Scaleup Hamburg is expanding its range of innovation services for businesses

Hamburg’s competitiveness as a business location depends largely on the innovative strength of its companies. Small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular, make a significant contribution to the city’s economic strength through their capacity for innovation, their value creation and the jobs they provide. At the same time, many companies are facing far-reaching changes. Digitalisation, artificial intelligence, skills shortages, rising demands for sustainability, secure supply chains and increasingly international competition all call for new solutions and the ability to put innovations into practice more quickly.

Dr Melanie Leonhard, Senator for Economic Affairs, Labour and Innovation: “The ability to successfully put innovations into practice is increasingly decisive for the competitiveness of companies and business locations. Small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular, often lack their own innovation departments or international networks. This makes initiatives that facilitate access to new technologies, knowledge and strong partners all the more important. Scaleup Hamburg strengthens the innovative capacity of our businesses and, in doing so, the future viability of Hamburg as a business location.”

With Scaleup Hamburg, Hamburg Invest established a range of services last year designed specifically to help Hamburg’s small and medium-sized enterprises make better use of their innovation potential, adopt new technologies more quickly and successfully tackle specific future challenges. As well as publishing information on innovation needs, Hamburg-based companies are given access to further support services. These include content and event recommendations designed to help companies build their own capabilities in innovation acquisition and networking with one another, as well as an overview of Hamburg-based service providers specialising in innovation consultancy.

With this new initiative, Hamburg Invest is further developing its economic development activities: moving from traditional support for business establishment, growth and land development towards targeted support for innovation projects. Dr Rolf Strittmatter, Managing Director of Hamburg Invest: “Today, business development means more than simply attracting new companies to the city. It also means supporting local businesses in securing their long-term competitiveness. Our platform provides the ideal framework for this: companies facing similar challenges can network, exchange experiences and work together on innovations – regardless of sector or company size. This leads to practical solutions that benefit all those involved.”

During a pilot phase, the first Hamburg-based companies used the service to drive forward specific innovation projects. The topics ranged from reducing food waste and sustainable packaging solutions to the use of artificial intelligence and new security solutions. Experience shows that innovation projects often fail not because of a lack of ideas, but because of a lack of access to suitable technologies, partners and networks.

Here’s how companies can use Scaleup Hamburg

1. Publish a challenge
With support from Scaleup Hamburg, companies define their innovation needs. Scaleup Hamburg publicises these and connects them with suitable start-ups and solution providers.

2. Strengthen innovation capabilities
Practical content, methodological expertise and process support help companies to successfully prepare and implement innovation projects.

3. Find suitable partners
Events and the service marketplace foster exchange with companies, experts and innovation service providers, and open up access to Hamburg’s innovation network.

Interested companies can find out more at https://scaleup-hamburg.com to get in touch with the team directly.