1,500 startups were founded nationwide in the first half of 2025. This means an increase of 9 per cent compared to the second half of 2024. The figures come from the latest edition of the report ‘Next Generation’, which the German Startups Association and startupdetector have just published.
Total of new foundings at 3-year high
The 1,500 new startups are the best result since the first half of 2022. Three federal states in particular are responsible for the positive trend: Saxony recorded the highest growth at 71 per cent, followed by Bavaria (23 per cent) and North Rhine-Westphalia (16 per cent). Hamburg remains at the same level as the previous half-year with 84 new startups. In the ranking of federal states by startups per 100,000 inhabitants, the Hanseatic city is in second place behind Berlin (6.7 per cent) with a result of 4.5. When looking at individual cities and founding activity over the last twelve months, Hamburg is ranked 8th, with Munich leading the way and Heidelberg, Darmstadt and Aachen, for example, also performing strongly thanks to numerous spin-offs from their universities.
Since the start of the survey in 2019, there have never been as many new startups in the sector “Software” as in the first half of 2025: a total of 368. That puts it in first place by some distance in the industry analysis, followed by “Medicine” (194). Both increased by 16 per cent each. The highest increase was in ‘Food’ at 44 per cent, with 124 new startups. The categories ‘Industry’ (29 per cent) and ‘Human Resources’ (23 per cent) also made significant gains. There are only two sectors in the top 10 with a negative trend: ‘Gaming’ and ‘Education’ both recorded a drop of 25 per cent.
