi2 develops buy now, pay later solutions for banks, financial service providers, and trading companies in order to be able to offer their customers modern payment and financing solutions.
• The company cooperates with Apple, Volkswagen Bank, Deutsche Handelsbank, BLSK, Raiffeisen Bank International, and Erste Bank. Its best-known product for end customers is cashpresso, a flexible credit line.
• Volkswagen Bank is Germany’s largest automobile bank that provides automotive financing, savings and investment service, security, and insurance solutions. 
• In order to intensify its cooperation with Credi2, Volkswagen Bank is expanding its commitment, which has existed since 2019, and increasing its shares in the company from 20% to over 28%. 
• Also, relying on Credi2 services, Volkswagen Bank has launched a new instant loan for private customers in Volkswagen Group, which include VW, Audi, Škoda, Seat, Ducati, car dealerships. The new product allows retailers to offer their customers a fast and fully digital financing solution of up to 12,000 euros.

• Founded in 2012 by Herkko Kiljunen, Pekka Koskinen, and Vicent Llongo, Leadfeeder is based in Helsinki. It provides a sales lead generation tool for B2B companies. This tool helps users understand who to target for sales and marketing opportunities.
• Echobot is a German sales cloud software developer founded in 2011 by Bastian Karweg and Jannis Breitwieser. It is a company building tools to source B2B sales leads and better target sales efforts.
• The companies have not disclosed the deal’s value. Great Hill Partners was a single backer in the all-equity €180 million funding. It is a private equity firm with $2.7 billion under management, 78 finished investments, and 36 exits.
• Together the companies have some 8,500 customers, primarily in Europe. According to the companies, Echobot’s revenues in the last year grew 70%, while Leadfeeder’s grew 50%.
• Initially, Leadfeeder and Echobot will continue to run separately with independent brands. Although, they expect to merge more of their operations and tech. The companies are already doing some talent acquisition and finance functions together.

actio was co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Nikita Fahrenholz and Daniel Stahlkopf. It is a live coaching pp that connects people who want to improve their well-being habits with an international coaches network. The platform currently offers more than 100 sessions daily, on average 15 minutes long each, including pilates, yoga, meditation, and fitness classes.

The app is based on a specially developed VoIP call software, so instead of ordinary push notifications, the users receive a call before the session begins.

“Actio hits exactly the zeitgeist with its product. We all start with good intentions and usually fail after just a few weeks. Actio, with its motivating approach, manages to establish healthy and positive routines in everyday life that will strengthen well-being and health in the long term,” Eckhardt Weber, Managing Partner and Managing director at Heal Capital, commented.

Habyt develops and manages comprehensive, community-driven and technologically empowered co-living spaces. The startup currently offers three products and services including co-living, apartment sharing and private accommodation. Habyt was founded in 2017 by CEO Luca Bovone with the idea to simplify the process of finding a place to live and all related administrative issues. 

Starting with one apartment in Berlin, the startup has grown by over 300% only in 2020 and now operates in Barcelona, Lisbon, Milan. With the purchase of Erasmo’s Room, it also expanded the footprint to Madrid and became the leading co-living provider in Spain, having over 500 rooms locally and thousands in Europe, Bovone said.

As Habyt maintains, the deal represents clearly the startup’s strategy of expanding and consolidating its presence in Spain and in Europe.

Co-founded in 2019 by Dr Tim Breker, Sven Witthöft and Dr Fabian Barthel, Vytal develops a digital reusable system of 100% leak-proof food packaging for take-away and delivery food use without any deposits for restaurants, supermarkets and their clients. It is aimed to deal with to-go packaging garbage, which causes one of the most essential problems of nowadays – plastic pollution.

The startup provides its packaging service based on the model of sharing, so the business customers need to pay the filling fees. People, who get their food in Vytal’s bowls, need to register once in the app and then scan the QR code labels each time they want to return freshly washed dishes. As the startup said, a return rate already exceeds 98%.

Founded in 2019, Everdrop creates eco cleaning supplies including plastic-free packaged washing powder, dishwasher tablets, as well as cleanser tablets that are needed to be mixed with water at home to clean the kitchen, the bathroom and other surfaces. The startup’s solutions are dedicated to sustainability and designed to reduce household waste. 

