In the light of COVID-19 pandemic, over half a million businesses in Germany have opted for short-time work aka ‘Kurzarbeit’. Which means temporary reduction of the regular working time as it minimises the personnel costs despite other benefits such as maintaining workforce and preventing layoffs.
Previously, Germany’s economy ministry stated that there will be no jobs lost due to the pandemic. Contradictory, unemployment has risen drastically surpassing the global recession in 2008. German unemployment is estimated to rise beyond 3 million in 2020 as the pandemic strains the economy and removes more people from their work. An IAB research claims that the expected economic output of Germany is all set to shrink by 8.4% this year, making it the worst recession after World War II.
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The travel industry is the worst hit during the crisis resulting in many layoffs across professions. As a result, the Berlin-based travel tech startup Omio which has been in news for its innovative ways to cope up with the pandemic has also now cut down on hiring efforts. Boris Radke, the Director Corporate Affairs at Omio told Silicon Canals that, “Majority of Omio is still on Kurzarbeit. During that period we have cut down our hiring efforts to a minimum and only focus on a few strategic positions in the meantime. We hope to resume hiring as soon as global travel kicks back in!”.
Looking at the bright side, some of the leading tech startups in Germany are hiring better than never before. Neufund is one such tech startup. On this, Ula Lachowicz, General Manager & VP of Marketing at Neufund states, “The pandemic has inspired us to move forward faster, accelerate all the processes and speed up the platform’s development. Just recently, we’ve introduced a new onboarding experience, automated identity verification process, impact reporting feature and continue improving the overall experience for investors on Neufund. We have lots of projects on our roadmap and are looking for professionals, which would help us keep and step up the tempo.”
This shows that businesses might have slowed down in the recent months but companies are continuing to focus on their clients, their growth plans and survive the crisis. At some point in time, the crisis will end and mostly the companies want to stay prepared for all the challenges so that they can pick up with the pace.
So if you’re looking for a job in Germany or maybe your friend or family is, we have compiled a confirmed list of tech startups that are hiring right now. Hope this helps!
Neufund
Founder/s: Marcin Rudolf, Zoe Adamovicz
Founded year: 2016
Funding: €12 million
This blockchain startup from Germany, which is a fundraising platform making blockchain-enabled fundraising a reality for every founder, as mentioned earlier is hiring during the crisis.
Lachowicz adds, “We always have first interviews remotely, via video calls, so there is no difference compared to the beginning of the year. Our team works from home now, but our office is fully prepared (in terms of distance, cleaning, additional sanitizers) for safe offline meetings if needed.”
Neufund, an innovative blockchain startup is the first one in its industry in the world to close an IPO. Berlin-based company is involved in the digitisation of real-world equity into blockchain-based tokens that bring a slew of benefits such as programmable functions, automated compliance, increased liquidity, and full transparency.
Tier Mobility
Founder/s: Lawrence Leuschner, Julian Blessin, Matthias Laug
Founded year: 2018
Funding: €118 million
The Berlin-based micro-mobility startup Tier Mobility is another hot startup from Germany, which is like a dream place of work for. The quite popular mobility startup specialises in e-scooter rentals and operates in 55 cities across 11 countries. Aspiring to expand its vehicle fleet, Tier secured an additional $40 million (nearly €35.6 million) to its Series B funding earlier this year.
The company’s spokesperson confirmed to Silicon Canals that they are also hiring right now. You can check out open positions at the micro-mobility startup by clicking here.
N26
Founder/s: Valentin Stalf, Maximilian Tayenthal
Founded year: 2013
Funding: €711 million
This digital banking startup is one of the most valuable fintechs in Europe and offers current accounts and facilitates customers with Maestro Card and Debit MasterCard. Georg Hauer, N26’s General Manager of DACH confirmed that the Berlin-based fintech is hiring and says, “As a dynamic and agile global business, N26 continues to see the need for talent in numerous business divisions, even in a world disrupted by COVID-19.
Many of these roles require specific functional expertise that is essential to help achieve our growth ambitions, especially at a time where digital banking is more relevant than ever. This is why we have chosen to continue to invest strategically in our team, especially where there continues to be a clear business need and market opportunity.”
Commenting on the hiring process he adds, “As a global business with a workforce of over 80 nationalities and digital technology in our DNA, remote recruiting has been an everyday part of our hiring process at N26, even before the pandemic. We have always used video interviews as an important part of recruitment, just as we use digital collaboration tools as part of our everyday work. While very little changes in our interview process, we did make small adjustments to our onboarding in order to help new hires continue to quickly build the connections with the team and the business that are crucial in a dynamic and agile workplace like ours.”
If you are interested in working for this stellar digital banking startup, then you can check open positions over here.
Zenloop
Founder/s: Lukasz Lazewski, Björn Kolbmüller, Paul Schwarzenholz
Founded year: 2016
Funding: €5.5 million
Berlin-based startup Zenloop is one of the hottest and the fastest growing SaaS startups in Germany. Back in 2019, Zenloop secured €5.3 million funding led by Nauta Capital and Piton Capital. The company stated that this funding will be used for its global expansion and its growth within Europe. Also, it will also focus on doubling its team size with the same.
