From Juniqe to SoundCloud: Latest Tranche of German Startups Group Investments

By David Knight |

As usual, the German Startups Group (GSG) has been quietly doing a bunch of deals in recent months – and it has certainly been a busy period for the Berlin-based VC. Its latest investments number 17, and include everything from seed stage companies like online shop Juniqe up to the (relative) startup behemoth of SoundCloud.

Over the past two years, GSG has been deliberately investing into as wide a range of startups as possible with the aim of opening the scene up to ordinary investors without all the usual risks of putting your money into early stage companies.

And the company now reports that it “already possesses a broad, stage-agnostic portfolio that serves as a representative sample of the German startup landscape”.

This means not only providing early stage funding but also acquiring ‘secondary shares’ to get a slice of more mature startups.

The latest tranche of investments includes six at seed stage:

Book a Tiger, a marketplace for domestic cleaners.

Dalia Research, which provides cloud-based technology solutions for market, social and opinion research on smartphones and tablets.

Juniqe, an online shop for eclectic art, apparel and accessories.

Lingoda, an online language school offering courses with native speaking teachers via videoconference.

meinKauf, an innovative online platform for digitalised brochures.

WunderCar, a platform for easy and spontaneous ride-sharing.

Six at early stage:

Ayondo, a fintech company which offers social and CFD trading from one source.

Customer Alliance, an online review management platform for hotels.

FanMiles, which manages fan loyalty programs for sports clubs and sponsors.

Friendsurance, a peer-to-peer insurance platform.

Solar Tower Technologies, which provides products, systems and solutions for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants.

Urbanara, an e-commerce site for high-quality homeware and accessories.

And five at growth stage:

Dr. Z, which offers an alternative to traditional dental practices in Germany.

Exozet, a leading media and entertainment digital agency.

Pyreg, a cleantech company which designs, develops, and manufactures machinery for carbonisation purposes.

Returbo, which markets returned goods, B-stock items, overstocks and end-of-lifetime products.

SoundCloud, a social sound platform and probably Berlin’s best known startup export.

Led by founder and CEO Christoph Gerlinger, GSG has also named a new COO, experienced Berlin venture capital expert Nikolas Samios, who was previously at family office Cooperativa. Expect to hear from them again in a few months time…