how many startups were founded this year?
Issue #157 (14 Jul) – great events; Coffee with Marius; where not to eat in Pankow; Unite got €10M; how hard is it to crack 100k?; Mustafa moved.
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Programming note #157: Summer is in full swing (besides the weather?), and so are cool events. I hope to see some of you at one of the three this week: at the Apple store on Wednesday, 20 Percent live pod the day after or at the secret tech party on Friday. Come and say hi!
Thanks to our sponsor Notion: If you are a solopreneur or a company with up to 100 employees, you can get Notion for 6 months for free!
The email subject answer is in snippet #8.
🌟 Handpicked community
Meet — handpicked events:
Bits & Pretzels Community Meet-Up – Berlin | Tue, 15/01 18.00 | Motion.Lab
AI After Hours: A Summer Party by Notion & Techspace | Thu, 17/07 18:00 | Techspace Eiswerk
A few spots are still available at the weekend hackathon! Tech: Europe AI hackathon - Berlin edition with OpenAI, ElevenLabs & Co. | Sat, 19/07 09:30 | Delta Campus
Join Bits & Drinks: Berlin’s premier monthly meetup for digital leaders! Monthly, every last Wednesday at Spreegold Bikini Berlin. No agenda, no sales, just real connections. SIBB‑member free. | Wed, 30/07 18:00 | Spreegold Bikini*
Fireside chat: Langfuse context with Lars Grammel, AI SDK | Thu, 07/08 18:45 | Langfuse
this could be your event - advertise it
Show cool stuff or Ask for something:
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Tony would love your feedback on his article on the development of data analysis - I think it’s good! “I think I've written an interesting article on The Magic of Data Analysis, that forces engineers to think like poets, and poets to think like engineers. Would love to receive feedback!”
📨 Submit your input for the community here. This section is also featured on LinkedIn in the weekly post.
👀 Handpicked jobs
3️⃣ job highlights of the week
The remaining jobs are on the Handpicked job board. This week’s focus on the job board was Sales, Customer Success and Operations.
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☕️ Coffee Talk with Marius Meiners
Marius is a former gamer and the co-founder of one of the hottest startups in town, Peec AI. They raised €7M in just five months and are pushing hard, but Marius still took time to prepare this for you:
YamYam Berlin — They have the best Bibimbap (hot stone bowl with rice, vegetables, and meat) ever. You need to go check it out - it’s delicious.
Freakonomics — Fantastic series of books where two economists apply micro- and macroeconomic theory to everyday topics. It offers a really interesting perspective and sparks curiosity!
Best Anime: One Piece — Most epic hero’s journey arc ever told.
🗞 Snippets
Berlin & Germany, career & timeless
We still have a few spots left for the event on Wednesday at Apple Rosenthaler Straße. Come and say hi!
Applications for our dinner club are still open. Put yourself on the list before it's too late.
I published Where not to eat in Pankow / Prenzlauer Berg? for May and June on r/handpickedberlin. I was clicking around and realised that several restaurants have been disgusting FOR SEVERAL consecutive controls. Some even have solid Google reviews.
When the weather improves, enjoy a beer or a coffee at one of these 11 waterside cafés and restaurants by Mit Vergnügen. Good stuff!
Berlin and Brandenburg's Unite startup factory won one of ten federal EXIST lighthouse competition awards, securing €10 million euros in funding over five years. The incubator/accelerator has already received over €10M of additional private commitments. Focus will be on AI, health, and green technologies.
Here’s a tip if you have problems with your German (neo)bank or (neo)broker: because BaFin regulates them, they all need to have an official complaint email, which is the first step before you make an official complaint to BaFin. I tried it, but I’m still waiting for a reply. At least they followed up very fast!
German startups raised €2.4B in the Q2 of 2025, a 45% increase from Q1, bringing the 2025 total to almost €4B. We now have 32 unicorns (companies worth over €1B). Between 2020-2024 Germany had a net capital inflow of €16B with a strong US representation (31%).
Related, 248 startups were founded in Berlin so far this year, 15 more than in 2024. In Germany, there were 1.500 founded (+9%) in total. Things are picking up again!
Career: Are you running ideas on what to change with your job search? Here are 12 pretty good tips. For example, less is more. On your CV list “fewer certifications and use shorter, more focused skills sections. Emphasise richer work experience bullets and clearer education context.” Also, adding interests might be useful.
