Over €50 Million for Hamburg’s Innovative Deep Tech Start-UpsHamburg wins startup competition of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy

10 July 2025, by Newsroom editorial office

Photo: BMWE / Dominik Butzmann

The Impossible Founders team with Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Katherina Reiche

Germany needs more spin-offs from science to be able to stay competitive in the global economy. Promoting innovation and start-ups is thus a key federal objective. Hamburg has been selected as 1 of 10 locations in the EXIST Startup Factories competition of the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy and will receive up to €10 million to build efficient structures for promoting local startups.

A further €40 million are available from Hamburg foundations and companies contributing to the unique collaborative grant application together with the city’s universities and research institutions and the metropolitan region. On behalf of the Senate, the initiative is particularly supported by Melanie Leonhardt, economy and innovation senator, and Maryam Blumenthal, science, research and equality senator.

“I am delighted and proud that Universität Hamburg—University of Excellence with its strategic focus on twin transformation is our partner in this metropolitan initiative. Together with our partners in academia, industry, and society in Hamburg and the entire metropolitan region, we will strengthen the start-up culture of deep tech and sustainable technologies and foster knowledge transfer from science to industry and society,” says Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren, president of the University of Hamburg.

Hamburg’s Startup Factory Impossible Founders will specifically promote innovative deep tech spin-offs from science that focus on green technologies and the development of new materials in conjunction with AI and data science. It will officially take up its work on 1 October 2025, initially in the Digital Hub Hamburg located in the Speicherstadt.

As a leading center for science, scholarship, and business location, Hamburg can continue to build on recent successes: At the end of May, the University of Hamburg and the Hamburg University of Technology were awarded funding for cutting-edge research in a total of 5 clusters of excellence within the Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments. The Startup Factory is another important building block to ensure Hamburg’s innovative and economic viability.

“Deep tech research in Hamburg is leading the way internationally. Startups in the field will be at the forefront of this development, and I know they will have enormous global potential. Determined to fully mine this potential, we have established an impressive alliance of Hamburg partners.” I consider our success in the competition a motivation boost. I can’t wait—and everyone in Hamburg will strive to do their best,” says Dr. Arik Willner, designated managing director of Impossible Founders. Willner will take up office as managing director on 1 November 2025.

The new alliance aims to make a significant contribution to transforming Hamburg’s economy into a more competitive business community with a stronger focus on technology. A growing number of science-based startups are to turn the Hamburg Metropolitan Region into a leading hub for deep tech spin-offs in Germany.

The Hamburg Startup Factory is responsible for teaching students and researchers business in tried-and-tested international entrepreneurship education programs;

• support innovative, growth-oriented spin-offs across all stages of business development;
• support start-up-friendly—meaning fast and affordable—solutions to protect intellectual property rights, the so-called IP transfer;
• establish links to research-intensive industries with a focus on green technology solutions, ranging from aviation and logistics to energy and chemicals, and life sciences; and
• support the search for investors and provide startup teams access to research infrastructure.

The Startup Factory solves a major problem of deep-tech spin-offs

Startups with a tech focus face numerous risks after they are founded, generally have greater need for capital than other startups, and need to adapt their business models to changing social and economic conditions. Support structures in Germany, however, are rather weak. While there are good funding programs for basic research, there is little support for the risky phase of product development, prototyping, and scaling right before or during market entry.

That’s when the Hamburg Startup Factory Impossible Founders steps in now, providing a support structure for newly founded companies across all phases.

The Joachim Herz Foundation and the Michael Otto Foundation, both supporting spin-offs from science in Hamburg, take an active role in financing the project. Corporate support comes from the Hamburger Sparkasse, the semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia, and the Otto Group—all granting substantial funding.