CDTM is Germany’s secret unicorn factory

Published on 15 Jan 2026
CDTM is Germany’s secret unicorn factory

CDTM is Germany’s secret unicorn factory:

Almost 20% of all German unicorns were built by CDTM alumni.

The Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM) is a joint research institute founded by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and LMU Munich – Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU).

Its mission is to provide entrepreneurial education to top students and advance applied research across technology, business, and innovation.

And it worked, here is what CDTM alumni have built so far:
- 9 unicorns
- 280+ companies founded
- 25,000+ jobs created
- €8.7B total funding raised

Using the CrustData People Search API, we identified all CDTM unicorns and their founders:

Monzo Bank (Class of Fall 2008) - Jonas Templestein
Trade Republic (Class of Spring 2014) - Thomas Pischke
TIER Mobility (Class of Fall 2004) - Julian Blessin
Personio (Classes of Spring 2013 & Spring 2014) - Hanno Renner, Arseniy Vershinin, Roman Schumacher, Ignaz Forstmeier
Forto (Class of Spring 2013) - Erik Muttersbach, Michael Wax
Razor Group (Class of Fall 2012) - Jonas Diezun
Cellares (Class of Spring 2012) - Fabian Gerlinghaus
EGYM (Class of Fall 2006) - Florian Sauter, Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer
foodora (Classes of Spring 2010/11 & Fall 2012/13) - Stefan Rothlehner, Konstantin Mehl, Manuel T., Sergei Krauze

Originally posted on LinkedIn by Chris Pisarski · View the original post