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Munich - A region of excellence for innovative start-ups
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Munich as a business location
About 2.4 million inhabitants live in the Munich Region with an active population of 1.2 million. The level of unemployment in the City of Munich accounts for 4.1%, and for an even lower rate in the regions around. Munich Region hosts 12 institutions of higher education with around 100,000 students. This corresponds to the highest level of qualification in Germany, as 12% of employed population are university / college graduates. There are around 10,000 R&D employees in the region working in numerous universities and non-university research institutions. These are for example the administrative headquarters and five scientific institutes of the Max-Planck-Society (German Research Society), the head office of the Fraunhofer Society (German Society for Applied Research) together with two of its scientific institutes, the Gesellschaft für Strahlen und Umweltforschung GmbH (National Research Centre for Environment and Health), and the DLR e.V. (German National Aerospace Research Centre and National Space Agency). In addition to that, the region is not only the leading centre for private-sector R&D in Germany, but also the leading I&C location in Europe (18,000 companies, around 260,000 employees). One-third of the world’s top 25 software firms have premises in Munich, 1,600 IT dealers and 500 software houses have established their business in the city and Munich is a central media and bio-technology location with about 11,500 media companies employing 130,000 employees are earning revenues of around 19 billion Euro. Another 12,000 people are working in life science sector, employed by numerous major corporations or by innovative start-ups. |
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Munich as a start-up location
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The Munich Region counts 13,000 new business start-ups each year. The preferred industries are multimedia, Internet, advertising, IT-consulting and environmental technologies. Almost 20% of all German Internet start-ups are based in Munich. In a recent study by Bain & Company the region is characterised by its "pull as a high-tech location", comparable with the picture of a spiral or a swirl. The essential criteria for choosing Munich as a business location are the increased chances of finding or attracting good people and the opportunity to pool knowledge as well as experience at the same time.
This is boosted by the concentration of essential industry branches, enterprises and institutions of higher education all at the same location — combined with close contact to venture capital companies and a business-friendly political climate. |
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Munich's activities to promote innovative business start-ups
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The Region of Munich actively supports this climate by offering space for business locations and by active participation in start-up networks. The Munich Technology Centre and four additional business areas offer 66.000 m2 for small and medium enterprises. During the first four years, business start-ups pay lower rents and obtain free consulting and advice from the Fraunhofer Management GmbH. About 15 centres for start-ups exist in and around Munich - often strongly focused on special business branches - provide a comprehensive and broad base for all those newcomers ready to start their own business. Furthermore 14 private business incubators and business accelerators are currently located in Munich - including operations belonging to McKinsey, Bain & Company or Atlas Venture - support start-ups by provision of space, usually linked to offers in consulting and services. |
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Networks
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Various networks and initiatives to establish a sustainable entrepreneurship culture have been initiated. The "Förderkreis Neue Technologien e.V."(Association for the Promotion of New Technologies) for example organises entrepreneurial get-togethers, interactive seminars and workshops covering all aspects of business start-ups, financing and management. The "Munich Business Angel Network"is also located there, an informal, regional platform for business start-ups with strong growth potential.
For the forth-consecutive year in the Region of Munich, the "Munich Business Plan Competition (MBPC)" took place. This year's competition broke a new record: a participation number of 386 young entrepreneurs and a total of 126 business plans. In four years the competition has already founded 103 companies with some 750 employees financed by approximately 80 million Euros. About 60% of the business ideas derived from the IT sector, 20% from life sciences.
Finally GründerRegio M e.V. "(Founders' Region Munich) - an initiative of the Science and Economy Region of Munich - promotes start-ups and spin-offs deriving from and thematically close to institutions of higher education. For instance GründerRegio M - in addition to the co-ordination of PANEL and some other EU projects manages the "Hochsprung Initiative" (High Jump) in the "GründerNetzwerk Bayern" (Founders' Network of Bavaria). |
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Bavarian and federal investments
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"Offensive Future Bavaria" and "High-tech Offensive Bavaria" are synonyms for a sustainable re-investment programme of the Bavarian State Government based on funds gained by privatisation of state owned assets totalling more than Euro 2,8 billion within the last five years. The money is directed into various projects and measures on the improvement of intensive networking between basic research, applied research in companies and support of technology orientated start-ups by e.g. set-up of venture capital funds. One of these funds is administered by BayernKapital, a daughter of the Bayerische Landesanstalt für Aufbaufinanzierung (LfA, Munich, a bank controlled by the Bavarian government specialising in the economic promotion and development of Bavaria).
The Deutsche Ausgleichsbank (DtA, Bonn) has been in operation for almost fifty years and is the founders bank of the Federal Republic of Germany. One of the most important resources for innovative founders from the high-tech branch is the TBG (Technologie-Beteiligungs-Gesellschaft mbH of the Deutsche Ausgleichsbank (DtA)), a 100% daughter offering young High-Tech entrepreneurs venture capital for the risky start phase.
Additional public funding for start-ups comes from the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, KfW, Frankfurt/Main. It is Germany's promotional bank for the domestic economy and the official development bank for countries in transition and developing countries.
Basic financing from these institutions is often topped by private venture funds. |
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Contact details
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GründerRegio M e.V.
Marc Jochemich
Frankfurter Ring 193a
Münchner Technologie Zentrum
D-80807 München
Germany
Tel : +49 (0)89 / 321 978-13
Fax : +49 (0)89 / 321 978-15
E-mail : jochemich@gr-m.de |
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Links
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You can find a complete list of members for the Munich Region at the following webiste:
http://www.gr-m.de |
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