German start-ups receive more money than ever before

In the first half of 2021, there was as much investment as in the entire previous year. Berlin and Bavaria are at the forefront. Baden-Württemberg's investment volume almost doubled.

German start-ups have already raised 7.6 billion euros in financing rounds in the first half of the year. This is three times as much as in the same period last year and already exceeds the investment capital from the whole of 2020. "Last year, the pandemic led to a slight dip in the financing volume," says Thomas Prüver, Partner at EY, who publishes the "EY Startup Barometer". "This year, we are also seeing a coronavirus effect, but in the opposite direction."

The number of financing rounds has more than doubled and amounted to 588 in the first half of the year. Berlin is at the top of the German ranking: venture capitalists invested 4.1 billion euros in 263 financing rounds here. Bavaria comes next with 2.5 billion euros. In Baden-Württemberg, the investment volume has almost doubled to 307 million euros. "Berlin and Bavaria are clearly the most internationally visible startup locations in Germany. In recent years, Munich has managed to establish itself as the second most important location - thanks to its specific strengths in the technology sector," says Prüver. Other locations cannot keep up when it comes to large deals. This trend is likely to continue, he predicts.

The three largest deals in the first half of the year were the investments in Celonis (830 million euros), Trade Republic (747 million euros) and Wefox (539 million euros). Start-ups from the software and analytics sector recorded the most investment rounds. "However, the increasing number of mega-transactions should not hide the fact that the majority of financial injections are still for very small deals," says Prüver. Most start-ups receive small financing rounds of less than five million euros. "The majority of German start-ups therefore still have to make do with relatively little money."

The "EY Startup Barometer" is published twice a year. For the study, EY analyzes press releases from start-ups and investors, press coverage and data from Crunchbase.