Wired UK – September 2019

BY CHRIS STOKEL-WALKER

BERLIN

083

Relayr

Founded by Harald Zapp,

Jackson Bond, Michael

Bommer and Paul

Hopton, Relayr allows

industrial devices to

interact with each other,

even analysing data to

flag when machines need

repairing. In 2018, the

startup was acquired

by re-insurance group

Munich Re at a valuation

of $300 million, readying

the company for

further growth. relayr.io

MOTOR AI

Funded through the

European Union’s Horizon

2020 research programme,

MOTOR AI improves

the decision making of

self-driving vehicles

by analysing footage,

captured on car-mounted

cameras, of “edge

cases” – real-life driving

incidents such as near-

misses, unpredictable

car movements and

pedestrian interaction

with roads. motor-ai.com

Peat

Set up by a team of

six, including plant

pathologist Alexander

Kennepohl and

geobotanist Simone

Strey, Peat’s main

agtech product, Plantix,

uses machine learning

to identify and advise

farmers on the health of

their plants. The firm has

raised €5.6 million over

three funding rounds

since it was founded in

2015. peat.technology

Ocean Protocol

Ocean Protocol has

generated buzz for

enabling secure,

encrypted data

communication that can

be monetised – think

about how the data

generated from your

car while driving could

be sold to insurance

companies. After a

disappointing initial

exchange offering in May,

share value has surged.

oceanprotocol.com

This meal-box delivery

service has expanded

to 11 markets since its

founding in Berlin in

2011 by Dominik Richter

and Thomas Griesel.

They no longer pack the

bags themselves – its

popularity means it

annually delivers nearly

55 million meals to

two million households

worldwide. hellofresh.com

The German capital is one of Europe’s most

cosmopolitan startup hubs, says Julien Fredonie,

the head of strategic venture partnerships in

Europe for Honda’s Xcelerator programme: “It’s

a city that attracts people. It’s affordable, and

there’s a spirit of creativity here.” The cost of living

has gone up over time, but Berlin still remains

cheaper than Paris or London, and has everything

young entrepreneurs could desire. Famous for its

e-commerce founders, Berlin has diversified in

the last two years, with a new generation of adtech,

BERLIN fintech, AI and Internet of Things (IoT) startups.

Te r a k i

HelloFresh

Physics PhDs Daniel

Richart and Markus

Kopf set up Teraki back

in 2014 – the company

helps IoT devices run

faster by qualitatively

analysing performance

by using algorithms, then

crunching down the data

streams so they run up

to ten times faster. Teraki

raised €2 million earlier

this year. teraki.com

FreightHub

FreightHub applies

algorithms and cloud-

based data-driven tech

to the global freight

industry. It’s 150 staff

work in Hamburg,

Cologne, Hong Kong

and Porto – expansion

enabled by more than

$53 million of funding,

including $30 million in

a recent series B round.

freighthub.com

TIER Mobility

Founded in 2018, TIER’s

e-scooters can be hired

in 20 cities across ten

European countries –

though due to challenges

with regulation, it only

launched in Germany in

June 2019. The company

is growing fast, with

more than a million rides

by April 2019 – success

that has attracted €32.4

million in funding. tier.app

N26

Maximilian Tayenthal

and Valentin Stalf’s

digital bank, N26, tripled

its customer numbers

in 2018, reaching 2.5

million in 24 countries.

It also secured $300m

• the largest private
  equity investment for
  a European fintech
  company – in January
  2019, valuing the firm at
  $2.7 billion. n26.com

Rasa

With offices in Berlin and

San Francisco, Rasa is

reinventing the chatbot

market, and has raised

$14m from investors so

far. “We’re building the

standard infrastructure

layer for conversational

AI to create the best

text- and voice-based

AI assistants,” says

co-founder Dominik

Rosenkranz. rasa.com

WHERE TO VISIT

Spreepark,

Kiehnwerderallee

1-3, 12437

Up your Instagram

game at this abandoned

theme park in the

Treptow-Köpenick

district. Built in 1969,

the east-German

GDR-era attraction was

abandoned a decade

ago. Guided tours run

on weekends in

strict timeslots.

52.5200° N, 13.4050° E

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