Berlin remains startup capital

Once again Berlin is the hotspot of the German startup scene: this is what the 2022 half-year figures show in the EY Startup Barometer. The study is based on an analysis of investments in German startups.

The Startup Night SUN X from September 7-10, 2022, which has been part of the startup ecosystem of Berlin, Germany and Europe for ten years, also takes this into account. On the occasion of the anniversary, there will be insights in many different areas - with talks, discussions, workshops and exhibitions that touch on the most relevant areas of digitalization. SUN X is one of the largest events in Europe where startups, companies and investors can present themselves to potential customers.

The first six months of 2022 were unable to match the record year of 2021, but in terms of the number of deals, Berlin remains the undisputed leader with 219 financing rounds, ahead of Bavaria (118), North Rhine-Westphalia (59) and Hamburg (38).  The German capital thus accounts for 40 percent of all financing rounds counted in this country. However, the number of rounds in Berlin fell sharply - in the first half of 2021, there were 264, almost 50 more.

The capital is also once again ahead in terms of deal volume. Berlin based startups were able to raise by far the most capital. More than every second euro invested in startups in this country was invested in Berlin-based young companies - a total of 3.25 billion euros (868 million less than in the same period in 2021). With a market share of 19 percent, Bavaria ranks second ahead of Hamburg, whose startup scene has a market share of 7 percent.

There were also 15 top deals with a volume of more than 100 million euros (in the same period last year, there were just as many). The logistics startup Forto (229 million euros) and the online broker TradeRepublic (227 million euros) - both companies are based in Berlin - received the largest funding. The threshold of 200 million euros was also broken by Taxfix (Berlin), 1Komma5° (Hamburg) and Hy2gen (Hesse).

Around 1.1 billion euros flowed into startups with a sustainability focus - that's more than one-sixth of the venture capital invested. Most financing rounds with a sustainability focus were in the e-commerce sector. The hardware, software and energy sectors were particularly in demand among venture capitalists in the first half of the year. FinTech and InsurTech startups, on the other hand, recorded the sharpest decline.