Market
DACH is the largest tech-capital region on the European mainland.
In the twelve months to mid-2025, technology companies in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein together raised about twelve billion US dollars in venture capital.
DACH Region
Volume, distribution, focus.
Defense-tech grew over three hundred percent in twelve months to about USD 1.4 billion. Hardware investments in DACH reached USD 1.56 billion. more than twice France, clearly ahead of the United Kingdom.
The Shift
Early-stage financing is under pressure. Late-stage rounds concentrate among a few recipients.
The bar for Series-A rounds has risen. What today qualifies as a Series A would have counted as a Series-C profile a few years ago.
Market observers speak of a barbell market: on one side a few fully-financed platforms, on the other a growing number of companies that cannot find follow-on financing after successful product development. The middle thins out.
The Insolvency Wave 2023–2025
Around 336 German start-ups filed for insolvency in 2024. eighty-five percent above 2022.
In Q1 2025 corporate insolvencies overall grew 13.1 percent year over year.
The wave has produced a class of companies whose special situation is no longer the exception but the rule. Since 2021, Germany's StaRUG provides a pre-insolvency restructuring regime that allows orderly handovers outside formal insolvency.
What the Data Means
A meaningful number of substantively technological companies are acquirable. at valuations that mirror their short-term liquidity, not their configuration value.
Anyone who fails to buy in this environment because they cannot recognise substance is leaving an asset class behind whose return is uncertain.