The one where Ocean Protocol's Bruce Pon showed up for the eChai Berlin launch at WeWork
Meanwhile, across eChai
Zeotap — Daniel Heer, Projjol Banerjea & Stephan Schwebe
** Founded 2014 in Berlin, Zeotap is a privacy-first Customer Data Platform (CDP) and customer-identity platform. Raised ~$117M total across 11 rounds (investors incl. SingTel Innov8, Liberty Global Ventures...
Alessio Borgmeyer" - **venue:** Berlin - **la:** 52.52 - **ln:** 13.405 - **desc:** Founded 2014, Jodel is a hyper-local, profile-free anonymous social feed that shows posts from users nearby — popular on university campuses. Raised ~$6.8M (backers include Quora/early-Facebook CTO Adam D'Angelo and Floodgate). Represents Berlin's consumer social-media/community scene. - **link:** https://jodel.com - **vertical:** ["Media"] - **stage:** Seed / early --- ## FLAGGED — NOT Berlin-HQ'd (excluded from count, listed for reference) - **Flightright — Philipp Kadelbach** — Legaltech (EU261 flight-delay compensation, no-win-no-fee, €200M+ enforced). **HQ = Potsdam, Brandenburg** (Berlin metro but not Berlin city). Founded 2010. Flagged per Berlin-HQ-only rule. - **EverReal — Liviu Ignat & Nessim Djerboua** — Proptech rental-transaction platform. **HQ = Munich**, not Berlin. Founded 2017. Excluded. - **GoStudent — Felix Ohswald & Gregor Müller** — Edtech 1:1 video tutoring, Europe's first edtech unicorn (~$3B). **HQ = Vienna, Austria**. Founded 2016. Excluded per task note. --- ## Notes - **Record count (Berlin-HQ verified): 20** — Gaming 4, Proptech 4, Legaltech 2, Edtech 4, HR-tech 4, Media 2. - **Indian-origin-founder flag:** None identified among these 20 companies. Founders are predominantly German, plus Icelandic (Klang), Spanish (Kenjo), and Dutch (Babbel co-founder Diepstraten). - **Relevant VCs seen repeatedly across these records:** Target Global, Earlybird, Project A Ventures, Cavalry Ventures, Notion Capital, Redalpine, HV Capital, Acton Capital, Northzone, Makers Fund, Novator, IBB Ventures / IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Axel Springer (strategic), Summit Partners, Tiger Global, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Sofina, Verdane, PropTech1 Ventures, Heartcore Capital, Global Founders Capital, Creathor Ventures. - Coordinates are locality-level; several companies use Berlin centroid (52.52, 13.405) where a specific district was not confirmed.
Founded 2014, Jodel is a hyper-local, profile-free anonymous social feed that shows posts from users nearby — popular on university campuses. Raised ~$6.8M (backers include Quora/early-Facebook CTO Adam D'An...
Naren Shaam [INDIAN-ORIGIN FOUNDER]
** Founded 2013 as GoEuro by Indian-born, Harvard-MBA entrepreneur Naren Shaam, Omio is a multimodal travel comparison/booking platform (trains, buses, flights, ferries). Rebranded to Omio in 2019 and acquir...
Tushar Ahluwalia, Christoph Gamon, Shrestha Chowdhury
Founded 2020, Europe's leading Amazon-FBA / e-commerce brand aggregator and 'consolidator of consolidators'. Raised $400M+ and reached unicorn status; in April 2023 acquired Berlin rival The Stryze Group, an...
Residential solar / clean-energy subscription unicorn — panels, storage, heat pumps and EV chargers on a rental model. Raised ~$1.5B (Oct 2024, largely debt) to scale German rooftop solar; one of Berlin's bi...
Valentin Stalf & Maximilian Tayenthal
Founded 2013 (as Papayer, incubated by Rocket Internet), N26 is Berlin's anchor neobank and Europe's most prominent mobile bank, with a full German banking license. It broke even and hit its first profitable...
Conversational-AI platform automating customer-service contact centres via voice/chat AI agents. Founded 2017; became a Berlin AI unicorn on the back of large 2024–2025 rounds. A leading European enterprise-...
