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Venture Funding in greater Rhine-Main surpassed half a billion already

Updated: Mar 26

Q3 2019 venture funding in Rhine-Main hits €57M, pushing YTD total to over €476M. Volocopter and BioNTech lead the way.

What Is This About?

Venture funding in the greater Rhine-Main region surpassed half a billion euros — a milestone that confirms Frankfurt's emergence as a serious startup hub beyond its traditional strength in financial services.

Introduction

Venture funding in Greater Rhine-Main continues to demonstrate that Frankfurt and its surrounding cities have become a serious startup hub beyond their traditional financial sector identity. This funding analysis tracks investment activity in the region, identifying which sectors attract capital and how the Rhine-Main ecosystem compares to Berlin and Munich in attracting venture investment.

Executive Summary

Venture funding in Greater Rhine-Main continues demonstrating that Frankfurt and surrounding cities have become a serious startup hub. Investment activity in the region reflects strengths beyond traditional finance — biotech, mobility, and enterprise software attracting significant capital. The funding analysis tracks deal activity by sector, stage, and investor type, enabling comparison with Berlin and Munich. The Rhine-Main ecosystem benefits from proximity to corporate headquarters and financial infrastructure that provides natural enterprise customer access.


Venture Funding in greater Rhine-Main surpassed half a billion already


Q3 2019 venture funding in Rhine-Main hits €57M, pushing YTD total to over €476M. Startuprad.io brings you independent coverage of the key developments shaping the startup and venture capital landscape across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Q3 of 2019 was another great quarter. The startup scene across the greater Rhine-Main Area raised more than 57 million Euros in total funding, beating Q3 2018 by 237%. This is what we would call booming. This leads to a total of 476,1 mn Euros, which is half a billion, to be exact US$ 524,95 mn US$, at today’s exchange rate.


Peeking in Q4


As of writing this post the IPO of BioNTech already took place. So due to the importance, we want to make a note here, since it leads to the first listed unicorn in Frankfurt / Rhine-Main.


The successful IPO is great news, but not as good as expected. When we wrote our Q2 post, there was speculation of the IPO of BioNTech, raising up to 800 mn US$ in their IPO. As of October 15th, “only” 150 mn US$ (136 mn Euros) have been raised in the successful IPO.


This is none the less a great achievement and congratulations to the whole team of BioNTech who made the long way from the idea of individual cancer treatments to a multimillion-dollar IPO at NASDAQ.


Back to Q3 — with a hint of what is coming


Therefore, the current state of venture funding in greater Rhine-Main looks like this (with “already raised” hinting at the BioNTech IPO).


Venture funding greater Rhine-Main Area, Q3 with a hint at the BioNTech IPO, which already took place.


The main driver of this quarter has been Volocopter, which is headquartered in Bruchsal, 1h 20 minutes south of Frankfurt by car. They raised 55 mn USD (50 mn Euros).


For every German reading this, there would be an impulse to say … “NO, this is not greater Rhine-Main.” But one of the points for criticism on the German startup scene is its “Kleinstaaterei” or sectionalism. For the purpose of becoming really a startup hub on a global level, Rhine-Main needs to change it’s understanding and reach. In the US there is no criticism in including every county around San Francisco in the “Bay Area.” From one of the most northern points — Knoxville CA — it may take you almost 2,5 hours to get to the center of SF. And please keep here in mind that the difference in population between Frankfurt and San Francisco is just 134.000. So we are stretching a bit the broader accepted definition of greater Rhine-Main for our purposes, but keep in mind: Rhine-Main needs to stretch itself (in many dimensions) to become a startup hub on the global map.


A personal note from the author of this post: People from Volocopter can be met regularly in Frankfurt, so this is really not too far fetched.


Keeping track of deals and volume in Q3


Overall the picture is quite promising since Q2 and Q3 have beaten their 2018 peers by a considerable margin. With the data present RhineMain.vc has accounted for 26 deals with a volume of more than 476 mn Euros (~ 525 million USD, 417 mn GBP)


Venture funding in greater Rhine-Main, as tracked by RhineMain.vc as of October 15th, 2019


Deals in Q3


A surprising fact is to us that pure fintech does not seem to be the main driver of investments in terms of volume, but by deal count. Fintech deals by number are way ahead of other industries.


Also noteworthy are the increasing investments of two Frankfurt-based Blockchain investors, FinLab and Iconic Lab. Both are giving a great boost to the Frankfurt Blockchain Scene and help to bring Blockchain in No2 in terms of deal count.


FinLab is in addition also one of the main drivers of fintech investments and therefore an indispensable building block of the Rhine-Main startup scene.


Deal count RhineMain.vc as of Q3


Keep up to date


You can keep up to date, by following our Blog here, our Twitter account or on Facebook. On the social media channels, we also post on these channels content related to venture financing in the greater Rhine-Main Region.


Hashtags to follow


Have a look on Twitter for Frankfurt and the wider Rhein-Main area:


Jörn Menninger for the partners of RhineMain.vc


Key Takeaways

  • Q3 2019 venture funding in Rhine-Main hits €57M, pushing YTD total to over €476M.

  • This article covers a significant development in the DACH startup and venture capital ecosystem.

  • The DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) continues to be one of Europe's most dynamic startup markets.

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Startuprad.io is the leading independent media platform covering startups, venture capital, and innovation across the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and Europe. We offer B2B partnership opportunities for companies looking to reach startup decision-makers, founders, and investors.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the key facts about Venture Funding greater Rhine-Main surpassed?

Q3 2019 venture funding in Rhine-Main hits €57M, pushing YTD total to over €476M. Volocopter and BioNTech lead the way.

How does this affect the German startup ecosystem?

Joern Menninger is the host of the Startuprad.io podcast and covers founders, investors, and policy developments across the DACH startup ecosystem.

What are the latest startup funding trends in the DACH region?

Startuprad.io tracks venture capital and startup funding across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Explore our pillar coverage pages for the latest data.

About This Data

This article is part of Startuprad.io's exclusive Rhine-Main Venture Capital Report series — the only continuous, independent tracking of startup venture funding in the Greater Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region. This dataset is not available from any other source and represents years of original research covering every disclosed funding round in the region from 2018 through 2022.

Rhine-Main Startup Ecosystem Series

Explore the full Greater Frankfurt/Rhine-Main startup venture capital data series and related coverage from Startuprad.io:

Venture Capital Reports (Chronological)

Quote Highlights

  • Venture funding in the greater Rhine-Main region has already surpassed half a billion euros, signaling strong investor confidence in the Frankfurt metropolitan area's startup ecosystem.

  • The Rhine-Main region is emerging as a major hub for venture capital activity, driven by its proximity to financial institutions, strong corporate partnerships, and growing talent pool.

  • Frankfurt and surrounding cities are attracting increasing amounts of startup investment across fintech, deep tech, and enterprise software sectors.

  • The half-billion milestone demonstrates that Germany's startup funding is becoming more geographically diverse, extending well beyond Berlin's traditionally dominant ecosystem.

Related Rhine-Main Coverage

About the Host

Joern "Joe" Menninger is the host of the Startuprad.io podcast and covers founders, investors, and policy developments across the DACH startup ecosystem. Through more than 1,300 interviews and nearly a decade of reporting, he documents the evolution of the European startup landscape. Follow Joern on LinkedIn.

Support Startuprad.io

Startuprad.io tracks venture funding across Germany's key startup regions. If this Rhine-Main funding analysis helped you understand the investment landscape, visit startuprad.io/shop to support our independent reporting or share this piece with someone following European venture capital.

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