Just surprised these start-ups got financed. Surprise or not?

3 innovation and digital news in 1 minute. Every Monday. Episode 282

News 1. Snoop Dogg in Frankfurt — Cansativa

The American rapper and its Casa Verde investment fund regularly invest into cannabis-related businesses. Today in Cansativa, a distribution platform for legal Cannabis product to pharmacies in Germany. Cansativa is exclusively distributing German-grown plants. A $15 million invest right before legalisation of cannabis distribution in Germany. Opinion: Casa Verde is moving into geographies where cannabis is a growing market or opening regulation. They also invested in Berlin based Sanity Group; research, development and distribution of cannabinoid products. However both Cansativa and Sanity have very unspecific websites, adding to a confusion of perception.

Germany is the new cannabis Eldorado?

News 2. 300 millions for Branch — too large of an amount

Branch is a typical co called ad-tech company, a platform where advertisers can centrally manage their advertising campaigns. Amazing in an era where cookies and data are being regulated, by states, by Apple. Branch is above all for mobile — a competitor to (in Europe more well-known) Adjust. Opinion: Branch is a kind of link between an app and all the other channels — search, ads, affiliates, e-mails, newsletters. Branch is behind large apps like Revolut, Reddit or Auto Scout 24. Backed by New Enterprise Associate only and based in the Silicon Valley (Redwood City). Branch? Cookie management, but a typical rhetoric of start-ups “enterprise-grade solutions designed to increase end-to-end user engagement”.

Branch with an over-investment to gain a market leader position?

News 3. boxy $25m for a container shop

It’s called micro-retail — a shop in a shipping container with a small assortment and with automated check-out. This is what boxy is building. With a 25 million financing (30m in total). It will help to roll-out the container system. boxy has been testing the format “container” for nearly 4 years. and now a scale-up is ahead. Opinion: boxy has 250 SKUs (products) in a container. Customers need the boxy (yes with a small b) app, register and can shop checkout-free in the container. 20 boxy containers are available in the northern, eastern Paris suburbs. boxy is in a way a large vending machine — product shelves are equipped with sensors that measure the “taking and putting” of products.

boxy with a slow start but a very promising new financing.

Author is the research team (10 trend scouters) at specialist Space and Lemon Innovations (Hamburg, Berlin) — scouting innovations in main tech geographies, AI development, virtual worlds and e-commerce. Excerpts of research are gathered here in original weekly news since 2016, always with an opinion — no re-write of TechCrunch.

Come back next Monday and share your opinion.