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German startups raised €1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2026. According to KfW Research, the volume increased by 6 percent. International investors provided more than 75 percent of the funds.

KfW launches the KfW Award Gründen 2026. Startups and business successors can win a total of 35,000 euros in prize money.

The Growth Fund Germany has already invested four-fifths of its total volume, thereby strengthening the European VC ecosystem. New investors, clear industry focuses and early positive results in the portfolio characterize the picture.

The KfW Startup Monitor 2025 shows: founders in Germany are on average 34.4 years old – the lowest value since the survey began. The group of under 30-year-olds is growing particularly strongly.

After a sharp decline of nine percent in the previous year, the number of new business formations in Germany increased slightly again in 2023. 568,000 people took the step into self-employment last year, as shown by the latest KfW Startup Monitor from KfW Research.

The business climate on the German venture capital market remains subdued, but is improving slightly compared to the end of the previous year. This is the result of an analysis of the German Venture Capital Barometer by KfW Research for the first quarter of 2024.

With the current evaluation of the KfW Venture Capital Dashboard, KfW looks back at the final quarter of the past year. The findings show: while deal volume remained stable, the number of deals declined again.

The federal government’s future fund is being expanded through a new program: The “Emerging Manager Facility” aims to strengthen women and diverse teams in the startup and venture capital ecosystem.

Startups and smaller mid-sized companies, which are typically not in the focus of venture capital funds, can in the future be supported by RegioInnoGrowth with equity and equity-like funds to finance their growth.

According to the German Private Equity Barometer, the business climate cooled significantly again in the second quarter of 2023.

Every quarter, the development bank KfW collects data on the business climate for the German Venture Capital Barometer. The current analysis shows: sentiment is steadily improving despite ongoing strained conditions, and expectations for future business are high. However, this great optimism also carries potential for setbacks.

The number of start-ups fell by 57,000 to 550,000 last year. This corresponds to a decrease of 9 percent.