Comdirect Fintech Study 2020: Hamburg passes Frankfurt

The importance of Berlin for the German Fintech sector is enormous and not questionable. The federal capital continues to play in a league of its own in terms of the number of fintechs as well as start-ups and venture capital. However, the gap has narrowed. These are the results of the comdirect fintech study.

“With more than 300 fintechs, Berlin naturally enjoys an exceptional position in the German fintech sector, but the pursuers are catching up a bit,” says Matthias Hach, head of comdirect. “Almost every third fintech in Germany is still based in Berlin, but for the first time the federal capital has fewer fintechs than the three subsequent cities of Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt combined.”

The special position of Berlin traditionally becomes particularly clear when analyzing the venture capital that has flowed. Since the beginning of 2019, 1.8 billion euros have flowed into Berlin fintechs. This corresponds to 66% of the total fintech investment in Germany during this period. Compared with the previous year’s study (72%), the proportion is slightly lower. If you only look at 2020, Berlin’s share is even below 50% for the first time.

It is noticeable that Berlin’s dominance has also been lower in terms of the number of financing rounds since the beginning of 2019. With a share of 42%, Berlin is significantly below the value from the previous study and even significantly below the 50% threshold for the first time ever.

Munich consolidates second place

In the race for second place, Munich is still ahead. There are 116 startups in the metropolis on the Isar, 20 of which have been founded since the beginning of 2019. In addition, Munich has grown significantly in venture capital through investments of 433 million euros since the beginning of 2019.

Hamburg passes Frankfurt

Hamburg climbs to third place of the most important fintech locations in Germany and thus overtakes Frankfurt compared to the previous year’s study. Hamburg scores above all with a significant increase to a total of 27 financing rounds and, with 17 start-ups, again provides evidence of the high level of start-up dynamism in the Hanseatic city. For Frankfurt it is only enough for 4th place in the Fintech Hub Ranking 2020. Although there are almost as many Fintechs in Frankfurt as in Munich, Frankfurt is clearly lagging behind with investments of 42 million euros from 22 financing rounds, especially when it comes to venture capital .

Cologne continues in 5th place ahead of Düsseldorf

The fintech location Cologne was also able to collect 42 million euros from investors during the survey period. In Cologne, five deals were enough. The cathedral city thus remains in 5th place. The gap to the top 4 is still considerable.

Sixth place goes to Düsseldorf. Surprisingly, with 161 million euros, the third-most venture capital flowed into fintechs, although they also benefited greatly from a single deal with a volume of over 100 million euros.

The entire presentation of the comdirect Fintech Study 2020 is now available for download under this link .

Explanation of the fintech hub ranking

For the creation of the Fintech Hub Ranking 2020, the German fintech locations were analyzed based on four criteria:

1. Number of fintech startups in 2020
2. Fintech start-ups 2019-20
3. Invested venture capital 2019-20
4. Number of financing rounds 2019-20

The result of the Fintech Hub Ranking 2020 was determined from the respective individual rankings of the four criteria using an arithmetic mean.

Background to the study

The comdirect fintech study is based on Barkow Consulting’s Fintech Money Map, Germany’s leading and most widely used data source for fintech startups and fintech venture capital. The editorial deadline for the analysis was the end of September 2020. Fintech venture capital investments have been recorded since the beginning of 2012. Fintech startups and foundings have been integrated retrospectively since 2007.

The data of the Fintech Money Map are obtained through continuous analysis and evaluation of all relevant news sources and databases. Barkow Consulting relies on a combination of man and machine. The Fintech Money Map currently includes over 1,000 startups. In addition, more than 1,250 venture capital investors and over 6 billion euros in venture capital investments are currently recorded in the database.