Musician Joey Kelly (50) has a special TV appearance this Monday evening (April 17, 8:15 p.m., VOX, also RTL): In “Die Höhle der Löwen” he is the brand ambassador of “My Esel” whose founding duo Christoph Fraundorfer (38) and Heinz Mayrhofer (44) to the side. The two offer bicycles and e-bikes with wood composite frames and thus an individual adaptation of the models to the user.
Not only the member of the Kelly Family faces the investors’ ratings. Star chef Alexander Herrmann (51) and ex-soccer player and model Rúrik Gíslason (35) have also been announced as prominent visitors to season 13. They follow in the footsteps of a number of stars who have been part of the game in previous seasons.
Giulia Siegel (48) stepped in front of the lion round in 2021. Together with her partner, restaurateur Ludwig Heer (42), and developer Tobias Kiessling, she presented her start-up “Greenbill”. The company, founded in 2019, declares war on annoying and environmentally harmful paper receipts. Carsten Maschmeyer (63), Nils Glagau (47) and Dagmar Wöhrl (68) joined forces and actually grabbed “Greenbill” for an investment of 250,000 euros with an option for a further 150,000 euros. According to the “founder scene”, however, the investment did not materialize afterwards.
In 2022 Michael Ballack (46) was there. The former soccer star presented with his friend Bernhard Unger and the agricultural scientist Dr. Thomas Hüster proposed a biological plant strengthener called “Lucky Plant”. It consists of six wild herbs and is said to lead to more flowers for a longer period of time, as well as more robust lawns and higher yields. The men wanted 100,000 euros for 20 percent, Ralf Dümmel (56) finally bit with enthusiasm.
Fritz Grünewalt started with “FitterYOU”, an app with a fitness mat, in 2020 and was already able to present a prominent advocate: football professional André Schürrle (32) was enthusiastic about the concept via video message. Fritz needed 500,000 euros from the lions for ten percent of the company shares. However, the investors all got out in turn.
Actress Birte Glang (42), known from the “SOKO” series and “Unter Uns”, among others, and her husband, DJ and music producer André Tegeler (49), presented their product in 2020. Under the California sun, where the couple lived for six years, the idea and production of “Move it Mama” was born. This is a fitness program and app for pregnant women. They wanted 200,000 euros for their “baby” and offered 15 percent of the company shares. The lions liked the mother as a personality, but not as an entrepreneur. The subscription system with 50 customers at the time was not convincing.
Under the name “Luicella’s Ice Cream”, Luisa Mentele and former swimmer Markus Deibler (33) offered a powder mixture in 2017, from which an ice cream treat should be conjured up in no time. And indeed, all the lions liked the DYI ice cream. In the end, Frank Thelen (47) was awarded the contract. Deibler now operates several ice cream shops, and the Luicellas brand ice cream is sold in supermarkets throughout Germany.
The founders Johannes Bitter (40), German handball goalkeeper, and ex-hockey player Christian Monzel have invented an innovative two-component technology in which plant substances that are otherwise difficult to dissolve, such as ginger, ginseng or turmeric, are shot into the drink just before drinking. They offer their elixir under the “drinkbetter” brand. Ralf Dümmel and Carsten Maschmeyer offered 300,000 for 30 percent plus working capital and got the deal.
Martin Rütter (52) accompanied the inventors of “Ichò” to the cave in 2022. The reason for this is the painful experience that the dog trainer had with his mother, who was suffering from dementia. When Martin Rütter was shooting a report on this topic, he got to know the founders and their invention, a brightly colored training ball designed to help slow the progression of the disease. But there was no official study on its effectiveness. Reason enough for the lions not to invest.
Aleksey, violinist and conductor, founded “Music Traveler”, a platform that connects musicians with a space to make music. The founders also include the former pianist Julia Rhee. The team showed up in 2020 with prominent support from Hollywood’s star composer and Oscar winner Hans Zimmer (65), musician Billy Joel (73) and actor John Malkovich (69). But despite the prominent supporters, “Music Traveler” went away empty-handed.
Other prominent supporters are chef Christian Lohse (55), who pushed the raclette wok “DeWok” and founder Steve Müller in 2021 and was able to look forward to a deal with Ralf Dümmel together with him, and former German track cyclist Kristina Vogel (32 ). The athlete suffered a training accident in 2018 and has been paralyzed since then. In the cave she supported the developers of the wheelchair “Trivida”. Carsten Maschmeyer, Dagmar Wöhrl and Nico Rosberg (37) finally got together for 20 percent of the company’s share in the deal.
