Start-ups Meet Investors at EY in Düsseldorf - Review

On Tuesday, May 9th we had the pleasure to conduct and moderate the event "Start-ups Meet Investors" for the 2nd time in the beautiful Sky Lounge at the EY-Offices in Düsseldorf  in cooperation with EY and the Business Development Agency of Düsseldorf.

The event was part of the Startup-Week on Düsseldorf which was very successfully organized by the Business Development Agency in Düsseldorf and we had the honor that Thomas Geisel, Lord Mayor of Düsseldorf,  greeted us and welcomed the investors and Start-ups that had gathered in the Sky Lounge! He pointed out the business atmosphere that distinguished the event from many other meetings during the Startup-Week. He also pointed out how supportive and active the Business Development Agency in Düsseldorf is: eager to make Düsseldorf a welcoming home and productive location for companies! For direct questions interested companies are welcome to contact Daniel Adler: +49 (0)211 89-97688 

Titus Zwirner from EY opened the evening introducing briefly EY's great global network with 220.000 professionals ready to assist companies! EY is very active in the Start-up-Scene and is offering very competitive packages for young companies. Since nothing is more expensive than early mistakes in structuring a company we highly recommend talking to EY! Titus Zwirner: +49 (0)221 2779 21472

8 Start-ups presented their businesses to a group of distinguished investors from VC-Firms, Family Offices and from the Business Angel Network. Here is just a quick summary of the businesses looking for investment - in case of interest we are more than glad to connect you directly with the companies: 

Clevershuttle

CleverShuttle is a cheaper and environmentally friendly ride-sharing car service.

  • Customer benefit: 50% cheaper than taxis, CO2 neutral and quiet thanks to electric vehicles
  • USP: ride-sharing to increase capacity utilization and efficiency

The IT system recognizes when customers are booking similar routes, bundles them in real time and guides the driver without any major detours. Moreover, Clevershuttle is currently operating the only approved ride-sharing model in Germany.

doob group

The doob group AG and its strategic partner, a Technology Group, plan the rollout of Mass produced self-scanning low-cost and Small footprint scanners in the near future and worldwide. The business model behind is a fully automated platform model and serves the marketing of digital human data. Currently the sale of individual 3-D printed characters is the most important revenue stream for the company;  the transformation to become a Data Broker opens further commercialization opportunities. 

KENKOU GMBH

The company KENKOU (jap. for health) was founded in October 2014 in Bochum. The company operates in Berlin and Bochum. KENKOU GmbH specializes in the topic of e-health and develops software and hardware in the field of cardiovascular measurement: The system “KENKOU Y”  is a Cardio-Tracker 4.0 (Smart-Patch) with an integrated check-up system, artificial intelligence (AI), and continuing coaching Program. “KENKOU Y” uses accurate and relevant medical data (eg, ECG) and transforms these into consumer-oriented products. “KENKOU Y” shows your health-status,  explains your problem zones and helps you to improve. 

Nexolink

Nexolink offers its customers a solution that can be used to trigger orders for consumables or recurring services simply by pressing a button. For this purpose, they have developed a combination of hardware and software that works completely independently of an existing infrastructure (via mobile network) and can be easily integrated into existing customer systems (shop, fulfillment partner, etc.). The solution is interesting for all companies that offer recurring products or services.
Nexolink is currently working on various products in this area, of which the first ones have already been delivered and will be available in the coming months in relevant quantities for the final consumer. Project examples are:

  • Order coffee capsules at the push of a button
  • Lotto play at the push of a button
  • Order of the favourite meal by the push of a button 

shipcloud GmbH

Easy to use cloud based shipping platform - solving retailers' problems. Thanks to the advanced and award winning technology, shipcloud is part of the digitizing revolution that is imminent in the logistics sector. And one of the hotspots of the DACH start-up scene according to Oliver Wyman—on its way to become what stripe is for payment: the Shipping Service Provider. The modern RESTful API is designed to be connected to the customers’ shop-/ERP-systems very easy, saving time and money. shipcloud is even pre-integrated into 33 shop-/ERP-systems, allowing for a plug-and-play connection and automated national and international shipping within minutes. TAM of more than 5 billion shipments per year in Europe with online shopping growing by six percent year by year. Sales potential of more than 3 billion consignments shipped by our main customer group of SME web shops. Targeted SOM of 60 million shipments per year. 

VAT4U GmbH

Fintech / SaaS / B2B: automated recovery of  VAT paid abroad. • By means of VAT4U, companies can quickly and easily recover the VAT paid for travelling expenses in more than 30 countries. This can add up to 27% of the total expenses. VAT4U currently serves over 100 paying customers. These are classic European SMEs and multinationals (e.g. Robert Bosch Group). VAT4U also offers its platform to traditional VAT-refund-specialists  as an "Operating System "(e.g. UVS Inc./USA, Opti Inc./Japan). 

Vehiculum

VEHICULUM is an Automotive / Fintech offering car fleet management for SME's. The core of such management is efficient sourcing of leasing cars: this means offering SME's a digital platform which compares credit terms across all leasing banks (including the captives or 'OEM Banks') and discounts offered Germany-wide with only a few clicks. Ordering takes a few more clicks, irrespective of which dealer delivers the car from anywhere in Germany. USPs are: 

  • the real-time showing of monthly rates from captives
  •  cross brand comparison based on individual requirements

Welect

Welect changes the advertising world fundamentally. Welect lets its users freely decide if and which advertising they want to watch. Advertising via Welect always offers an immediate added value for the user. Welect is thus becoming a micro-payment service, which does not involve money but payment by attention. Welect is based on an independent platform like Paypal which can be integrated into existing applications by SDK.

All companies had best chances to talk directly with the present investors during the break and the get together after the presentations – by the way during a beautiful sunset!

If you are interested in contacting the companies don't hesitate to contact us: [email protected]