Hessian start-ups come through the crisis well

Although there were fewer start-ups in 2020, business promoters see good opportunities for the scene.

Last year, 169 start-ups were founded in Hesse, compared to 193 the year before. "Overall, however, there is still a high level of start-up activity," Alexander Grau, Project Manager at StartHub Hessen, told the German Press Agency(dpa). StartHub is a contact point for start-ups commissioned by the state of Hesse and is behind the "Startup Monitor Hessen". According to the report, there are more than 1,000 start-ups in the state. The report is published by the German Startups Association.

"The cancellation of events, short-term declines in sales and order delays were the most common disruptions", says project manager Detlef Terzenbach to dpa. Only 14% of the start-ups responded by reducing their workforce, while more than half focused on product development or postponed investments (43%). 14.6% of start-ups were even able to benefit from the coronavirus pandemic. This figure is just under two percentage points lower for Germany as a whole.

The start-up hotspots include Frankfurt am Main (70 start-ups in 2020) and Darmstadt (22). "Potential in the university cities of Giessen, Marburg and Kassel has not yet been fully exploited," the study states.

Female founders are strongly underrepresented. Only 13.9 percent of start-ups are founded by women. Last year's most important successes include the exit of MYR Pharmaceuticals for 1.15 billion euros, paid for by pharmaceutical giant Gilead, as well as the financing rounds of fintech Clark and drone manufacturer Wingcopter.