Hot-honey startup Hottey lands €60,000 from investor Andreas Herb
What's the deal? German startup HotteyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → raised €60,000 ($66,951) from investor Andreas Herb in an angel round, following its appearance on the TV pitch show "Die Höhle der Löwen." Founders Maximilian Voigt and Julian Herrlich make a hot-honey sauce — honey blended with chili — sold as a pizza topping or dip.
How the deal came together: The founders asked for €60,000 in exchange for 10% of the company. Herb countered with €60,000 for 20%; after negotiation, the two sides settled at 17.5%.
Why Herb? A self-described "Tabasco freak," Herb was won over by the balance of sweetness and heat, while other investors found the sauce too sweet for pizza. Investor Janna EnsthalerDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → called the taste "needs getting used to" (translated from German) and questioned repeat purchases.
The product: Hottey's sauce has three main ingredients — blossom honey, chili, and a splash of apple cider vinegar. At recording time, it was stocked in two Dresden grocery stores at nearly €9 a bottle, selling about one bottle per store per day, plus online sales. The founders said larger batches could cut the price to roughly €6.
What's the endgame? Hot-honey sauce has been a hit in the US for years as a pizza topping and dip, and the founders are betting on the same trend taking hold in Germany. Herb sees Hottey in snack food, targeting Gen Z, who "love things like that."
What happened next? The deal closed after filming, Gründerszene confirmed with both the founders and Herb. Voigt and Herrlich turned Hottey into a GmbH, while Herb's team helped optimise the supply chain and calculate the margins needed to scale.
The signal: A modest angel cheque for a single-product food brand underscores how reality-TV deals remain an entry point for early German consumer startups — betting that a US food craze can repeat across the Atlantic.
Read more: businessinsider.de
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
