Startup Heatmap Europe is happy to announce its collaboration with Chamber of Commerce of Munich and Upper Bavaria. Â The new partnership aims at empowering the decision-makers in the capital of Bavaria to understand better the data behind its growing international popularity.
Munich’s startup ecosystem therefore is also presented on the newly launched interactive Startup Heatmap Europe platform. The re-launched site is a dynamic repository of the data behind the Startup Heatmap as well as 3rd party research on European ecosystems featuring many interactive graphs. It gives orientation to everyone who sets out to explore the diversity of Europe’s startup landscape.
Munich ranked 9th in the Startup Heatmap Europe 2017 survey (2018: 8th), based on the answers of European founders to the question “Where would you start up if you could begin all over againâ€. Geographically, Munich was particularly strong in the CEE region, where 17% of all its votes came from (59% came from Western Europe).
The startup CEOs in the survey highlighted in particular the availability of venture capital and talent in Munich. Almost 9 of 10 founders voting for Munich, cited access to talent to be excellent (more than 7 of 10 stars) – this was the highest percentage for any city in the survey, where the top 20 average endorsement rate for talent was at 68%. For access to capital Munich also scores way above average with 67% versus 56%. This is reflected for example by Funderbeam’s city level investment data, citing 237mn € of venture capital being invested in Munich in 2017. Based on number of deals recorded in the past three years in the Pitchbook database, Munich is the 14th most popular investment destination in Europe.  Also, Munich lists 10th in Europe for number of investments originating there. Strikingly, Munich is very well connected to international financial streams, with around a third of investments coming and going being international.
A special connection exists between Munich and Berlin, which is sometimes seen as very competitive. In fact, Munich-based investors do more often invest in Berlin as the other way around. However, for founders the story is not always as simple: “There is better access to talent in Munichâ€, states Andreas Furth, co-founder of the Global Savings Group, a startup that became Europe’s market leader in the discount page industry and moved its headquarters from Berlin to Munich in 2012.
Other studies confirm these findings. According to a recent investigation conducted by Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) and Berenberg Private Bank, Munich has the best economic performance, top-notch location factors and optimal demographic development among the 30 cities evaluated. Another study published by PwC in 2017, gives an even more optimistic outlook: 82 percent of local startups in the Bavarian capital expect to grow and the majority of the founders praise the efficiency of the infrastructures because and are therefore happy with their location.
That said, the overall popularity of Berlin, for sure trumps Munich’s image as a startup hub in Europe, as almost 8 times more European founders name Berlin as a potential startup location than Munich. However, Munich boasts specialist competencies in the high-tech sector, which give it an edge over its competitor. And a high number of founders saying that they are likely to relocate to Munich, indicates a good probability that Munich will be able to further attract many international founders to its ecosystem.
Click here to explore Munich’s startup ecosystem on the Startup Heatmap
By Thomas Kösters
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