Bavarian Accelerator Supports Media Startups
© David Pierce Brill
Based in Munich, Media Lab Bayern promotes digital innovation in the media industry. It is at once an early-stage startup incubator, a co-working space and an innovation hub aimed at journalists and IT professionals.
Digitalization is a hot topic for most governments. But for most the conversation only reaches IT, tech startups and AI. For the German state Bavaria, however, digitalization is a revolution affecting every industry. That’s why Media Lab Bayern was founded.
Media Lab Bayern supports media entrepreneurs through three programs including a co-working space, a short-term entrepreneurship program and a nine-month Media Startup Fellowship.
The fellowship program offers mentoring, business coaching and financial aid of up to €40.000 to selected teams launching a media-related product or company onto the market.
Having begun in 2015, the Media Startup Fellowship program has already hosted 4 cycles or 20 total startups. Projects have included automation of editorial processes, a platform for podcast and radio communities where users can exchange voice messages and talk to each other or their favorite podcasters and a tool that automatically suggests answers to user comments to the editors, making editing easier, just to name a few.
Media Lab Bayern is supported by the Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (BLM) and the Bayerische Staatskanzlei.