Munich Innovation Awards 2026: Startups and University Team Honored for Pioneering Solutions
Munich, July 23, 2026 – Four innovative teams were celebrated at the ninth edition of the City of Munich’s Innovation Awards. kibaudi GmbH, NewSense Engineering GmbH, DATFID, and the TreeQuest team from Hochschule München were recognized for their groundbreaking contributions across various fields. The awards ceremony, held yesterday, saw Mayor Mona Fuchs and various dignitaries present the accolades to the winning teams.
Mayor Mona Fuchs emphasized the importance of innovation for Munich’s continued attractiveness. “Munich is economically strong and the only German city that regularly ranks among the top 10 startup capitals. We are proud of our location as the ‘Isar Valley.’ At the same time, the shortage of skilled workers, digitalization, demographic change, and not least the strained budget require us to explore new avenues. That’s precisely why we want to increasingly rely on innovative ideas to ensure Munich remains such an attractive city. The Innovation Award offers us the opportunity to provide a platform for these ideas and test them in a real environment. This way, Munich can become even more livable, sustainable, and efficient.”
Award Winners 2026
1. kibaudi GmbH: AI for Structured Knowledge Management
kibaudi GmbH received an award for its solution to the challenge of providing data and knowledge quickly, structured, and targeted with AI. The District Administrative Department sought a solution to intelligently link information, consider current legal bases, and support employees in making informed decisions, especially given the impending retirement of many experienced employees. kibaudi GmbH developed an AI agent that combines legal regulations, guidelines, and previous case processing into an intelligent knowledge graph. This agent makes sources traceable, identifies outdated legal bases, and can be integrated into MUCGPT, helping employees find, classify, and securely apply specialized information more quickly.
Dr. Hanna Sammüller, Head of the District Administrative Department, stated, “kibaudi GmbH convinced us with an innovative and practical solution. The AI agent supports our colleagues where a lot of time is lost: in finding, classifying, and evaluating complex technical information. We look forward to the joint co-creation phase, in which we will further develop and test the AI agent in practice.”
2. TreeQuest: Students on an Urban Data Mission
The TreeQuest team from Hochschule München, represented by Peer von Bremen and Philipp Gsell, won for their innovative approach to crowdsourced data collection. The Geodata Service Munich manages urban geodata, including tree locations in public spaces. To better verify and update this data, an innovative, mobile application for crowdsourced data collection with educational value was sought. The application allows students to actively participate in mapping during class and in their free time, correcting data errors in tree inventory data and collecting additional condition characteristics.
The prototype impressed the jury with its gamification elements, including weekly missions, treasure hunts, and milestone badges, motivating students to explore trees in their neighborhoods. The collected data will be provided to the City of Munich for Smart City initiatives, while personal data of children is protected.
Edwin Grodeke, Head of the Municipal Department, congratulated the team, stating, “The award winners submitted an exciting solution that perfectly meets our desire for the involvement of Munich’s students. This can succeed in engaging young adults with the challenges of a big city and the importance of an excellent data basis for a sovereign city. At the same time, we are naturally pleased about the data donation from the students. We will use the acquired information in a data protection-compliant manner and purposefully for the preservation and improvement of the quality of life in Munich!”
3. NewSense Engineering GmbH: Unlocking Hidden Information in Munich’s Sewer Network
NewSense Engineering GmbH was honored for its project “KenntNIS,” which addresses the challenge of extracting hidden information from 9,000 PDF drawings related to Munich’s sewer network. Munich’s urban drainage system operates 37,000 manholes and 4,000 special structures, with key data stored in a geographic information system (NIS). However, crucial structural information, such as wall thickness or manhole diameter, is embedded in these PDF files. NewSense Engineering GmbH proposes an AI-based method for extracting technical parameters from these scanned PDF files, enriching the existing NIS with valuable knowledge.
The jury was particularly convinced by the well-thought-out approach for the co-creation phase and the prospect of facilitating work through the creation of 3D models. Bernd Fuchs, First Head of the Munich City Drainage, remarked, “The applicants and their solution convince us with their concrete practical relevance, the promising technical implementation, and the consideration of our special conditions as critical infrastructure.”
4. DATFID: AI-Powered Environmental Consulting for Munich Businesses (ÖKOPROFIT 2.0)
DATFID received an award for its AI-based solution to enhance the ÖKOPROFIT environmental consulting program. Since 1998, ÖKOPROFIT has supported businesses in improving their environmental performance and reducing their ecological footprint. The existing MS-Excel-based materials, used by approximately 4,500 businesses nationwide, cover various environmental key figures and sustainability aspects. The Department of Labor and Economic Affairs sought an innovative AI-based solution to extend these materials, enabling efficient analysis of collected data, benchmark analysis, and tailored recommendations for businesses to improve their environmental balance.
DATFID developed a transparent AI environmental advisor for ÖKOPROFIT data, providing traceable root cause analyses. The solution is designed for structured Excel/table data, using operational and environmental key figures to compare similar businesses, identify key drivers of energy consumption, CO₂, waste, and costs, and prioritize measures based on expected impact.
Dr. Christian Scharpf, Head of the Department of Labor and Economic Affairs, expressed his conviction: “I am convinced that the solution submitted will improve the ÖKOPROFIT project as a whole and make a significant contribution to achieving the city’s climate neutrality.” Christine Kugler, Head of the Department for Climate and Environmental Protection, added, “With the new transparent AI environmental advisor, ÖKOPROFIT will be fit for the future: It quickly and effectively derives tailored recommendations for participating companies from the ÖKOPROFIT environmental data. These AI-supported analyses will help Munich’s businesses to improve their environmental balance and contribute to our goal of climate neutrality.”
Further Development and Testing
Each winning team receives 10,000 Euros in prize money. Additionally, they have the opportunity to further develop and test their proposed solutions in a co-creation project with the city administration in a real urban environment. An additional 15,000 Euros per team is available for the implementation phase. The award winners will also receive support and expertise from cooperation partners, including UnternehmerTUM, Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship, LMU Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center, founders@unibw, and Start2Group GmbH.
The Innovation Competition
The Innovation Competition will celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2027. New challenges will be announced in spring. The Department of Labor and Economic Affairs is responsible for the format, and all city departments, municipal enterprises, and participating companies can take part. Interested parties can already register on the Innovation Competition website of the City of Munich to be automatically informed about the start of the tender.
Source: https://stadt.muenchen.de/news/innovationspreis-muenchen2026.html
