An analysis of 27,602 German funding rounds between 2015 and 2025, revealing what really determines whether startups make it from Seed to Series A.
Authored by Christoph Klink, Partner at Antler — July 2026
It has never been a better time to become a tech founder in Germany. And, it has never been harder to be a tech founder in Europe.
Two diametrically opposed trends are taking place across the German startup ecosystem.
Startups are raising more venture capital in their early stages of growth than ever before. They are raising more money, faster than anything we've previously seen. At the same time, deal volume is falling and the survival rate for startups to reach Series A is falling.
Fewer startups are securing funding, but those that do are securing more than ever. This means that for those founders able to build startups that generate the required momentum to secure funding, the opportunity right now is significant. But too many startups are failing.
In fact, only 24% of companies that raise a seed round ever reach Series A.
Despite the excitement of Germany building rocketship unicorns in Berlin and Munich, the progression from Seed to Series A is not natural. It is hard fought, and the vast majority don't survive.
At Antler, we analysed over 27,000 German funding rounds to understand the differences between the startups that reach Series A and those that don't. We identified the structure of rounds secured by successful startups to understand Germany's New Path to Series A.
This report analyses the funding activity of 3,022 German companies that raised seed rounds up to and including 2022. Our primary analysis uses seed cohorts up to and including 2022, ensuring a minimum 3.5-year observation window for each company. The 2023 cohort is included in Chapter Two as an early indicator with appropriate caveats — at 13.8% current conversion it is still maturing, and its final rate will be meaningfully higher.
We focus on Seed-to-Series A conversion because raising a Series A is the first step a company takes to build true outlier growth. As it is often a startup's first really significant funding event, it gives us fast feedback loops to analyse trends at scale over time.
As a robustness check, we also tested pre-seed-to-Series A conversion. The same factors predict success: round size, syndication, institutional VC presence, and investor continuity. Because pre-seed rounds are less commonly reported and take longer to mature, seed-to-Series A remains the primary lens.
Round sizes are growing at every stage. The median German Series A grew from €8.7M in 2020 to €14.0M in 2025. Seed rounds grew from €2.0M to €3.9M over the same period. Founders need to raise more at every stage and demonstrate significantly more traction before Series A investors engage.
Five factors materially affect success: how much founders raise, who backs them, how many investors back them, whether existing investors follow on, and how quickly they move between rounds.
Companies meeting all five criteria convert at 46.7% in a median of 13.6 months — more than 7× the rate of companies meeting none, and 36% faster than the overall median.
In fact, there are 19 German companies secured a seed round in 2024 or 2025 and have already reached Series A. Nearly all of them meet our criteria. 18 had an institutional VC, 18 had a named lead investor, 18 raised at least €2M at seed, and 17 had 3 or more investors. Not one winner raised less than €2M at seed. The median seed round among those already converting today is €5.73M - nearly triple the €2M gold standard threshold.