Study finds 496 particularly innovative companies in Germany. Munich is home to more innovators than any other city. Bavaria is the top German state.
The business magazine brand eins called upon 25,000 experts to nominate and rate Germany’s most innovative companies. The ranking results include 496 innovators in Germany — 285 large enterprises and 211 small or medium sized companies.
With its 64 innovators, Munich leads the German ranking. Second place is taken by Berlin (63), followed by Hamburg (36), Frankfurt am Main (23), Cologne (15), Düsseldorf (13), Stuttgart (9), Bonn (8), Jena and Aachen (5 each).
Who’s who in the Munich startup scene
The list of large companies among the Munich innovators includes the DAX-listed corporations Allianz, BMW and Siemens. International companies with their German headquarters in Munich can also be found on the list, including Amazon, Fujitsu, GlaxoSmithKline, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and Tesla. Munich-based companies of long tradition are also on board, such as Rohde & Schwarz, MAN and Osram — as well as Stadtwerke München.
The list of small and medium sized companies reveals the innovative strength of the Munich startup scene. You can find names such as Adnymics, Bragi, Celonis, eGym, Franka Emika, Hyve, Kinexon, Polarstern, Ryte, Scalable Capital, Stylefruits, Tado, Testbirds and Tiramizoo. The two Munich-based Fraunhofer Institutes for Applied and Integrated Security (AISEC) and for Embedded Systems and Communication Technologies (ESK) also made it into the ranking.
The Munich mix as a model for success
Taking a closer look at the number of industries represented by the selected companies reveals a much higher degree of diversity among the Munich innovators compared to the runner-up cities: The companies selected in Munich come from 16 different industries. The innovators in the runner-up cities Berlin and Hamburg represent only 14 industries, followed by Frankfurt am Main in fourth place with just 11 industries. The much-acclaimed “Munich mix” seems to have earned the Bavarian capital its victory.
Half of all Bavarian innovators are from Munich
The results from the German state ranking are even more pronounced than the city ranking: Bavaria took a substantial lead in the ranking with 130 innovators ahead of North Rhine-Westphalia (84) and Baden-Württemberg (74). Berlin came in fourth. Based on the results, nearly half of all Bavarian innovation drivers are from Munich.