With established players like Jimdo, Xing and AboutYou leading the pack, it offers budding entrepreneurs a close knit community, networking opportunities and incubators for scaling their ventures. Gaming startups are in good company too, with Hamburg being home to gaming  giants like Goodgame Studios, Bigpoint, Gamigo and InnoGames.

But that’s not all. In recent years, Hamburg’s startup scene has diversified and grown across verticals. Whether it’s renting a car or motorbike within minutes, or pushing the envelope for sustainable food practices — Here are six exciting Hamburg startups to watch out for in 2021.

Happycar.de

Booked a holiday and now all you need is a car to explore, but worried about paying tourist prices and unreliable car rentals? Happycar solves this exact issue. Founded in 2013 by XX , Happycar is a price comparison aggregator for car rental services across several cities in Europe and the US. By cooperating with reputable partners, Happycar provides a worldwide network of over 400,000 locations with the best deals for car rentals. Users can also buy insurance, book the cars and browse different locations via their website.

Frischepost

With Frischepost, enjoy local food and produce directly from the farms, at your doorstep. Founded in 2015 by Eva Neugebauer and Juliane Willing, the company is dedicated to transparency and fair pay in the food supply chain. Additionally, they offer details about the origin and manufacturing of every product on their website. Not only is the produce fresh from the farm, but Frischepost also eliminates the need for intermediaries like supermarkets and wholesalers, mutually benefiting the farmer and the end consumer. Their network includes local farmers, bakers, butchers and other small local businesses. After a recent series A funding round, Frischepost has been looking at expanding across various cities in Germany. So far, their services are available in Hamburg, Berlin, Rhein-Main, Munich and Cologne. 

Lycka

As we move towards more sustainable consumption and nutrition choices, Lycka paves the way. Founded by Felix Leonhardt, under the parent company Purefoods GmbH, Lycka’s mission is to make food that can do more than just being tasty. Their vegan friendly product range includes different flavours of granola, chia bowls, ice creams and pizzas. What sets them apart is that, as part of a co-operation with Welthungerhilfe, a portion of their sales go towards providing nutritious school meals for students in Malawi, Burundi and Mali. So far, they have contributed to 3,477,054 school meals. As a part of the Purefood group, Lycka’s buddies are Stark and Teatox.  And the best bit? Their products are also available on Frischepost! We’re cheering on this socially conscious collab.

Bringoo

They bring it and they bring it well. We’re all aware of the hottest vertical in recent times: quick commerce or on-demand delivery for groceries. With players popping up by the day and offering lightning fast deliveries, the vertical has also been criticised with regards to fair wage, unfair working conditions and the race to fulfill the delivery promises while burning lots of capital. But Hamburg-based Bringoo embarked on a different route. Founded in 2019 by Hasib Khan, Bringoo is a tech-driven, hybrid platform that relies on an optimised logistics business model with local merchants who do the deliveries. Another aspect that sets them apart is the lack of an asset-heavy approach that requires a flight of riders, heavy cashflow and setting up warehouses, a model that many other on-demand grocery players have chosen.

Motourismo

Does your perfect holiday include off-roading adventures on a motorbike? Whether it’s Asia’s diverse terrain or the American biker’s favourite Route 66, Motourismo takes your motorbiking trips to the next level. Founded in 2016 by Michael Carlin and Christoph Kähler, Motourismo is an all-inclusive portal where users can compare and book motorbike rentals or ship their own motorbikes across continents. The website also offers different terrains for bikers to explore, along with guided tours and training. This startup recently raised an additional funding of €1 million and are looking forward to the upcoming travel boom. 

Rockfish games GmbH

If you’re into gaming like us, Everspace 2 might have already piqued your interest. And for all the right reasons: 2020 was a shaky year for RPGs (if you know, you know) until Rockfish games announced an early access for Everspace 2 in 2021. Rockfish Games GmbH is an independent gaming studio founded by industry pros Michael Schade and Christian Lohr in 2015. Since then, their first game Everspace has sold over two million copies on PC and consoles. After a warm welcome for Everspace 2’s early access version, this small but solid team of developers has been making changes to deliver a seamless gameplay for the final launch. 

If you’re looking to join the ranks of Germany’s most exciting startups, get in touch with our growth experts at hello@dcmn.com