Bavaria’s start-ups survived the Corona crisis better than initially feared. This year, investors are likely to invest roughly as much in start-ups as they did before the crisis. This is what Carsten Rudolph, managing director of the BayStartup funding agency, expects. “I am optimistic that this year we will again reach the level of the last non-Corona year 2019.” The need for state aid has also decreased this year, as reported by Bayerische Beteiligungsgesellschaft (BayBG). Since start-ups usually write losses, financing rounds with investors are the usual way to meet capital requirements.
According to various rankings, Bavaria is the most important location for start-ups in Germany after Berlin. “In spring 2020, practically nothing more happened, and we had great fears that it would continue like this,” said Rudolph. “We had to cancel all investor events and then switched to introducing start-ups to investors individually in smaller online meetings. In terms of the end result, we were only marginally below the previous year’s figures.” In the end, with the help of BayStartup, 48 million euros were brokered to start-ups last year. In 2019 there were 54 million. And this year is now looking very good: “In July we were already at 40 million euros,” said Rudolph.
“We are seeing growth in the financing rounds, but that affects more companies in a later phase. There are many there who we looked after years ago.” This refers, among other things, to Flixbus and the software company Celonis, founded in 2011, which was able to raise a billion dollars this year. In the early years, however, according to Rudolph, it was not easier for start-ups to get hold of money. The financing situation is good, but the selection has become sharper. “Well-positioned start-ups now have an easier time getting more money, and it is just as difficult for others as they used to be.” According to the BayStartup boss, the corona crisis had one effect: “Investors are now looking more closely at the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals sectors again.”