It isn’t Silicon Valley but old Europe still has a few interesting things going on in the startup world. I went around to search for startups in Germany and around. I looked particularly for companies doing Software as a Service.
It features where the companies are based and what service they provide. It is by no means comprehensive, just enough to tease those pessimists that say nothing is going on in Europe. Here is the list I came up with, feel free to comment about other interesting startups you know about:
- Babbel – by Lesson Nine GmbH, in Berlin – online platform for teaching languages.
- Jimdo – by Jimdo GmbH, in Hamburg – online platform for website creation.
- ScaleUp – by ScaleUp Technologies GmbH, in Hamburg – online cloud computing platform.
- TripWolf – by tripwolf GmbH, in Vienna – travel tips from professional travel writers.
- fatfoogoo – by fatfoogoo AG, in Vienna – in-game commerce ecosystems for the monetization of online games and virtual worlds via microtransactions.
- yigg – by YiGG GmbH, in Munich – social news website with features such as discussion boards, map integration, bookmarking and geotagging.
- papermint – by Avaloop IT Solutions GmbH, in Vienna – virtual world with casual gaming and social networking.
- wooga – by wooga GmbH, in Berlin – social games for networks like Facebook.
- absolventa – by Absolventa GmbH, in Berlin – online platform that allows companies/recruiter to view the resumes and contact graduating students.
- Venyoo – by venyoo GmbH, in Hamburg – one of the leading event calendars in Germany.
- Communipedia – by ekaabo GmbH, in Weinheim – service developed to help people build a social identity to take on the web.
- Xing – by XING AG, in Hamburg – social software platform for enabling a small-world network for professionals.
- Studivz – by VZnet Netzwerke Ltd., in Berlin – social network platform. Studivz.net is very similar to Facebook, but primarily focuses on the German speaking market. The company was sold to Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH, a German publishing group, for €85 million [1] in January 2007.
- Opportuno – by Opportuno GmbH, in Munich – job search engine that specializes in finding jobs directly on employers’ web sites.
- FriendCaller – by C2Call GmbH, in Werl, near Cologne – browser based Java VoIP service. Which has recently received funding from High-Tech Gründerfonds [2].
[1] – http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/03/german-facebook-clone-sells-for-e100-million
[2] – http://www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de/htgf/
I think there are a lot of potential in Europe. Keep us updated on the rest of Europe.France has a lot of startups too. Anyway thanks for the heads up in Germany.
Hi Nuno – Thanks for including @scaleup in your list of interesting startups going on in Europe. After spending almost 14 years in the US startup world and the past year here in Germany, I agree with you… Europe is producing exciting some companies right now!
Let us know if we can ever provide any insights or support as you grow your company. We love supporting founders of startups – especially those right here in Germany!