The number of start-ups in Germany fell last year. According to the state development bank KfW, around 57,000 fewer people dared to take the step into self-employment than in the previous year. This corresponds to a decline of nine percent to 550,000 business start-ups, according to a preliminary evaluation by the KfW start-up monitor. “This is bad news for the German economy, because business start-ups are key drivers of structural and technological change,” said KfW chief economist Fritzi Köhler-Geib.
“Hardly had she made up for the Corona kink for a short time when start-up activity in Germany is unfortunately already declining again in 2022,” explained Köhler-Geib. Especially with a view to the green and digital transformation, Germany needs new companies with fresh and innovative ideas.
Fewer dare to be self-employed
In the past year, founders dared to take the leap into self-employment less frequently in order to take advantage of a business opportunity. According to KfW, the proportion of so-called opportunity start-ups fell by 11 percentage points to 71 percent. The proportion of those who became self-employed due to a lack of better employment alternatives, on the other hand, rose from 15 to 24 percent. However, this also included founders who preferred self-employment despite alternatives on the labor market.
According to the information provided, the majority of founders became self-employed with new companies (86 percent). The rest is accounted for by company takeovers and participations. In view of the large number of medium-sized companies looking for a successor solution, this is a challenge.
The KfW start-up monitor is a representative telephone survey on start-up activities in Germany. It is based on information from 50,000 randomly selected people.
