Special Topic | Health & Biotech Start-up Ecosystem Berlin-Brandenburg, Focus on Financing  

It’s not difficult to come across start-ups and young companies in the capital region. Berlin-Brandenburg boasts a diverse and steadily growing start-up ecosystem. And financing options are just as diverse as this ecosystem, encompassing various government funding models, private investors and venture capital firms. The region’s biotech and health sector in particular has seen many very successful financing rounds in recent years. We give an overview of the capital region’s start-up ecosystem in these segments and present offers for young companies and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Start-ups and young companies frequently are drivers of innovation in their industries. Introducing new services, innovative products or unconventional solutions, they consistently manage to set important trends and succeed in the market. One of the greatest hurdles on their way to success is financing. It’s not easy to take this hurdle, but the capital region in particular offers a wealth of support options.

     

     

    The trend is pointing upwards again 

    As a report by consultancy EY shows, investment into start-ups declined all over Germany during the years 2022 and 2023. However, the trend reversed in 2024 and total investments increased by 17 percent. This means that German start-ups received a total of over EUR 7 billion in capital from investors, up by one billion from the previous twelve months. According to EY, the upward trend seems to continue into the present year. 

    Strengths of the capital region 

    In terms of the sectors in which investments were made, Software & Analytics led the way across Germany, followed by Health. And it is precisely at the interface between digital technologies and the healthcare industry that many interesting start-ups can be found in the capital region. Berlin-based companies such as AMBOSS, Prosoma and Nelly closed financing rounds of EUR 240 million (AMBOSS), EUR 4.4 million (Prosoma) and EUR 50 million (Nelly). 

    The high density and diversity of the capital region’s research landscape in the life sciences sector have led to many spin-offs from research and long-term success stories. Dr. Nevine Shalaby of the Max Delbrück Center (MDC), who supports founders in the search for investors as well as in accessing know-how and funding for early-stage innovation projects, confirms this: “Berlin is a veritable gold mine when it comes to exciting research results, groundbreaking ideas and translation. As head of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at MDC, I am responsible for helping founders in driving forward their ideas and bridging the validation phase with public funding and investor capital from Berlin. In doing so, I see that Berlin’s dynamic life science ecosystem is growing rapidly and attracting increasing interest from international investors.” 

    Financing, mentoring and networks 

    MDC is just one of many points of contact to which young entrepreneurs can turn for support. Another commendable one is the cluster HealthCapital Berlin-Brandenburg. While many funding and support programs focus on their own scientists, the cluster follows a broader approach. It networks and provides information on funding opportunities for projects at a very early stage, which have not yet been established, as well as start-ups that are already active on the market with products. With a view to providing primary guidance, the cluster also organizes a variety of events where founders and aspiring entrepreneurs can obtain important information and make initial contacts. Furthermore, it also accompanies the start-up process and provides information and assistance with applications for early-stage funding. As things progress, the cluster’s support services may also include searching for a suitable location and assistance with internationalization, if required. 

    In addition, Berlin offers a wide range of support options for life sciences and biotech start-ups, from grants and funding programs to venture capital and specialized accelerators. Given the multitude of opportunities available, only a small selection can be presented here. 

    The first of these opportunities is the Berliner Startup Stipendium (BSS), a scholarship awarded by experienced incubators. Through the BSS, the Senate Department for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises makes a total of EUR 31 million available, from which monthly grants can be provided to individual founders and founding teams. Furthermore, the incubators intensively support the scholarship recipients throughout the program, for example with workspaces, coaching and mentoring. 

    The Vision Health Pioneers Incubator is another Berlin-based program that offers extensive practical support during the early stages of a start-up. For the duration of nine months, it supports aspiring entrepreneurs in the health sector with services including trainings, access to testing grounds (hospitals, health insurers, etc.), free coworking spaces and scholarships. 

    The BIH Clinical Incubator (CLIC) is based at the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and provides the necessary support for start-ups working in the development of advanced and personalized therapies at BIH or Charité. Support services encompass infrastructure such as laboratory and office space, expertise, networks and exclusive opportunities to present ideas and products to potential investors and industry partners. 

