As digitization suppliers to the industry, startups are playing an increasingly important role in the introduction of industry 4.0 technologies in established companies. Nevertheless, according to a Bitkom survey of IT and Internet startups , only 39% of the founders currently see an improvement in their situation as compared with the previous year. In 2018, this figure was 44%; in 2017, it was even higher at 54% (2017). In addition, 11% of startups are currently experiencing a decline; in the past two years the number was only at 5%.

Irrespective of their own situation, the startups see Germany through a more critical lens than before. Seventy-eight percent believe that the government likes to adorn itself with the charisma of the scene, but is basically not interested in its specific problems. Sixty-two percent therefore assume that most of the measures for startups that were announced in the coalition agreement won’t even be implemented in the end. Bitkom President Achim Berg described the results of the survey as a “warning sign” and called on politicians to take action, for example, with respect to public procurement: up to now, startups have often been excluded from this for formal reasons because they have no multi-year balance sheets or reference projects to draw from.