The FDP can look forward to the support of prominent representatives of the start-up scene for its election campaign.

Ten founders and investors jointly donated half a million euros to the party, as they announced on Thursday.

Among them is the well-known investor Frank Thelen from the television program “Die Höhle der Löwen”.

"We are committed to a business and technology-friendly policy in Germany that is sustainable, protects our climate and resources and yet does not lose sight of reality," he was quoted as saying.

Bastian Benrath

Editor in business.

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    Other donors are the founders Tao Tao and Julian Teicke;

    Tao co-founded the tourism start-up GetYourGuide, Teicke the insurance platform Wefox.

    After analyzing the election programs of all parties represented in the Bundestag, they came to the conclusion that participation by the FDP in government would "sustainably strengthen the innovative strength of the German economy," wrote the entrepreneurs.

    The donation should support the party in advancing digitization and reducing bureaucracy.

    In addition, “proven economic competence” must be a “central pillar” of the next federal government.

    "Red-red-green government would have glorifying consequences"

    Thelen wrote on Twitter that he was “convinced that a red-red-green government would have devastating consequences for our economy and thus Germany as a business location”. The investor had previously positioned itself politically several times. He was initially a member of the CDU, but announced in 2017 that he had left the party and opted for “freedom and independence”. Even then, he expressed sympathy for Gerhard Schröder's Agenda 2010 as well as for the positions of the FDP.

    The fact that start-up entrepreneurs lean towards the FDP is not as natural as one might assume. The German Start-up Monitor, the most important study to record the start-up scene in Germany, asks founders in Germany each year which party they vote for. In the past two years, the Greens always came first in this special “Sunday question”: In 2019, 44 percent of the founders spoke out in favor of the party, in 2020 it was still 37 percent. The study that will be published in autumn is not yet available for this year.

    Accordingly, the Greens have also received large donations from business circles in recent months. In February, the pharmaceutical heir Antonis Schwarz made the party’s largest single donation in its history with 500,000 euros. In April, Bitcoin investor Moritz Schmidt from Greifswald outbid this amount with a donation of 1 million euros.