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 startups were founded in Hesse, compared to 193 the year before. "Overall, however, there is still a high level of startup activity," Alexander Grau, project manager at StartHub Hessen, told Deutsche Presse Agentur(dpa). StartHub is a contact point for start-up companies commissioned by the state of Hesse, which 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 delays in orders were the most common impairments," project manager Detlef Terzenbach told dpa. The startups reacted by cutting staff in only 14 percent of cases, while more than half focused on product development or postponed investments (43 percent). 14.6 percent of the start-ups were even able to profit from the Corona pandemic. For Germany as a whole, this figure is just under two percentage points lower.

Start-up hotspots include Frankfurt am Main (70 start-ups in 2020) and Darmstadt (22). "Potentials in the university cities of Giessen, Marburg and Kassel have not yet been exploited," the study says.

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