Bits & Pretzels 2026: What to Expect from This Year's Edition? [Sponsored]
Tech.eu Tech.eu Editorial Team
Bits & Pretzels is coming back to Munich on Sept. 28-30, 2026. It’s bringing 7,500 people and 2,000 investors to a startup event wrapped around Oktoberfest.
Based on reporting by Tech.eu, Tech.eu Editorial Team — read the original for the full story.
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Bits & Pretzels is heading back to Munich from September 28 to 30, 2026, and it’s leaning hard into the city’s Oktoberfest timing again. This year’s theme is Human After All, a neat reminder that even in a room full of applied AI, deeptech, fintech, defense and space tech, the people still matter most.
The conference says it will host 7,500 participants, including 2,000 investors, plus founders, corporate leaders and policymakers from across Europe and beyond. That’s a serious crowd, and a useful one if you’re trying to get a startup in front of money, partners and the people setting the rules.
On stage, the headline names are Steven Bartlett and Trevor Noah, with a program framed around leadership, business and society. Bits & Pretzels co-founder Bernd Storm van’s Gravesande says the 2026 edition will focus on founder resilience, the human qualities behind success, and the mindset entrepreneurs need to hit their goals. It’s a softer pitch than the usual product-demo churn, but that seems to be the point.
The lineup also includes leaders from European companies such as Legora, n8n, Dash0 and Langdock. Beyond the talks, the event is keeping its founder-first format: a Startup Exhibition for early-stage companies, structured networking, the flagship investor program, and the CIO AI Summit to connect corporate leaders with startups.
Co-host Felix Haas says Munich is growing fast, especially in deeptech and defense, with outstanding startups and record funding rounds. And the event will still end the way Bits & Pretzels likes it best: in the Schottenhamel tent at Oktoberfest, with beer and deal-making mixed together as if that were the most normal thing in Europe.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
Bits & Pretzels has figured out the oldest startup trick in the book: make networking feel like a festival and people will call it culture. The Human After All theme is a smart counterweight to all the AI chest-thumping, because the industry could use a little less machine worship and a little more actual judgment. Meanwhile, Munich keeps quietly turning itself into the place where Europe’s serious tech people go to be seen.
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