When checked, Silicon Canals got a confirmation from the Zenloop spokesperson that they are also currently hiring. You can apply for a vacant position at Zenloop by clicking here.
Oculavis
Founder/s: Markus Große Böckmann, Martin Plutz, Philipp Siebenkotten
Founded year: 2016
Funding: €2.5 million
Based in Aachen, scaleup Oculavis offers an AR based approach to simplify customer service in the manufacturing industry.
In late 2019, Oculavis was awarded the winner of EIT Digital Challenge in the Digital Industry category among 279 scaleups and is also working on COVID-19 solution to fight the crisis. The award-winning startup aims to expand its footprint in the European market and grow in France and Italy where it might set up new offices. The company’s founder and managing director Martin Plutz confirmed to Silicon Canals that they are hiring and job vacancies are put up over here.
Homelike
Founder/s: Christoph Kasper, Dustin Figge
Founded year: 2014
Funding: €16.7 million
Cologne-based Homelike is a B2B booking platform for furnished apartments. Homelike let’s companies and executives offer their employees the privacy and comfort of their home while they embark on long business trips at around 40% lesser costs than traditional hotel accommodation.
When asked about whether the German company is hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic, co-founder Dustin Figge confirmed to us that they are hiring right now and are also looking for a Country Head DACH region. Those interested, can check out job openings at Homelike from here.
Zenjob
Founder/s: Cihan Aksakal, Frederik Fahning, Fritz Trott, Stephan von Perger
Founded year: 2015
Funding: €50.3 million
Berlin-based digital staffing service Zenjob is involved in supplying student employees to large and medium-sized businesses in retail, logistics, and office work. The company introduces new customers digitally to the process and lets them order staff via its online booking platform. With Zenjob’s Job Candidate Matching service, students can find a job near them the very same day.
Back in March this year, Zenjob also secured nearly €27 million Series C funding from Forestay Capital along with a slew of existing investors. With this investment, the digital staffing platform intends to back its expansion into more cities in Germany. Fueling its expansion, a Zenjob spokesperson has confirmed to us that they are hiring both student jobs and experienced professionals. You can check out their website to know the current job openings.
Penta
Founder/s: Aleksandar Orlic, Igor Kuschnir, Jessica Holzbach, Lav Odorovic, Luka Ivicevic, Sir Gabriel Holbach
Founded year: 2016
Funding: €35.7 million
Penta, a Berlin-based fintech platform for business banking is one of other leading startups in Germany. This fintech startup automates bank accounts and invoices and offers online cashless banking services to startups and SMEs. Based in Berlin, Penta has offices in Belgrade and Milan too.
Earlier this year, this startup bagged €18.5 million in the first closing of a new funding round backed by RTP Global, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures and other investors. Pento is in plans to use the latest investment to develop its platform and is eyeing to expand into other European markets. Luka Ivicevic, Penta’s co-founder informed us that they’re ‘aggressively hiring right now, as business has never been better.’ Check out their positions over here.
Luminovo
Founder/s: Sebastian Schaal, Timon Ruban
Founded year: 2017
Funding: €2 million
Luminovo started out in 2017 as an AI engineering company that has developed state-of-the-art AI solutions for more than a dozen major corporations. Its core technology helps automate repetitive processes across industries based on images and text. Starting in late 2019, Luminovo is focused on developing innovative solutions to simplify and accelerate electronics design and manufacturing.
Silicon Canals got a confirmation from their spokesperson that they are also hiring right now. And, here is a link that you should check out for suitable job openings.
Personio
Founder/s: Hanno Renner
Founded year: 2015
Funding: €119 million
Munich-based all-in-one HR software platform Personio has also informed Silicon Canals that they are hiring for all their offices located in Munich, London, Dublin, and Madrid. You can check out for openings from the company’s website.
Personio works with the mission to make HR processes transparent and efficient so that HR can focus on the most valuable assets – the people in the company. Earlier this year, Personio secured nearly €67.5 million funding led by Accel and other investors to expand into additional markets across Europe. They also confirmed that the funding will be used to double the number of employees from 350 to 700 by the end of this year.
Martina Ruiss, Head of HR at Personio says, “Although businesses in general have slowed down in the past few months, we continue to develop our software so that we can offer our clients a strong product and be a reliable partner. Therefore, we are especially focusing on hiring for our Product & Engineering team. Furthermore, we continue our European expansion (besides our four offices we also have country managers for Benelux and the Nordics to drive our business in these markets, too) and have just opened (though not physically yet due to Covid-19) a new office in Dublin for which we’re also looking for talents for driving our mission of becoming Europe’s leading HR software for SMB’s.”
“At the moment, we recruit remotely only. This means that all interviews as well as the onboarding takes place via video conferencing. We’ve already conducted remote interviews before Covid-19 but now it’s the first time that we actually hire and onboard people who we’ve never seen in person before”, Ruiss concludes.
Are you also a Germany-born startup and hiring during the pandemic and missing in the list? Let us know at [email protected], we will put your message across.
Main image picture credits: Penta
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