German start-ups receive more money than ever before

In the first half of 2021, as much investment flowed 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 been able to raise €7.6 billion 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 entire year 2020. "Last year, the pandemic had led to a slight damper on the financing volume," says Thomas Prüver, partner at EY, which publishes the "EY Startup Barometer". "This year, we are also seeing a Corona effect, but in the opposite direction."

The number of financing rounds has more than doubled to 588 in the first half of the year. At the top of the German ranking is Berlin: here, venture capitalists invested €4.1 billion in 263 financing rounds. Bavaria comes in second 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. Munich has managed to establish itself as the second most important location in recent years - thanks to specific strengths in the technology sector," says Prüver. Other locations could not keep up when it came to big 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). Startups in the software and analytics sectors are seeing the most investment rounds. "However, the increasing number of mega transactions should not hide the fact that very small deals still account for the majority of financial injections," says Prüver. Most start-ups receive small financing rounds of less than five million euros. "So the majority of German startups still have to make do with relatively little money."

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