Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem are you solving?
Newsense: Newsense is committed to maximizing the security of people and critical infrastructure with reduced resource requirements. At first glance, it sounds absurd: increasing challenges with fewer resources. Newsense achieves this through the development of AI-powered and model-based security systems based on the principle of autonomous driving. With Newsense’s product, the degree of automation in security services increases and manual effort is reduced: seamless 360-degree coverage, highly accurate detection of hazardous situations, comprehensive 3D situational awareness through sensor data integration, and automated system control.
Munich Startup: But that already exists, doesn’t it!
Newsense: Current security technology is very mechanical. Thicker and higher walls and fences, high-resolution CCTV cameras, and motion detectors have dominated security technology. Artificial intelligence, digital twins, 3D laser sensors, and networked devices (IoT), which have been developed in areas like autonomous driving, have hardly been used for security applications so far. Newsense is seizing this opportunity and wants to take security technology to the next level.
Technology from the automotive industry
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Newsense: Both founders spent years building careers in the automotive industry. It was all about making vehicles intelligent with sensors and AI software so they could understand their surroundings and move autonomously. With this passion for intelligent autonomous systems, we turned our attention to protecting people and critical infrastructure. It was a perfect fit! Because this new mission—creating more security for citizens and better protecting critical infrastructure—motivates us again and again.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Newsense: New challenges kept coming our way. Looking back, the biggest one was mutual understanding about solving a problem. As manufacturers, we’re enthusiastic about the technology. Our customers don’t want just a promise—they want a reliable solution that doesn’t yet exist on the market and that was developed by a startup. How do you quickly bring a first-of-its-kind solution to high product maturity in real-world deployment within a short testing phase? We’re glad we managed to pull it off. Along the way, we had many sleepless nights.
Security industry is a referral business
Munich Startup: How’s business going?
Newsense: Business is growing steadily. We’ve learned that there’s no room for error in security applications. That’s why it’s important to us to bring our products to market step by step. We’re pleased that we regularly acquire new customers through word-of-mouth recommendations. In the next step, we’ll continue to expand our business at the European level and serve international customers from Bavaria.
Munich Startup: What’s been your experience of Munich as a startup hub so far?
Newsense: Munich is a very vibrant startup location with lots of potential. There are many funding programs and incubators for founders to get a successful start. Even more important are the diverse industrial companies in Munich that support startups in achieving product-market fit. Building a startup from your own garage is impressive—but even better is starting directly from the user environment. You should take advantage of this opportunity!
Munich Startup: Hidden champion or shooting star?
Newsense: Hidden champion. Our mission to protect people and critical infrastructure gives us enormous strength. We enjoy the moments when a major event runs smoothly and safely with our support, when security incidents are detected early and appropriate measures are initiated to prevent greater damage. That’s the most beautiful spotlight for us.
