Start-up scene is academic and male

Results of the German Start-up Monitor show: Many founders got 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 percent of founders have an academic background. In particular, they often have degrees in business administration, economics or engineering. More than 36 percent 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 on the German Start-up Monitor, which Startbase also attended. 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 spun out by universities, and a further 15.7 percent are supported by educational institutions in 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. Although 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 of the Start-up Association. "The goal must be a 50 percent share of women," she says. To achieve this, she says, there also needs to be more state funding instruments and female students in STEM subjects. Schools should promote girls more for this and get them excited about 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 percent of the start-ups surveyed plan to hire more employees within the next twelve months. "The industry has overcome the Corona shock," says Kollmann.

The German Start-up Monitor is published every year by auditor PWC, the German Start-ups 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 represent a large part of the German start-up industry.