With this additional cash infusion Everdrop is planning to promote internationalization and expand beyond the German-speaking area into other European countries such as France, the Netherlands, Italy and Sweden. Additionally, the startup will invest in team growth – it wants to hire 40 employees at the end of the year. 

charly was founded in 2016 as PrintPeter, a free print service for students. The platform connected students and employers, allowing companies to place relevant job advertisements in the students’ learning materials, which they sent to PrintPeter for printing. In the following years, the startup added new products to its portfolio – a scanning app and job board, where students could find work.

In 2019, the startup in memory of its co-founder Karl Bagusat, who died that year, changed the name to charly and launched an online learning platform for exam preparation. The solution includes a database run by students’ exam-related questions and answers, and by tutors’ responses. 

According to the data from charly’s website, its services are already used by 400,000 students from more than 900 universities.

NexWafe is a spinoff from Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, founded by Frank Siebke, Kai Schillinger, Roy Segev, and Stefan Reber. Since 2015 it has been developing green high-efficiency solar wafer technology. Its product Epinex™ is fully compatible with conventional solar cell and module manufacturing with a 70% reduction in the carbon footprint of conventional wafers and at reduced production cost by 30%. 

The fresh funds will be invested in further industrialization of NexWafe’s technology and commercialization, the negotiations of which have already started with potential partners. The company also plans to launch pilot manufacturing activities in 2021. 

InPost, $3.3B

On January 27, InPost became Europe’s biggest IPO since 2018. The startup’s shareholders Advent International, Templeton Strategic Emerging Markets Fund, and PZU Fundusz have sold 175 million existing shares at 16 euros each, totally raising €2.8 billion ($3.3B).

Started in 1999 by Rafał Brzoska, InPost today offers logistics services and creates a network of automated parcel lockers, self-service parcel dispatch and collection points, open 24/7.

Delivery Hero, $1.4B

Berlin-based Delivery Hero has raised around €1.2 ($1.4) billion by issuing new shares. 

Established in 2011, Delivery Hero is the world’s leading delivery platform, operating its service in more than 40 countries across Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa and processing over 120 million orders on average per month. 

sennder, $160M

German tech startup sennder has raised a $160 million Series D funding from existing investors Accel, Lakestar, HV Capital, Project A, and Scania.

Founded in 2015 by CEO David Nothacker, Julius Köhler and Nicolaus Schefenacker, sennder is a digital road freight forwarder, linking large commercial shippers with small and mid-sized freight carriers. 

Personio, $125M

The Germany-based startup Personio has received $125 million in a Series D funding round at a valuation of $1.7 billion. The round was co-led by existing investor Index Ventures and new one Meritech Capital. Previous backers Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Northzone, Global Founders Capital and Picus also participated.

Founded in 2015 in Munich, Personio offers cloud-based HR management and recruiting solutions and software for startups, and small- and medium-sized enterprises. 

Jedox, over $100M

Jedox, an international provider of Enterprise Performance Management software, has raised more than $100 million in a round led by global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners with participation from previous backers Iris Capital, eCAPITAL, and Wecken & Cie.

Jedox was founded in 2002 and headed by CEO Florian Winterstein, who joined the company in 2018. Jedox solutions help companies to optimize business processes across all stages of growth – from transitioning existing financial processes to the cloud to leveraging AI and advanced analytics for more accurate, agile planning. 

iziwork, $42.5 million

Iziwork, the digital marketplace for temporary work, has raised $42.5 million in Series A round. The round was led by Cathay Innovation and Large Venture.

Founded in 2018 by Nitsan Seniak and Mehdi Tahri, iziwork digitizes temporary recruitment through its platform. The platform relies on technological innovation to radically improve access and work experience.

Ondato, $2 million

Ondato, the digital and biometric authentication startup, has raised $2 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by OTB Ventures – a venture capital fund investing in technology with unique IP in the CEE region.

Founded in 2016 by CEO Liudas Kanapienis, Ondato provides complete compliance management solutions starting from both photo and live video identity verification, data monitoring, screening, due diligence, risk scoring, and case management all in one place. 

Surgify Medical Oy, $1.7 million

Espoo-based Surgify Medical Oy, a healthcare technology startup, has raised $1.7 million in funding. The round was led by Finnish venture capital investor Innovestor Ventures, Swedish investor Peter Lindell, and well-known Finnish angel investor and healthcare entrepreneur Leena Niemistö.

