German tech ended 2023 on a slightly sour note, with VC funding dropping by a third and just three unicorns crowned — a stark contrast to the heydays of 2021.
But 2024 is already showing some promise. In the first quarter of this year, German startups raised $2.3bn, $300m more than the same quarter in 2023, making it the second top ecosystem in Europe by VC investment in 2024 so far.
Many German companies have also been on a hiring spree in the last year. Solar startup 1Komma5° has retained its crown as the fastest-growing company in terms of headcount this year. AI company Aleph Alpha has grown its team size too, after a large funding round at the end of 2023.
Sifted has compiled the 10 fastest-growing German startup teams by headcount over the last 12 months, using data from Dealroom. To avoid results being skewed by early-stage businesses making lots of hires while growing quickly, companies have to have raised at least $50m to be considered. Total funding and headcount figures are taken from Dealroom.
1Komma5°
HQ city: Hamburg
Founded: 2021
Headcount growth over the last 12 months: 183% to 479 employees
1Komma5° has built a marketplace that helps homeowners buy and install carbon-neutral energy systems like solar panels and heat pumps. It also provides software to optimise consumption and reduce energy bills. The company hit unicorn status in June 2023 after raising a whopping €430m in Series B financing, and topped Sifted’s last year’s edition of the fastest-growing startup teams in Germany.
Aleph Alpha
HQ city: Heidelberg
Founded: 2019
Headcount growth over the last 12 months: 164% to 111 employees
Aleph Alpha builds LLMs for enterprises and governments and is the poster child for AI innovation in Germany. In November last year, the company raised $500m in one of Europe’s largest-ever AI rounds. While the company has grown its headcount significantly in the last year, founder Jonas Andrulis doesn’t want Aleph Alpha to scale to become a huge company: “I want to contribute to the fact that there’s technological sovereignty, and I want to be the smallest company that can do that,” he told Sifted in a November interview.
PowerCo
HQ city: Salzgitter, Lower Saxony
Founded: 2022
Headcount growth over the last 12 months: 137% to 1,053 employees
Volkswagen Group-owned battery company PowerCo is working on building three gigafactories in Salzgitter, Valencia and St Thomas in Canada, with more in the pipeline. It wants to have six 40 gigawatt hour (GwH) battery cell production plants in operation in Europe by 2030. To put it into perspective, just one gigawatt hour could power 10m watt bulbs.
Parloa
HQ city: Berlin
Founded: 2017
Headcount growth over the last 12 months: 105% to 223 employees
Parloa is a conversational AI platform designed to automate and improve customer service operations for businesses. It’s already raised a €61.7m Series B round this year from Altimeter Capital — a standout deal for the sales and customer service tech sector.
Clark
HQ city: Frankfurt
Founded: 2015
Headcount growth over the last 12 months: 105% to 698 employees
Insurtech Clark offers life, property and casualty insurance services and has 700k customers across Europe, according to its website. The company, which last raised funding in 2021, has backers such as early stage VC Target Global, Tencent and Allianz X, the corporate investment arm of financial services giant Allianz.
KoRo
HQ city: Berlin
Founded: 2012
Headcount growth over the last 12 months: 100% to 467 employees
KoRo is an online B2B/B2C marketplace for healthy snacks such as superfoods, dried fruits and nuts. It also has its own cafe in Berlin, selling porridges, sandwiches and smoothies, and a catering service for events of 50-70 people. It’s raised $86.1m to date and has backers such as HV Capital, Partech and SevenVentures.
AnyDesk
HQ city: Stuttgart
Founded: 2014
Headcount growth over the last 12 months: 93% to 543 employees
AnyDesk is a remote desktop software that allows users to connect to devices in other locations, making remote work and online collaboration easier. The company has been growing fast in the last few years, boosted by a $70m Series C funding round in 2021 from General Atlantic, Insight Partners, EQT Ventures and Possible Ventures which valued the company at $660m.
Tacto
HQ city: Munich
Founded: 2020
Headcount growth over the last 12 months: 86% to 65 employees
Tacto’s platform for SMEs provides an overview of supply chains, sourcing processes and transport. The Munich-based startup raised €50m in December last year, attracting a roster of high-profile backers including Sequoia, Index Ventures and Cherry Ventures.
DeepL
HQ city: Cologne
Founded: 2009
Headcount growth over the last 12 months: 86% to 1,059 employees
AI translation unicorn DeepL was one of only five private European tech firms to reach a billion-dollar valuation in 2023, when it raised a €100m round from investors including Atomico, Bessemer Venture Partners and IVP. As well as growing fast in terms of headcount, DeepL is also expanding its product range. Last week, it launched an AI language assistant — its first product based on its large AI language model — to take on Google and Microsoft.
NexWafe
HQ city: Freiburg
Founded: 2015
Headcount growth over the last 12 months: 85% to 74 employees
NexWafe is designing a process to produce ultra-thin and sustainable solar wafers, which form the basis of every solar module where solar energy is turned into electricity.
It last raised funding in May 2023, a €30m round according to Dealroom, from backers such as Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures and Reliance New Energy Limited, the clean energy investment arm of Indian multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited.
