The Future Hamburg Award 2023

Future Hamburg Award 2023 for international startups

Cities all over the world are facing similar challenges, and all areas of our everyday urban lives are affected by change. The economy, society, the climate - everything is influenced by technological progress. But how can we ensure that our cities remain liveable? And what could sustainable urban living look like?

The city of the future is a community affair. That is why Hamburg wants to collaborate with some of the best startups worldwide.

The aim is to find solutions for an economically strong, liveable and sustainable city .

The Future Hamburg Award honours forward-looking startups that help make cities more liveable, while at the same time contributing to the economy and society in metropolitan regions.

How does the Future Hamburg Award work?

In spring 2023, we invited startups aged 2 to 4 years who were working on new solutions in the areas of greentech, mobility or logistics, to submit their applications.

A high-calibre jury reviewed and evaluated the applications received from 28 countries.

Prizes were awarded to help the selected startups on their path of success. The first prize was a one-month stay in Silicon Valley including participation in the accelerator programme of our partner Plug and Play Tech Center. Other prizes included pitch training from top-class trainers, as well as a coaching and a mentoring programme.

The Future Hamburg Award ceremony took place on 5 October 2023 at Plug and Play EXPLORE 2024 at the Factory Hammerbrooklyn in Hamburg.

The three winning startups greatly impressed the jury and were honoured with the Future Hamburg Award 2023.

The winners of the award in 2023

1. Gewinner des Future Hamburg Awards: Colipi — © Hamburg Marketing GmbH / Markus Jäger

1. Colipi (Germany)

Colipi is a biotech company that converts renewable carbon from organic by-products and carbon dioxide into microbial Climate Oil™ -
a sustainable alternative to palm oil that can be used in a variety of applications, from cosmetics production to the manufacture of bioplastics. The raw material produced by Colipi has a minimal carbon footprint and very low environmental impact, supporting the industry on its path to climate neutrality.

2. Gewinner des Future Hamburg Awards: Make My Day — © Hamburg Marketing GmbH

2. Make My Day (Israel)

Electrification is a key building block for a sustainable future for cities and companies. With its intelligent mobility solutions, Make My Day supports companies, fleets and leading car manufacturers in the transition to environmentally friendly electric vehicles. In addition to tools for fleet management and optimised route planning, the product portfolio also includes an app for predicting battery consumption. Make My Day is thus shaping urban mobility concepts of the future.

3. Gewinner des Future Hamburg Awards: Arabat — © Plug & Play Tech Center

3. AraBat (Italy)

The recycling and sustainable management of waste, especially electronic waste, is one of the key challenges facing industry today. Against this backdrop, the technology company AraBat develops innovative processes for recycling hazardous waste - with the aim of recovering metals from batteries, e.g. by utilising waste from the agricultural and food industries and marketing the secondary raw materials obtained. With its unique approach, the AraBat team aims to help companies produce resource-efficiently, while also supporting the circular economy.

Text an Fassade: Plug and Play — © Hamburg Marketing GmbH

Our partner

Great ideas thrive better with great partners - which is why the Plug and Play Tech Center, the renowned international innovation platform with a network of more than 60,000 startups and 500 companies, was the main partner of the Future Hamburg Award 2023.

Future Hamburg Award 2023 — © Hamburg Marketing GmbH

Our jury

A high-calibre panel of leading experts from the fields of change management, mobility, logistics, greentech and innovation reviewed all submissions and finally selected the three winners.

We would like to thank all the startups that applied in 2023,
and our jury, who supported us in the selection process
with their expertise.

What is the Future Hamburg Award?

Every two years since 2019, Hamburg honours sustainable innovations in the fields of mobility, logistics and greentech with the Future Hamburg Award. The award is intended to support founders in testing their innovative business projects in an urban ecosystem - projects that have the potential to become best practice models and thus generate additional positive impact.

The three pioneering companies for the city of the future will be invited to a tailor-made programme by the Hamburg Startup Unit to further develop their business model or products as part of the Reallabor Hamburg project. Moreover, they receive support in building a high-quality industry network and establishing contacts with investors. With its international focus, Hamburg's startup award also serves as a bridgehead between Europe, the United States and other innovative word regions.

For any questions, requests or suggestions, please feel free to e-mail award@future.hamburg.