Overview
- The federal cabinet approved the 36‑page Startup‑ and Scaleup‑Strategy on July 22, listing about 152 measures to speed founding, cut bureaucracy and mobilise growth capital for startups.
- The strategy formally makes security and defence startups a policy priority and, according to press reports, proposes a new vehicle to allow direct federal equity stakes in firms that clearly produce military‑usable products.
- To unlock more capital the plan calls for expanding state instruments such as the Deutschlandfonds with more than €30 billion in seed and guarantee support and for KfW to act more as a co‑investor.
- The government also proposes channeling parts of future pension or reform capital into venture capital but those ideas are politically contested and would need new legislation and legal design before they can be used.
- Industry groups broadly welcomed the measures but urged quick, concrete rollout while critics fault the strategy for vague deadlines, a heavy defence tilt and the removal of the earlier 24‑hour founding pledge.