Germany is known for its quality engineering in heavy industry and automobiles—not for start-ups. At least, not outside the nascent tech scene in Berlin.
But several new German hardware-centered startups are raising significant cash on crowd-funding websites, drawing fresh attention to the promise of good ol’ fashioned German engineering know-how. Bragi GmbH is a Munich start-up with plans to make in-ear wireless headphones that can store their own songs as well as monitor the body’s heart rate and physical performance. It has very quickly raised over $3.3 million on Kickstarter.
The Dash, as the headphones are called, also promise to be able to translate foreign languages in real time.
According to rankings on Kickstarter, the campaign is the largest donation-based funding drive by a European start-up to date —a milestone for the German tech scene.
Aydo Schosswald, co-founder of hy!, an event-based forum and network for European tech start-ups, says Germany has many well-educated electrical and mechanical engineers increasingly striking out on their own. Many German universities have strong engineering schools, and there’s almost always a surfeit of well-educated graduates looking for work.
The Dash isn’t alone. A search on crowd-funding sites for German hardware campaigns brings up a bevy of innovative geekery.
LUUV, a plug-and-play video-image stabilizer for smartphones and GoPro cameras, has raised $46,000 of its $50,000 goal on indiegogo, another popular crowd-funding platform in Germany. Users can hold the LUUV in their hands while moving, and the attached camera will produce a stable, unshaken video.
Panono, which makes a throwable, panoramic camera ball that snaps pictures in all directions at once, also proved successful on indiegogo, maxing out at $1.2 million, past the company’s initial ask of $900,000.
Tinkerbots, lego-like, connected robotic toys, made by Berlin startup Kinematics, is raising money fast toward its stated goal of $100,000.
But there are risks to crowd-sourced campaigns like Bragi’s: Donation-based pledges are not equity stakes in the company or its technology, but rather pre-orders for a particular product. Despite their promise, none of these campaigns has delivered a marketable product yet.
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