Since the GmbH is very strict and formal and compared to a UK Ltd is founded with more initial capital (min. 25k €), I also don't see why international investor

Since the GmbH is very strict and formal and compared to a UK Ltd is founded with more initial capital (min. 25k €), I also don't see why international investors wouldn't bother. From the founders perspective the introduction of the UG (haftungsbeschränkt) is also great way to found a GmbH on a budget (the needed capital is down to 1€, while technically most laws of GmbHs apply), esp. if you are bootstrapping or dont look for external capital right on the start. When you are ready (25.000€ of capital in the company) you can convert it to a GmbH easily. I do see problems for investments with GbR, KG or Gmbh & KG, though. Note: I am not sure what the right translaion for "Stammkapital" is, I just used "capital", it might be "authorized capital" or "original share capital" or "corpus" according to my dictionary. Can someone enlighten me?