While the number of new startups in Germany in 2023 is slightly down on the previous year, Hamburg sees an increase of 10%. This is one of the results of a recently published study. Almost 2,500 startups were founded nationwide, with the metropolitan areas losing some of their dominance.
Berlin remains ahead, Hamburg gains ground
Since 2019, the German Startup Association has been compiling „Next Generation – Startup-Neugründungen in Deutschland“ report in collaboration with the information service startupdetector. It is based on entries in the commercial register. According to the report, a total of 2489 startups were founded in 2023. This represents a decline of 5% compared to the previous year. Hamburg bucked the trend, recording an increase from 143 to 158 startups. The two most important German startup metropolitan areas, on the other hand, both reported a decline: Berlin with a drop of 7% (now 502 new startups) and Munich with a drop of 13% (215 foundings in 2023).
Looking at startups per 100,000 inhabitants, Berlin is in the lead with a figure of 12.5, closely followed by Munich with 12.4. Hamburg is in sixth place in this statistic with 8.4. Compared to 2022, this is an improvement of two places. At that time, the figure was 7.7. In addition to the metropolitan areas, cities with renowned universities, such as Darmstadt, Karlsruhe and Heidelberg (places 4-6), are proving to be good locations for founding.
In terms of sectors, "software" maintained its leading position and even recorded a healthy increase of 22% with 462 new startups. In contrast, the trend is negative in the other top sectors such as "medicine", "food" and "e-commerce". Overall, the energy sector experienced the biggest leap forward with 88 new startups and an increase of 69%. The blockchain and crypto sector is in steep decline: 33 new startups mean a drop of 64%.
You can download the full report here.
