After the number of new companies founded in German innovation, technology and start-up centers declined in 2017 and stagnated in 2018, it grew again last year.
According to the Federal Association of German Innovation, Technology, and Business Incubators (BVIZ), 1,360 new companies were founded in the centers last year. This represents a 4 percent increase over the previous year. The number of externally managed startups even rose by 29 percent to 3,620, according to the association.
The BVIZ counts over 350 innovation, technology, and incubator centers and technology parks across Germany. At the end of 2019, a total of 16,660 companies were tenants. Since their opening, the centers have created 291,980 jobs, according to the association, and 34,140 companies have outgrown them. Furthermore, the success rate of startups from the incubators is 99 percent. The BVIZ stated in a press release:
"The cumulative number of companies that have since relocated from the centers to another location in the region and the total number of jobs created over the past 30 years reflect, not least, the continuity of the centers' work and their results as efficient instruments for regional economic development."
Trend reversal in new start-ups
These results confirm the nationwide trend, according to which start-up activity in Germany increased again last year – after declining figures in the previous five years. For example, the KfW reported in its Start-up Monitor 2020that there were a total of 605,000 new businesses founded in 2019 – 58,000 or 11 percent more than in 2018. However, these were predominantly part-time businesses, while in the centers almost exclusively full-time businesses were founded.
However, due to the Corona crisis, the trend reversal in start-ups in Germany is on shaky ground. In response to the publication of the KfW Start-up Monitor 2020 in April, Fritzi Köhler-Geib, Chief Economist of KfW:
"Start-up activity in Germany increased in 2019 for the first time in five years. Given the significant concerns posed by the coronavirus crisis, especially for the self-employed, 2020 will see whether an increase in emergency start-ups or a decrease due to the abandonment of start-up plans will prevail."
