Jan Miczaika on Germany's new Startup- und Scaleup-Strategie
Jan MiczaikaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, partner at HV Capital, shared his read on Germany's new "Startup- und Scaleup-Strategie", proposed by economy minister Katherina Reiche on 22 July 2026 — 152 measures across 8 fields. His verdict: for the first time, the diagnosis and the instruments line up.
Capital supply. Solvency II's capital charge for long-term equity drops from 49% to 22% (mandatory from 2027), lowering the barrier for insurers to underwrite venture risk at scale. The WIN-Initiative doubled its private-capital target to €25bn; Wachstumsfonds II adds another generation of institutional capital via KfW Capital; and ETCI 2.0 opens to private investors for the first time. Venture capital is to become part of private pension planning, and foundations will be allowed to invest in VC funds.
Deployment. Zukunftsfonds II, HTGF V and a new €300M first-of-a-kind (FOAK) vehicle explicitly earmark DeepTech, BioTech and DefenceTech — HV's own turf, with portfolio names such as Neura Robotics, Quantum Systems, Again and Ore Energy. Security and defence startups gain equal access to funding instruments for the first time, and a national IP strategy aims to speed up university spin-outs.
Exits — the part he cares about most. The Standortfördergesetz (already law) lets companies issue shares with a nominal value under one euro and lets IPO prospectuses run fully in English. IPO-Ramp-On reviews temporary relief on prospectus and listing obligations for newly listed companies. A pilot for an institutional secondary market in VC/PE fund interests would give LPs a liquidity route before year ten of a fund's life, and the EIF's TrackVC — built with BlackRock — starts building the performance transparency European VC has lacked.
Tax. The roll-over relief threshold quadrupled to €2M, and the six-year minimum holding period for reinvested proceeds is under review to drop to four.
The gap that remains. Miczaika notes 92% of German startup exits are still trade sales and IPOs remain rare — but this is the first strategy to name that number explicitly and attack it from multiple angles. Germany still invests roughly €90 per capita in venture capital, a fraction of the US and UK; many measures still need to move from "wird geprüft" to law. His conclusion: for the first time, capital supply, institutional money and exit infrastructure are being addressed together — "worth watching closely, and worth building on".
Read more: Jan Miczaika on LinkedIn