Four out of five newly founded companies are profitable within the first three years

Companies in the cultural sector become profitable quickly, while start-ups in the healthcare or HR sectors take longer. This was the result of a survey of 500 entrepreneurs conducted by Sumup.

84% of German companies become profitable within the first three years. This was the result of a survey conducted by Sumup among 500 entrepreneurs in Germany. The start-up also asked them about the profitability of their companies, their start-up capital and the challenges and benefits of entrepreneurship.

40.3% of the companies surveyed stated that they were profitable after one to two years. 36.6 percent needed three years to be in the black. In contrast, only 1.2 percent of the companies surveyed took longer than five years to become profitable. In the arts and culture sector, around a quarter of all companies even manage to be profitable in less than a year. In the healthcare and human resources sectors, none of the companies surveyed achieved this.

Meanwhile, the highest start-up capital is found in the travel and transportation sector: on average, founders in this sector invested around 129,000 euros in start-up capital. 22% of respondents invested between 25,000 and 50,000 euros - the amount required to found a limited liability company or public limited company. The respondents identified accounting, time management, tax returns, customer service and sales as the biggest challenges for their companies.