International high-impact startups honoured with the 2021 Future Hamburg Award

Hamburg is one of the few European cities to have its own startup award. With the Future Hamburg Award, the second largest city in Germany honours sustainable innovations in the fields of mobility, logistics and hydrogen.

The following startups will be able to advance their business model with the support of the Future Hamburg Award:

1st place: Breeze Technologies, Germany

Established in 2017 and based in Hamburg and Copenhagen, Breeze Technologies is already a technology leader in the area of air quality sensors, data and analysis. The sensors developed by Breeze allow for real-time, area-wide air quality monitoring, whether on business premises or in urban environments. The Breeze Environmental Analytics Cloud collects real-time data from Breeze’s own air quality sensors and enriches these with information from external data sources. This technology helps managers, environmental scientists and city administrators understand their local air quality and identify ways of improving it. With their AI-generated decision-making tools for air pollution control measures, Breeze Technologies plays a decisive role in reducing CO2 emissions.

To honour the team’s innovative strength, entrepreneurial mindset and the willingness to collaborate, Breeze Technologies has been awarded the first prize of the Future Hamburg Award. As the first-place startup, Breeze Technologies will be able to take part in an international four-week accelerator programme hosted by Plug and Play in Silicon Valley in addition to the support programme in Hamburg.

2nd place: traceless materials, Germany

Traceless materials, a bio-economy startup, has created a holistic, eco-friendly alternative to plastic. The highly innovative technology developed by traceless now makes it possible to use by-products of the agricultural industry to produce storage-stable films, solid materials and wafer-thin coatings that are fully compostable. Founded in Hamburg in 2020 by two female entrepreneurs, traceless managed to secure a single-digit million investment in its first round of financing. Still in its early stage, traceless is currently preparing to enter the larger market. The Future Hamburg Award is proud to support this challenging and exciting journey towards market maturity.

3rd place: Infinite Mobility, Norway

Founded in 2020, Infinite Mobility specialises in developing lightweight, solar-powered vehicles for urban mobility, offering innovative solutions for short inner-city journeys. The company is committed to supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals – poverty alleviation, climate action as well as sustainable cities and communities in particular – by ensuring that their solar-powered tuk-tuks are not only cost-effective, but also safe and space-efficient.

Precisely because Infinite Mobility is still in an early seed phase, the Future Hamburg Award will be glad to support the company in taking its vision to the next stage. Being the host to the ITS World Congress for Intelligent Transport Systems in October 2021, the City of Hamburg is certainly a fitting location for advancing this project.

Huge value of the programme

Last year, the winners were Heptasense from Portugal as well as LignoPure from Germany – who recently secured seed funding to the tune of over 2 million euro. According to Joana Gil, CEO of LignoPure, this was also thanks to the startup’s participation in the Future Hamburg Award: “As one of the winners of the competition, we had the unique opportunity to present our business to important investors, and we have been able to build a broad network since. It really pays off to take part because the visibility the award gives you in the international startup ecosystem is more valuable than any cash prize.”

Hamburg is one of the few European cities to have its own startup award. With the Future Hamburg Award, the city honours sustainable innovations in the fields of mobility, logistics and hydrogen. The award aims to help new enterprises test their innovative business projects in an urban ecosystem – projects that have the potential to become best-practice models and thus generate additional positive impact. With its international layout, Hamburg's new startup award also serves as a bridgehead between Europe, the United States and other pioneering regions worldwide. The award winners will be able to advance their projects in Silicon Valley and in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region and benefit from Hamburg's excellent connections to key global markets.

At the digital awards ceremony, which was held at the International Innovation Day by Plug and Play Hamburg, the finalists presented themselves in front of an international expert jury, leading figures from the startup community as well as stakeholders from politics and established companies. As host to the 2021 ITS World Congress, Hamburg has become an international centre for innovative mobility solutions. In addition, the Hamburg Metropolitan Region is presenting itself as a forward-looking location for green hydrogen in the heart of Europe as it showcases pioneering projects along the entire value chain of green hydrogen. Hamburg is Northern Europe’s number one trading hub and the second-largest city in Germany, and with a population 1.8 million it is an ideal location for exploring fresh ideas and tapping new markets. Taking place for the second time since 2019, the Future Hamburg Award is bestowed by Hamburg Marketing GmbH on behalf of the City of Hamburg.

To learn more about the Future Hamburg Award, please visit https://future.hamburg/future-hamburg-award.

Picture: Hamburg Marketing / Stefan Groenveld