Founded in 2017 by Shahab Haeri, Visa Sippola, Juho Carpén, and Jukka Kreander, Surgify Medical Oy is developing an internationally recognized surgical drill that aims to make bone surgery safer. The product is a safety tip that is connected to existing surgical drills.

Rendin, $1.4 million

Estonian Rendin, a long-term home renting service, has closed a $1.4 million seed investment round. The round was led by Tera Ventures, Iron Wolf Capital, Truesight Ventures, Atomico’s Angel Programme, and Startup Wise Guys. 

Launched in 2020 by Alain Aun, Maiko Saluorg, and Alar Mäerand, Rendin is a home rental agreement platform that makes the whole process of home renting more comfortable for users. Rendin creates a community of landlords and tenants ready to trust each other, value integrity, and fair play.

Hyperhuman, $607K

Bucharest-based Hyperhuman, a startup that turns workout videos into personal fitness content, has raised $607K in its first financing round. The round was led by Early Game Ventures with participation from Sparking Capital and Simple Capital.

Founded in 2020 by Bogdan Presdusca, Dan Nica, and David Teodorescu, Hyperhuman is building an AI-powered platform that detects how fitness content is produced, personalized, and monetized. Using its proprietary video AI technology, the product extracts key insights and metadata from video workouts and turns them into reusable blocks of content.

Branded is building a global digital consumer products platform that acquires and invests in e-commerce and marketplace brands on Amazon to help them to grow. Besides the capital, the startup provides brands from the home, lifestyle and leisure categories with marketing, financing, business development and operations expertise. 

Branded was launched in mid-2020 by CEO Pierre Poignant, Ben Kaminski, who is also a Partner at Target Global, Michael Ronen. The startup has already acquired 20 brands across Europe, the USA and Asia, making some of them the largest FBA sellers on Amazon. As TechCrunch writes, the name of those brands are undisclosed, but it is known that their combined gross revenues are approximately $150 million.

Founded in 2014 by CEO Christopher Kränzler, Alexander Gigga, Philipp Koch-Buettner, Lengoo develops technology that solves translation for the enterprises. It focuses on transferring expert knowledge from the world’s best specialists into custom-trained AI systems, which then support users in their everyday work.

The main feature of Lengoo’s software is a customization of the translation model to each company’s language. By gathering termbases, glossaries, and any digitally available monolingual content from the corporate customers, Lengoo enables them to implement the specific terminology of their business into the NMT system.

Currently, Lengoo has more than 3,000 enterprise customers in the DACH region, the UK, and Scandinavia − including companies such as Sixt, Sunrise Communications, HelloFresh, and Michelin.

The proceeds will allow Lengoo to drive forward the development of its NMT solution, making its key product better and faster.

Founded in 2020, the startup has recently announced the launch of its flagship product. It is a simple-to-use platform that enables knowledge workers to create AI-powered solutions, which are tailored to the specifics of their business, to automate repetitive manual work processes concerning reviewing and categorizing documents, images, or text within marketing, customer service, operations, HR, and others. 

“Levity was born from our own pain points. We knew the technology was out there to automate those repetitive tasks that t#ake up so much time but couldn’t find a single product that caters to the average person who can’t code but whose life would benefit from AI,”  Gero Keil, co-founder and CEO of Levity, told.

Levity’s tool integrates seamlessly with different business productivity tools including Slack, GSuite and Dropbox, and can be used across industries by companies of all sizes. For example, Hear.com, a company that sells hearing aids, already uses the AI platform of a German startup to automate the document classification processes.

Founded in 2020 by Thilo Kleinschmidt, Jens Nörtershäuser, Nikolay Dimolarov and Dr Kurt Miller, Kranus Health is a developer of a digital men’s health platform. The startup has a goal to increase the health awareness of men and support them in preventive care. The first solution of Kranus Health is going to be a reimbursable digital therapy for erectile dysfunction and for related cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks.

“Kranus Health has developed an offer based on scientific findings that provide urologists with completely new and, above all, root-cause-oriented options in the treatment of their patients,” Dr Miller, who serves as Chief Medical Officer, explains.

The proceeds will help Kranus Health to develop and expand its platform with further offerings, as well as expand the existing expert network of urological specialists it is working with.

