That Whitepaper shows that Munich is very attractive in a wide variety of areas. The state capital, with its renowned colleges and universities, a large and concentrated corporate environment and a strong startup ecosystem, could rightly call itself the “Tech Hub”. A good IT infrastructure, the availability of funding and the proximity to established companies play just as important a role as the presence of large multinational companies.
But the state capital also shines as a science location. The region is one of the leading locations in Europe in 27 technology areas. These include numerous promising industries such as life sciences and biotechnology, aerospace and automotive. The high number of students in Munich – a total of 131,006 – contributes to this, as does the large talent pool of young employees.
“Munich’s excellent, entrepreneurial universities such as TUM, LMU, HM and UniBW offer the best prerequisites for positioning Munich as an entrepreneurial eco-system”,
explains about it Klaus Sailer, Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship, who was interviewed for the study.
Science and business location Munich
For the great economic power, the whitepaper primarily defines exceptional competition rates and an outstanding mix of industries in Munich. The city combines almost 19 percent of the total GDP in Bavaria, with the Munich area even 31.4 percent. Purchasing power in Munich is also around 38 percent, above the national average. As far as the industry mix is concerned, PwC and Muc Summit have identified the so-called “Munich mix”, which consists of large companies, medium-sized companies, startups and traditional craft businesses in a balanced composition. Relevant industries include information and communication technology, services, research and knowledge-intensive industries – especially life sciences, medical and environmental technologies – as well as the cultural and creative industries.
In addition, the authors particularly emphasize the strong networking between industry, startups and scientific institutions. The high density of events and exchange opportunities would give the Tech Hub Munich a very good starting point for the rapid distribution of information.
Potential for improvement
However, according to the white paper, there are also some construction sites in the Munich innovation ecosystem. For example, many central actors such as funding institutions and investors are only now beginning to develop an understanding of their driving role in Munich. And even with the – actually good – networking, there is still room for improvement. Above all, specialized communities such as the One Mission Initiative, the Female Investors Network or the Venture Capital Club should be linked even more closely to other actors.
“In addition to active regional funds such as UVC, Vito or Earlybird, large international funds such as Lakestart are also attracted for subsequent rounds. These are orders of magnitude that are remarkable throughout Germany and internationally visible “,
commented Helmut Schönenberger, UnternehmerTUM, who also answered questions for the whitepaper. Nevertheless, the support and financing conditions in Munich still have to be worked on, the authors conclude. And the housing situation in Munich must also become more attractive, especially for younger people and the creative scene.
You can read the complete whitepaper here download.
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