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Issue #34 (09 Jan) – how much top earners make in Germany, what is cost of living in Berlin and a lot of trivia about a swamp that Berlin once was.
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Programming note: Happy new year! 🎉 Zwischen den Jahren was productive: I built a website, where you will be able to find all the published jobs in a database. Plus, I stopped neglecting social media, Twitter is first. We start 2023 with a poll.
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📢 Shoutout
There are several blogs for newcomers in Berlin. I found allaboutberlin.com especially well structured. It even has a page about buying weed, hah. Kudos to Nicolas. If you need anything related to Berlin, Nicolas has it.
🗞 Top inspiration snippets
Funding rounds are quiet. Let’s hope VCs come back to 2023 strong and healthy. Adding late December backlog.
🇩🇪 Berlin & Germany
Razor Group, a Berlin-based e-commerce aggregator, raised $70M. Careers.
Blacklane, a Berlin-based premium taxi service, raised undisclosed double-digit millions Series F. Careers. Btw, this is the only mobility business besides Free Now that Mercedes did not sell.
XXXLutz, the worst-named company ever selling furniture, acquired the majority of shares of home24 (over 90% at a 124% premium). Done deal pending antitrust check.
E-mobility startup Hopper from Augsburg started the production of their E-bike/mini-car. Very brave. Careers.
HelloFresh won’t be big in Japan. (=they are leaving the market after 8 months)
Fleet management is consolidating. (🇩🇪) US-based Battery Ventures bought Vimcar (Berlin) and Avrios (Zürich). Both have strong presence in Berlin.
Deutsche Bahn, frequently featured in handpicked, is looking to employ 25k people in 2023. Recession? What recession?
Numbeo released the cost of living index by cities for 2023. The top six EU positions are taken by cities in the promised land, Switzerland. Berlin is at #41/238, ranked 4th in Germany after Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt. If we look at restaurant prices, Berlin ranks #106, which means we get a lot of bang for our buck. Rents are cheapest in Tuzla, Bosnia and Niš, Serbia, closely followed by Odessa. Says a lot about Serbia and Bosnia, no?
💸 If you are single and earn more than 3850€ net monthly (🇩🇪) you are part of the top earners in Germany. Here is the calculator from IW Köln so you can see if you should laugh or cry.
😷 Masks on public transport will likely be no more from the 2nd of Feb. I have not noticed it at all, but BVG also reports they decreased the temperature in some trains (U6, 7, 8 and 9) from 19 to 15°C. It often feels more like 26°C, no?
Is there anything left to say about the NYE disaster in Berlin? Not really. If you want to see what the police need to deal with, you can read “Einsatz” tweets here. (🇩🇪) It is funny (or sad?); for example: “In einem Hotel in #PrenzlauerBerg versteht jemand nicht, dass er das Zimmer erst ab morgen gemietet hat.”
Ok, not done yet. A discussion about whodunnit is at some point always about “Migrationshintergrund.” This time police arrested 145 people (🇩🇪) of 18 different nationalities. 45 were German, 27 Afghan, and 21 Syrian. For 13 it is not clear where do they come from. Maybe they are all Slovenian? Police are still investigating how many of the 45 Germans have double citizenship. Imagine, there is a team looking for Uwes, Stephans and Peters because… media wants to know?
If you are tracking inflation in Berlin and somehow missed the latest data, here is an overview from Berliner Zeitung. (🇩🇪) It is slowing down, but this is mostly because of energy. Warm weather helps. “IN YOUR FACE, PUTIN,” screamed someone not worried about global warming f*ckup.
Ok, inflation cont’d. According to RBB, (🇩🇪) inflation hit vegans less. The price for Bio tofu and vegan something-resembling-minced-meat did not increase in 2022. Probably because all alternative producers struggled with pricing in general (shares of Beyond meat, Oatly and Co. were down up to 80% in last year).
Hard to believe but there is apparently a thing called “fake” jobs. A guy was hired, but actually, everything was faked (ofc in crypto 🙄). Be careful, but I also doubt that you are so gullible. Never pay for your own equipment, ok?
Say you founded a company. How much would you pay yourself? Miriam from Sifted has made a good summary and analysis. Cca 150k at Series A. Not bad, right? For more, here is some more data from Sifted based on analysis from (also) Berlin-based fund Creandum.
layoffs.fyi & other sources. Backlog from mid-December: Autodoc, Amazon, Salesforce, Back Market (93, 13%), Lendis (50%), Workmotion (60, 20%).
r/berlin choice of the week is TIL about Berlin being a swamp. A lot of useful information in the comments. Crowd intelligence at its best.
🇪🇺 Rest of Europe & UK (Top 4)
Watiff, a Bergen-based EV charging solutions provider, raised about €50M. Careers.
Qvantum, a Swedish heat pump supplier, raised €41M. Careers.
Volta Medical, Marseille-based MedTech, raised €36M Series B. Careers.
Perspectum, an Oxford-based medical imaging tools company, raised $36M Series C. Careers.
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🤓 Timeless and useful
I am not sure where you stand with “life-changing” habits, I am sceptical, but always enjoy reading a list. These 27 ideas for small changes could inspire you. Skip the intro. It is not on the list, but I started to write daily to-do lists with tiny/doable tasks. It’s great because I love to tick things off.
😅 Meanwhile
a guy ate too many Döners. Comments on r/ich_iel are cool as always.
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