Making Public Administration Effective: How the Startup comuneo Is Enabling New Approaches to Municipal Governance

Public administrations today face major challenges: climate action, digital transformation, urban development, and budget planning all run in parallel—often with limited resources and little overview of ongoing projects. This is exactly where the Münster-based GovTech startup comuneo comes in.

The team develops a digital platform for strategic governance that supports public administrations in planning, managing, and tracking strategies, goals, and measures—and in making their impact visible. The aim is to make decision-making more transparent and to allocate resources where they can make the greatest difference.

Our goal is to help public administrations use their limited resources where they truly create impact and make a difference.

Silke Sommer, Co-Founder of comuneo

From Idea to Solution: Developed Together with the Target Group

The initial idea for comuneo did not come from a sudden inspiration, but from academic research: Co-founder Katharina dedicated her PhD to the topic of state transformation. During this time, she came across New Zealand’s “Wellbeing Budget” model, which measures the well-being of the population using more than 100 indicators and uses these insights to guide public spending decisions. This model became a key source of inspiration for comuneo.

The idea was then further developed through the “StartupTransfer.NRW” funding program. Through its close connection to the University of Münster and numerous conversations with public administrations, it quickly became clear how great the practical need was: many strategies and projects are implemented in parallel—but often without a central system for coordination.

Initially, the focus was strongly on sustainability topics. However, through continuous exchange with public administrations, it became evident that the challenges were far more comprehensive. Whether climate adaptation, digitalization, or urban development—many areas lacked a clear overview of projects, responsibilities, and progress.

This led the team to develop a solution that operates across the entire administration and connects different departments. One principle has guided comuneo’s development from the beginning and continues to do so today: close collaboration with the people who will ultimately use the solution and who make major decisions every day under tight resource constraints.

Three Perspectives, One Shared Mission

comuneo was founded by a team with very different professional backgrounds—from strategy consulting and financial management to IT and product development. Co-founders Silke Sommer and Dr. Katharina von Stauffenberg met through the incubator program of the REACH Euregio Startup Center in Münster. While comuneo was looking to expand its team, Silke herself was searching for a founding team—a match that ultimately came together.

Co-founder Guy Malachi was already active in Münster’s startup ecosystem and joined the team through this network. What unites them is not only their expertise, but a shared ambition: to build solutions that truly create impact. As Silke Sommer puts it:

We bring together different perspectives that complement each other perfectly—but what really connects us is the shared drive to create real impact, not just talk about it.

Silke Sommer, Co-Founder of comuneo

This combination of experience, motivation, and collaboration continues to form the foundation of the company.

In recent months, comuneo has made significant progress. The company successfully completed a funding round and expanded its team considerably. What started as a founding team of three has grown into a company of seven people that continues to develop its solution and acquire new customers.

New features are designed to further support data-driven decision-making and make the impact of measures even more transparent. As the team grows, the focus now shifts increasingly toward scaling the solution and strengthening partnerships to create value for additional municipalities, cities, and districts.

Visibility, Networks, and the Long Road Ahead

An important step along this journey was the team’s participation in the accelerator program of Digital Hub münsterLAND last year. At a key stage of growth, the team actively sought exchange, sparring, and access to a strong network.

The program enabled new connections with companies, public administrations, and partners—and provided a platform to increase the visibility of their solution. comuneo regularly participates in events and conferences—not only to present their product, but to engage in meaningful dialogue, share ideas, and build networks that lead to long-term collaborations.

The team has also gained recognition on larger stages: comuneo was selected among the top three at the OUT OF THE BOX.NRW Award as the only GovTech startup, won the startup competition at the Festival of Young Business in Münster, and showcased its work at major events such as the Innovationskongress NRW and the Future Tech Fest. Most recently, the team presented its latest developments on stage at the TECH.LAND Accelerator Demoday.

The path of a startup is rarely linear. Behind every presentation, every new customer, and every product development lies a great deal of work, patience, and perseverance. For founder Silke Sommer, this is one of the most important learnings of the past years:

From the outside, success often looks easy—but anyone who starts a company knows: it’s less a straight path and more a constant process of navigating. And that’s exactly what makes it worthwhile.

Silke Sommer, Co-Founder of comuneo

For comuneo, one thing is clear: the public sector plays a key role in addressing the major societal challenges of our time. With their platform, the founders aim to help public administrations remain capable of action and to fulfill their responsibilities efficiently and with a clear focus on impact—today and in the future.