Record number of German unicorns
A record number of billion-euro start-ups have emerged in Germany, thanks to the artificial intelligence and defence boom.
Berlin (dpa) – Germany’s start-up scene has been producing an increasing number of billion-euro start-ups, thanks in part to the artificial intelligence boom. Ten new start-ups assessed to be worth at least one billion euros have emerged in Germany up to the end of September, according to the German Startup Monitor. The start-up association from Berlin reported that this was the greatest number of new billion-euro start-ups (so-called unicorns) since 2021. The total number of unicorns has now reached a record level of 39.
The amount of money that flows into the start-up scene is also on a long-time high. It is stated in the report that German start-ups had raised around eight billion euros in venture capital by the end of September, more than in all of 2025, when around 7.5 billion euros were raised. When this figure is projected for the current year, 12 billion euros could be raised, which would be the strongest result since the boom year of 2021. In addition, close to 3,000 new businesses were started.
Examples of unicorns include large companies such as the online brokers Trade Republic, the N26 smartphone bank and the software company Personio. Among the new start-ups that joined the list this year are the software company Osapiens, Neura Robotics and the defence company Stark Defense.
