• KfW Venture Capital Dashboard records EUR 7.2 billion in investments in German start-ups in 2025
• Record year for AI deals
• Number of exits rose again

With an investment volume of EUR 7.2 billion, the German venture capital market in 2025 remained on the level of the preceding years despite ongoing economic uncertainty. In 2024 the volume was EUR 7.4 billion, after EUR 7.1 billion in 2023. The final quarter was the second strongest quarter of the year with EUR 2 billion.

These are the findings of the KfW Venture Capital Dashboard, in which KfW Research publishes quarterly data on the German venture capital (VC) market.

Dr Dirk Schumacher, Chief Economist of KfW, commented:

“Investment activity in the German VC market in 2025 was solid. In an internationalen comparison, however, the momentum in Germany lags behind that of other countries such as the United Kingdom, France and, in particular, the US. The development of VC markets is therefore also an expression of the uneven economic momentum in these countries.”

In the segment of artificial intelligence (AI), Germany experienced a record year. The total volume here reached some EUR 2.9 billion, roughly two fifths of the overall investment volume in the German VC market. AI start-ups continued to be a key driver of growth.

The security sector was also among the winners in 2025, accounting for 17 per cent of the volume invested in Germany. It includes, among others, cyber security and technologies for countering physical threats. In other words, start-ups and their investors are increasingly addressing new demands for innovative security technologies in the context of geopolitical challenges.

In 2025 there were 164 exits from VC investments, more than in the previous year (2024: 154). But the valuations of the sold businesses and, thus, exit proceeds have been picking up only slowly for the past two years now. A key pillar for a positive upswing in the VC market in the coming years would be a revival of exit markets with corresponding return flows to investors.

The German VC market continues to be more selective than during the boom phases in the years 2021 and 2022. The number of funding rounds of German start-ups dropped slightly in 2025 on the previous year to 1,444 (2024: 1,540). At the same time, the situation of the most promising start-ups improved on 2024, as the average size of funding rounds increased again. Financing of scale-ups continued to increase in importance, taking a share of 49 per cent. Around one third of the deal volume was accounted for by domestic investors.

The current KfW Venture Capital Dashboard by KfW Research can be found at Venture capital market in Germany | KfW