3 Hamburg startups that were successful with crowdinvesting
Crowdinvesting is a form of financing in which many small investors give money to a startup and hope to make a return on their investment. The method is popular as a supplement or alternative to financing from venture capitalists. The Hamburg startups heyconnect, besser zuhause and vilisto have already had great success with it.
heyconnect
A pioneer in crowd investing was the startup heyconnect, which acts as a service provider for e-commerce companies. In 2016, it launched the first venture debt campaign in Germany and raised over 900,000 euros. With venture debt, investors grant a loan for several years and receive a fixed interest rate plus a dynamic interest rate. In the case of heyconnect, the calculation worked out: in 2021, the startup already had over 100 employees and was able to start repaying its crowd. The logistics company FIEGE had taken over heyconnect a year earlier, but the brand still exists today.
besser zuhause
The increasing ageing of society poses major challenges for Germany. More and more people are in need of care, but do not want to leave their familiar homes. The startup besser zuhause helps people to convert their homes to make them more age-appropriate and to take advantage of all available subsidies. In order to expand its offering, besser zuhause initiated a crowdinvesting campaign in spring 2023 with a funding target of 1.5 million euros, which was achieved. However, it will not be clear until 2028 whether investors will be able to benefit from the 7% interest rate and 10% bonus interest that was announced. Crowdinvesting is by no means risk-free and can even lead to a total loss in extreme cases.
vilisto
In January 2022, vilisto made headlines with its crowdinvesting campaign. The original goal was to raise 1.5 million euros in a maximum of 30 days. In fact, this amount was reached after less than twelve hours. This was not least the reward for the startup's perseverance. In 2016, a crowdfunding campaign had failed, although the target at the time was only 120,000 euros. In the meantime, vilisto had done a lot for its product development and was able to win well-known customers for its smart radiator thermostats. The success continued in 2023 with a Series A financing round amounting to 5 million euros.
