84 percent of all respondents rated the NRW Founders' Grant as "good" or "very good." (Photo: © mariok/123RF.com)

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Founder's grant: great satisfaction in NRW

10 December 2021

The vast majority of recipients are very satisfied with the NRW Founders' Grant, according to an evaluation commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

This article is part of the special feature GründerNavi – for founders and young companies

The NRW Founders' Grant makes a significant contribution to networking within the startup ecosystem and is very popular with founders. This is the result of an evaluation commissioned by the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Economic Affairs . According to the evaluation, 84 percent of all respondents rated the program as "good" or "very good," five percentage points higher than in the last survey. The survey included 1100 grant recipients and ten startup networks. Furthermore, the program saw significant increases in revenue and employment figures during the funding period.

Major development

Evaluation: The full evaluation report can be found here. The NRW Founders' Grant acts as a bridge , connecting founders and stakeholders from various sectors of the ecosystem. All networks surveyed agreed that significant development has taken place in their respective local ecosystems over the past two to five years. Furthermore, the report shows that most of the grant's objectives are being achieved . Among other things, the program successfully mitigates the financial uncertainty faced by grant recipients at the start of their ventures.

"Start-up assistance pays off"

"The success story of the NRW Founders' Grant continues," says Minister of Economic Affairs Andreas Pinkwart (FDP). "With this program, we have created a unique institution in North Rhine-Westphalia that has proven consistently successful. The initial support for entrepreneurs is paying off and showing remarkable results for individual founders, as well as for the entire business ecosystem in the state. I am very pleased with the positive evaluation results and thank the grant recipients for their open and valuable feedback."

The results at a glance:

The effectiveness of the scholarship continues to be reflected in significant revenue increases. Respondents reported a 4,4-fold increase.
The number of employees after the end of the funding period is at a similar level to that in the last evaluation: each start-up has an average of 1,71 employees at the beginning of the funding period and 2,36 employees at the end of the funding period (full-time equivalents).
60 percent of respondents have completed a degree, and four percent have a doctorate.
Respondents are very satisfied with the program: almost 84 percent rate the scholarship as good (42,3 percent) or very good (41,3 percent), an increase of 5 percentage points; only 2,6 percent rate it as poor or unsatisfactory.
A total of 34 of the surveyed scholarship holders switched to another funding program (e.g., the federal EXIST program) or accepted permanent employment during the funding period. 39 individuals discontinued the funding program due to team-related reasons or because they closed their business.
The degree of innovation of the projects has further increased compared to 2020.

Figures on the start-up grant: 4.948 people from 2.864 start-up projects have applied so far. 3.279 people were recommended for funding by a jury. Of these, 2.672 have already received the start-up grant. The prospective grant recipients are on average 29,9 years old. Around 40 percent of the applicants are starting their businesses directly after graduating from universities or universities of applied sciences, and around 30 percent are currently employed. The proportion of women has steadily increased and currently stands at 24,1 percent.