eu-startups podcast

For episode 23 of the EU-Startups podcast we had the chance to interview Michael Cassau, CEO and Founder of Grover. Michael is somewhat of a visionary entrepreneur, he has a background as an Investment Professional at Goldman Sachs and was Managing Director at Rocket Internet between 2014 and 2015 before launching Grover. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Berlin, Grover brings the freedom of renting to consumer electronics – making technology accessible to everyone, by enabling people to subscribe to tech products monthly instead of buying them. Grover is paving the way for a new era of tech ownership - one that is based on financial equity for consumers, that is less harmful to the planet, and takes on the growing e-waste problem. In July 2021, Grover took home it's most recent mega funding round of €847 million. Needless to mention that Grover has already reached unicorn status.

For episode 22 of the EU-Startups podcast we had the chance to interview Marie-Helene Ametsreiter, General Partner of Speedinvest. Marie-Helene is a renowned business personality and has been a trailblazing woman in the Venture Capitalist space. Now General Partner at Speedinvest, she is the lead partner of the Speedinvest Industrial tech team as well as a mum of two.

For episode 20 of the EU-Startups Podcast we interviewed Refurbed Co-founder Peter Windischhofer.  Headquartered in Vienna and founded in 2017, Refurbed is one of the world’s fastest growing online marketplaces for refurbished products. Refurbed tests and renews electronics (laptops, mobile phones, etc.) in up to 40 steps, to make them effectively functioning like their new counterparts. Being up to 40% cheaper with a minimum 12-month warranty included, Refurbed makes purchasing sustainable devices easy, affordable and risk-free. In August of this year, the fast-growing startup raised €45.4 million in Series B funding, which brought their total funding to €63 million.

For episode 19 of the EU-Startups Podcast we interviewed serial entrepreneur and investor Phil Libin. Among other companies, Phil founded Evernote, and more recently mmhmm (All Turtels).   Born in the Soviet Union, Phil grew up in the US, and today is one of the world's most prominent tech entpreneurs. His latest venture mmhmm is a new app created during the pandemic that makes video communication more clear and fun. For mmhmm Phil was already able to raise about $140 million. The list of prominent investors also includes Softbank's vision fund.

For episode 18 of the EU-Startups Podcast we interviewed serial entrepreneur and investor Lukasz Gadowski.  Lukasz is kind of a living legend of the German and European startup ecosystem and co-founded big success stories like Delivery Hero and helped building many other European tech companies. Delivery Hero, today is a publicly traded company and has a market cap of around €30 billion. As angel investor and through holding companies like Team Global (formerly Team Europe), Lukasz also invested in many of Europe's most exciting startups of today, like Volocopter, Choco and Enpal.  By the way: Lukasz also co-founded the German startup magazine Gruenderszene many years ago, which inspired me to eventually create EU-Startups back in 2010.