Almost every third startup founded in Germany in 2021 can be considered "green". This is the conclusion of the 4th Green Startup Monitor from the Startup Association and the Borderstep Institute. At 29%, the share of all startups is thus roughly at the previous year's level of 30%. The study defines startups as "green" if they classify themselves as part of the green economy, if it is important to them to have a positive social and ecological impact with their corporate strategy, and if they also integrate their ecological and/or social impact into their key performance indicators.

Major transformation plays important role

According to the study, the share of green startups was particularly high in energy (67%) and agriculture (66%). Below average are, for example, construction and real estate (25%), banking and finance (19%) and tourism (18%). At the bottom of the list is the human resources sector with 10%. At the same time, 35% of all green startups have a business model that is designed for the major transformation of the economy and society toward sustainability. Across all startups, this share is 23%.

Particularly innovative and female

71% of green start-ups rate themselves as innovative or very innovative. This puts them six percentage points ahead of the non-green start-ups. Moreover, green start-ups are female: 21% were founded by women. For non-green startups, this is only true for 15%. In addition, green start-ups place particularly high value on sustainability on the part of their investors: 59% expect this, compared to 21% for other start-ups. Unsurprisingly, green startups are much more likely to demand that politicians promote entrepreneurial innovations for climate protection (62%) than other startups (29%).