The BMW Startup Garage is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Its achievements so far: 4,700 startups assessed, joint projects with more than 220 fledgling companies from 26 countries, and a total of 30 startups now established as suppliers, service providers and an integral part of the BMW Group network.
The BMW Group’s venture client unit was founded in February 2015. The aim was to provide support for startups that could significantly benefit the company’s products, services and processes. But what’s special about this type of collaboration is that the business founders get to keep their stake in their company, as the BMW Group is involved not as an investor but as their client – a venture client. It assesses and accelerates their development with a view to making them suppliers and long-term partners.
“For the BMW Group, integrating innovative startups for a specific purpose is crucially important,” says Robert Hein, Head of the BMW Startup Garage, summing up his team’s first ten years of work. “We benefit from new ideas and perspectives we get from the collaboration and from the dynamism and agility of the startups. This allows us to make focused contributions to strong innovation development at the BMW Group.” But the startups themselves also reap the rewards: they have the backing of a strong partner who supports them as they develop their technologies and business models, and smooths the way for them to enter the automotive industry.
“In our anniversary year, we are going to continue our successful work and develop our global focus even further,” Hein announced. “We’re on the lookout across the globe for innovative startups working closely on future mobility.” Emerging companies can apply for a place on the venture client programme at any time via bmwstartupgarage.com.
Born in Garching, at home around the world
The BMW Startup Garage was launched in 2015 in Garching, just outside the city of Munich. Today it operates offices in Mountain View, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, Tel Aviv and, since 2024, Greenville (USA). 18 employees currently work in the global BMW Startup Garage network which, in combination with the venture capital arm BMW i Ventures, forms the startup ecosystem of the BMW Group. BMW i Ventures is based in Silicon Valley and Munich and invests in emerging startups with a formative influence on the future of the automotive industry, production and the supply chain.
From startup to BMW Group logistics partner. The Embotech success story
One example of how close collaboration between the BMW Startup Garage and a fledgling business can lead to a lasting cooperation is Embotech AG. The Swiss-based company developed a solution known as automated vehicle marshalling (AVM), which allows vehicles to move around BMW plant premises automatically. AVM is now an integral part of the BMW Group’s state-of-the-art production logistics, and Embotech – supported by the BMW Group since 2018 – is an established global logistics partner in which BMW i Ventures has held a stake since December 2024.
