The state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has established itself as a dynamic and supportive environment for start-ups. Even in economically challenging times, NRW offers a stable start-up environment.
Startups in NRW: High satisfaction despite bureaucratic hurdles
This is reflected in the satisfaction of start-ups: 61% of founders rate the start-up ecosystem as "very good" or "good". This is shown by the results of the latest NRW Startup Report, which was compiled by KPMG on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy.
Nevertheless, some startups see room for improvement when it comes to reducing bureaucratic hurdles. They believe that cities such as Berlin, Munich and Paris are further ahead as startup hubs, as they have easier access to capital and a more established startup mentality.
Funding landscape and support measures
One of the outstanding support measures is the Gründungsstipendium.NRW. This scholarship is particularly popular and is unreservedly recommended by 87% of recipients. It offers financial support and advice to turn innovative business ideas into reality.
Florian Merkel
Director, Tax
KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
Hurdles and special needs of NRW start-ups
Despite the positive framework conditions, there are also operational challenges for start-ups in NRW. Sales and customer acquisition are the biggest hurdles, followed by raising capital and managing cash flow and liquidity. These issues affect startups in all phases of their development.
Female entrepreneurship: Financial difficulties dominate for female founders in the start-up phase
Although the results in the area of product development are similar for female and male founders, financial issues such as profitability, cash flow and liquidity are more of a challenge for the female founders surveyed. In contrast, personnel recruitment and internal organization are perceived as less problematic than for male founders.
Mood of the North Rhine-Westphalian start-up ecosystem
The aim of this study is to gain deeper insights into the start-up scene in North Rhine-Westphalia in order to identify potential for the further development of start-up-friendly framework conditions. To this end, 182 people were surveyed online on relevant topics relating to the start-up ecosystem in NRW.
We have summarized all the results on topics such as sources of financing, bureaucratic hurdles, sales and customer acquisition as well as female entrepreneurship in the NRW Start-up Report 2024, which you can download here.
