paydirekt might get €300 Million from its founders. It is estimated that paydirekt has already received €100 Million. At the same time, paydirekt’s CEO, Niklas Bartelt, should be replaced (from Süddeutsche). paydirekt was founded by a couple of German banks in 2015 and offers C2C and online B2C payments. Martin Zielke, board chairman of Commerzbank, argued back in 2015 that paydirekt was not founded with the idea of replacing the competition, but rather co-existing with them as — so Zielke — the online payment space has room for more than one company (from Süddeutsche). I agree with Zielke, but it is also a very undifferentiated market where people won’t switch unless given a very good reason. The most significant reason in C2B is network size, i. e. how many shops support the system. This significance of network size implies the vital role of pull marketing; there is little use in convincing people to sign-up for a new service now, so that they can use it later. Instead, people will access an online shop, realize that there is a payment solution they do not have – but need – and thus sign-up for that very service. paydirekt’s push marketing questionable This
Month: October 2017
Cara, a German PoopTech-startup, received a $2 Million investment for a food diary and tailor-made drugs
Cara is „Your personal food and symptom diary“ with which you can track your stool’s condition, your digestion, mental situation and the food you consume. Based on this information the app provides you recommendations on how to adapt your lifestyle and offers you tailor-made medicine called „Cara Biotics“ against your gut issues. Recently, the company behind the app received a two million dollar investment (link in German). This means that Cara operates in three markets: AI-based drug discovery Health tracking: stool’s condition, you digestion, mental situation and the food you consume Health treatment: recommendations and Cara Biotics Let’s first examine health tracking and treatment. Health tracking For this use case, the Cara app is simply a diary. There are two issues with that. Firstly, switching costs. Users can extremely easy switch between other apps especially as Cara allows you to export your data. However, data is what could lock people into the app, provided that they allocate enough of it. And this is the second issue; habitual usage. For Cara to be of real value users must use it frequently. Convincing people to use it regularly will be very difficult but not impossible.The Hook Model offers an interesting insight into
Sono Motors, a German car startup, crowdfunded €1 Million for the first car financed through the crowed
Recently Sono Motors, a German car startup, announced that they reached their €1 million crowdfunding goal only a few days after the start of the campaigns (on Seedrs and WiWin). The goal of these campaigns, which are still running, is to collect money to start the mass production of their first vehicle, the Sion, in 2019. Before that, Sono Monotors also crowdfunded money for the first prototype of the Sion and reached €549,895 on Indiegogo. The Sion by Sono Motors (Source) That is interesting because it is the first time a car is financed by the crowd and despite it being a car it has raised less money than other less sophisticated projects. The Pebble Smartwatch, for instance, has raised over $20 million. However, once you realize that they are a car coordinator instead of a manufacturer these comparisons make more sense. Sono Motors is neither manufacturing the components nor building the car itself. Nevertheless, the Sion is an interesting concept with some flaws, however. The Sion The Sion is an electrically powered vehicle that has solar panels on all non-glass parts of its body. The battery provides the Sion with a range of 250km. The on-car solar panels which the
simplesurance, getsafe, Coya, and ONE – convergence, emotions, and power of customer base in FinTech
The German mobile bank N26 announced that they are expanding into the USA. This announcement comes almost exactly one month after revolut, their biggest competitor, launched its operations in Austria and Germany (I wrote about revolut in revolut, N26, and the future of banking). Also, this announcement comes only a few days after revolut’s announcement of the cooperation with the InsurTech startup simplesurance. simplesurance — a test case for simplesurance and the industry This partnership is interesting due to several reasons. Specifically, in regards to simplesurance, it is interesting because their simplesurance’s solution for revolut does not stem from their standard offering. simplesurance, the Berlin-based FinTech, has three offerings: B2C products such as simplesurance.co.uk through which they offer insurance for consumer electronics, insurance cross-selling for e-commerce, and an insurance broker. I guess that this is a test case for them and — if successful — going to integrate that as a standard offering. As it is concept-wise similar to their cross-selling solution, it makes sense to incorporate that into their offering from a portfolio perspective. From an industry-perspective — and this is another interesting aspect of this cooperation — it makes sense as well because it points at the convergence of
BuddyGuard & Chatterbug: storytelling, smart home network effects and the future of EdTech
BuddyGuard, the Berlin-based smart home startup, raised €3.4 Million from Bachmann Group for their AI-empowered security camera called FLARE. BuddyGuard’s FLARE: AI-enhanced security camera with service add-ons BuddyGuard’s FLARE is an independently acting camera, equipped with, amongst others, a battery, Wi-Fi, cellular, motion sensors and a microphone. Using these features and the built-in AI-capabilities, FLARE detects conspicuous movements or noises and alerts first responders if necessary. The AI distinguishes between you (including your pets) and unknown people and acts accordingly. You can further enhance the FLARE’s capabilities by subscribing to one of BuddyGuard’s add-ons. These add-ons are BuddySIM (for when Wi-Fi is unavailable), BuddyReact (for automatic contacting the police and a live-stream to BuddyGuard’s monitoring center), BuddyCall (call and text alert in the case of unexpected activities), and BuddyCloud (cloud for the video material). The FLARE itself costs €449 and BuddyGuard markets it as products for B2C and B2B. BuddyGuard’s FLARE (Source) FLARE’s difficult positioning in a crowded market due to high price and low brand recognition FLARE’s main difference compared to alternatives is their AI. Other cameras have similar functionality. For instance, several are equipped with motion detection, animal- or voice detection. However, as none of them comes with AI technology,