Tamaz Georgadze, Frank Freund & Michael Stephan
Founded 2012 (formerly WeltSparen), Raisin runs Europe's leading savings & deposits marketplace plus ETF portfolios, providing open-banking infrastructure for the deposit market across 10 markets. Surpassed ...
Andreas Bittner & Marko Wenthin
Founded 2015, Solaris SE (renamed from solarisBank Nov 2022) is Europe's pioneering Banking-as-a-Service platform, providing licensed banking, cards and lending infrastructure to partners from Samsung to Viv...
Mobile neobroker (founded 2015) offering commission-free stock, ETF, crypto and savings products; a decacorn-tier fintech and Berlin's flagship consumer-finance startup, now expanding into full banking (IBAN...
Julian Teicke, Fabian Wesemann & Dario Fazlic
Founded 2015 and HQ'd in Berlin, wefox is a digital insurance broker/platform that reached a $4.5B valuation (2022) as one of Europe's largest insurtech unicorns. After a major 2024 restructuring it raised €...
Matthias Knecht & Christian Grobe
Founded 2016 by the ex-Zencap founders, Billie is Europe's leading B2B Buy-Now-Pay-Later platform, embedding invoice-payment/checkout financing for business buyers. Raised $100M Series C led by Dawn Capital ...
Alexander Emeshev & Artem Yamanov
Founded 2019, Vivid is a financial super-app that raised €100M Series C (led by Greenoaks, with SoftBank Vision Fund 2 & Ribbit) at a €775M valuation. In 2024–25 it pivoted from retail to SME business bankin...
One of Europe's most active early-stage VCs, founded 2012 in Berlin, managing ~€1.2bn AUM. Fund V (€325m) backs pre-seed and seed startups in AI, fintech, defence and supply-chain software with €1m–€8m first cheques, plus 100+ in-house o...
Founder-first seed VC founded 2012 by ex-Zalando operators Filip Dames, Christian Meermann and Daniel Glasner; raised a €300m fund and later a $500m platform. Invests early across climate, fintech, e-commerce and software with heavy foll...
Seed specialist founded 2008, laser-focused on B2B SaaS and B2B marketplaces with €0.5m–€5m tickets; raised a €180m seed fund. Over 65% of its seed bets reach Series A and 13+ have hit unicorn status. Portfolio includes Zendesk, Contentf...
B2B-focused early-stage VC founded 2019 by Robert Lacher (La Famiglia co-founder) and Sebastian Pollok, running paired seed and growth funds (€400m+ raised). Backed by a network of European family-office and unicorn-founder LPs. GP Judit...
Deep-tech VC founded 2020 by ex-Rocket Internet / HelloFresh / Mesosphere operators Ludwig Ensthaler, Florian Leibert and Alexander Kudlich; started with a €170m fund, now $1.3bn+ raised. Invests in AI & automation, infrastructure/enterp...
Multi-stage German VC founded 1997, ~€2.5bn AUM across seed–Series B (€0.5m–€15m cheques) in fintech, SaaS, digital health, deep tech and climate. Split across Berlin and Munich offices. Long track record includes N26, UiPath, Peak Games...
The anchor early-stage investor of Berlin, a joint venture of Axel Springer and Porsche launched in 2018. Originally a tailor-made accelerator, APX evolved into a very-early-stage (pre-seed) investor putting up to €500K into startups bef...
Berlin's pioneering corporate accelerator (2013-2017), a joint venture between publisher Axel Springer and Silicon Valley's Plug and Play. It was the first investor in more than 100 startups, most notably fintech unicorn N26. The program...
Techstars ran a flagship European accelerator in Berlin from 2015, plus the corporate METRO Accelerator powered by Techstars focused on hospitality, food and restaurant tech in partnership with wholesaler METRO AG. The three-month, mento...
Deutsche Telekom's tech incubator, founded in Berlin in 2012 and one of the oldest in Europe. It offers startups investment, coworking, mentoring and access to Telekom's infrastructure (5G, IoT, AI) and customer base, operating out of Be...
Berlin health-tech incubator (since 2019) supporting first-time founders in a 10-month program with equity-free scholarships of up to €80,000 per team (€2,000 per person per month), free coworking and a network of medical and tech expert...
Berlin arm of the global Startupbootcamp accelerator network, launched 2014, running programs in Smart Transportation & Energy and Digital Health. The three-month, cohort-based program provides mentorship, funding and office space plus a...
