Smart city innovation lab opens in Munich

The Munich Urban Colab will enable creatives and cultural workers to work on sustainable solutions for liveable cities as well as in collaboration with the city administration and citizens.

The City of Munich in partnership with venture capital firm Unternehmertum has unveiled an innovation and start-up centre for smart city solutions.

According to the City administration, the Munich Urban Colab was designed to attract start-ups, “brilliant minds”, innovative companies and scientific research projects from all around the world and bring them together to find solutions to urban challenges.

Urban society

The state capital of Munich aims to make city life worthwhile for everyone and, to achieve this, the most diverse perspectives of an urban society of individuals and companies must be taken into account, the administration reports.

The city administration is housed as a contact partner at the Colab with its own offices and co-working spaces and intends to bring its own challenges and projects to the Colab and take advantage of its network to develop technological as well as environmentally and socially compatible solutions.

“With its special university and corporate landscape, Munich is ideally suited to an innovation location such as the Munich Urban Colab,” said Dieter Reiter, mayor of the City of Munich.

“Munich is a technology-oriented city with a lively start-up scene and offers an urban charm that’s second to none. We’re creating the very best conditions here for developing sustainable solutions for the city of the future – and to the benefit of our citizens.”

Colab boasts11,000 square metres of usable space Copyright: UnternehmerTUM

Unternehmertum said the building’s users will benefit from its many years of experience in initiating start-ups along with providing access to the city administration, direct exchange with technology and business experts, venture capital firms and dialogue with citizens.

“We’re creating the very best conditions here for developing sustainable solutions for the city of the future – and to the benefit of our citizens”

The Colab building incorporates more than 11,000 square metres of usable space comprising offices, co-working spaces, event and seminar rooms and a high-tech prototype workshop, MakerSpace, intended for interdisciplinary collaboration.

The Munich Urban Colab aims to open up to universities, colleges and stakeholders working on smart city solutions.The first partner companies on site include BMW, Infineon, SAP and Siemens.