Start-up scene is academic and male

Results of the German Start-up Monitor show: Many founders have their first business ideas at universities. However, women are still underrepresented in the scene.

The start-up spirit prevails at universities: according to the newly published German Start-up Monitor, 85% of founders have an academic background. They particularly often have degrees in business administration, economics or engineering. Over 36% of start-up teams even get to know each other while attending a university or college.

"Entrepreneurship must become part of the DNA of universities," says Tobias Kollmann from the Chair of Digital Business and Digital Entrepreneurship at the University of Duisburg-Essen at the press conference for the German Start-up Monitor, which was also attended by Startbase. Kollmann suggests promoting entrepreneurship events at universities and offering "founder dating" where students with start-up ideas can get to know each other. After all, 8.7 percent of start-ups are founded by universities and a further 15.7 percent are supported by educational institutions during the start-up phase.

However, even though the proportion of men and women at universities is roughly equal, the proportion of female founders in German start-ups is still low. The proportion has increased from 15.9 percent in 2020 to 17.7 percent. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go, says Franziska Teubert from the Start-up Association. "The goal must be a 50 percent share of women," she says. This also requires more state funding instruments and female students in STEM subjects. Schools should do more to encourage girls and get them interested in STEM subjects.

In addition, the importance of start-ups for the German labor market continues to grow: on average, each start-up employs 17.6 people. 91.6% of the start-ups surveyed plan to hire additional employees within the next twelve months. "The industry has overcome the coronavirus shock," says Kollmann.

The German Start-up Monitor is published every year by the auditor PWC, the German Start-up Association and the University of Duisburg-Essen. More than 2000 start-ups took part in the survey this year. The results are not representative, but they do reflect a large part of the German start-up sector.