So little attention, so little hustle and bustle is unusual for the two fintech founders. Fabian and Jakob Scholz have started a new company under the radar. The “Welcome to Europe Group” has not shown much activity so far. The account created in March follows only one person on Twitter: Elon Musk. The website doesn’t reveal anything too specific, it’s about personnel consulting. “We build global teams” is written there in large English. interviews? The founders do not want to give at the moment.
That was different not so long ago, when the brothers literally pushed their way into the public eye. They wanted to set up the ETF app Rubarb from Hamburg. The two founders did not hide their prominent uncle, the German Chancellor: in press releases they were called the “Scholz nephews” and in interviews they criticized their uncle for his aversion to the stock market. And finances are “virtually in their blood”, they wrote – at the time Olaf Scholz was still finance minister. Rubarb’s plans didn’t work out, and a crypto pivot didn’t bring a breakthrough – the company slipped into bankruptcy. The fintech’s website has now been converted into an online sweepstakes generator.
After a trip to South America, the two founders are now daring to start over. Your “Welcome to Europe Group” has been entered in the commercial register since February. At the same time, the company advertises that it has worked with large “partners” such as Airbus, Eon, Celonis, Microsoft or BASF “over the years”. The list reads like a selection of the top companies from the old economy and tech world.
At the new company, Fabian Scholz learned from the problems with Rubarb, he recently said between the lines in a Linkedin post. He doesn’t want to build up any more regulated business areas, doesn’t want to focus on end customers – and plans to found a medium-sized company instead of “moonshots”.
At first glance, Rubarb wasn’t actually unsuccessful. According to their own statements, around 40,000 users have used the app. A total of five million euros flowed into the company, for example from the venture capitalist First Momentum. But Rubarb didn’t bring in the big income because the app was free to use. The breakthrough did not succeed. Rubarb filed for bankruptcy in July last year, and the Leipzig investment startup Evergreen took over the customers.
The Scholz brothers are now back with confidence. On the Welcome to Europe Group’s website, they write: “If there’s one thing we can do, it’s to hire the right people.” The company presents itself as an international specialist broker.
Founder Fabian Scholz has already commented on his new company on LinkedIn: “In Germany and Europe we can no longer find enough nursing staff.” You have to look to third countries. His new company has already built up a pool of “exactly such highly qualified nursing staff”. The startup would train these people in German and prepare them for life in Germany. “We take care of the entire process chain: from identifying the talents, through their further training, application and visa process, to relocation and aftercare here in Germany,” Scholz continues.
But how was the company able to come up with reference customers shortly after it was founded? Before they founded Rubarb, the Scholz brothers were already working with a digital headhunting agency in human resources management; they sold their startup Paltron in 2019. The references mentioned are likely to date from that time – but is that enough for offensive advertising?
After the request from “Finance Forward”, the companies disappeared from the website again, and no group confirmed a cooperation. For example, Teamviewer says: “We cannot completely rule out that there has been contact or discussions with the named company in the past, but we are not aware of any collaboration or partnership that would justify using our name as a reference.”
The article first appeared on capital.de.
