After twelve seasons of the start-up show, "Die Höhle der Löwen" is putting on its first Christmas special and it's getting really cozy: the studio is decorated with Christmas trees, the lions have dressed up, recite children's poems and sing "Oh Tannenbaum" together. Judith Williams even puts on a lively dance number with Ralf Dümmel to Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas".
Oh yes, of course, it's also about money. Above all, Carsten Maschmeyer has not forgotten that. He likes the founding duo of Papydo so much that he decides to jump up and hand over a check for 100,000 euros. Really made of paper, with ones and zeros you have drawn yourself, so that it makes a good impression.
Gift vouchers for Christmas always work. The start-up in which the checkbook lion is investing here actually wants to avoid unnecessary paper waste. Papydo sells sustainable wrapping paper made from grass, which the founders say is climate-neutral, recyclable and reusable because it doesn't tear easily. "I think it's awesome," says Maschmeyer and, together with Judith Williams, prevailed over the competing offers from the other lions.
The sweaters and hats from Chiengora will warm your heart and the rest of your body as well. These are made from the velvety soft undercoat of dogs, which is obtained by regularly combing out the four-legged friends. Dog hair normally ends up in the trash, but founder Ann Cathrin Schönrock has built up a network of owners and pet salons who send her the hairy raw material.
At first it sounds like a dog lover's fetish, but the founder has a clear vision of where she wants her yarn to go: she talks to fashion houses in Paris as well as companies that produce industrial fabrics. "I want to fix the system error in the wool industry," says Schönrock. Because taking hair from dogs that live with humans anyway seems much more sustainable to her than keeping animals on an industrial scale for this purpose.
Maschmeyer's fingertips are tingling again, but this time not because he wants to invest, but because his dog hair allergy is reporting. Although the cleaned fibers shouldn't really be a problem, as the founder explains. Judith Williams and Nils Glagau are both interested, and the founder finally makes a deal with Williams.
The founders of Lesido, an app that grandma and grandpa can use to read children's books to their grandchildren remotely, are less fortunate, and both can also look at the electronic book together. The lions find the product charming, but the company evaluation called less so, especially since there were no paying customers at the time of the appearance.
The best disguise of the evening clearly has the founding trio of Purespice, who appear as the three kings at the pitch. From the Orient, from Bangkok to be precise, they brought the idea of selling spices in liquid form (the star tested them) that tasted more intense than the conventional powders. The taste of cinnamon, garlic and other spices is extracted and combined with neutral oil as a flavor carrier. Four lions want to invest, the deal goes to Ralf Dümmel.
Finally, Dagmar Wöhrl from Nuremberg is allowed to visit the Nuremberg gingerbread start-up Pfeffer
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