The iconic Berlin startup campus, opened 2014 in a former brewery on Rheinsberger Straße by the Berlin Wall Memorial, later expanding to a 14,000 sqm Görlitzer Park site (2018-2024). It hosted major members including Zalando, SoundCloud ...
Europe's first coworking space, founded in 2009, with its HQ and 'heart and soul' in Kreuzberg (plus a Moritzplatz location). A community of 500+ entrepreneurs, freelancers, makers and early-stage founders, known for its weekly betabreak...
The legendary founder café and 'homeoffice of Berlin startups,' founded in 2005 by Ansgar Oberholz and Koulla Louca as the world's first working café — years before coworking went mainstream. Housed in the historic 1898 Aschinger buildin...
Global boutique coworking operator with six design-led Berlin locations, including flagship spaces at the Hilton on Gendarmenmarkt, the historic Salingerhaus on Krausenstraße, Münzstraße in Mitte, Ku'damm in City West and a former paper ...
The global flexible-workspace giant operates several Berlin locations, most prominently at the landmark Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz, alongside sites across Mitte, Charlottenburg and Kreuzberg. Provides coworking desks, private offices...
Europe's largest mobility innovation community and marketplace, opened in 2019 (founder Timon Rupp) in the historic Ullsteinhaus with 10,000+ sqm. Home to 130+ mobility startups (early members include TIER, AIPARK and LiangDao), it offer...
Berlin's longest-running international startup community, started in 2011 as one of the city's first English-language startup meetups. Since late 2023 it runs the startup/venture-building arm of Fraunhofer HHI. Flagship events are the in...
Berlin chapter of the global Startup Grind community. Meets roughly monthly for fireside chats, panels (e.g. LegalTech, digital relocation) and free breakfast networking. Format overlaps closely with eChai's open-meetup DNA and is a natu...
Grassroots Meetup.com founder communities that run casual networking and (in the running club's case) social-fitness meetups for Berlin entrepreneurs. Low-friction, free formats that mirror eChai's walk-in ethos.
The single most relevant network for eChai's India↔Berlin thesis. A ~25-year Berlin Senate initiative connecting Berlin with Asian startup ecosystems (India, Japan, Sri Lanka, Korea, Thailand and more), running delegation trips, bridges ...
German chapter of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs), the global Indian-diaspora entrepreneur network (12,000+ members, 63 chapters, 16 countries). Runs mentoring and 'go-to-market in Germany from an Indian perspective' sessions, sometimes jo...
The largest German bi-national chamber abroad (est. 1956), the primary institutional channel for Indian and German companies entering each other's market. Runs startup-focused projects, market-entry (DEinternational) and the Indo-German ...
Danish entrepreneur based in Berlin who co-founded period- and cycle-tracking app Clue in 2012 (with Hans Raffauf, Moritz von Buttlar, Mike LaVigne). She is credited with COINING THE TERM 'FEMTECH' (c. 2016)...
Co-founders of Ooia, a bootstrapped femtech/sustainability brand making period underwear with an integrated membrane. A record-breaking crowdfunding campaign hit its goal within hours; ~30+ employees. The fo...
Founded sextech/e-commerce brand Amorelie in Berlin in 2013, scaling it into a mainstream household name before exiting. Now one of Germany's most visible female angels/operators and co-host (with Verena Pau...
Founder of kids' edtech studio Fox & Sheep and the HABA Digital Workshops, and since Dec 2023 Chairwoman of the German Startup Association (Startupverband) — the most prominent institutional voice for founde...
Co-founded Berlin digital agency 'Torben, Lucie und die gelbe Gefahr' (TLGG) in 2008. Became Germany's youngest female supervisory board member and is a high-profile keynote speaker and author campaigning fo...
Founder/CEO of Global Digital Women, a network and consultancy amplifying women and diversity in tech across the DACH region. Turkish-German entrepreneur, investor and one of the most-followed voices on fema...
The central district and the historic startup core: Silicon Allee's campus at Chausseestrasse, agencies, funds and a dense band of early-stage teams.
22 companies 1 investor 10 coworking
Strong in Fintech, Foodtech
The creative, international heart of the scene: the Merantix AI Campus sits here, alongside product, design and a lot of the newer AI cohort.
