Green startups as innovation drivers for climate protection and industry
The report underscores the central role of green startups in the transformation towards a climate-neutral and resource-efficient economy. These young companies are developing technologies and business models that reduce emissions, conserve resources, and restructure industrial value creation.
What is remarkable is the combination of high technological innovation and measurable climate protection potential. Many of the solutions emerge at the interface of research, industry, and digital technology – from new energy systems and the circular economy to sustainable mobility.
The Green Startup Report The data has been continuously collected by the Borderstep Institute since 2013 and is considered one of the most important data sources for the development of sustainable innovations in Germany. Long-term data collection makes it possible to reliably analyze structural trends and changes in the startup scene.
Nearly 4,700 new green startups are now shaping the German innovation landscape.
According to the report, 4,668 new green startups were founded between 2016 and 2025. This means the green startup community in Germany has continued to grow.
The startups develop solutions in areas such as:
- Renewable energy
- Circular economy
- climate-neutral production
- sustainable mobility
- Resource efficiency and environmental technology
In addition to their contribution to climate protection, they also strengthen the technological competitiveness of Germany as a business location.
Declining start-up activity despite growing greentech markets
Despite long-term growth, the report shows for the first time a weakening of the dynamics of new business formations in the last two years.
Klaus Fichter, head of the Borderstep Institute and co-author of the report, says:
"The data from the Green Startup Report shows long-term growth in the green startup scene, but at the same time a declining dynamic over the past two years, even leading to a decrease in new startups."
According to the analysis, the decline is not due to lower demand for green technologies. Rather, attention, funding strategies, and investments are increasingly shifting towards other key issues.
Yasmin Olteanu, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences and also co-author of the report, explains:
"Shifting attention in politics and the public towards topics such as artificial intelligence or security issues has changed start-up decisions as well as funding and investment logics in the last two years."
Political uncertainties are slowing down investments
In addition to the shift in focus, regulatory uncertainties also act as a barrier to growth. Capital-intensive greentech sectors such as energy, industry, and infrastructure are particularly affected.
The report therefore calls for green startups to be given greater consideration in the German government's future startup and scaleup strategy. Reliable political framework conditions are considered crucial for promoting investment and the creation of new businesses in the field of sustainable technologies.
35 percent of greentech startups own patents.
A key finding of the report is the above-average innovation intensity of green startups.
- 35 of the investment-funded green startups hold at least one patent.
- The European average for comparable startups is around 14 %
Thomas Neumann, co-author of the report, puts it in context:
"The high patent share highlights the strong technological focus of green startups and their special role as drivers of knowledge-intensive environmental innovations."
The high patent rate shows that many greentech startups focus on research-oriented and technically sophisticated innovations.
Climate protection impact: up to hundreds of thousands of tons of CO₂ savings
The report also provides data on the real climate protection potential of green startups.
The results show a wide range:
- Some startups save several hundred tons of CO₂ per year
- High-impact startups Achieve hundreds of thousands of tons of CO₂ savings annually
Such companies are referred to in the report as "green impact unicorns".
According to the analysis, on average, green startups reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 70 percent compared to conventional technologies.
Women more frequently in leadership positions
Another finding concerns the gender distribution in startup management teams.
The proportion of women in management positions at green startups founded in 2025 is:
- 22 % at green startups
- 16 % at non-green startups
The higher proportion is evident across several founding years. In many companies, the proportion of women also continues to increase after the company's founding.
Growing partner structure in the Green Startup Report
The Green Startup Report is now supported by a broad partner network of over 20 organizations in the startup and innovation ecosystem.
Monitoring of the green startup scene has been continuously developed for more than a decade. Methodology, data depth, and coverage have been systematically expanded, while maintaining the long-term comparability of the data.
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