The year 2015 proved to be a fascinating one for innovation and entrepreneurship in Berlin, Germany as approximately 100 start-ups were founded. Today, we’ll take a look at the beginnings of the most successful ones that have transformed into thriving, multi-million Euro-valued companies.
- Grover – ‘‘Technik smart mieten’’ (Founded 2015)
Grover provides an online platform for renting tech products through monthly subscriptions. With Grover, subscribers get access to a wide range of over 3,000 tech products, including smartphones, laptops, virtual reality (VR) gear, wearables, and smart home appliances on a flexible monthly rental basis. Its service allows its users to keep, switch,buy, or return products depending on their individual needs and budget.
With a total of 18 investment rounds, the Series-C real estate start-up has gained $2.3B in funding from 30 investors. To date, Wunderflats has brought in a total revenue of $22.9M. TechCrunch notes that Grover is “posting net revenues of about $43M, with $71M in annual recurring revenue, and tipping into profitability on an EBITDA basis’’
The Grover website attracts 5,110,550 monthly visits and is boasting a growth rate of 30.9%. Interestingly 39% of their website traffic is from the United States while 34% is German.
- Trade Republic: ‘‘A Republic. From the people, for the people’’ (Founded 2015)
Founded by Christian Hecker, Marco Cancellieri and Thomas Pischke, ‘’Trade Republic is a mobile-only and commission-free broker that brings the opportunity to invest easily. The company works as a broker for a new generation for a more mobile, more intuitive, faster – and permanently free of commission’’.
Hosting over 600 employees, the Trade Republic app provides a fast, mobile account opening, intuitive search and filter functions, a personal timeline as well as extended trading hours from 7:30 am to 11 pm. Derivatives can be traded from 8 am to 10 pm on trading days.
The Series-C unicorn has raised a total of $1.3B in funding over 5 rounds, from 11 investors. Trade republic’s initial Seed round occurred in 2018. Since then, the company has advanced funding rounds each year with their latest round on June 3, 2022.
The FinTec company believes that ‘‘access to economic growth should not be a privilege’’ and they continue to promote this position. Last month, Trade Republic attracted 4,401,493 website visitors with an increase of 123.19% from the previous month. Germany dominates the online share of website page visitors with 79%.
Trade Republic’s estimated annual revenue is currently $200.2M.
- Movinga – ‘‘We solve moving’’ (Founded 2015)
Series-E funded Movinga is a ‘‘vertically integrated logistics tech company for customers and medium-sized moving companies. As a professional full service provider, it offers logistically optimized moves for private individuals and companies, goods transports, and courier services’’. The logistics start-up was founded by Bastian Knutzen, Chris Maslowski, Finn Age Haensel.
Since then, the company has amassed a total of $92.8M in funding from 24 investors.
Last month, the company attracted 261,134 monthly visits although the growth rate was down -6.67%. Germany dominated their online market share by 70% and France second with 25%. The company boasted a net income of €16m and €28m in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
With offices in Berlin, Paris and Stockholm, Movinga has acquired shares in Move24 and Transfer24 since its inception. Moreover, Movinga has been awarded as the Service Champion 2020 by “DIE WELT” in the category relocation.
- Wunderflats – ‘‘Germany’s No. 1 platform for temporary furnished housing’’ (Founded 2015)
Founded by Arkadi Jampolski, Jan Hase, ‘‘Wunderflats is an online platform that enables users to find and rent furnished apartments in Germany. It brings together tenants, landlords, and companies on one platform and makes renting a furnished apartment as convenient as possible’’.
With 109 registered employees, Wunderflats believes that ‘‘everybody should be able to live and work anywhere. We bring together tenants, landlords and companies on one platform and make renting a furnished apartment as convenient as possible.
With a total of 6 investment rounds, the Series-C real estate start-up has garnered $33.2M in funding from 12 investors. Creathor Ventures and IBB Ventures are the most recent investors. To date, Wunderflats has brought in a total revenue of $22.9M.
Last month, Wunderflats 374,449 garnered monthly visits, with 47% of these visitors coming from Germany. They currently have over 100 employees.
- McMakler – ‘‘Ihr Partner für den Verkauf’’ (Founded 2015)
Founded by Felix Jahn, Hanno Heintzenberg, Lukas Pieczonka, McMakler is the leading hybrid real estate agent in Germany. The company combines state-of-the-art marketing technology and central processes at its headquarters in Berlin with a local team of almost 400 permanent real estate agents across Germany in all major regions.
With a supported brand awareness of 33%, McMakler is today the best-known real estate agent in Germany and is characterized by its far above-average service quality.
The Series D funded real estate company has gained €188.5M, over 10 funding rounds by the way of 16 investors.
McMaker now hosts approximately 600 employees. Their website has 432,379 monthly visits and boasts a Growth rate of 30.9%, while 96% of the website audience is from Germany.
According to company figures, McMakler gained a revenue of €111M in 2022.
- Tandem – ‘‘Tandem Language Exchange’’ (Founded 2015)
Originally founded in Hannover by Arnd Aschentrup, Tobias Dickmeis and Matthias Kleimann, Tandem is the app that connects language learners around the globe.
The online language-learning platform now has 10 million members, in which users connect to learn new languages via text, audio, and video chat.
The Series-A led app offers more than 300 languages are currently available, including fictional and sign languages.
According to Time and GooglePlay, respectively, In 2015, Tandem was named in Apple’s “Best Apps of 2015. Tandem was also recognized as one of Google Play’s “Best Apps of 2017’’.
As of July 2020, Tandem has garnered $7M of funding over 4 rounds. In 2022, Tandem’s revenue was $4.6M.
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Sources: crunchbase.com, https://www.datanyze.com/, https://traderepublic.com/en-de, https://wunderflats.com/en, https://www.grover.com/de-de, https://www.tandem.net, https://www.mcmakler.de, https://www.movinga.com/de/de/.
