According to the “Business Angel Report 2023”, there are a total of 10,925 active business angels in Germany. Over the past three and a half years (observation period July 1, 2019 to December 31, 2022), they made 19,678 investments in a total of 3,569 startups. However, most of them concentrate their investments on just one young company: 8,740 of the business angels (80 percent) invested in only a single startup during the study period. Two startups in their portfolio have 1,218 of the angels, and 446 are even betting on three founding teams. Record holders are Flixbus founders Daniel Krauss, André Schwämmlein, and Jochen Engert with SEK Ventures. They have invested their money in a total of 42 startups, according to the study.
Arnas Bräutigam, co-founder of AddedVal.io, explains:
“Almost 9,000 of the total of 11,000 angels in Germany have so far only invested in 1 startup. In activating these people to dare to make a second or third investment, there probably lies the greatest lever for the startup ecosystem. AddedVal.io is making this its mission as of now.”
Munich and the region lead the way
In comparison among the federal states, Bavaria ranks far ahead in terms of business angels: with a total of 2,640, about a quarter of all angels live in Bavaria. Berlin comes in second place with 1,833 angels, and North Rhine-Westphalia takes third place with 1,814. Saxony-Anhalt has the fewest with only 30 business angels. In a city comparison, Munich ranks second behind Berlin. Looking at angel density, the Munich area especially stands out. Calculated per 100,000 inhabitants, Gräfelfing has 390 angels and Grünwald even has 849. At the district level, the Munich and Starnberg districts thus rank first nationwide.
With regard to investments per capita (by districts and independent cities), the Landeshauptstadt München ranks first with 196 investments per 100,000 inhabitants during the observation period. Berlin takes second place with 165 investments, and the Munich district secures third place with 112.
Female business angels underrepresented
Women are significantly underrepresented among business angels – similar to among founders – with only 13.8 percent of German angels being female. In their investment behavior, they also differ from their male counterparts: while about 16 percent of all investments from male angels go to startups led by women or mixed teams, around 26 percent of investments from female angels go to such teams. Supporting female angels would thus improve the financing search for female founders, according to the study authors.
Mayra Frank, head of Google for Startups DACH, explains:
“Only 13.8 percent of all business angels investing in German startups are female. Yet we especially need female angels to promote innovation through female founders and ensure greater representation of women throughout the entire startup ecosystem.”
The study also identifies two clear investment priorities for angels: healthtech and e-commerce. Together, these two sectors account for over 26 percent of all angel investments during the observation period. At the same time, the share of female angels there is 16 percent, one of the highest. Other sectors popular with women include agriculture (17 percent), education (16 percent), services (15 percent), and environmental technology (14 percent).
Despite the many investments in the e-commerce sector, business-to-business products (B2B, 59 percent) are generally more popular than those aimed at direct consumers. And among business models, software-as-a-service, platforms, and manufacturing also play a larger role than retail and services.
