Collaborate to Innovate Report 2025: Making Partnerships Work in Uncertain Times (Startup-Verband)

Summary

• Germany's GDP has increased by just 4% over the past decade, while the US has seen growth of 17%, and the US now invests ten times as much in AI as Europe.p.4
• Only 28% of established businesses say that working with startups has generated a strong return on investment, and only 11% of startups perceive a high willingness from corporates to collaborate.p.4
• Corporates focus on innovation potential (90%), while startups primarily use collaboration to boost sales and growth (72%).p.4
• 57% of startups and 73% of scaleups observe a clear shift towards short-term ROI on the corporate side.p.5
• 76% of established companies rely on third parties such as investors to find the right match, and 80% see events and conferences as a starting point for cooperation.p.5
• Of collaboration projects of established companies, 41% are rated successful at engagement, 27% at proof of concept, 17% at implementation and only 8% at scaling.p.26
• The report is based on surveys of 135 established businesses and 368 startups.p.41

Key insights

1. Only 24% of businesses in Germany plan to increase investments, while 31% plan to decrease them.p.9
2. CVC funds in the US invested 2.1 times and in Europe 3.4 times as much capital in 2024 as in 2015.p.10
3. More than a third of corporate accelerators in Germany have been discontinued.p.12
4. 86% of established businesses report positive experiences with past collaboration projects with startups.p.16
5. Startups' top concerns in collaboration are loss of speed (63%), resources tied up (47%) and loss of strategic freedom (44%).p.17
6. Startups criticize the complexity of corporate decision-making (59%) and risk aversion (49%), while corporates point to a lack of experience (41%) on the startup side.p.5
7. Germany's startup ecosystem consists of approximately 23,000 startups.p.23
8. Events and conferences are the most important starting point for collaboration for both startups (79%) and corporates (80%).p.25
9. Overcoming internal resistance is the primary barrier to scaling for 49% of corporates and 47% of startups.p.26
10. Development of new products or services is the top objective of established companies in collaboration (57%), followed by access to technology (47%).p.31