The all-in-one business account for your startup

The limited liability company (GmbH) is a popular legal form for startups in Germany. The primary advantage of the GmbH is that only the company’s assets are liable for seizure, making it a low-risk choice when launching a startup since the founder and partner’s assets are protected in the event of default.

German law dictates a minimum share capital of €25,000 for a GmbH. This not only guarantees the solvency of your company but it also indicates financial security and reliability to banks and potential investors. That said, you can launch your company with €12,500 in statutory capital and then later contribute the remaining funds to the share capital account. This can prove helpful if you don’t initially have a lot of capital to invest at the outset.

There can, however, be some drawbacks to creating a GmbH: coming up with €25,000 in share capital isn’t exactly easy for some. Not to mention the administrative requirements can take time, e.g. drafting the Articles of Association, certifying your company with a notary, entering your company into the commercial register, trade licensing registration, and so on. Accounting for a GmbH is also relatively complex since they’re required to maintain double-entry bookkeeping.

The UG is a popular alternative to the GmbH. Like the GmbH, it is a limited liability legal status for a company, but there are fewer financial requirements for creating it. The minimum share capital you need for a UG is €1 per shareholder, making it a good choice for founders who don’t have a lot of startup capital to begin with.

Additionally, the costs for creating a UG are usually less that those for launching a GmbH. For example, you can use a standard template to draft your Articles of Association rather than create a customized document. However, since the requirement for share capital is so low, UGs aren’t seen as reliable by lenders, so it can be hard to get financing - not to mention you have little cushion to get you through a downturn in business. And until you have a viable amount of capital, you need to set aside a quarter of your UG’s profits to progressively create a reserve of funds to protect your business. This means that you can’t immediately pay full dividends to your shareholders until you’ll have collected enough statutory capital.

Looking to launch your startup in another legal form? We’ve got you covered.

AG: The public limited company is popular for business projects with significant capital requirements. With Qonto, you can create multiple user accesses with customized permissions to give your team autonomy- on your terms.

OHG: A general commercial partnership with full shareholder liability that must be listed in the commercial register. Give your Accountant read-only access to your account for easy bookkeeping.

KG: The KG is a special form of OHG and is considered a limited partnership with at least one partner having full liability for the company. Keep your budget in check with our spend management tools.

Sole proprietorship: No boss. No share capital. Just you and your vision. Stay organized with multiple sub-accounts - separate expenses, save for tax payments, and more.

Freelancers and self-employed: Perfect for testing a business idea - solo. Get paid in record time using our integrated invoicing tool.

GbR: The "Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts", in short GbR, is a civil law partnership with minimal startup requirements. They are made up of at least two natural or legal persons. Find out everything you need to know about your GbR business account here.

Qonto is one of the leading B2B business finance management services in Europe. Today, you can set up your business in 3 other EU countries in addition to Germany. Choose between the following legal forms:

• France: SAS, SASU, SARL, SCI, EURL…
• Italy: SRL, SRLs
• Spain: Societad Limitada