NRW Startup Report 2024

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.

This is reflected in the satisfaction of startups: 61 per cent of founders rate the startup 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 start-ups see room for improvement in the reduction of bureaucratic hurdles. They believe that cities such as Berlin, Munich and Paris are further ahead as start-up metropolises, as they have easier access to capital and a more established start-up mentality.

One of the outstanding support measures is the Gründungsstipendium.NRW. This scholarship is particularly popular and is unreservedly recommended by 87 per cent of recipients. It offers financial support and advice to turn innovative business ideas into reality.

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.

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 organisation are perceived as less problematic than for male founders.

The aim of this study is to gain deeper insights into the North Rhine-Westphalian startup scene 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 startup ecosystem in NRW.

We have summarised all the results on topics such as sources of funding, bureaucratic hurdles, sales and customer acquisition as well as female entrepreneurship in the NRW Startup Report 2024, which you can download here.