Finalists of Future Hamburg Awards 2021 announced

The shortlisted companies from Germany, Scandinavia, Belgium and France impressed with their innovative strength and creativity, unique business models and great growth potential. Start-ups from a total of 15 countries including China, India, the United States and Britain had submitted their entries for the award. An international jury will select three of ten finalists to be invited by the Startup-Unit Hamburg to a customized three-day scheme in the city. The first-prize winner scoops a four-week stint in the international accelerator programme run by Plug and Play in Silicon Valley.

"We want to help founders test their innovative business projects in our urban ecosystem and benefit from our networks via the Future Hamburg Award," said Dr Rolf Strittmatter, Managing Director of Hamburg Marketing GmbH and Hamburg Invest. "The finalists impressed with their innovative strength, creativity and sustainability. We are very excited about the jury's decisions and look forward to welcoming the three strongest teams to Hamburg." This year's finalists impressed with business concepts ranging from measures to improve air quality in cities and developing sustainable plastics to mobility and digitalization solutions.

The Breeze Technologies and Everimpact start-ups fight pollution in cities. Breeze Technologies provides data on the quality of the local air and AI-based, decision-making tools for keeping the air clean. The French start-up, Everimpact, uses Internet of Things (IoT) software to help cities and ports track their carbon footprint in real time, certify their emissions reductions and generate revenue from their carbon reduction projects. The sustainable plastics sector includes German companies Cirplus, Papair and Traceless Materials. Cirplus sees itself as a managed marketplace for the plastics recycling industry and offers procurement as a service. Papair, on the other hand, develops innovative technologies for producing sustainable packaging materials such as paper bubble wrap that combines cost efficiency, cushioning and sustainability. The Traceless Materials bioeconomy start-up offers a holistic, sustainable alternative to conventional plastics.

The Berlin-based start-up Horizer, Norway's Infinite Mobility and Denmark's Skipit are all working on new, environment-friendly transport solutions. Horizer offers an all-in-one solar mobility solution in which flexible, ultra-thin solar films are attached to the vehicle's roof and connected to the battery. Infinite Mobility is developing lightweight, solar-powered vehicles suitable for urban mobility while Skipit offers a digital platform for more sustainable travel. Other finalists including Geckomatics from Belgium and Germany’s Natix are aiming for smarter cities. Geckomatics builds mobile mapping systems based on machine learning and creates digital twins of public spaces. Natix makes cameras intelligent and relies on decentralized data processing for video analyses of urban space.

The winners of the Future Hamburg Award will be announced on June 10, 2021 during the "International Innovation Day powered by Plug and Play Hamburg". The City of Hamburg is presenting the second Future Hamburg Award via Hamburg Marketing GmbH. The Hamburg-based start-up Lignopure (see photo) start-up won the first Future Hamburg Award in 2019.
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