Adjust has developed an app marketing platform since 2012 when it was founded by Christian Henschel, Manuel Kniep and Paul Müller. Its solutions include attribution and measurement, fraud prevention, cybersecurity and marketing automation tools. More than 50,000 apps worldwide including Viber, LINE, and Tencent rely on Adjust’s solution to promote and protect their brands.

AppLovin is a game publisher and marketplace for other mobile apps. By providing developers with an integrated set of solutions, it enables them to monetize, analyze and publish apps. As the company claims, its platform has 420 million daily active users and reaches more than 1.5 billion devices monthly.

As a result of the deal, Adjust will continue to operate as an independent company and develop its brand and culture, the CEO at AppLovin Adam Foroughi says. Both companies will continue working on creating and improving the tools for customers to help them in the growth of their businesses.

unu was founded in 2013 by Pascal Blum, Mathieu Caudal and Elias Atahi. The startup’s first product was the electric Scooter Classic, which has enabled the company to expand from German and Austrian into French and Dutch markets since 2015. In 2019 unu launched its second networked product generation – unu Scooter, which can be shared thanks to a SIM card and its own app.

As Blum told Gründerszene, the pandemic caused big troubles with delivery of details for new scooters. Besides, the unu team has paid too much attention to the product development strategy instead of solving supply chain issues. So the startup had to get out of implementing its public sharing service, which was planned to be provided in partner cities, and also to leave the Dutch market.

The proceeds will allow unu to accelerate the production of its e-scooters and focus on the B2C model. The startup promises to complete the pre-orders of unu Scooters, previously made by private customers, until mid-February as a matter of priority. 

Founded in September 2020 by Miriam Wohlfarth, Jens Röhrborn, Fabian Heiß and Nicolas Kipp, Banxware provides software-as-a-service for embedded financial services that enable any digital platform such as marketplaces, payments providers, and other aggregators to offer white label financial products, especially loans, to SME customers.

“While traditional bank loans take up to three months and even the most innovative product-based finance up to five days, we were able to drastically reduce this time thanks to newest technologies and artificial intelligence. With us, platforms can offer loans, and within 15 minutes the customer has the money in the bank. This is a new record time which does not exist in the market so far,” Wohlfarth said.

Banxware’s first product was a white label SME lending solution, and in December the fintech received a €100 million loan facility from Vereinigte Volksbank Raiffeisenbank eG and VVRB for its implementation.

The fresh capital will allow the startup to develop and grow its embedded white label financial services offering with card-based products and others. Banxware will also expand sales to digital platforms across Europe and its team.

cofenster develops an app that enables companies to produce professional videos at scale, fully automated without involving digital agencies. It can be CEO memos, onboarding videos or product demos. Since the platform was launched in August 2020, cofenster has already acquired over 30 customers including Beiersdorf, Microsoft, Stada and Carlsberg.

As the startup declares, the production process is simple and can take 10 minutes. Employees need to plan and script the video on their desktop and share the storyboard with colleagues, who will then record the video using only a smartphone. The recordings are automatically edited together with a corporate logo, text highlights, music and subtitles.

The proceeds will support cofenster in expanding its sales and product team growth. 

Existing backer Engelhardt Kaupp Kiefer & Co and private business angels including Andreas Ronken, CEO at Ritter Sport, participated in the round. 

MegaDev is developing Plitch, a trainer software platform, which enables gamers to customize their PC titles with cheat codes to make games easier or more challenging. It works only with offline single-player games to prevent cheats to be used online. For that purpose, MegaDev has built-in its own firewall Plitch Gateway.

According to the startup’s data, Plitch activates over 33,8000 cheats, like infinite health or ammo, in more than 2,600 games including Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. 

The platform operates on a subscription-based model starting from $4,99 per month.

EGYM is a B2B provider of fitness and health facilities with intelligent workout solutions. It offers connected gym equipment and digital products that integrate seamlessly with third-party hard- and software. The startup’s solutions include, for example, EGYM Trainer app and EGYM Cloud that allow trainers to guide, improve and track their customer workouts.

As the founder and CEO of EGYM Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer told Handelsblatt, the pandemic badly affected its business. At the end of 2020, the startup’s sales did not increase, as was planned, but remained at the level of 2019 – €82 million. The coronavirus crisis also prevented EGYM from the IPO, which the startup planned to undertake before the pandemic.

