The current economic situation is also causing problems for many startups, but there is at least some good news from the area of financing rounds. There was a 17% increase in volume in 2024 compared to the previous year. In Hamburg, the highest investment was secured by a startup that has already made positive headlines on several occasions.
In December, 1KOMMA5° announced its financing round of 150 million euros, contributing a significant share to the total of 412 million euros that flowed to Hamburg startups in 2024. Among the federal states, Bavaria secured first place for the first time with 2.331 billion euros, followed by Berlin with 2.177 billion euros. Hamburg takes fifth place in this ranking. These are the results of the Startup-Barometer, which has been published by the consulting firm EY since 2015. The overall result of 7.032 billion is the third-best result since the survey began. 17.360 billion from 2021 remains unattained.
The trend is towards larger rounds
The trend is towards larger rounds with a volume of 10 million euros or more. Here, the number rose from 116 to 131 compared to the previous year. Overall, however, the number of deals declined, falling from 861 to 755. Helsing from Munich closed the highest financing round. The startup received 450 million euros for AI software that is used in the military sector. The ten most successful startups include five from Bavaria, the aforementioned 1KOMMA5° and no company from Berlin.
In terms of sectors, Software & Analytics takes the lead by a wide margin with 2.208 billion euros. Health startups are on the rise, with their financing volume more than doubling from 445 million to 958 million euros. The energy sector accounted for 841 million euros, a slight decrease compared to 2024. The biggest loser is the e-commerce sector, which fell from 633 million to 433 million euros. In Hamburg, apart from the energy category, only the software sector achieved a three-digit million figure with 124 million euros. The Hanseatic city is likely to play an important role in the foodtech sector, where Infinite Roots alone raised 58 million US dollars. Here, the study does not provide a breakdown of the results by federal states and only mentions the total sum of 203 million euros.
