Bits & Pretzels 2025: Europe's startup festival for innovation and exchange!
Bits & Pretzels 2025 in Munich: The start-up festival focuses on innovation and collaboration in Europe. Participants, networking & AI trends.

Bits & Pretzels 2025: Europe's startup festival for innovation and exchange!
Europe is facing a new phase in the history of innovation, which is characterized by geopolitical tensions and technological dependencies. This will be particularly noticeable during the Bits & Pretzels 2025 startup festival, which will take place in Munich from September 29th to October 1st, 2025. Organized by founders Andy Bruckschlögl, Bernd Storm van’s Gravesande and Felix Haas, the festival will serve as a platform for exchange between scale-ups, investors and political decision-makers under the motto “Connecting Europe”, focusing on the need for close cooperation between business, capital and politics. [OTS]. Speaker, are expected.
In order to make the exchange more effective, a new stage concept will be introduced this year. Stage time will be reduced by 60% to create more space for roundtables, matching formats and Q&A sessions. In addition, special topic rooms will be set up for various target groups such as early-stage startups, female founders as well as CFOs and corporate CEOs, which offer focused content. The aim is to give start-ups and scale-ups clear answers about scaling, funding structures and innovation projects.
New format and European collaboration
The Investor Summit will be an innovative format with over 2,500 investors, including more than 500 limited partners. In addition, a CIO Summit is offered specifically for scale-ups from Series B onwards. These new approaches are intended to emphasize the economic effectiveness of entrepreneurial potential in Europe, including capital attraction and exit prospects. The festival focuses on an entrepreneurial culture that rewards courage and focuses on the economic benefits of innovations.
A central theme of the festival will be artificial intelligence (AI). Discussions will focus on economic opportunities, regulatory frameworks and technological perspectives. Bits & Pretzels offers a valuable platform for exchange between AI startups, investors and political decision-makers. This link is crucial for promoting a successful startup culture in Europe, which depends on close collaboration between the different actors.
Startup Europe Awards and their meaning
In this context, the European Commission’s initiative, the Startup Europe Awards (SEUA), is also important. Startup Europe Awards serve as an open innovation tool for identifying talented startups and are intended to find solutions to current challenges in various areas. The aim is to make startups and scale-ups more efficient and successful and to promote the exchange of knowledge.
These awards support local authorities to develop tailored programs that revitalize local ecosystems and improve collaboration between the public and private sectors. The Finnova Foundation, which plays a central role in the implementation of the awards, has already supported several successful editions of the SEUA.
Bits & Pretzels 2025 will therefore be an important event for founders, investors and political actors in Europe. The reorientation of the festival and the focus on current challenges promise valuable impulses for the European innovation landscape. Further information about the event is also available on the Effortel website.