19 companies 4 coworking
Strong in Fintech, Edtech
The Mediaspree riverfront where Zalando and a row of tech HQs sit, the 'Silicon Spree' stretch of scaled-up Berlin companies.
4 companies
Strong in Ecommerce, Gaming
Answers about the Berlin startup scene
What does the startup ecosystem in Berlin look like?
Berlin is Europe's consumer-tech and fintech capital, commonly ranked the region's number two hub. Fintech runs on N26 and Trade Republic; the Zalando, HelloFresh, Delivery Hero and Gorillas quick-commerce big four were all born here; and there is real depth in mobility (Tier, sennder, GetYourGuide), climate and energy (Enpal), and a fresh pair of AI unicorns, Parloa and n8n. The vertical pages above map who is building what.
Is eChai active in Berlin?
Not yet. eChai lists Berlin as a chapter but it is currently dormant, with no track record of held meetups. This page is a map of the Berlin ecosystem and an open invitation to help re-activate eChai here, built around the India-Germany corridor. If you are a founder in Berlin who wants to convene the first meetups, that is exactly who this page is for.
Who are the top fintech startups in Berlin?
Berlin's fintech cluster is anchored by N26 and Trade Republic, with Raisin, Solaris and wefox alongside them, and a founder-factory of banking-infrastructure names like finmid and Payrails spun out of that first generation. See the Fintech vertical page above for the full, filterable list.
What is the Rocket Internet legacy in Berlin?
Rocket Internet was the Samwer brothers' company-builder that spun out Zalando, HelloFresh and Delivery Hero, among others. Its alumni now seed a generation of Berlin startups and funds (Cherry Ventures, Project A, Point Nine), a flywheel that still shapes who builds and who backs companies in the city today.
How does Berlin connect to India for founders?
Through a set of corridor bridges rather than a large founder diaspora. GINSEP, the German Indian Startup Exchange Program, and AsiaBerlin, the Berlin Senate's Asia-to-Berlin network, both run India-focused programming, and Foundamental is a Berlin fund with an Indian-origin GP and India as a core market. The Diaspora tab above maps the clean Indian-founder names here (Razor Group, Omio, Zeotap) and these bridges.
Where do founders network in Berlin?
At open meetups and festivals more than at conferences. Silicon Allee runs the city's longest-running international meetup and a Deep Tech Night; Startup Grind Berlin and grassroots Meetup groups fill out the calendar; and Tech Open Air, the GreenTech Festival and the AsiaBerlin Summit are the big annual moments. The communities section below lists them, and eChai is looking for founders to add open, free meetups back into that mix.
Who are the active VCs and investors in Berlin?
Berlin has a deep local bench: Project A, Cherry Ventures (backer of several unicorns) and Point Nine, plus climate funds World Fund and Extantia. On the cross-border side, Foundamental, GINSEP and Bertelsmann India connect Berlin capital and networks to India. The investors section above lists firms by type.
Which accelerators and incubators are in Berlin?
APX, the Axel Springer and Porsche accelerator that was N26's first backer, anchors the early stage, alongside the Merantix AI Campus for AI, Factory Berlin, The Drivery for mobility and the EXIST founder grant. The Rocket Internet company-builder legacy sits behind much of the older cohort. The incubators and coworking section above lists them by type.
What are the biggest startup events in Berlin?
Tech Open Air (TOA) in June is Berlin's signature interdisciplinary tech festival, known for dozens of community-run satellite events; the GreenTech Festival covers climate and energy; and the AsiaBerlin Summit in November is the flagship Asia-to-Europe innovation summit and the natural moment to activate an India-to-Berlin corridor. The communities section lists these and the recurring meetups.
How can I help re-activate eChai in Berlin?
eChai is free and open, and the Berlin chapter is dormant rather than built out. If you are a founder or operator in Berlin who wants to run the first candid, no-badge meetups, get in touch through the page. eChai would convene it around the India-Germany corridor, working alongside bridges like GINSEP and AsiaBerlin.
Want to help re-activate eChai Berlin?
eChai's Berlin chapter is dormant, and we are looking for founders to help start free, open meetups here, built around the India-Germany startup corridor. No membership, no fee. Get in touch and help convene the first one.
See upcoming Berlin events
