Will 2025 be the year of startup IPOs? This is what M&A experts say

While some founders like Martin Böhringer from Staffbase speak openly about their stock market plans for 2025, others still do so behind closed doors. For example, Trade Republic boss Christian Hecker assured in the summer that it would “not for a second” concern itself with an IPO. However, the neobroker also recently published that profits of 14 million euros were achieved for the first time in the last financial year 2022/2023. Industry insiders see this as a sign that the fintech is getting ready to go public. In the same way, competitor Raisin, which operates the Weltsparen investment platform, was preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) next year. In the cleantech sector, it is Philipp Schröder from 1Komma5° who wants to take his solar company public. When exactly, whether in Q4 2025 or Q3 2026, the CEO wanted to remain open in conversation with Gründerszene.

There is no shortage of possible stock market candidates in the German startup scene – and they are needed too. The IPO activity on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange has quickly come to a standstill in recent years. While there were twelve companies that ventured onto the trading floor in the record year of 2021, the number of IPOs in 2023 shrank to three, according to a survey by the management consultancy Kirchhoff Consult. This year, IPOs, including beauty group Douglas, have barely increased.

Hungover mood on the stock market

Mark Miller, founder of the investment bank Carlsquare, speaks of an IPO hangover that will hit Germany after 2021. Many IPOs did not go as well as hoped. For example, the fashion online retailer About You, which has been listed on the stock exchange since 2021, is still in the red. The stock has fallen 88 percent in value since its debut. “So that investors were interested in IPOs because they were still busy picking up the pieces from the last IPOs,” says Little Miller. “In combination with the Ukraine war, the interest rate turnaround and the stock market events, nothing happened anymore.” Are investors now pinning all their hopes on 2025?