How do craftsmanship and startups fit together? For every hardware-focused startup, the journey from first prototype to series production is a challenge. This is exactly where Upper Bavarian craft businesses come in: with high manufacturing expertise, regional proximity, and flexible structures, they are ideal partners for high-tech startups. This makes it possible to solve complex tasks locally, without language barriers or time differences.
To promote this collaboration, the Handwerkskammer für München und Oberbayern has been organizing the “Space meets Handwerk” format since 2018, together with AZO Space of Innovation and its ESA BIC Bavaria program. As early as then, Munich unicorn Isar Aerospace was among those who secured valuable partners here, such as model building specialist Schröter – a cooperation that continues to this day.
In the meantime, “Space meets Handwerk” has become a permanent fixture in the Munich innovation ecosystem alongside “Startup meets Craftsmanship”. In 2025, craft businesses from electronics, precision mechanics, mechanical engineering, and prototype manufacturing came together once again with startups from the ESA BIC Bavaria program.
Following the proven approach, an initial round of presentations by all participating companies was followed by speed dating. Each startup sat down with each craft business for ten minutes each to explore possible areas of intersection. A social networking session then concluded the event.
On the startup side, Dromni, Sitegeist, Eighth Dimension, Hypersonica, Augusta Space, and Project-S presented themselves. Whether new cooperations will emerge from these meetings will become clear over the course of the coming year – the prospects look good.
