Country: Germany
Population: 1,388,308
Cost of living compared to other world cities: 68th most expensive out the 342 cities featured in Numbeo’s 2013 cost of living index.
Munich is the third biggest city in Germany and the largest city in Bavaria, as well as the state capital. Of all the German cities, Munich has the strongest economy. Germany itself has a population of 80.3 million, making it the European Union member state with the most inhabitants.
Since 2006, Munich’s motto has been “Munich loves you” but the way things are going, that could soon change to “Munich loves tech”! Although the city is primarily known as a financial and publishing hub, it’s fast gaining a reputation for its lively tech scene. Given that the city is a well-known centre for the software industry, it’s not surprising that it’s home to a host of startups with a focus on the Cloud, social networking and virtual platforms in general.
One such start-up is groupTime (@grouptime_app). Located in the Bogenhausen area of Munich, groupTime provides customers with an app that allows users to privately message the individuals and groups of their choice. Not far from groupTime HQ are the offices of graph.me (@graph_me), which is a start-up that provides customers with online polls and other ways to crowdsource instant feedback. The company creates customizable poll and voting widgets that can be embedded in blogs, websites and social media pages.
Across the River Isar is buddycloud (@buddycloud), creator of the app where users invite friends to post comments, images and video and discuss the content posted, all in the Cloud. Users create channels that they can invite their friends to, and have the option of making each channel either public or private. Staying on this side of the river, we come across CaptchaAd (@captchaad). If you’ve ever filled in an online form and had to watch a short video to get the code to type into the Captcha field, you’ve probably come across CaptchaAd’s work. This is the company responsible for the adverts that play before the video starts.
Munich’s tech scene features not only innovative start-ups but also exciting events. Earlier in the year, Munich played host to the first ever Maker fair to take place in Southern Germany. The exhibition, called Make Munich (@MakeMunich), was attended by many proponents of the so-called Maker movement. Attendees exchanged information and tips on trends such as 3D printing and hacking.
For regular techie events in Munich, your best bet is to join Meetup groups with a passion for all things tech. For instance, Hadoop User Group Munich is the Meetup for you if you’re a data-crunching professional looking to find out about the open source framework Apache Hadoop. If, on the other hand, you’re an entrepreneur looking to launch your tech startup in the city, the Meetup Munich Startup Founder 101 (@fimunich) welcomes you with open arms. This group invites successful start-up owners to come and share their expertise with the group’s members. Each month a different guest gives a talk on the strategies they used to successfully get their venture off the ground.
TechMeetups (@TechMeetups) is looking forward to the birth of its own Munich Meetup group. The Munich TechMeetups community will host its first event on 24 October 2013. We’d love you to join us for our Drinks & Demo Night, a great opportunity for you to meet and network with other tech enthusiasts eager to be part of Munich’s evolution into Germany’s premier tech hub.
