STEP Co-Hosts Its First European Live Pitch Event in Munich
On September 25, during the vibrant Oktoberfest season, the City of Sapporo and the Sapporo Transnational Expansion and Partnership (STEP) co-hosted an exclusive live pitch event in Munich with our local partner, Start2 Group. Munich and Sapporo have shared a sister-city relationship for more than 50 years, building a wonderful history of cultural exchange. For STEP, this event marked a major milestone as its first hosted event in Europe, with the clear goal of creating meaningful, practical economic exchange that founders, investors, and corporates can actively engage in.
The evening brought together a handpicked gathering of investors, corporate partners, and ecosystem leaders united around building a concrete pathway into the Japanese market. During the event, 12 carefully selected European startups took the stage to pitch their ideas. They represented a broad range of strategic fields, including Space Tech, semiconductors, safety-critical AI, robotics, health tech, and biosensing. Rather than presenting in alphabetical order, the pitches were thoughtfully curated to take the audience on a journey—starting from space and Earth observation, all the way down into the human cell.
By the end of the evening, three exceptional companies were selected from the 12 participants. These selected startups stood out for having a clear purpose and strategic intent for expanding into Sapporo, backed by an inspiring passion to create a better world, and highly advanced core technologies. The top winner took home a fully funded route into Japan, including an invitation to Sapporo with STEP’s extensive assistance and direct access to local industry partners.
This initiative reflects STEP’s core mission: not simply to support basic business development, but to work closely alongside the core members of international companies, becoming part of their team to help move their ideas forward. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Start2 Group for their dedicated support, professionalism, and wonderful ecosystem connections that made this welcoming and stimulating event possible. We look forward to turning these new connections into lasting collaborations between Sapporo and Europe.
