Where most successions happen: businesses with 5 to 100 employees

When people talk about business succession, many think of large family groups. Most transfers, however, happen elsewhere: in owner-managed businesses with a handful to around a hundred employees. That is where successors are missing most, and where a closer look pays off.

Key points

• By the end of 2029, around 545,000 German SMEs want to settle their succession (KfW Succession Monitor 2025).
• The average expected purchase price is around 499,000 euros, an amount one person can finance with a bank and public funding.
• The core is businesses with around 5 to 100 employees: big enough to live from, small enough to take over.
• Larger businesses are possible but usually need a team or additional capital.

How many successions are coming up?

KfW regularly surveys owners of German SMEs. Its latest analysis: around 545,000 companies want to settle a succession by the end of 2029. IfM Bonn uses a different method and arrives at around 186,000 family businesses ready for transfer between 2026 and 2030 (IfM Bonn). The two figures measure different things and cannot be added up. But they point the same way: a very large number of businesses, most of them small.

For context: under the EU definition, companies with fewer than 250 employees and up to 50 million euros in turnover count as small and medium-sized enterprises. Most succession cases sit far below that line.

Why the purchase price sets the size

According to KfW, owners expect an average of around 499,000 euros for transfers up to 2029. That sum can typically be put together from some equity, a bank loan, public funding loans and a vendor loan. The larger the business, the faster the price moves into the millions, and then this mix is usually no longer enough for one person.

Three sizes, three routes

• Fewer than 5 employees: often closely tied to the owner. Possible if the profit covers living costs and loan payments.
• 5 to 100 employees: the core of a succession start-up. An established team, regular customers and a price one person can handle.
• 100 to 250 employees and more: very doable with a team of successors, the existing management or equity investors. Worth looking at case by case.

Why these businesses need successors

Large companies find buyers through financial investors, corporations or specialist advisers. A business with 30 employees rarely attracts that market. At the same time it is too big to take over on the side. Many healthy businesses are left without a successor in this gap.

On top of that, in smaller businesses much of the knowledge sits with the owner, and letting go is personal. So it takes more than financing: both sides need to prepare. The successor needs to get ready for the business, and the business ready for the successor.

What this means for successors

If you want to found a company without starting from zero, this size is the best entry point: customers, team and cash flow from day one, at a price that is realistic to finance. Founders from the start-up world bring speed and fresh ideas these businesses can use. The financing calculator helps you check early what range fits you.

What this means for owners

If your business falls into this range, you are not the exception but the norm, and you have a good chance of finding someone who will carry it on with their own entrepreneurial drive. The succession check helps you assess where you stand. We are also happy to talk about larger businesses case by case.

Conclusion

The succession wave in German SMEs is above all a wave of small and medium-sized businesses. For successors with a founder mindset, this is the biggest opportunity. For owners, it is the best prospect of a second act for their life's work.