The German climate tech startup MAGNOTHERM, working on sustainable refrigeration technology, has just closed its seed funding round with an impressive €6.3 million. Funds will be used for the mass production of the world's first sustainable refrigerator, which already has a paying customer base. Extantia Capital led the round, with Hessen Kapital, Lauda Dr. R. WOBSER Beteiligungs-GmbH, and Revent also investing, along with four investors from the Better Ventures Angel Club. They're now planning to expand into the commercial refrigeration market, which is worth $37 billion.

SpinLab - The HHL Accelerator is part of the European initiative "Womenture", which aims to create an international support program for female founders. In cooperation withDesign Terminal(Hungary), Tehnopol(Estonia) and DEX Innovation Center (Czech Republic), a female founders program is being developed.

1.6 million people in Germany suffer from dementia and gradually lose their mental abilities. At the beginning of the disease, short-term memory and ability to remember are affected. In this pre-dementia stage, there are no approved medications in Europe yet. However, a combination therapy of exercise, memory training, social participation and a balanced diet can positively influence the course of the disease.

European VC fund Atomico led the round. The fund joined previous investors byFounders, Gradient Ventures, and Partech. Atomico Principal Andreas Helbig will join Digitail's board as part of the investment. According to Dealroom it is one of the largest Series A rounds in recent years in Romania’s young startup ecosystem. Digitail works with over 750 clinics worldwide, serving around 1.4 million pets.

Prodlane, the SaaS platform for data-driven product management in the manufacturing industry, has raised an EUR 760,000 pre-seed funding round. The round is led by a Swiss family office with an industrial background, with participation from S2S Ventures AG and several business angels from the industry, product management and HR. Prodlane will use the funding to expand its sales and development team and to enter the market.

Prodlane was part of the 13th SpinLab class and first SpinLab Summer School for diverse startups. Photo: Fabian Thüroff

California-based medical equipment company ResMed today announced the acquisition of  mementor. The first product "somnio of the e-health startup is Germany’s first and only permanently approved Digital Health Application (DiGA) in the field of sleep medicine. It’s also compliant with the European Union’s data protection requirements under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). With somnio, mementor has developed a scientifically based, digital solution for the treatment of sleep disorders that can be used on the smartphone. 

In a follow-up funding, SpinLab partner Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen (TGFS) increases its investment in the AI startup from Leipzig. Since 2018, TGFS has been supporting we.do-ai as financing partner. With Foodcall, the founders Dr. Sebastian Hecker and André Naumann created Germany's first intelligent voice chatbot for the gastronomy industry, which can take orders, reservations or other requests from callers in one fluid conversation.

The founders Philipp Omenitsch and Manuel Kraus first launched in 2019 with a chatbot for the US market, and then switched to an app certified by German health insurers: just 3 years later, the e-health startup successfully exited. Stresscoach app has been sold to KGA Inc. The US company helps organizations to create and sustain a healthy, engaged and productive workforce. Both parties have agreed not to reveal the acquisition price. Mental health problems are unfortunately still a taboo in our society and people have to wait very very long until they get professional support. That is where Stresscoach comes in - the first psychological chatbot in Germany. The app guides users through interactive, conversation-based therapy programs in which they develop the skills to cope better with anxiety and stress.

The next Summer School For Diverse Startups will kick off soon! This time we teamed up with the incubator HHL Digital Space. Diversity drives company success. That’s a result many studies have shown. Yet, diverse startups still lack access to networks and resources like funding. Our mission: more diversity, equality and inclusion in the startup world. Of course this cannot be achieved alone. It’s a major challenge that we must tackle together. We are extremely happy to have strong partners who support our important mission. As a partner we could win the city of Leipzig, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen.

EIT InnoEnergy, the world’s largest sustainable energy engine, has invested alongside Vireo Ventures and Raakwark Kaptaala in the energy startup suena to support the development of the trading platform for energy storages and renewable energies. The fresh capital will enable the team to rapidly increase the pace of product development and pilot project implementation to address the urgent need for innovative energy storage deployment solutions.

Today's energy system, which is largely based on the combustion of fossil fuels, is facing profound changes worldwide. The necessary technical solutions for implementing the energy transition, such as renewable energies and storage capacities, are already available. Currently, the greatest challenge is to optimise the interaction of these solutions. This is exactly where Suena comes in: Its cloud-based software uses state-of-the-art artificial intelligence methods to network energy systems with each other. In concrete terms, this means that they calculate an optimal schedule for each plant. The optimisation software suena opt makes it possible to use energy plants for multiple applications and to operate in different markets.

The startup takes a multi-use and multi-market approach here to maximise profit: "suena opt is a real-time operation and trading software that optimises the schedule of the energy plant portfolio for different applications and markets," explains co-founder Dr.-Ing. Lennard Wilkening. Applied to battery storage systems and energy parks (incl. wind & solar energy), the software optimises the deployment of the assets in real time based on forecasting models. This enables energy suppliers to react flexibly to market dynamics and facilitates the integration of renewable energies. This not only increases efficiency, but also cost-effectiveness, with the aim of accelerating the energy transition.