Start -up industry
Start-ups collect more venture capital
In the first quarter, growth companies collected more money from investors. But the environment remains fragile – not least because of the turbulence around Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Start-ups in Germany collected more venture capital in the first quarter. At the beginning of the year, they recruited around 1.6 billion euros from investors, as the State Funding Bank KfW in Frankfurt reports. That was around 14 percent more than in the final quarter of 2024, but significantly less than in the previous year’s quarter (1.9 billion euros).
“The German market for venture capital has started very solidly into the new year, but a clear trend in one direction is not yet recognizable,” said Steffen Vieten, expert for venture capital at KfW Research. He expects a boost for the market in the spring in the face of sunken interest. With venture capital, specialized funds and corporations participate in start-ups in the hope that their ideas prevail.
Börsurbulenzen cloudy environment
While a lot of money flowed in the early phase of start-ups in the first quarter, there was a lack of very large funding rounds and the commitment of the important US investors decreased. It is encouraging that the number of exits and corporate sales has increased again. However, the environment has deteriorated with the recent slump in the intercourse in the customs dispute.
Many German start-ups come to money in the early growth phase, but with large sums there is usually little without American investors. Germany is significantly behind the United States in venture capital.
In their coalition agreement, the SPD and Union have agreed to improve the conditions for mobilizing venture capital. In this way, the participation options for large investors should be facilitated. In addition, the investments of large donors at the WIN initiative coordinated by the KfW to over 25 billion euros should more than double.
dpa
Source: Stern
