This October, TBB comes to Munich for the first time - and with good reason.
Europe’s clean industrial transition has entered a new phase. The conversation is no longer centred only on climate targets or long-term ambition. It is increasingly about execution: scaling manufacturing, financing infrastructure, securing supply chains and turning clean technologies into industrial advantage.
Few European cities sit closer to that shift than Munich.
Munich has become one of Europe’s most powerful industrial and innovation hubs, combining advanced manufacturing, automotive leadership, engineering excellence, deep pools of industrial capital and one of the continent’s fastest-growing deep tech ecosystems.
Global companies including Siemens, BMW, MAN and Infineon operate alongside a rapidly expanding network of start-ups, investors and research institutions working across energy, mobility, AI, advanced manufacturing and industrial decarbonisation. Increasingly, these worlds are no longer evolving separately. They are converging to reshape Europe’s industrial base for the energy era ahead. And that shift is already visible across the region.
Munich-headquartered Siemens AG embodies this evolution particularly well. With deep roots in electrical engineering, the company has spent the last decade strengthening its software, automation and digital industry businesses, positioning itself at the centre of the next generation of industrial competitiveness. Its former energy division, now Siemens Energy has moved just as decisively into the clean transition co-leading the Energy Resilience Leadership Group alongside the BMW Foundation and Breakthrough Energy to accelerate clean energy projects across Europe. Apple has invested more than €2 billion into its Munich-based European Silicon Design Center, now one of its largest engineering hubs in Europe. BMW and E.ON recently launched Germany’s first commercial Vehicle-to-Grid offering - a technological and market milestone in coupling the mobility and electricity sectors.
Around these industrial players, the region’s innovation ecosystem is accelerating at remarkable speed. This dynamism is perhaps best illustrated by the Technical University of Munich, which generated more than 100 spin-offs in 2024 alone. Meanwhile, start-ups supported by its affiliated centre for innovation and entrepreneurship, UnternehmerTUM - repeatedly recognised as Europe’s leading start-up hub* - collectively raised more than €1 billion last year.
And the momentum extends well beyond a single institution. Bavaria ranked first in Germany for total start-up funding for the second consecutive year, with companies across the region raising €3.3 billion in venture capital in 2025 - up 43% from the previous year.
This growth is not happening by chance. It is being actively supported by the Bavarian state. In 2025, LfA Förderbank Bayern increased its funding commitments by 45%, while the regional government launched new large-scale venture and scale-up financing initiatives. Rather than replacing private capital, these measures are helping anchor it - reducing risk, increasing confidence and drawing in greater institutional and international investment.
What is emerging is not simply a vibrant start-up scene, but a broader industrial ecosystem where research excellence, industrial incumbents, venture capital and public support increasingly work together to help scale clean technologies and build the next-generation manufacturing capabilities.
That is why hosting TBB in Munich feels like such a natural fit.
Now entering its 14th edition, TBB has always been about accelerating the path of clean technologies from innovation to scale - by bringing the right investors, industrial partners and decision-makers into the room.
In many ways, Munich represents the very reason TBB exists: a place where technology, capital, industry and public actors increasingly join forces to build Europe’s clean industrial future.
* The “Europe’s Leading Startup Hubs” ranking, compiled by the Financial Times and Statista, assesses startup hubs across Europe based on surveys of founders, investors, entrepreneurs and researchers, as well as the economic performance of supported startups. In 2026, 180 hubs across 39 countries were evaluated.