How to Find German Companies to Invest in

As the biggest economy in Europe, Germany presents an attractive opportunity for investors — especially in high-growth industries such as fintech and cloud computing, in addition to more traditional industries like manufacturing and automotive.

But finding these companies to invest in (and at the right time) can be difficult — especially with early-stage companies. With this in mind, we’re bringing you a guide on how to find German companies to invest in, and when to approach them.

Why German companies are ideal investment opportunities

Since the ‘Wirtschaftswunder’, or Miracle on the Rhine (coined in the 1950s to describe West Germany’s rapid post-war economic growth), Germany has established itself firmly as one of the world’s largest exporters, behind only the US and China.

It’s also among the largest economies in the world with a GDP of $4.92t, according to figures from the IMF.

And with a history of innovation and the political expedience to support high-growth industries, Germany is a great place to invest. Cities like Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg play host to healthy startup ecosystems, as outlined in our latest report Starting up in Germany: Trends in Business Incorporations.

Policies such as the Future Financing Act (Zukunftsfinanzierungsgesetz) and closer alignment with US laws around employee ownership in startups both aim to stimulate this growth further.

Germany is also home to a number of high-growth sectors, including the automotive industry, which represents a majority of the nation’s exports, as well as Frankfurt’s fintech and financial services companies.

But if you’re an investor, where do you begin finding German companies to invest in?

How to find investment opportunities

There are a number of ways that venture capital and private equity funds find investment opportunities. These primarily include:

• Personal networks
• Referrals
• Industry events and startup competitions
• Research and media monitoring
• Investment platforms and databases
• Accelerators and incubators
• Cold outreach

The problem with relying on these methods alone is that by the time investment is public knowledge, investors are often too late to the round, losing their competitive edge.

This is especially true with early-stage companies, where the ability to find opportunities before other investors is key.

How to find German companies with BeauhurstInvest

Looking for German companies? Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use the platform to find companies that align with your investment criteria.

Already a subscriber? Run this search now to explore the data.

01. Launch Advanced Search

Firstly, launch Advanced Search on the Beauhurst platform. Here, you’ll want to select German Legal Entities 🇩🇪 from the dropdown menu to search for German companies exclusively.

You’ll also want to select Handelsregister status as ‘Active’ to ensure the companies returned are still operating.

02. Select your industry(ies)

Our Industries dataset enables users to drill down into specific sectors, without the complication of laborious and outdated WZ and SIC codes.

For the purpose of this article, we’ll select Cars, motorcycles and other road vehicles to explore the state of the German automotive industry.

03. Add growth metrics

So far, your search will reveal all active automotive companies located in Germany. To fine-tune this search and identify only companies exhibiting growth, we’ll need to add a couple more German legal entity criteria.

How you achieve this will depend on the type of growth you’re measuring.

Headcount
A growth in headcount could indicate a company is seeking to scale up production, or expand into new territories. To add this to your search, select Financial statement > Number of employees and amend the dropdown criteria to ‘change in’ and ‘percentage increase’. From here, your chosen percentage can be added.

It’s also worth adding a filter for ‘value of’ number of employees and selecting a minimum number, just to avoid companies that have seen percentage increases in headcount from an already low number.

For this example, we’ve selected financial statements with at least 50 employees and a headcount growth of over 100%.

Turnover growth
Another effective way of spotting German companies to invest in is via turnover growth. This can be done on the Beauhurst platform with ease.

Firstly, add a new legal entity criterion and select Financial statement > Profit and loss > Turnover and, as before, select ‘change in’ and ‘percentage increase’ from the dropdown menus. Here, you’ll be able to add a percentage threshold and select whether this increase in turnover should be compared to the most recent financial statement, or further back.

Depending on your fund’s investment criteria, you may also wish to add an ‘Incorporation date’ filter, to ensure that the companies returned are only early-stage companies. To do this, add a new legal entity criterion and select ‘Incorporation date’. This will enable you to return companies incorporated in the Handelsregister within your chosen time period.

Funding history
Our final example concerns previous rounds of equity funding, as investors may wish to only explore companies that have previously received equity.

Examples of previous funding can imply market validation, demonstrate the company’s ability to raise capital, and provide insights into how effectively the company has used these resources to help achieve growth. You may also wish to see which funds have been involved in previous rounds for research purposes.

To do this, select your chosen industry and an ‘active’ Handelsregister status as before. Next, you’ll need to add Secured fundraising where > Form of funding, which will enable you to filter to companies with equity deals and to exclude loan raises.

It’s also recommended to add a Date of fundraising, if you’re an investor seeking information on recent fundraisings — our example below includes equity raises from the previous three months.

Subscribed to Beauhurst? Run this search now to uncover investment-ready companies in Germany.

Why use Beauhurst for finding German companies to invest in?

Beauhurst simplifies the search for German investment opportunities, offering data-driven insights that help investment teams find more opportunities, faster.

Navigating German company data has always been challenging—until now. With Beauhurst, you can access rich, reliable insights into Europe’s two largest economies, all with the same quality and trust you’ve come to expect from our platform.

Whether you’re a seasoned Beauhurst user or exploring us for the first time, our new German dataset helps investors uncover a wealth of untapped investment opportunities.