The road to IPO: public and private companies and capital in DACH

Public and private capital and investor groups are increasingly interconnected. The tech ecosystem in DACH is now worth a combined €264 billion, with half of that publicly listed. As investors seek exposure to early-stage tech companies, investor silos are breaking down. In partnership with Deutsche Börse Venture Network, our new report explores the DACH venture capital landscape, high-growth companies as exit outlooks, as well as how VC-backed growth companies have fared since going public.

The DACH snowball effect

The DACH tech ecosystem has grown 4.4x in value since 2015. A positively reinforcing snowball effect is underway in DACH, where a much larger new cohort of rising stars is emerging, fuelled by the talent and capital of past ecosystem success. Valuations on public markets have grown by 7.5x, driven not only by large caps like Delivery Hero and Zalando, but also public listed SMEs.

Beyond unicorns – scaling public SMEs

A larger than ever new cohort of rising stars is emerging, run by more experienced operators, backed by more experienced VC firms, with access to more sophisticated public capital markets. Seed-stage startups in DACH are just as likely as US startups to reach unicorn valuations, but the ecosystem also has strength in depth. As Target Global General Partner Yaron Valler told us “there’s a lot of room in the economy for Zebras, not just unicorns.”

Widening horizons – untapped public capital

Despite ever climbing levels of capital being raised by global venture funds, VCs still cannot meet startup capital demands. By comparison European capital markets are worth 150x what all European VCs have raised in the last 10 years, offering an accessible financing route for tech SMEs as well as headline-grabbing unicorns. The historically siloed private and public markets are starting to collaborate more closely.

DACH’s maturing ecosystem is benefiting from growing investor confidence following validated success stories. Companies like Delivery Hero and Zalando have successfully translated private scaling into public growth, becoming the envy of every portfolio, in DACH and beyond.