BuddyGuard & Chatterbug: storytelling, smart home network effects and the future of EdTech
BuddyGuard, the Berlin-based smart home startup, raised €3.4 Million from Bachmann Group for their AI-empowered security camera called FLARE. BuddyGuard’s FLARE: AI-enhanced security camera with service add-ons BuddyGuard’s FLARE is an independently acting camera, equipped with, amongst others, a battery, Wi-Fi, cellular, motion sensors and a microphone. Using these features and the built-in AI-capabilities, FLARE detects conspicuous movements or noises and alerts first responders if necessary. The AI distinguishes between you (including your pets) and unknown people and acts accordingly. You can further enhance the FLARE’s capabilities by subscribing to one of BuddyGuard’s add-ons. These add-ons are BuddySIM (for when Wi-Fi is unavailable), BuddyReact (for automatic contacting the police and a live-stream to BuddyGuard’s monitoring center), BuddyCall (call and text alert in the case of unexpected activities), and BuddyCloud (cloud for the video material). The FLARE itself costs €449 and BuddyGuard markets it as products for B2C and B2B. BuddyGuard’s FLARE (Source) FLARE’s difficult positioning in a crowded market due to high price and low brand recognition FLARE’s main difference compared to alternatives is their AI. Other cameras have similar functionality. For instance, several are equipped with motion detection, animal- or voice detection. However, as none of them comes with AI technology,
byte heroes, HydroMiner, and Wysker — first ICOs in Austria and Germany
In the last couple of days four ICOs have been announced in the DACH-area: HEROCoin by byte heroes (Austria’s first ICO) H2O by HydroMiner wys by Wysker (Germany’s first ICO) CTD by Cointed Here I will cover HEROCoin, H2O, and wys. As Cointed was accused of fraud, it deserves a more detailed look and I will do so separately. ICOs in general, are a fascinating topic and I am equally excited that we have them now in Austria and Germany as well. In this post, I am going to focus on the white papers and only briefly touch upon the startups itself. Due to lacking regulations, there are no binding guidelines regarding what such a white paper should contain or a company-specific coin should be. However, what struck me was How little information about the current state the white papers provide: finances, competition, and market overview, for instance, are sparsely elaborated How little information about the future they present: wysker is the only company to provide measurable metrics for assessing progress (and these metrics are not the most useful ones) The lack of an economic model for the coins: I believe that the issued coin should be tied to the
Parce, pariot, and home-ix
In the last couple of days at least three German startups have made it into the news: parce pitched on Die Höhle der Löwen Pariot started their Kickstarter campaign Porsche invested in home-iX Parce During the Die Höhle der Löwen (DHDL) parce pitched their smart socket Parce Plus. It costs €49.90 and devices connected to it can be controlled through an app or Siri. They also have two smart light switches announced to ship March 2018 in the portfolio.[su_table] [/su_table]parce’s products from left to right: light switch Parce M1, light switch Parce L1, and socket Parce Plus (Sources: Parce M1, Parce L1, Parce Plus) The socket, which was the focus of the pitch, has pretty standard features; integration into HomeKit (no Android support, however), an accompanying app and power consumption logging. According to the TV pitch, their main differentiator is „Made in Germany“ and WLAN as the connection technology. However, on Indiegogo, where they raised money for their first socket Parce, they advertised more functions which centre around analytics. The Parce turns off devices based on usage or schedules, has price comparison for electricity included and recommends you ways how you can save money. But according to their website these features
Google’s Pixel Buds, Bragi, and the power of incumbents
Google introduced a range of new products during its hardware event including a set of wireless headphones called the Pixel Buds. Google Hardware event; presentation of Pixel Buds start at 1:23 Amongst other features, Pixel Buds support real-time voice translation through Google Translate. The earphones, however, do not do the actual translation work: Google told us that the earbuds are connected via Bluetooth to the smartphone, and that the smartphone microphone picks up the spoken words. It sends them over the cloud to Google’s data centers, where Google Translate produces a translation. It sends back the translated words in the form of speech to the phone, which transfers them back to the earbuds. — VentureBeat Thus, they are more about seamless user experience than technology (click the Bud and start talking vs. talking out your phone, opening the app and then talking). The announcement of wireless headphones should not come as a surprise. A Google patent from earlier this year showed that they might be working on something like that. Also, Samsung, Sony, Motorola, and Apple have similar products as well. Speaking of Apple, Apple’s AirPods are what comes immediately to mind when hearing about the Pixel Buds. And the
revolut, N26, and the future of banking
revolut, the app-based bank from Britain, started their operations in Germany and Austria on September 27. From their profile on SEEDRS Revolut is targeting consumers and businesses that are dissatisfied with their banks and other financial services for three main reasons: (i) lack of product innovation (ii) the expense of spending money abroad and (iii) fees to transfer money overseas. — SEEDRS The narrative is clear (this is important as I will show later on) and is well summarized in revolut’s claim: “ Revolut — The only account for your global lifestyle”. Concretely this means that you get fee-free purchase and withdrawals for 120 currencies, free money transfers of up to £5,000 per month and you can keep up to 26 currencies in the app which you can exchange without fees. Furthermore, they focus on user-friendliness through insightful spending overview (financial forecasting is planned), immediate balance update, splitting-bills between revolut-users, P2P credits, in-app credit card (un)blocking, instant money transfers and an in-app customer support chat bot. In terms of products you can either use a real or virtual credit card and they also offer an insurance for smartphones. In addition to free services, they have a premium version (6,99€/month) though which you