Start-ups write incendiary letter to Lindner and Habeck

Apparently without notice, the conditions of the Invest program were changed. Some founders and investors do not want to accept this.

In an open letter to Christian Lindner and Robert Habeck, startups and investors criticize the new funding conditions of the Invest program of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection. The changed conditions have been in effect since March 1 and were apparently not announced beforehand. The Hamburg-based start-up Sponsoo initiated the letter. As of today, almost 40 start-ups and business angels have signed the letter. Among them are, for example, the start-ups Animalytics, Kurabu and Cybus, as well as Snow Ventures. Together, the signatories are demanding that the previous funding conditions be restored.

The changes to the program stipulate that investments of less than 25,000 euros will no longer be funded. Previously, investments of 10,000 euros or more were subsidized. In addition, from now on no follow-up financing will be eligible for subsidies, only initial investments. The acquisition subsidy for convertible loans is also halved to 10 percent.

"We as start-ups and angel investors are willingly doing our part to cope with the pandemic, to integrate refugees due to foreign policy crises or to strengthen Germany as a business location," the letter reads. In return, the investors demand that politicians keep their promises. Both in the election program of the Greens and the FDP, the expansion of the promotion of start-ups had been anchored. "Is this how you imagine the "expansion" of funding programs?" the initiative asks in its letter.