It is like navigating a maze – a trip to hundreds of young entrepreneurs across Europe begins every year in search of opportunity, innovation, money and success. So they are looking for a country and city that offers ideal conditions to start a business.
For the increasing number, the journey leads to Isar Valley, named after the river running through Munich, and which proved to be an informal surface for the technique of Bavarian Capital inspired by the Silicon Valley Technology Hub in California and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) view.
Munich ranks 17th in the latest in the latest Global Tech Ecosystem Index Compiled by the Netherlands-based data provider deloroom.
When measured by high performance, innovation-powered ecosystems with strong per capita output, Munich US Tech Hubs Sain Francisco Bay Area, Boston, New York and 5th behind the Cambridge.
From hackathon enthusiasts to startup founder
Greek entrepreneurs Nicos Tsiyamitros and Georgios Pylidis chose their startups in Munich, even though Tsiyamitros says that the German southern state was not “personal reasons” to go to the capital of Bavaria.
“I knew anyone here and never visited the city,” he told DW, but he said that he knew well about the “excellent reputation” of Technical University Munich (Tum).
Tsiamitros arrived from Athens to get his master’s degree in Munich, while Pipelidis came to Tom through Austria to complete his PhD.
“This is where the navigation software for public transport has been started working together,” Piplidis told DW.
They joined a hackathon – an event where the programmer was formed for several days or weeks to develop software, often around the clock – and they won the competition.
“From that moment, we begin to believe that our navigation and localization algorithm can become a real startup,” Tsiyamitros said.
Then, in March 2019, he launched his first startup business, called Ariadne – in Greek mythology taken from the Creton Princess, who gave Thessus a thread to get out of the Minotor Labirinth.
A fitting metaphor for his software, Pipelidis noted with a smile.
Entrepreneurship provides support with substance
But having a strong algorithm is one thing. Launching a startup, writing a business plan and securing capital is another. This is where Munich’s Startup Ecosystem provides an important resource – TUM -based entrepreneurship entrepreneurship center.
In entrepreneurship, two business founders learned how to start and run a company, Pipelidis said, thanks to that support, Araden was generating revenue only a few months after launch.
The main product of Ariadne Sion Sion has developed from a navigation software to AI-based people-kin and movement analytics tools. Today, it works on many malls and retailers, including IKEA, including airports in Munich, Glasgow and Los Angeles -Levercussen, Bilefeld, and in the German cities of Regensberg, and many malls and retailers as well as IKEA with many malls and retailers.
Startups like Ariadne took advantage of hands-on mentorship. Barbara Mehner, the managing partner of the Expressor Incubator, is one of them in the entrepreneurship.
“We help enter the market by connecting the initial stage startups with investors, masters and potential customers,” he told DW.
Kewazo ‘Liftboat’ and Robotic Revolution in Table
More than 100 tech startups established every year in Munich are Sevazo, a company headed by the Greek founder Irini Pylida.
The main product of Kevazo is a battery-powered, remote-controlled robotic lifting system called liftboats. This robot provides the transport and assembly of the scaffolding and other construction materials.
“All industries looked perfectly automated – except for construction,” Eini told DW, explaining the idea behind the company. Psallida named Startup after the word Greek KataskewazoMeaning “to produce.” And like Ariadne, this startup was born from a hackathon in entrepreneurship.
Today, the company’s robotic lift system is in major industrial and daily use at construction sites – from BASF’s chemical park in Ludwigshfen, Germany, from oil refineries in the US.
“I can’t imagine how we would be with your entrepreneurship,” Psallida told DW, as the incubator gave them access to hardware, software, legal and commercial advice. He said, “And helped to achieve public funding without giving us any equity.”
One of the four German organs established by foreigners
The Kevazo team consists of six founders from four separate countries, reflecting the diverse nature of the startup landscape of Germany.
In the latest Migrant founder monitor Compiled by Frederick Nauman Foundation and Startup Association of Germany, a significant number of founders in the country is a migration background.
“Fourteen percent of startup founders were born abroad,” said Vanasach Walk, senior researcher at the Startup Association and the main author of the report. DW reported that more than one billion dollars in the so-called unicorn-startup founders were more than 23%, he told DW.
The survey suggests that the migrant founder stands out for its “strong entrepreneurship mentality, risk to take risk, and flexibility” – symptoms that are important for startup success.
Migrant founders still face high obstacles
Despite their strength, the migrant founders i.e. Germany face notable challenges.
“Access to the network at the top of the list,” Walk said, it is very different to compete with the infamous bureaucracy of Germany, as well as to find access to find, whether it is public or private.
Pipelidis from Ariadne experience this firsthand. A German Venture Capital firm made his investment conditional when he replaced him as CEO with German National. “He wanted a native speaker as a public face of the company,” he recalled.
“I think customers prefer to treat someone who speaks fluently German – that’s why all our salespersons are native speakers. But are you replaced as CEOs?
Finally, Georgios Pipelidis and Nicos Tsiyamitros gained support from a Greek VC firm. And despite the failures, they have not been enthusiastically for Munich. At the end of its own Aradane thread, there is still the Bavarian capital.
This article was original in German.
