Germany Tops EU as Venture Capital Destination

In the first week of April, Berlin’s Grover became the latest German unicorn after raising USD 330 million in Series C funding. The young company rents, refurbishes and re-rents electronic devices. Taking advantage of the trend toward “rent not buy” and the circular economy, Grover said the latest capital infusion took its total value over USD one billion.

And Grover is not alone. According to the 2022 European Start-Up Barometer from consultants Ernst&Young (EY), as reported by business newspaper Handelsblatt, half of the ten largest VC investments in European countries in 2021 went to firms located in Germany.

Germany’s total volume of EUR 17.4 billion in incoming VC lead the European Union by a wide margin and trailed only Britain in Europe. Berlin was bested only by London for VC investments by city, and Munich placed fourth after Paris. VC investment in Germany went up 229 percent in 2021, compared to 141 percent in Europe as a whole.