Heidelberg overtaking Munich and Berlin: Start-up stronghold Germany!

In 2024, the city of Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg set a remarkable record. According to the current Next Generation Report , Heidelberg leads across Germany with impressive 13.5 new founders per 100,000 inhabitants. This means that the city of Munich and Berlin overtaken in this important ranking.

The report emphasizes the increasing importance of start-ups, which enable new ideas and technologies to quickly convert into functioning business models. They also create new, future-proof jobs, which is emphasized by the Baden-Württemberg Minister of Economic Affairs Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut. She underlines that start-ups play a central role in future medium-sized companies.

Positive developments in the founding location

The positive dynamics that the Next Generation Report 2024 confirms the strength of the founding location Baden-Württemberg. In addition to Heidelberg, other cities such as Karlsruhe, Freiburg, Stuttgart and Mannheim have found space among the top 20 of the founding cities in Germany.

2024 in total were recorded significantly more new foundations than in the two previous years, which indicates increasing courage for entrepreneurship. Today's start-ups are regarded as the basis of the medium-sized company of tomorrow. The Minister of Economics, Labor and Tourism, Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, emphasizes the role of start-ups in this development.