IT location with strong growth: Leipzig region
The digital industry has discovered Leipzig as a growth location. Over the past 10 years, more than 500 information technology companies have come to the commercial city. "Why the Leipzig region could become your future IT location?!" was the topic of our online event at the end of May 2021 together with Thinkport GmbH. In the conversation, Florian Foege from Invest Region Leipzig GmbH explained which advantages lead to the IT sector currently being the strongest growing sector in Leipzig.
The attraction is based, on the one hand, on the fact that the location has the know-how to offer at various levels: Here, the various IT competence centres such as the InfAI or the ScaDS.AI meet the experiential knowledge of a broad university landscape such as the University of Leipzig or the HTWK Leipzig. Numerous companies such as Jambit, Mercateo or adesso have taken advantage of the ideal location conditions and settled in the trade fair city. In addition, networks such as the Cluster IT Mitteldeutschland, the Händlerbund or the Software Foren Leipzig ensure that all players are connected. Leipzig's excellent infrastructure and central location in Central Germany also contribute to its attractiveness as a business location. For companies, proximity to customers and fast connections are crucial. The nearly 1240 IT companies currently based in Leipzig benefit not only from the good skilled labour situation with, for example, more than 4,000 students and trainees in the IT sector and approximately 755 IT graduates per year but also from the attractive living conditions in the city, which attracts people and (almost) does not let them leave.
One company that has chosen the Leipzig region is Thinkport GmbH. In an online conversation with Florian Foege, Tobias Drechsel, CEO of Thinkport GmbH, and Philipp D'Angelo, Leipzig Branch Manager, explain which decisions were decisive for Leipzig.
Founded in 2018 in Frankfurt a.M., Thinkport GmbH is a fast-growing IT consulting company specializing in cloud technology. In September 2020, the company's second location was opened in Leipzig: "We are glad to have taken this step and gone to Leipzig to be able to further develop Thinkport," says Tobias Drechsel. He tells us that originally it was considered to go to Munich. The choice then fell on Leipzig, the points skilled workers and the geographically attractive location were decisive. In addition, the city is constantly on the move: "Leipzig is a very up-and-coming city. A lot has changed here in recent years. That simply suits Thinkport. We are a company that is constantly trying to reinvent itself and evolve. We also needed two components - customer projects on the one hand and the appropriate employees on the other. Leipzig has both," he explains.
"Sure, there were a lot of uncertainties at the beginning," recalls Philipp D'Angelo, who started from scratch as branch manager in Leipzig. "But we were able to do a lot of trial and error," he says. The company started at the site with its work in the CoWorking space to first arrive and find out whether the decision to come to Leipzig was a good fit at all. "After the first few hires, the uncertainty has subsided and we're excited to see what happens next in Leipzig," Philipp D'Angelo smiles.
Networking and visibility in the region are important issues for companies - once in the search for skilled workers as well as in the acquisition of new customers. Thinkport has made use of these contacts. Leipzig, with its large number of associations that have a strong IT focus and are very well networked, offers a major advantage here for companies that are new arrivals. "We got off to a very good start in Leipzig and are now a team of eight people. We can imagine growing even further," explains Tobias Drechsel. They have no regrets about moving to Leipzig: "It was absolutely the right decision. We found a great team, in a great city, ideal to work in the coworking space. There are many universities and therefore a very young spirit, which simply suits us."