German Fintech Ecosystem Growing

Roughly ten percent of all new start-ups in Germany are fintech companies – that’s one of the key insights from the first-ever FinTech Report by Germany Finance, the joint platform of the country’s financial locations, and online magazine Startbase. The sector is the second largest sector of the German start-up ecosystem after ICT.

Berlin has the most fintechs with 182, followed by the Rhine-Main area, which encompasses Germany’s financial capital Frankfurt, with 118 and Bavaria with 109. Other hubs include the northern city of Hamburg and the southwestern regional state of Baden-Württemberg. 243 new companies were established between 2018 and 2020, the study found, 70 of them in Berlin alone. The total number of fintechs in Germany is 639.

The fledgling companies are split roughly evenly between full- and single-service providers. 20 percent of all German fintechs operate in the area of personal financial management.

Germany is making efforts to support its Fintech start-ups. In Frankfurt, companies can find the TechQuartier, an innovation platform to bring start-ups, corporates and new talents together and collaborate on new technologies and business models. The Frankfurt TechQuartier is part of Germany’s Digital Hub Initiative, a country-wide network to strengthen the German start-up ecosystem.