The USA offers founders far better conditions than Germany

According to a study, Germany's universities produce far fewer founders than the top locations in Great Britain and the USA.

"In Europe and Germany there are too few top universities that play in the top league in the global competition for venture capital," said Ifo President Clemens Fuest on Wednesday in response to an evaluation by the Munich Economic Research Institute on founders and venture capital based on figures from the data service provider PitchBook.

In the Stanford University area, there are around 14 venture capital-financed founders per 1,000 students every year; in Cambridge, the European leader, there are 3.5, and in Munich it is only 0.5.

In the USA, in addition to Stanford, Philadelphia and Boston also achieve high values, each with around five founders per 1,000 students.

In Europe, Cambridge is followed by Oxford (2.1), St. Gallen (1.5) and London (1.3).

According to the information, Berlin only comes to 0.2.

"Our evaluation shows that start-ups are concentrated strongly on individual university locations, while the large continental European economies have comparatively few start-up universities," explained Oliver Falck, head of the Ifo Center for Innovation Economics and Digital Transformation.

According to Ifo, founders trained in Europe in the USA collect around 5.3 times as much venture capital in the first five years as if they were founded in the EU.

The study authors recommend greater support for top universities, facilitating spin-offs, mobilizing more private capital and reducing the costs of failure.