European tech start-ups receive record investments

The Swedish investment firm Atomico expects investments of 41 billion US dollars for European start-ups. However, less was invested in German companies.

Despite corona, 2020 could be a good year for start-ups in Europe. The "State of the European Tech" report by Atomico forecasts an investment sum of 41 billion US dollars for European start-ups by the end of the year. That would be 2.4 billion US dollars more than last year.

The year started badly for the industry due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the second quarter of 2020, investors invested 36% less in young companies than in the same period of the previous year. The trend only reversed in the summer. In September alone, for example, investors pumped five billion dollars into tech companies - the highest figure for a single month that Atomico has ever measured in its very comprehensive and important study.

Investors have only invested 5.4 billion dollars in German start-ups this year, almost twenty percent less than last year. Despite the losses, this puts Germany in second place behind the UK (12.5 billion dollars) and ahead of France (5.2 billion dollars). With Berlin, Munich, Mainz and Düsseldorf, four cities are among the twenty European cities in which the most money was invested in start-ups.

One of the most successful fundraisers is the Swedish payment service provider Klarna. The company was able to raise 650 million US dollars in venture capital in a single financing round. In second place is the Swedish battery manufacturer Nothvolt with 600 million dollars.