The creators of the Luca app raised 30 million euros in a financing round to convert the application to contain the corona pandemic into a payment app for the catering and cultural sector.
The venture capitalists for the Berlin Culture4Life GmbH include the companies Target Global, The Delta and embedded/capital, the operating company announced on Thursday in Berlin.
With the financing round, FinTech entrepreneur Julian Teicke (founder and head of the Berlin start-up Wefox) takes over as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
According to the managing director of Culture4Life, Patrick Hennig, the musician Smudo is still involved in the company.
The rapper from the band Die Fantastischen Vier helped develop the app.
As Hennig said, the app will be further developed with the help of the new investors.
On Monday, Hennig announced that the Luca system would no longer collect any contact details to contain the corona pandemic because the contracts with the federal states expired at the end of March.
However, the function can be reactivated if necessary.
The Luca app was launched in 2020 in order to collect the contact details of restaurant guests and event visitors, as required by most infection protection regulations, in a data protection-friendly and efficient manner.
However, the Luca system has repeatedly been the subject of severe criticism.
The Luca skeptics were particularly bothered by the concept of central data storage.
Critics such as the Chaos Computer Club warned against misuse of the data collected via the Luca system.
The Luca encryption system criticized by critics withstood attacks, but the Luca makers could not prevent the police in Mainz from having the data of guests illegally queried via the health department in order to clarify a possible crime.