The AppliedAI Institute for Europe publishes the German AI Startup Landscape every year. It aims not only to improve general knowledge about applied AI but also to draw more attention to German AI startups. This should create more opportunities for partnerships between startups and companies, thus advancing the use of AI.
The current seventh “German AI Startup Landscape” includes 687 startups, representing growth of 35 percent year-on-year. This growth rate is significantly lower than the previous year's 67 percent. Of the 508 AI startups on the 2023 AI Landscape, 467 are still represented, and 220 new startups were added this year. The reasons why 41 AI startups did not make it onto the list are varied: 49 percent relocated their headquarters abroad, 17 percent were acquired, and 10 percent are in liquidation. Furthermore, 24 percent had to be removed because they exceeded the ten-year age limit for the Landscape. It is striking that almost all AI startups that relocated their headquarters abroad established their new headquarters in the USA.
Berlin, Munich and Hamburg in the top positions
As in previous versions of the "German AI Startup Landscape," the cities of Berlin and Munich continue to dominate this year. Their share amounts to approximately 50 percent of German AI startups. Berlin accounts for a total of 209 AI startups, while the Munich ecosystem boasts 136. Hamburg, in third place, has 65 AI startups. Following are Karlsruhe (17 startups), Stuttgart (16), Cologne (16), Darmstadt (16), Aachen (11), Düsseldorf (11), and Frankfurt (10).
At the federal state level, Berlin also secures first place with a share of 30.4 percent of all AI startups. It is followed by Bavaria (23.3 percent), Baden-Württemberg (11.5 percent), North Rhine-Westphalia (10.2 percent), and Hamburg (9.6 percent). When measuring the number of AI startups per capita, the city-state of Hamburg moves into second place behind Berlin. Bavaria takes third place, followed by Saarland, Baden-Württemberg, and Hesse.
The "German AI Startup Landscape" sorts startups into four clusters: Industry, Technology Type, Enterprise Intelligence, or Enterprise Function. Within these clusters, startups are further divided into subcategories that encompass a wide range of use cases for artificial intelligence, from computer vision and robotics to human resources and sales, as well as manufacturing and infrastructure. The study also shows that one in five AI startups is active in the field of generative AI.
Financing of AI startups
In terms of funding, Landscape found that approximately 38 percent of the startups listed (246 startups) were able to raise more than $1 million. The average funding amount for these startups was $17.1 million, while the median was $5.5 million. Eighty AI startups even received funding of more than $10 million.
Investment activity in newly founded AI startups has declined after 2021: While companies founded in 2021 have received a total of approximately $535 million so far, AI startups founded in 2022 and 2023 have received only about $93 million combined. While more mature AI startups can typically attract larger funding rounds, raising capital appears to be challenging for younger founders who launched in 2022 or later.
The most promising AI startups in Germany
In addition to the statistical data on the German AI landscape, a jury composed of the Landscape partners (Deutsche Telekom, NVIDIA, Intel, UnternehmerTUM, Cherry Ventures, Earlybird Capital, UVC Partners, Yttrium, HTGF, eCAPITAL, Burda Principal Investments, HV Capital, D11Z.Ventures, MIG Capital, and AI.FUND), in collaboration with AI experts from the AppliedAI Institute for Europe, compiled a list of the most promising AI startups in Germany in 2024. Among the 27 selected startups are eleven teams from Munich.
Celus is working to enable anyone to develop electronics at the touch of a button. The startup's AI selects suitable components and creates circuit diagrams and circuit board layouts that are immediately ready for production. Just as code generators and compilers revolutionized software development decades ago, Celus brings these advantages and principles to the world of electronics.
Certivity empowers companies to understand and apply regulations to develop compliant products. To this end, the startup's solution will be integrated into the development process to seamlessly connect the legal and regulatory world with the technical domain. The startup thus automates the technical compliance process.
Dstack is an open-source container orchestration engine specifically designed to run AI workloads in any cloud or data center. It simplifies AI tuning and deployment, seamlessly integrating with the open-source ecosystem and leveraging multiple hardware and cloud providers.
Fernride develops scalable automation solutions for trucks in yard and port logistics. The startup relies on the so-called human-assisted autonomy approach, which enables the remote takeover of autonomous, electric trucks and combines it with autonomous driving technology on a scalable platform.
Floy aims to promote patient well-being through innovative technologies in radiology. To this end, the startup is committed to more precise diagnoses and the early detection of health risks by using artificial intelligence to help radiologists detect difficult-to-see abnormalities.
Helsing is upgrading existing weapon systems with an AI that analyzes information received from onboard sensors. The company is committed to transparency and explainability, relying on the "human in the loop." This means that the AI does not determine military targets itself, but rather supports officers in analyzing the situation.
Orbem has developed an AI-powered digital technology that automatically analyzes and classifies biological samples. The startup aims to revolutionize food production to meet the needs of a growing population.
Ororatech is developing a global, satellite-based early warning system for forest fires. AI-based data is analyzed on board the satellites, and detected events are relayed in real time. This allows for risk assessment in advance and early detection of forest fires worldwide at any time.
Remberg helps organizations manage and digitize their service and maintenance processes for their facilities, equipment, and other systems under one roof. The startup uses what is known as "extended" or "anything relationship management" (XRM), a further development of the "customer relationship management" approach – but for the Internet of Things (IoT).
Tacto has developed a "supply chain operating system": a centralized management of supplier relationships for medium-sized industrial companies. The AI-based software is designed to enable strategic supplier management, straightforward compliance with ESG regulations, and efficient and sustainable material procurement at optimized conditions.
Trail ML With its Data Science Co-Pilot, the company aims to enable trust and efficiency in ML development. The solution offers, among other things, automated documentation and a test suite to free up developer time and ensure AI governance.