Founded in 2019 by Christian Heidemeyer, Jean Michel Diaz and Robin Roschlau, Echometer is a digital coach for agile companies that is aimed to drive cultural change. It develops a team workshop tool that uses psychological know-how to help organizations of all sizes and from all sectors to improve the work environment and increase employee engagement by carrying out so-called team retrospectives.

To date, Echometer has more than 2,300 users and its customers include such companies as Miele, T-Systems, Toyota, Frontastic and Westlotto.

The startup is planning to invest fresh funding into the marketing, sales and product teams development, as well as in expanding its SaaS platform with new features.

Launched in 2009, Signavio provides midsize and large organizations with a cloud-native process management suite, enabling them to improve and transform all of their business processes faster. The company will become a part of the Business Process Intelligence unit of SAP.

“With the addition of Signavio, SAP can now provide a holistic suite of flexible process transformation solutions for customers to transform their business processes end to end. That includes business process design, benchmarking, gap analysis, improvement and process change management,” SAP says in its statement. 

With offices in the US, UK, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Singapore, Japan, India and Australia, Signavio has over a million users in more than 2,000 organizations worldwide. Its customers include Comcast, Bosch, Liberty Mutual.

INZMO, which was launched in 2015, builds a platform and a mobile app, where the users can get any personal insurance in seconds. Everything from bicycles and scooters to electronics and smartphones can be insured. The startup also helps insurance companies to become more effective by reducing the costs of sales and administration and reducing the risk of insurance fraud.

Insurtech is planning to spend the fresh capital on launching household insurance products including a fully digital rental deposit guarantee service, which will allow its customers to pay monthly fees instead of paying deposits upfront. The proceeds will also support INZMO in growing its team and business. 

autoRetouch is developing the AI-powered image editing platform for fashion and lifestyle brands, retailers and creatives. It enables defining workflows in order to automatically retouch product images in bulk. The user can chain up smart components to create an end-to-end processing sequence including background removal, skin retouch, add shadows, set on canvas and others. 

As autoRetouch claims, its platform allows users to get product images faster, easier and cheaper than ever before while retaining full creative control. According to the startup’s data, its customers save up to 90% time due to replacing manual tasks with AI.

“Through autoRetouch, we’re unlocking a significant amount of value, currently lost due to inefficient image editing technology, by giving the editor more time to focus on the creative work that might be needed and moving the heavy-lifting to the AI,” Alex Ciorapciu, co-founder and CEO, emphasized. 

The raised funds will be invested in R&D activities, as well as in initial customer traction. 

Founded in 2019 by Julia Profeta Johansson and Sebastian Dienst, Remagine is a finance platform that empowers businesses through accounts, team cards, analytics, and payment solutions including multi-IBANs, and provides tech-driven financial products tailored for founders and startups. 

The company supports founders with up to €1 million in revenue-based funding, without taking equity, board seats, personal guarantees, or warrants. It has already provided financing to over 20 startups, while operating in stealth mode.

“Having already provided financing to numerous companies, the funds raised will allow us to support many more startups towards more impact. With the upcoming launch of our accounts and cards, we’re excited to continue to grow the team, invest further in our products, and help create a world where money and business are forces for good,” Profeta Johansson told.

Founded in 2019 by Jonas Grunwald and Felix Ostwald, Codept is a cloud-based e-commerce logistics platform that offers warehousing and fulfilment across Europe. Its solution enables e-tailers to find the best logistics service provider through one single IT interface (API), and providers to find and integrate their new customers without redesigning their IT infrastructure.

“We are excited to seal a long-term partnership with the BEUMER Group. We have already worked together very successfully over the past two years, so we are happy to intensify this cooperation even further. We will promote our vision of a technology-driven, scalable logistics platform faster and expand the team with the fresh capital, thereby advancing our technology and boosting our Europe-wide expansion even further,” Ostwald told.

Germany-based BEUMER Group offers their customers worldwide intralogistic solutions for conveying, loading, palletizing, packaging, sortation and distribution. Founded in 1935, the company has over 4,500 employees worldwide and about €900 million in annual sales.

Founded in 2017 by CEO Tom Plümmer, Ansgar Kadura and Jonathan Hesselbarth, Wingcopter provides worldwide drone solutions for commercial and humanitarian applications. The startup focuses on the delivery of medical goods, parcels and food. 

