Goodbeans GmbH (formerly Young Internet GmbH) is the company behind Panfu and Oloko. It shut down in April 2015, and was succeeded by Fox & Sheep GmbH.
History[]
Founding of the company[]
Kay Kühne and Moritz Hohl
The company was founded as Young Internet GmbH in August 2007[1][2] (first registered on July 9, 2007[3] as Brat Vermögensverwaltung GmbH[4]) by Kay Kühne and Moritz Hohl, and they started work on Panfu (then called Pandaland) in September 2007. Panfu started beta testing in November 2007, and the game was released in December 2007 in Germany.[5][6]
The idea of Panfu came after Hohl and Kühne had worked together on a Twitter-clone for the German market called Frazr, when they realized that there were not many safe places for German children online and got the idea for Panfu. Frazr and its company Frazr Internet GmbH was founded in April 2007, 4 months before Young Internet. Frazr Internet GmbH later went bankrupt (liquidation) in October 2009[7] and closed its services on October 14, 2009.[8] Young Internet GmbH was registered as a company on November 7, 2007.[9]
Expansion and investments[]
Young Internet in April 2008
Young Internet consisted of fifteen employees in April 2008.[10] Young Internet's third game, Oloko, was released on November 19, 2009. In the year prior to Oloko, Young Internet had released BollyKids, which proved to be unsuccessful and was shut down in September 2010.
In 2007, Rocket Internet and Holtzbrinck Ventures invested three million euros in Young Internet.[11] They continued investments throughout 2008,[12] 2009 and 2010.[13] Digital Pioneers, Oliver Jung and Team Europe Ventures were also shareholders until 2010.[14][15]
On September 6, 2010, Verena Delius took over management of Young Internet,[16] taking the place of Kühne who stepped down as CEO in October 31, 2010. Young Internet had over 60 employees at this time.[17] In February 2011, according to Delius herself, she had managed to make Panfu profitable thanks to a "radical savings program." At the date of publication, in August 2011, the company had 65 employees.[18]
Rebrand and focus shift[]
Young Internet rebrands to Goodbeans
In November 2011, 15 of the 60 employees were let go.[19] On April 16, 2012, Young Internet GmbH was renamed to Goodbeans GmbH, and announced a shift of focus from online gaming to only mobile games. (after a shareholders' meeting on February 24, 2012)[20] On June 4, 2012, Goodbeans announced the acquisition of competing company Shape Minds and Moving Images GmbH and their mobile games Nighty Night! and Little Fox Music Box.[21] Krunchi - Your Favorite Pet, their final app, was released on November 13, 2014. It was later bought and republished by Lunatic Donkey, the company of several former Goodbeans employees.
Withdrawal and closure[]
Verena Delius and Moritz Hohl
In November 2013, Hohl and Delius founded a new company, Fox & Sheep GmbH, and said to Gründerszene that "Goodbeans will focus on Panfu and Zuko Monsters, and there will be no more games [from Goodbeans]."[22] Oloko was later shut down on May 31, 2014.[23]
Hohl left Goodbeans on December 23, 2014,[24] but stayed COO on paper. The company applied for bankruptcy (due to insolvency) on April 16, 2015[25], after years of low numbers and a lack of investors.[26][27] The team decided to let Panfu stay available instead of having a proper closure.[28] Activity in the company stopped in September 2016,[29] and the game was finally closed on November 1, 2016, on Panfu's ninth anniversary.
Gallery[]
Various[]
(December 9, 2010)
.webp "Goodbeans office unfurnished (Winsstraße 62).webp (241 KB)")
References[]
- ↑ https://linkedin.com/in/moritzhohl
- ↑ Die Young Internet GmbH - April 8, 2008
- ↑ Young Internet GmbH - North Data
- ↑ Brat Vermögensverwaltung GmbH, Munich, Germany: German Trade Register Announcement, Germany (11/07/2007)
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20071116165850if_/http://www.panfu.de:80/#news_text
- ↑ Das Projekt Panfu - April 8, 2008
- ↑ Überblick der bisherigen Samwer-Pleiten - Business Insider.de
- ↑ "Twitter-Konkurrent Frazr macht dicht" – iBusiness, October 14, 2009.
- ↑ Goodbeans Gmbh - Kompany.de
- ↑ Press-releases: Die Young Internet GmbH 8 4 2008
- ↑ "Millionenrunde bei Panfu" – Deutsche Startups, May 20, 2010. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
- ↑ Panfu erhält weitere drei Millionen Euro
- ↑ "Panfu: Mit frischem Kapital in die Expansion" – iBusiness, May 21, 2010. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
- ↑ "Fox & Sheep statt goodbeans – Verena Delius und Moritz Hohl setzen auf Kinder-Apps" – Deutsche Startups, November 19, 2013. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
- ↑ "After cashing in on Citydeal, Samwer brothers invest in online gaming world Panfu", May 20, 2010.
- ↑ Verena Delius wird neuer CEO bei Europas größter Onlinewelt für Kinder Panfu - September 7, 2010
- ↑ Panfu on November 1, 2010: "We are over 60 people who work at the Panfu center [...]"
- ↑ File:29.08.2011 WirtschaftsWoche.pdf
- ↑ https://www.businessinsider.de/gruenderszene/allgemein/young-internet-turn-around-good-beans/
- ↑ Shareholder agreement · Name: Goodbeans GmbH
- ↑ "good times at goodbeans – mobile gaming company buys successful competitor" - Goodbeans Blog
- ↑ "Fox and Sheep ist das neue Spiele-Startup der Goodbeans-Macher" – Gründerszene, November 11, 2013.
- ↑ "Goodbye Oloko!" - Oloko Blog
- ↑ Northdata: Goodbeans GmbH - Address · Managing Director: Verena Pausder
- ↑ Northdata: Goodbeans GmbH - Liquidation
- ↑ "It was closed because there were no investors anymore." Verena Pausder, March 26, 2017
- ↑ "Der Aufstieg und Fall von Panfu" – Deutsche Startups, October 18, 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
- ↑ "OMR Podcast #174 - Verena Pausder"
- ↑ https://twitter.com/VerenaDE/status/789287533561511936 by VerenaDE – Twitter, October 20, 2016. (archived on June 19, 2019) Retrieved February 16, 2025.