The KfW Start-up Monitor counts 607,000 new businesses in 2021. The previous year, only 537,000 people dared the leap into professional independence, in 2019 there were 605,000. Start-up activity in Germany thus fully offset the coronavirus-related decline. The number of full-time start-ups rose by 35,000, or 18 percent, to 236,000, while part-time start-ups also increased by 35,000, or 10 percent, to 371,000. The start-up rate rose from 104 to 119 start-ups per 10,000 people aged 18-64.
"The coronavirus pandemic had a massive impact on start-up activity in Germany in 2020. Significantly fewer start-ups were realized, and fewer were planned. However, because many had only put their plans on hold due to the coronavirus and then implemented them last year, start-up activity in 2021 was able to overcome the coronavirus slump. 607,000 people took the plunge into self-employment—about the same number as in 2019, before the pandemic outbreak."
says Fritzi Köhler-Geib, Chief Economist at KfW.
KfW Start-up Monitor: Opportunity start-ups dominate
The share of so-called opportunity start-ups, in which a business opportunity was seized, rose by 2 percentage points to 82 percent. The KfW Start-up Monitor determines that only 15 percent of so-called emergency start-ups due to a lack of better employment alternatives are involved. The share of solo start-ups rose to 81 percent, just above the long-term average.
