The start-up "Datapods" has secured ¤500,000 in funding in a pre-seed financing round. "Datapods" was founded in 2024 by University of Bonn alumnus Lukas Stein, along with Jakob Endler, Finn Rübo, and David Goldschmidt.
The company offers a solution that provides greater transparency and control over personal data, as well as a better understanding of target audiences and their behavior. It is developing an app that allows users to easily request, manage, and understand the data collected about them by various services. This is intended to help users regain control over their own data and more easily exercise their privacy rights. In addition, Datapods is building an autonomous AI platform that enables product and marketing teams to better understand their target audiences using this data. Users are then compensated for each use of their information.
AI Enhances Customer Insights
"Our Datapods agent can provide insights into customer insights - ranging from ad impressions and search queries to purchasing decisions," explains co-founder Lukas Stein, who studied economics at the University of Bonn. The platform relies on its own first-party data panel, which ensures that the data is accurate and authentic. Co-founder David Goldschmidt adds: "We are convinced that you need the best data to make the best decisions. That’s why we are building Datapods’ autonomous agent based on the highest dimensionality behavioral dataset ever assembled."
The new AI agent will be further expanded with the investments raised. Various institutions and business angels are participating in the financing, including executives from major corporations such as Meta and Falke.
Start-up from Bonn
The four founders of Datapods are from Bonn and are being supported on their entrepreneurial journey by the University of Bonn’s Transfer Center enaCom. They were mentored Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider, Professor of Civil Law, Data Economy Law, Data Protection, Digitalization, and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Bonn and Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information. In 2024, the team secured Start.up Transfer.NRW funding from the EU’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and founded the start-up that same year.
