About the Event

Bits & Pretzels 2026 is Europe's most unique founders conference, held from 28 to 30 September 2026 in Munich, Germany. Organised by Startup Events GmbH, the event brings together 7,500 carefully curated attendees including 3,000+ founders, 1,700+ investors, and 600+ enterprise decision-makers for three days of concentrated learning, networking, and deal-making. The 2026 theme is "Human After All," returning the event's focus to the human dimensions of building companies: risk-taking, resilience, adaptation, and leadership in uncertain times. The first two conference days are hosted across a dedicated venue in Munich, featuring the main Inspiration Stage, the Visionaries Stage, the Startup and Corporate Collaboration Stage, the Investors Stage, a Pitch Corner, a startup exhibition with 250 exhibiting companies, a partner exhibition zone, and multiple breakout formats. Day three takes the entire community to the real Munich Oktoberfest, where structured table-captain networking sessions turn one of the world's most famous events into an organised, pre-booked meeting format for the startup ecosystem.

Audience and Attendees

Attendance is capped at 7,500 and curated to maintain a founder-to-investor ratio of 2 to 1. Founders attending range from early-stage to Series A and beyond. The investor community includes Tier 1 VCs and LPs from firms including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Accel, General Catalyst, Balderton Capital, Creandum, Dawn Capital, Earlybird, Lakestar, ICONIQ, KKR, and the European Investment Fund. Speakers confirmed for 2026 include Steven Bartlett, entrepreneur, investor, and host of The Diary of a CEO; Dr. Karsten Wildberger, Germany's Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation; Katherina Reiche, Germany's Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy; Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commission Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation; Klaus Hommels, Founder and Chairman of Lakestar; Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, President and Managing Director of General Catalyst; Seema Amble, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz; George Robson, Partner at Sequoia Capital; Harry Nelis, Partner at Accel; Jan Oberhauser, Founder and CEO of n8n; and Franziska Kayser, Partner and Head of European TMT at KKR. Enterprise CIO attendees in 2025 included senior technology and AI leaders from adidas, Airbus, Allianz, Audi, BMW Bank, Continental, Dell Technologies, Microsoft, Munich Re, Otto, Porsche, Siemens, Siemens Healthineers, Telefónica Germany, Volkswagen, and many others.

Programme Structure

Days one and two on 28 and 29 September are held across the conference venue and feature keynote presentations on the Inspiration Stage, founder and investor deep dives on the Visionaries Stage, a dedicated Startup and Corporate Collaboration Stage for enterprise AI matchmaking, an Investors Stage open to all attendees featuring Tier 1 VC and LP sessions, a Pitch Corner allowing any attendee to deliver a 90-second pitch, masterclasses in groups of 10 to 15 for hands-on problem solving, roundtable discussions, speed dating sessions between founders and investors, a startup exhibition with 250 exhibiting companies, a partner exhibition area, and a CIO AI Summit running in parallel for enterprise technology leaders. An included catering arrangement across both days enables informal networking throughout. The CIO and Founder Reception, hosted by the Bavarian Minister for Digital Affairs, brings together CIOs and startup founders in an informal setting. Day three on 30 September moves the entire 7,500-person community to the Festhalle Schottenhamel tent at the real Munich Oktoberfest, where 270+ Table Captains, each pre-selected from the founder, investor, and executive community, host pre-booked tables of seven to eight attendees in two guaranteed meeting sessions per person. A team of 70+ trained matchmakers supports all three days, operating before and during the event through the dedicated networking platform and app.

Main Topics

The 2026 programme is anchored in the human dimensions of building companies in an era of AI-driven transformation. Key themes include resilient leadership and founder psychology in high-pressure environments; AI implementation in enterprise organisations and the gap between pilots and scalable deployment; the state of European venture capital and the imperative to build globally competitive scaleups; fund construction, LP relations, and emerging manager dynamics; corporate venture and startup-enterprise collaboration models; the European AI regulatory landscape including the EU AI Act and its operational implications for startups; fundraising strategy across early, growth, and late stages; quantum computing and deep tech as investment categories; the future of work in AI-augmented organisations; brand building and go-to-market strategy for B2B and consumer companies; and the entrepreneurial and personal qualities that define durable founders across cycles.

Closing Session

Bits & Pretzels 2026 concludes on the afternoon of 30 September at the Munich Oktoberfest following the second structured networking session at the Festhalle Schottenhamel. The three-day event closes having facilitated more than 21,000 founder-investor meetings and brought the European startup community together in one of the world's most distinctive and memorable event formats.

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