5. Private-Equity as Start-up Financing Source

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a detailed analysis of the existing understanding, the current status quo, the volume of the total private equity (PE) investment in Germany, as well as the obstacles that need to be overcome to acquire and leverage PE investments. As part of our analysis, we also discuss the challenges that are looming and upcoming in PE financing, as well as the actions that regulators can take to ease these barriers, as well as the steps that regulators can take in an effort to mitigate these barriers. The fact that start-ups contribute significantly to economic growth in the sense that they are crucial for driving innovation, we make a strong case for enabling start-ups to access finance in a more convenient manner.