    Another BIH-based opportunity is the SPARK mentoring program, which supports the further development of medical innovations from BIH or Charité through training, mentoring and financing. Emulating the successful eponymous scheme developed at Stanford University, the SPARK program was founded in 2015 and focuses on translation. This means that SPARK’s objective is to make successful laboratory research available to patients as fast as possible. Researchers who want to bring their results and ideas in the field of gene and cell therapies to clinical practice can get similar support through GeneNovate, a national entrepreneurship program for innovators sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space which is available in a growing number of German regions. 

    Activating founders 

    The UNITE initiative has made it its mission to give potential founders the necessary impetus to take the plunge into starting a business and be successful with it.  In a first step, events and community formats are intended to encourage entrepreneurship. This is followed by a qualification, quick access to early-stage financing opportunities as well as curated contacts with investors, mentors and companies. The international initiative Nucleate follows a similar approach, albeit specifically for the life sciences sector. It supports potential founders with important training courses and resources to bring their ideas into practice. 

    When tech start-ups are faced with the question of how to procure pre-seed and seed round financing, Potsdam-based HPI Ventures helps with investments. And support goes beyond the initial financial boost here as well. HPI Ventures also offers start-ups advice, access to investors and mentors as well as help in recruiting the right employees for the early stages of the company. The Business Angels Berlin-Brandenburg provide similar assistance to pave the way to success. 

    In addition to institutions that offer a wide range of support beyond access to financing opportunities or direct financing, there are also investors and financing programs such as venture capital firms, crowdfunding platforms, government support programs and private equity investors, which focus on financing in addition to mentoring and introduction into networks. The High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) is one example. It invests into early-stage start-ups (maximum age of three years) in life sciences, biotechnology, medical technology, digital health and adjacent fields. Another one is the EIC Accelerator (European Innovation Council) which, among other things, supports start-ups that want to continue growing or establish more substantial overall financing. The accelerator particularly aims to promote start-ups with disruptive innovations and business models based on high-risk technologies that are already at an advanced stage of development (from TRL 5–6). The SPRIN-D initiative, which helps founders with the necessary start-up financing and networks, is a further example. This platform also specializes in supporting particularly disruptive products and business models. SPRIN-D is particularly active in areas where traditional funding programs tend to be more cautious. 

    What to expect in the future 

    Looking ahead, it appears that start-ups across Europe will receive more institutional support and encounter fewer obstacles on their way to market. These are the goals of the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy presented by the European Commission in May of this year. The strategy aims to improve the political framework conditions in order to facilitate the path from start-up to market. To this end, it envisages a whole range of different measures designed to support start-ups in the long term. These include uniform EU-wide rules for companies, reducing bureaucracy and regulatory hurdles in strategic sectors, expanding the EIC, setting up a Scaleup Europe Fund to finance high-growth companies and simplifying access to EU funding programs. 

    The Pre-Seed Fonds by IBB Ventures, launched in October in the capital region, is already contributing to this strategy. The fund focuses on financing scientific deep tech spin-offs with disruptive potential, including in biotechnology. The aim is to better tap into the economic innovation potential of universities and research institutions and facilitate access to important pre-seed financing in the early stages of a start-up. IBB Ventures can draw on 28 years of experience, as the regional venture capital fund has been investing in Berlin-based start-ups since 1997. “Due to the longer development cycles to market, many deep tech start-ups in Berlin are not mature enough for seed financing with venture capital. With the convertible loans from the Pre-Seed Fonds, these founders receive a straightforward financing offer that, in conjunction with our service portfolio and network, allows them to bridge this financing gap,” says Ute Mercker, Investment Director at IBB Ventures, about the new fund and the opportunities it presents for start-ups, including those in the health sector. 

    The capital region also offers an abundance of events for potential founders. One of them is the bio:cap investival, which brings together investors, start-ups, leaders in life sciences from around the world, the pharmaceutical industry, leading players in the field of AI and policymakers. If you would like to find out more about the numerous opportunities for funding, financing and start-ups – and would like to make initial contacts – you are sure to find what you are looking for at the following events in the near future: https://www.healthcapital.de/en/events/top-events/page/ 

     

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