Siemens is intensifying its contacts in the startup scene and is establishing a research center on the Garching high-tech campus of the Technical University of Munich. The company is also planning its own venture capital arm for startups.
Siemens is heading for the startup scene: Already in the summer, the industrial group invested in the Munich-based robot startup Magazine The company has now announced that it will be building a new office building on the high-tech campus of Technical University of Munich to establish a new research location. More than 100 Siemens researchers will work there together with scientists from the Technical University of Munich. Research focuses range from IT security to autonomous systems.
In-house incubator planned
Siemens also aims to increase its proximity to the startup scene through a new startup incubator: The company's own "Innovation AG," as the working title suggests, will provide new business ideas with venture capital. Innovation AG also aims to encourage its own employees to start businesses. Siemens is clearly attempting to establish a flexible startup ecosystem parallel to its rather cumbersome corporate structures. Joe Kaeser, CEO of Siemens AG, puts it this way:
“Our company needs good ideas – and we will create the conditions for the ideas of our bright minds to be implemented quickly and easily, both inside and outside our company.”
Siemens maintains several incubators worldwide, also with the aim of keeping an eye on the vibrant scene.
“So far, the group monitors around 1,000 startups annually at its locations in Munich, Berkeley and Shanghai,”
reveals Dr. Rudolf Freytag, CEO of Siemens Innovative Ventures, in an interview with Munich Startup. An additional startup center is planned in Tel Aviv. The goal is to provide new impetus for the future and discover groundbreaking innovations that could lead to a realignment of Siemens and an expansion of the company's portfolio.