Career: How easy or how hard is it to crack €100.000 in Germany? The hard (our salary trends survey, for example) and anecdotal data (in the comments) show it’s very possible with enough experience.
Career: A good piece by Cate Hall about the myth of willpower, “the idea that virtue lies in exerting extreme effort to overcome obstacles, and that any success attained without effort is actually bad, bordering on immoral. The truth is that high-agency people are always looking for shortcuts. They are never thinking, “how can I work hard and demonstrate my willpower,” but rather, “how can I get results faster by maximizing my leverage?”
Timeless: Leaving and waving, a gorgeous series of photos from Deanna Dikeman as she was waving goodbye to her parents for 27 years.
Briefly
Bad news: Daimler Truck -5.000 until 2030.
Stats: In the first half of 2025, 12.1M passengers used BER (+2% YoY). This is still much less than in 2019 (17.5M, Tegel and Schönefeld combined).
Mohrenstraße in Mitte will be renamed to Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße (the first known Black academic in Germany) after a long legal battle, since the renaming was decided 5 years ago. “Mohren” is a racist slur historically used in German to refer to Black people.
A Leipzig court awarded a Facebook user compensation of 5,000 euros for data protection violations. Things could get expensive for Meta.
Deutsche Bahn is investing in up to 32 new ICE trains, which will also be able to serve customers in Poland and France from 2031 onwards.
The infamous Mustafa’s Gemüsekebap changed the location (now also sporting a couple of indoor seats). The line of tourists on the other side of the street will definitely be less… comfortable.
VW dominated Germany's electric car market with 46% market share in the first half of 2025, up from 32% a year earlier. Tesla has fallen dramatically from 2nd place (12%) to eighth place with 3.6% market share. VW also sold more electric cars than Tesla outside China between January and May. Related, Porsche’s sales in China have almost halved since 2022.
Weekly social
Redditors on a search for authentic Indian restaurants. My map is getting pinned like there’s no tomorrow.
What happens to some of the donated clothes? They end up for sale in Bosnia. But nothing is as it seems: A commenter said it’s normal that charities sell clothes to second-hand shops.
🔥 Spotlight: Reach your first 100 customers - Last spots!
In an insight-packed session, we will touch on the complete founder journey and put a strong emphasis on strategies and ideas on how to win your first 100 customers. Join me, Julie (Femtasy) and Larissa (saint sass) this Wednesday at 18.00 @Apple Rosenthaler Straße!*
💰 Fresh capital for founders
June highlights powered by Capvisory – a Berlin-based fundraising and M&A advisory boutique.
Each month, we spotlight new VC funds now actively deploying capital, especially in Berlin, Europe, or founder-favourite sectors (SaaS, AI, climate, B2B, etc.):
Project A | Germany | European early-stage across sectors| $375M
Norrsken | Sweden | Global AI startups solving social & environmental issues | $345M
Angel Invest | Germany | Pre-Seed & Seed capital for EU and Israeli entrepreneurs| $176M
Realyze Ventures | Germany | Early-stage climate and construction-tech in Europe | $57.5M close
1921 VC | Austria | Exclusively Type-1-Diabetes healthtech solutions | $11M target
Full fund tracker (47x VC, 20x PE) and dry powder analysis: capvisory.de
💸 Funded in Berlin & Germany
re:cap | Berlin | Capital operating system platform | €125M credit facility | Careers.
Wefox | Berlin | Digital insurance platform | €151M capital raise and credit | Careers.
CarOnSale | Berlin | B2B used car marketplace | €70M | Careers.
Cariqa | Berlin | EV charging marketplace platform | €4M | Careers.
Skleo Health | Düsseldorf | AI eye screening technology | $3M | Careers.
Circonomit | Cologne | Business decision control system | €2.8M | Careers.
CYNiO | Bitterfeld-Wolfen (Saxony-Anhalt) | Sustainable isocyanate production technology | €2M | Careers.
OllyGarden | Berlin | Telemetry cost optimization platform | $1.6M | Careers.
warmwind | Jena | AI office process automation | €1.5M | Careers.
FlyNex | Leipzig | Automated drone control solutions | Seven-figure amount | Careers.
Friendsurance | Berlin | Digital bancassurance platform | Seven-figure amount | Careers.
😅 Meanwhile
the barbecue season is open
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