How Munich grew to become Europe’s tech startup capital – DW – 06/04/2025 | EUROtoday

It’s like navigating a labyrinth — a journey lots of of younger entrepreneurs throughout Europe embark on annually in quest of alternative, innovation, funding, and success. They’re additionally in search of the nation and metropolis that provides the perfect circumstances to launch a enterprise.

For an rising quantity, that journey results in Isar Valley, named after the river that runs via Munich, and which supplied the casual nickname for the Bavarian capital’s know-how and synthetic intelligence (AI) scene, impressed by the Silicon Valley know-how hub in California.

Munich ranks seventeenth globally within the newest Global Tech Ecosystem Index compiled by Netherlands-based knowledge supplier Dealroom.

When measured by high-performance, innovation-driven ecosystems with sturdy per-capita output, Munich rises to fifth place — simply behind US tech hubs San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, New York, and Cambridge.

From hackathon fanatic to startup founder

Greek entrepreneurs Nikos Tsiamitros and Georgios Pipelidis additionally selected to launch their startup in Munich, despite the fact that Tsiamitros says there wasn’t a “personal reason” to maneuver to the capital of the German southern state of Bavaria.

“I didn’t know anyone here and had never even visited the city,” he instructed DW, however added that he was nicely conscious of the “excellent reputation” of the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

Tsiamitros arrived from Athens to pursue his grasp’s diploma in Munich, whereas Pipelidis got here to TUM by way of Austria to finish his PhD.

“That’s where we started working together on navigation software for public transportation,” Pipelidis instructed DW.

They joined a hackathon — an occasion the place programmers crew up for a number of days or even weeks to develop software program, usually across the clock — they usually gained the competitors.

“From that moment on, we started to believe that our navigation and localization algorithm could become a real startup,” mentioned Tsiamitros.

Then, in March 2019, they launched their first startup enterprise known as Ariadne — derived from the Cretan princess in Greek mythology who gave Theseus a thread to search out his means out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth.

A becoming metaphor for his or her software program, Pipelidis famous with a smile.

Entrepreneurship Provides Support with substance

But having a powerful algorithm is one factor. Launching a startup, writing a marketing strategy, and securing capital is one other. That’s the place Munich’s startup ecosystem gives an important useful resource — the UnternehmerTUM entrepreneurship heart based mostly at TUM.

At UnternehmerTUM, the 2 enterprise founders realized find out how to begin and run an organization, Pipelidis mentioned, including that because of that help, Ariadne was producing income only a few months after launch.

Ariadne’s most important product has since developed from a navigation software program into an AI-based people-counting and motion analytics software. Today, it serves airports in Munich, Glasgow, and Los Angeles, in addition to the German cities of Leverkusen, Bielefeld, and Regensburg, plus a number of malls and retailers, together with IKEA.

Startups like Ariadne additionally profit from hands-on mentorship. Barbara Mehner, managing associate of the Xpreneurs incubator at UnternehmerTUM is considered one of them.

“We help early-stage startups enter the market by connecting them with investors, mentors, and potential customers,” she instructed DW.

KEWAZO ‘liftbot’ and the robotic revolution in scaffolding

Among the greater than 100 tech startups based yearly in Munich is KEWAZO, an organization led by Greek founder Eirini Psallida.

KEWAZO’s core product is a battery-powered, remote-controlled robotic lifting system known as LIFTBOT. This robotic facilitates the transport and meeting of scaffolding and different building supplies.

“All industries seemed fully automated — except construction,” Eirini instructed DW, explaining the thought behind the corporate. Psallida named the startup after the Greek phrase kataskevazowhich means “to produce.” And like Ariadne, this startup was born out of a hackathon at UnternehmerTUM.

Today, the corporate’s robotic elevate system is in every day use at main industrial and building websites — from the chemical park of BASF in Ludwigshafen, Germany, to grease refineries within the US.

“I can’t imagine how we would have done it without UnternehmerTUM,” Psallida instructed DW, because the incubator gave them entry to {hardware}, software program, authorized and enterprise recommendation. “And we got help securing public funding without giving up any equity,” she added.

One in 4 German unicorns based by foreigners

The KEWAZO crew contains six founders from 4 completely different nations, reflecting the various nature of Germany’s startup panorama.

According to the newest Migrant Founders Monitor compiled by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and Germany’s Startup Association, a major variety of founders within the nation have a migration background.

“Fourteen percent of startup founders were born abroad,” mentioned Vanusch Walk, senior researcher on the Startup Association and lead creator of the report. Among the founders of so-called unicorns — startups valued at over a billion {dollars} — the share is even increased at 23%, he instructed DW.

The survey reveals that migrant founders stand out for his or her “strong entrepreneurial mindset, willingness to take risks, and resilience” — traits which might be essential for startup success.

Migrant founders nonetheless face increased obstacles

Despite their strengths, migrant founders additionally face notable challenges in Germany.

“Top of the list is access to networks,” mentioned Walk, including that dealing with Germany’s notorious forms can also be tough, in addition to getting access to funding, regardless of whether or not public or non-public.

Pipelidis from Ariadne skilled this firsthand. One German enterprise capital agency made its funding conditional on changing him as CEO with a German nationwide. “They wanted a native speaker as the public face of the company,” he recalled.

“I understand that customers prefer dealing with someone who speaks fluent German — that’s why all our salespeople are native speakers. But replacing me as CEO? That was too much,” he mentioned.

In the tip, Georgios Pipelidis and Nikos Tsiamitros secured help from a Greek VC agency. And regardless of the setbacks, their enthusiasm for Munich hasn’t wavered. At the tip of their very own Ariadne thread nonetheless lies the Bavarian capital.

This article was initially written in German.