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found📍203 new startups: is Hamburg back to pre-pandemic levels?
Hamburg’s coolest startup and tech events, delivered to your inbox every Monday.
Kyrylo Korsun
January 12, 2026
Editor’s Note
Hey, dear reader!
According to recent data, Hamburg added 203 new startups last year — just two short of reaching pre-pandemic levels. Most of this growth happened in software (no surprise, thanks to AI 🤖) and deeptech.
Overall, 2025 was a strong year for local startups. Some raised substantial rounds, while others successfully scaled beyond Europe. In the coming issues, we’ll take a closer look at these companies and the people behind them.
Data from Startup Verband & startupdetector
Speaking of the local ecosystem: I’m currently updating a Hamburg startup map I first shared a while ago. Thanks to an overwhelming amount of feedback (my first viral LinkedIn post, yay!) — and some heated debate around whether XING belongs on the map (it doesn’t), I now have a much stronger foundation to improve it and give a clearer overview of the ecosystem.
You can already check out v1 of the map, but please be kind — it’s very much a work in progress ⚒️ 😅
With that said, let’s get into this week’s issue.
P.S. In case you missed it: last week we covered the 10 most anticipated startup and tech events of 2026. Worth a look if you’re planning the year ahead ✨
Community Spotlight 🔦
This week, I want you to meet Jacqueline and Martin, co-founders of Surfacto Biotech — a deeptech startup that supplies tailored surfactants to keep tiny liquid droplets stable, enabling biotech labs to run thousands of microscopic experiments quickly and sustainably.
An interesting fact: Jacqueline came from the US to do her post-doc research at Max Planck Institute and chose Hamburg over the US to build her company, which I find quite striking, especially given the common narrative of founders leaving Europe to build in the US. Hopefully, we’ll see more stories like this.
Check out our new video to learn more about their journey building Surfacto.
Save the Date 🗓️
Want to stay updated on future events? Check out our Luma calendar.
January 21: Female AI Dinner (German/English) — Connect with women in AI over a curated dinner and walk away with new collaborations, insights into real AI applications, and actionable career-boosting conversations.
January 23: Claude Code Special (English) — Explore the practical power of Claude’s agentic coding platform with live demos and real-world workflows to boost your developer productivity in Hamburg’s growing AI coding community.
January 27: Meet the Mentor @ Hamburg Chamber of Commerce (German) — Gain tailored expert feedback on your life science startup challenges like MDR certification, DIGA strategies, AI tools, and market entry.
January 29: Code to Cure: The Future of HealthTech (English) — Explore how software engineering is actually reshaping biotech and healthcare with actionable insights at the intersection of code, longevity, and medical innovation.
Startup 101 🔨
January 16: Build Fridays (English) — Advance your product by shipping real features with peer support while networking with local builders in a focused work session.
Tech Bite 🧑💻
January 15 Vue.js Meetup (English) — Get on stage with your own Vue project or cool tool and walk away with practical insights and new connections in Hamburg’s frontend community.
January 15: Secure Coding Practices (English) — Deepen your core Java expertise by learning concrete secure coding techniques and memory-safe strategies you can apply directly in production systems.
Get Inspired ✨
January 14: Create a Vision Board: Your Startup in 2026 (German) — Clarify your startup’s direction for 2026 by turning goals into a concrete vision board that helps prioritize decisions and align daily actions with long-term outcomes.
Every Saturday: Founders Running Club (English) — Energize your weekend with fellow entrepreneurs during a judgment-free 5K run followed by coffee and meaningful networking conversations.
That’s a wrap! Thanks for staying with me on this one. Hope you found it useful :)
Before you call it a day…
Let me know what you’d like to see in the coming issues of the newsletter — simply reply to this email or hit me up on LinkedIn.
Looking for good vibes or need a companion for the upcoming issue of newsletter? Check out the official found playlist on Spotify 💿️
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See you soon,
Kyrylo from found Hamburg