Green Startup Monitor 2024 (Startup-Verband)

Summary

• Green startups make up 29% of the German startup ecosystem, down from 35% in the Green Startup Monitor 2023.p.6
• The share of female founders is 24% in green startups versus 17% in non-green startups; in leadership the share is 30% versus 23%.p.6
• The share of green startups that back up their sustainability impact with data rose from 27% to 39%, and for non-green startups from 7% to 14%.p.6
• Green startups cooperate more often with universities and research (54% vs. 38%) and with established companies (71% vs. 58%).p.6
• For 56% of green startups, a combination of rapid growth and a high market share is a fairly to very important part of the corporate strategy (55% for non-green startups).p.16
• The German federal government decided to invest a further €1.75 billion in Germany as an innovation and startup location, including €200 million for impact venture capital funds.p.2
• Technology development and production is the most important business model of green startups, growing from 22% to 32% between 2019 and 2023.p.11

Key insights

1. For 67% of green startups, better conditions for exploiting research results (e.g. patents and IP rights) are important, versus 55% of non-green startups.p.6
2. Green startups are more often challenged by capital raising than non-green startups, while customer acquisition tends to be easier for them.p.15
3. 28% of non-green startups and 21% of green startups recently had to carry out cost-cutting programmes.p.22
4. Green startups are underrepresented in fast-scalable business models such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).p.11
5. The analysis is based on 1,267 startups aged zero to ten years with (planned) growth or high innovativeness.p.31
6. Cooperation with established companies among green startups increased compared with the previous year, against the trend among startups overall.p.13
7. Four in ten startups that assign themselves to the Green Economy still rate achieving an ecological and/or societal impact as a very important strategy.p.21