News & Podcast
Stay up to date with the latest stories, deep-dives and interviews from the Munich startup ecosystem. From funding deals to founder portraits and tech trends.

Munich Business plan competition 2026: Winning startups from phase 1
Record at the Munich Business plan competition: 205 teams participated in phase 1. Baystartup recognizes ten particularly convincing startups – from medtech to biotechnology, robotics, and energy.

Baystartup announces new dual leadership
Barbara Dombay becomes CEO at Baystartup on June 1, 2025. Together with Carsten Rudolph, she will lead the Bavarian startup network going forward.

Munich Business Plan Competition 2025: Phase 2 nominees announced
Phase 2 of the Munich Business Plan Competition 2025 is complete – the ten best founding teams have been selected. They will present themselves on June 3 at the Startup Demo Night in Munich’s Werksviertel. There they will meet investors, industry experts, and a broad audience from the Munich startup scene. The event offers direct insight into the innovative power and diversity of the current startup ecosystem in southern Bavaria.

Baystartup brings its expertise to BAND board
Baystartup CEO Carsten Rudolph has been elected to the board of Business Angels Deutschland e.V. (BAND). This is intended to bring even more practice-oriented expertise into the strategic direction of the federal association going forward. Additionally, Munich-based angel investor Katja Ruhnke will also join the board as chair.

Munich business plan competition 2025: The winning teams of phase 1
The first phase of the Munich business plan competition 2025 is complete. Among the ten award-winning startups are: Prop, Bioexotec, Muvopt, Thermovation, Insyt Technologies, Tenum, Versatile Robotics, Peak Quantum, Linque, and Ovrlay. They receive not only prize money, but also valuable feedback from experts.

European startup hub ranking 2025: Munich well represented
The European startup hub ranking 2025 is here: in the current rankings by Financial Times and Statista, four Munich founder centers have made it into the top 12: UnternehmerTUM, Start2 Group, the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (SCE), and Baystartup. Werk1 is also represented in the ranking. Further proof of Munich’s strong position as a startup hub in Europe.

Münchner Businessplan Wettbewerb: Bewerbungsphase eröffnet
It’s back on: South Bavarian startups from all industries now have another chance to put their business model to the test at the Munich Business Plan Competition. The submission deadline for phase 1 is January 21, 2025.

BayStartup: “Competition for investments intensifying”
What do creativity, sophistication, and perseverance have to do with startup financing? If you’re a Munich startup or investor who’s never heard of BayStartup, you’ve missed out. Because BayStartup offers a comprehensive support program for young companies and an investor network with over 400 business angels, family offices, and 200 venture capital firms. On the tenth anniversary, we spoke with CEO Carsten Rudolph about the development of the Munich startup scene. Not just a look back, but also a look to the future.

Qualiwise secures six-figure pre-seed funding
Munich-based startup Qualiwise has developed an AI-powered software solution that digitizes the entire quality inspection process. The company has now received six-figure pre-seed funding from 123 Ventures, a venture capital firm from the Baystartup network.

Munich Business Plan Competition: These are the winning teams of phase 2
The winning teams of competition phase 2 of the Munich Business Plan Competition have been announced. Applications for phase 3 can be submitted until June 11.

Munich Business Plan Competition: Phase 1 winning teams
The ten winning startups from the first phase of the Munich Business Plan Competition by Baystartup have been announced. Out of over 130 teams, ten startups distinguished themselves through their outstanding business concepts. These include: Aicendence, Audavis, Bonescreen, CertHub, Datagon AI, Epicure, ImuVeo, Lactoverde, Prisma3D, and Vortex Aerotec. Particularly valued were their business and product ideas as well as market and competitive analyses.

Barbara Dombay from Baystartup
You can find the interview with Barbara Dombay from Baystartup and all other episodes of our podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Deezer, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Breaker, Overcast, Castbox, Podcast Addict, and Anchor. “Honest and neutral feedback on your business idea” Barbara Dombay has been building and managing the investor network at […]