Carsten Berrar, Managing Partner of S&C’s Frankfurt office, and Senior Associate Florian Späth, co-authored the Germany chapter of the 2025 edition of Chambers Global Practice Guide: Venture Capital. Carsten, the Guide’s Global Editor, also authored the introduction, which provides a global overview of the industry in 2024 and its outlook for 2025.
In the chapter, Carsten and Florian, together with Associate Heiko Blaut, discuss key trends and challenges in the venture capital market in Germany. In 2024, this included the broader trend of increased cost of capital and challenged valuations, as reflected in financing round valuations and liquidity events. “The number of financing rounds declined for the third year in a row, falling by 12% to 755 transactions vs 2023,” they write. Regional divergence also played a role with Berlin leading the number of financing rounds followed by Bavaria which took the lead in terms of volume.
Reflective of global trends, key equity-funded industries in the German venture space included software and analytics and notably AI, healthcare and health as a broader theme. On the other end of the lifecycle, “VC-backed exits have overall not concentrated on certain industries and remained subdued in 2024,” the authors write.
Read the Introduction.
Read “Law and Practice in Germany.”