What is a Nachfounder? How succession founding works

If you want to found a company, you probably think of a startup: an idea, a product, the search for the first customers. There is a second path that gets talked about far less. You take over a business that already runs and lead it forward as an entrepreneur. If you do that, you are a Nachfounder.

What the word means

Nachfounder combines the German word Nachfolge (succession) with founder. It describes a person who takes over an existing company that has no successor and runs it like a founder. The process is called succession founding. Internationally it is known as Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition, or founding through acquisition.

The difference from classic succession lies in the mindset. A Nachfounder does not just manage what is there. You take responsibility for the years ahead, modernise processes, products or technology and develop the business further. Often the person comes from outside, with no family ties to the company.

Starting from scratch versus succession founding

• Customers: when you start from scratch, you first have to win them. In succession founding, they are there from day one.
• Team: from scratch, you build it. In succession founding, you take over a team that works well together and have to earn its trust.
• Revenue: from scratch, it is uncertain. In succession founding, there are several years of figures you can check.
• Capital: a new company needs money until it pays for itself. A takeover needs money for the purchase price, but the business already generates earnings.
• Risk: from scratch, it lies in the market. In succession founding, it lies more in the handover, in whether knowledge, customers and team stay.

Neither path is better in principle. If you want to invent a new product, a startup is the right place. If you want to lead, improve and take responsibility, succession is often the faster way.

Why more Nachfounders are needed

According to the KfW Nachfolge-Monitoring Mittelstand from January 2026, published by the research unit of Germany's state development bank, around 545,000 small and medium-sized businesses want to arrange a succession by the end of 2029. At the same time, around 569,000 plan to close. KfW names the bottleneck: too few founders are coming forward who can take over a business. IfM Bonn, an institute for research on small and medium-sized businesses, estimates that around 186,000 family businesses will be ready for handover between 2026 and 2030. How that is spread across the German states is shown on Succession by region.

How succession founding works

Every takeover is different. Most follow similar stages:

• Clarify: does a takeover fit you, your experience and your life? Which industry, which region, which size?
• Find: look for businesses, get to know them and hold first talks, usually after a non-disclosure agreement.
• Check: look closely at figures, contracts, customers and team. This is called due diligence.
• Finance: put the purchase price together from equity, a bank loan, a development loan and often a vendor loan.
• Take over: sign the contract and take over the business, often with a handover in stages where the previous owner stays on for a while.

In Germany, succession founding counts as starting a business. That is why development loans such as the KfW ERP-Gründerkredit StartGeld and guarantees can apply. Our article on financing a succession explains how that works, and the financing calculator gives you a first rough estimate.

What makes a good Nachfounder

• The wish to make something existing better instead of inventing everything anew.
• Experience with leadership or responsibility, for example as a founder or manager.
• Respect for what others have built and patience in the first months.
• Willingness to move for the right business.

The successor test shows in a few minutes whether this fits you.

What Nachfounder does

Nachfounder is a programme for people who want to found by taking over a business, and for businesses looking for a successor. We prepare successors for the takeover, introduce them to owners in person and support the process in stages. Find out more on the pages for successors and for owners, or go straight to the succession check.