According to a Bitkom survey , more than half of the over 300 innovative young company founders surveyed are satisfied with their choice of location in Germany. Around 61% would restart their project in Germany. In contrast, only 21% would choose to start a business in the US. In a similar survey in 2016, the gap was much smaller. At that time 32% still favored starting up their business in the United States and only 44% in Germany. Bitkom President Achim Berg considers this evidence of Germany’s development into a universally recognized startup nation.

This, in turn, is good news for the local companies on their way to Industry 4.0 that cooperate with young innovators to implement their respective digitization strategies. To what extent they do that is not very clear. A Bitkom survey at the beginning of the year showed that communication has been rather hesitant. However, according to a more recent RWE survey , 70% of small and medium-sized businesses specifically seek to be close to startups in order to develop new technologies, develop innovative products, or even find digitization skills in the form of skilled workers.