The raised funds will help Wingcopter to develop drone-based logistics, with a special focus on healthcare-related applications, including the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

“Poor infrastructure has always been a barrier, especially for healthcare provision, impacting billions of lives – a situation further exacerbated by COVID-19. With the support and powerful networks of our investors we are taking a huge step closer to fulfilling our vision of creating efficient and sustainable drone solutions that improve and save lives everywhere,” Plümmer said.

The startup will also spend the part of fresh capital on setting up an automated serial production in its new headquarters in Weiterstadt, as well as to expand the team in the fields of flight testing, certification, production, and software development.

APX is known for its tailor-made accelerator program that was launched in April 2018 in Berlin. The participants could receive €50,000, hands-on venture development, and access to its network of hundreds of mentors, experts and portfolio companies in exchange for 5% equity. In total, APX has invested in more than 70 startups since the program has started. 

According to the new strategy, APX moves away from being an accelerator to becoming a very-early-stage investor. It will focus on supporting pre-seed startups with digital business models, investing up to €500,000 in chosen projects. APX is planning to increase its company portfolio to 200 companies by 2022.  

Tomorrow’s Education is developing a mobile-first learning platform for students all around the globe. Unlike the traditional online courses, it offers a challenge-based and active learning format, including solving dynamic problems in real-time and developing the relevant skills. 

“We are using technology to make learning more effective. Our platform is based on learning science, and leverages artificial intelligence and constant data-driven feedback to offer a personalized learning experience,” co-founder of Tomorrow’s Education Christian Rebernik told EU-Startups. “We’re all about unlocking potential and increasing the self-efficacy of every student.”

In partnership with WU Executive Academy, the business school of the Vienna University of Economics and Business, the startup has recently launched its first study program – Professional Master’s program in Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Technology. It starts in April 2021, tuition and program fees are €24,000.

Founded in 2016, Elinvar develops a Platform as a Service, enabling asset and wealth managers to digitalize their business models. With a goal to connect the entire wealth management ecosystem, a multi-tenant platform offers service packages for core processes like client relationship management, online onboarding, onsite advisory support, portfolio management, reporting, invoicing among others, as well as third-party connections like banks of KYC providers.

The German startup is planning to invest the fresh funds into growing the team and expanding the offering with more self-customization options to connect the entire ecosystem on its platform.

HiPeople is HRtech that enables companies to collect in-depth candidate reference checks without any additional manual work. As the founders of the startup Jakob Gillmann and Sebastian Schüller describe, “HiPeople is in the talent insights business.” According to them, by automatically collecting and analyzing candidates’ talent data including skills, teamwork style, or work values, HiPeople is aimed to make the hiring process easier, less time-consuming, and more effective.

The raised capital will be allocated to further growth of the startup to enable more recruiters to hire remotely. Also, HiPeople will continue working on a candidate analytics platform. 

Earlier this week, another Germany’s HRtech Personio, which offers cloud-based HR management and recruiting solutions and software, has closed a $125 million Series D round.

Exporo develops an online marketplace that offers real estate projects as an investment opportunity. Having a slogan “Easy and direct real estate investments”, the platform offers private investors an overview of real estate projects in which they can directly invest from €500. Founded in 2014 by CEO Simon Brunke, Björn Maronde, Tim Bütecke and Julian Oertzen, Exporo has financed around 200 real estate projects through more than 20,000 clients and has raised over €420 million since then.

The fresh funding will allow Exporo to launch additional offerings, like a portfolio creator and a real-time commercial centre. The startup is also planning to expand internationally, with a focus on neighbouring European countries.

Founded in 2015 in Munich, Personio offers cloud-based HR management and recruiting solutions and software for startups, and small- and medium-sized enterprises. The company enables its customers to store and manage all employee data and HR processes in one place, including vacation and sick days, approvals, salary, attendance, employee documents, performance, reporting, and employee on-boarding.

The startup wants to use the capital to continue expansion into new European markets, such as France and Italy. Personio is also planning to invest the proceeds into its further growth on the recently-entered markets – Spain, UK, Nordics, Benelux, and in acquiring more customers in the DACH region. Besides, HR tech will develop its existing software offering used by more than 2,500 customers worldwide to cover more HR processes.