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Biontech co-founder Uğur Şahin
Photo: Florian Gaertner / photothek / imago images
If you found a company in Germany, you have to overcome quite a few hurdles anyway.
Between dealing with the authorities and rounds of financing, applications for funding and bureaucracy, starting your own business is only something for particularly hardened entrepreneurs.
However, this is particularly true for people with a migration background.
One in three young entrepreneurs who were born abroad had racist experiences when they started their business.
The proportion is even higher for those who studied in another country: 51 percent complain about discrimination at authorities and offices, banks and investors, landlords and cooperation partners.
This was the result of an evaluation by the Federal Association of German Start-ups and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which is available to SPIEGEL.
More innovative and better educated
Founders who grew up in Germany in the first or second generation also talk about prejudices: According to a survey, 32 percent and 17 percent respectively experienced moments when they were founding their company when they were discriminated against because of their origin - most of the founders are immigrant founders from Eastern Europe (23 percent) and Asia (14 percent).
The only ray of hope: dealing with and exchanging ideas with other start-ups seems to pose fewer such problems for young entrepreneurs.
These figures are disappointing for Germany as a start-up location, as it lives to a large extent on the innovation of its founders, some of whom have their roots abroad.
Without them there would be no independent academic network (ResearchGate), no food deliveries in less than ten minutes (gorillas) and no German vaccine from mRNA research (Biontech).
"A lack of openness towards people with a migration background, their inadequate networks and our bureaucracy are a problem for Germany as a location," says Gesa Miczaika from the start-up association.
Insufficient funding
This is also due to the importance that these companies have achieved in Germany: Entrepreneurs with migration experience found 22 percent of German start-ups, more than half of them were born abroad.
With a 91 percent share of university graduates, the latter in particular are particularly well educated, with the majority having a degree in business or one of the coveted MINT subjects.
Nevertheless, there is a major discrepancy in the competition for capital: According to their own statements, only a third of the founders who have immigrated to Germany have so far been able to fall back on state subsidies - that is ten percentage points less than the general average.
Similar differences can be seen in the distribution of venture capital: only 15 percent of foreign founders have received such financing, compared to 20 percent in the general start-up average.
And this despite the fact that they often seek this form of financing.
