The White paper shows that Munich is highly attractive in a wide variety of areas. With its renowned colleges and universities, a large and concentrated business community, and a strong startup ecosystem, the state capital can rightfully call itself a "Tech Hub." A good IT infrastructure, the availability of funding, and proximity to established companies play just as important a role here as the presence of large multinational corporations.
But the state capital also excels as a center of science. The region is one of Europe's leading locations 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, entrepreneurially oriented universities such as TUM, LMU, HM and UniBW offer the best conditions to position Munich as an entrepreneurial ecosystem,”
explains Klaus Sailer, Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurshipwho was interviewed for the study.
Munich as a center of science and business
The white paper primarily attributes Munich's considerable economic power to exceptional competition rates and an outstanding industry mix. The city accounts for almost 19 percent of Bavaria's total GDP, and including the Munich metropolitan area, it accounts for 31.4 percent. Purchasing power in Munich is also above the national average at around 38 percent. Regarding the industry mix, PwC and Muc Summit have identified the so-called "Munich Mix," which consists of a balanced mix of large corporations, medium-sized companies, startups, and traditional craft businesses. Relevant sectors include information and communications technology, services, research and knowledge-intensive industries—especially life sciences, medical, and environmental technologies—as well as the cultural and creative industries.
The authors also particularly emphasize the strong networking between industry, startups, and academic institutions. The high density of events and exchange opportunities gives the Munich Tech Hub a very good starting point for the rapid dissemination of information.
Potential for improvement
However, according to the white paper, there are also some areas of improvement in Munich's innovation ecosystem. For example, many key players, such as funding institutions and investors, are only now beginning to understand their driving role in Munich. And there is still room for improvement in the – generally good – networking. In particular, specialized communities such as the One Mission Initiative, the Female Investors Network, or the Venture Capital Club need to be more closely connected with other players.
"In addition to active regional funds such as UVC, Vito, or Earlybird, large international funds such as Lakestart are also being attracted for follow-up rounds. These are of a size that is considerable throughout Germany and internationally visible,"
commented Helmut Schönenberger, UnternehmerTUM, who also answered questions for the white paper. Nevertheless, the authors conclude that the support and financing conditions in Munich still need to be improved. And the housing situation in Munich also needs to be made more attractive, especially for younger people and the creative scene.
The complete white paper can be found here download.
