Investment record for startups

Good news for startups and young entrepreneurs: According to the auditing company <link http://www.ey.com/de/de/home - external-link-new-window "Opens internal link in current window">Ernst & Young GmbH</link>, both the number of funding measures for startup businesses and the financing amount have reached a new record level in 2017. The total investments within Europe rose by 84 percent to an impressive sum of 19.2 billion Euro. The investment sums in Germany have almost doubled from 2.3 billion to 4.3 billion Euros. As demonstrated by the Europe-wide city ranking conducted by Ernst & Young, Berlin ranks among the three biggest investment locations, not only within Germany, but also within Europe along with London and Paris. Funders invested a total of three billion Euro in young businesses based in the German capital, putting Berlin ahead of major German cities such as Munich and Hamburg.

New funds are thus increasingly allocated to startups who need support regardless of their point of development. More and more investors are interested in investing larger sums into new technologies and innovative ideas. The prospects of receiving seed capital or capital grant for innovative business ideas have never been so good. While in Great Britain, mostly FinTech and general technology businesses are funded, most funding in Germany flows into eCommerce companies.

In particular, Berlin is always open and offers a productive breeding ground mainly for technological areas of innovation and new developments with promising opportunities on the market. A comprehensive support infrastructure, consisting of various competitions, workshops, seminars and the mere proximity to numerous other startups and existing successful companies generate a distinctive creative energy, which is hardly to be found in any other city in Germany or Europe. It is the place where young and long established entrepreneurs have good prospects of finding and supporting each other and exchanging exciting ideas and concepts. 

The VC funds provided by <link https://www.ibb.de/en/homepage/homepage.html - external-link-new-window "Opens internal link in current window">Investitionsbank Berlin</link> are a very helpful way for example for emerging entrepreneurs to receive funding. In this context, equity capital, also called venture capital, is invested in young enterprises that are undergoing growth or looking to enter the respective market. Companies from the technology and creative sectors have a chance for an adequate investment. These sectors include:    

• Creative Industries
• Life Science
• Industrial Technologies
• Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)   

The essential point is that the company must be based in Berlin. Other prerequisites include the legal status of a public corporation and compliance with European criteria for small and medium-sized businesses. Depending on the specific requirements, funding between 250,000 and one million Euro can be provided. The support package of Venture Capital Funds in Berlin also includes follow-up financing lending up to four million Euro.