Domestic promotion in 2024

On behalf of the German Federal Government, we support investments that drive transformation in Germany. At a time when sustainable development and economic resilience are paramount, we focus on the essential aspects that shape a future-proof society. In particular, we promote start-ups and SMEs, and finance projects in the areas of structural change, the environment and social and digital infrastructure – i.e. projects that advance people and society and strengthen the German economy.

Domestic promotion continued to amount to a very high level in 2024 with a promotional business volume of EUR 79.0 billion. The volume increased slightly again compared to the previous year. The following projects represent an excerpt from our promotional activities in 2024:

• Federal Funding for Energy-efficient Buildings, including the promotion of heating systems introduced in February, accounted for a large share of EUR 10.3 billion.
• The ERP Promotional Loan for SMEs and the ERP Digitalisation and Innovation Loan contributed in particular to the promotion of SMEs. New start-ups are primarily supported with commitments from the ERP Start-up Loan – StartGeld. A total of EUR 13.4 billion was committed to strengthen SMEs. In addition, a promotional loan for start-ups and succession was introduced, with which KfW, in cooperation with the German guarantee banks, intends to facilitate the financing of corporate succession in particular.
• In the Private Clients segment, the main share of EUR 14.4 billion was attributable to the promotional priority of energy efficiency and renewable energies. Other new programmes that launched in 2024 to enable the climate-friendly acquisition of housing are the Residential Property for Families – Existing Property Acquisition (“Young buys old”) and Climate-friendly construction in the low-price segment.
• Within individual financing, the Venture Tech Growth Fund (VTGF), the various syndicate financings and the promotion from RegioInnoGrowth (RIG) made a strong contribution to promoting digitalisation and innovation with a total commitment volume of over EUR 600 million.
• Strong contributions to transformation were also made at municipal level. KfW committed around EUR 800 million to energy efficiency, climate and the environment and also developed new funding instruments in the area of the energy transition.
• KfW is supporting the construction of a national hydrogen core network on behalf of the Federal Government. This forward-looking project is a central component of the German Federal Government’s national hydrogen strategy. By financing a new instrument – the amortisation account – KfW will be making a significant contribution to the implementation of this technology of the future. KfW is providing a loan for the amortisation account in the amount of EUR 24 billion.
• The kfw.de website has been expanded by three additional chatbots, taking the current total to seven. Questions about the promotion of heating systems (loan or grant) and of residential property for families – acquisition of existing properties – are now also answered around the clock.
• We also had increased support from new technologies in 2024. The document check for the promotion of heating systems verification process was partially automated. As a result, close to 50% of the submitted evidence can be checked fully automatically and a decision can be made within a few hours. This AI solution has already been able to fully automatically assess over 16,000 items of evidence and over 75,000 documents.

Detailed information on commitments by priority area for each federal state and further details can be found in the current promotional report (available in German only).

Have a look at some examples of our promotion offer for private customers, for companies and public institutions.

Legal notice:
The information contained in this online Annual Report 2024 is based on KfW’s Financial Report 2024, which you can download here. Should this online Annual Report 2024, despite the great care taken in preparation of its content, contain any contradictions or errors compared to the Financial Report, the KfW Financial Report 2024 takes priority.