Germany has one of the most vital startup scenes in Europe, and according to our annual research on startup cities, Berlin is actually Europe’s 2nd biggest startup hub, right behind London. This week, we took a close look at the German startup landscape with the goal to introduce you to 10 of the most promising early-stage startups that are not only going to survive the Coronavirus crisis, but will continue to thrive.
Due to the large amount of exciting startups in Germany, it’s been hard to narrow this list down to just 10 candidates. But we did it. All the companies we’re presenting you below entered the market within the last three years and each one of them has (at least in our view) a successful future ahead!
CoachHub – Founded in 2018, Coachhub is the “mobile coaching cloud” and enables personalised coaching for employees of all career levels. A pool of top coaches from all around the globe and the applications available for access from web and smartphone allow live coaching sessions via video conferencing. This way, the Berlin-based startup prepares managers for better leadership, teams for better group performances and employees for personal and professional growth. The Coachhub team already counts about 150 people. In total, the fast-growing startup already raised over €18.9 million in venture capital.
Wandelbots – This Dresden-based startup is democratizing industrial robotics by enabling everyone to programme any robot via smart input devices and example-based teaching. Founded in 2017, the Wandelbots software backend tracks human motion to live-control industrial robots. Operators can teach automation tasks by demonstration. The software builds a machine learning model based on several demonstrations and generates automation workflows. In December of 2018, Wandelbots raised €6 million from Paua Ventures and EQT Ventures, with participation from existing investors, including entrepreneur Felix Haas, SAP manager Christian Dahlen, and Atlantic Labs.
Celus – Celus is a fast-growing startup based in Munich, creating an online software solution to empower development teams of hardware tech products to easily build embedded systems, without deep knowledge about electronics. The Celus software automatically generates schematics, layouts for printed circuit boards (PCB), bill of materials (BOM) and Embedded Source Code through automation and artificial intelligence. Through this radically new approach regarding electronics Celus cut development times and know-how barriers. Celus was founded in 2018 and raised €1.7 million in February of 2020.
Sharpist – The Berlin-based startup Sharpist set out to create “aha moments” at scale. Founded in 2018, the young company provides a mobile platform that helps professionals pursue their careers with greater engagement, focus, and productivity. Their turnkey learning and development solution combines 1:1 video coaching sessions with continuous micro-learning exercises. In a nutshell, Sharpist lets organizations scale worldclass executive coaching to their entire workforce. In February of 2020, the startup secured €4.8 million in seed funding.
Wingcopter – Founded in 2017, Wingcopter develops and produces autonomously flying delivery drones for social and civilian applications, such as speeding up life-saving medicine delivery for remote islands – true to the company’s guiding principle “Technology with a Purpose”. With its patented tilt-rotor mechanism the startup closes the gap between commercial drones, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, thus achieving a new dimension of efficiency. Earlier this month, the promising startup secured a further seven-digit investment.
Medloop – Founded in 2018, Berlin-based Medloop offers thousands of patients intuitive self-service features that enable them to navigate their own healthcare pathway and to communicate effectively with doctors. Furthermore, the app provides online appointment bookings, electronic medical results, prescription refills, as well as an interactive chat functionality. The startup aims to shift healthcare from reactive to preventative and has secured €6 million in January of 2020 to enhance its product offering and continue expansion across Germany and the UK.
Lanes & Planes – The Munich-based startup Lanes & Planes says it is the first all-in-one solution to really cover all aspects of business trips entirely digitally: Search & booking, cancellation & reimbursement, mobile travel companion & ticket wallet (as app), travel expense report & receipt management, central payment & invoicing of only one supplier, rights & travel policies, large-scale reporting & controlling as well as service run by trained travel agents. Founded in 2017, Lanes & Planes raised €8.9 million in Series A funding earlier this month. Perfect timing, since this will allow them not only to survive the Coronavirus crisis, but also to continue their expansion shortly afterwards.
Finoa – Founded in 2018, Finoa is a new financial services company in the era of digital assets and cryptocurrencies. Finoa’s mission is to help their clients (mainly institutional investors) to manage their digital assets and to unlock the full potential of this new asset class by leveraging technology. The Berlin-based blockchain startup developed a fully digital (warm-storage) custody and asset-servicing solution built on a crypto-native banking infrastructure combining user-friendliness with military-grade security levels. In the beginning of this year, Finoa closed a big round of seed funding.
Keleya – Keleya is an app-based well-being coach for moms-to-be with individualised fitness and nutrition plans depending on their in-app feedback. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Berlin, Keleya also provides an interface between midwives and pregnant women. The young company secured a seven-figure Series A funding round in October of 2019. A rather positive impact of the Corona crisis is expected to be an increase in pregnancies over the coming weeks and months. Apps like Keleya might benefit from that.
Demodesk – Another tool that might benefit from the Corona crisis is the Munich-based startup Demodesk. Founded in 2017, Demodesk is providing an intelligent online meeting tool for inside sales and customer service teams. Its entirely cloud-based communication platform lets you share your screen through a dedicated virtual desktop. Demodesk aims to make conferencing painless and automate scheduling & preparation to help you sell more and increase customer retention. In October of 2019, Demodesk secured €2 million in seed funding.
By the way: If you’re a corporate or investor looking for exciting startups in a specific market for a potential investment or acquisition, check out our Startup Sourcing Service!