Startup Port and beyourpilot, two of the leading startup initiatives in the Hamburg metropolitan region, are joining forces under the name Startup Port. With combined forces and networks, they now offer a cross-institutional contact point for prospective founders. The cooperation of ten renowned universities and research institutions strengthens the start-up ecosystem and ensures comprehensive support from the idea to market entry.
The two major joint projects for supporting start-ups from the university and science landscape – “beyourpilot” and “Startup Port” – will cooperate from 4 July 2023 under the name Startup Port in order to jointly promote and support the start-ups of students and researchers in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region even better and more effectively in the future. In doing so, beyourpilot will say goodbye to its own brand name, but will remain true to the structures, networks and founders it has built up to date: under the large brand name Startup Port, the two projects will combine their own strengths and competencies in order to be able to provide all-round support to growing start-ups from Hamburg universities. Interested start-ups from the university sector and research will find central access to all support units of the participating institutions in the expanded Startup Port.
In order to make it easier for start-ups and those interested in founding in the future, there will then be only one brand instead of two, which stands for a cross-institutional contact point for start-up support. Potential founders can continue to count on the advisory services of the joint project formerly known as beyourpilot, as well as on the networking activities and funding formats of Startup Port. As one of the largest start-up-supporting university associations in Germany, Startup Port will then bundle the advisory and funding activities of ten universities and research institutions from the Hamburg metropolitan region under a common brand. The centralisation represents a further step towards effective networking of the actors in Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein to strengthen the start-up ecosystem in the metropolitan region.
The first highlight of the intensified cooperation will be the Startup Port Community Day on 4 July 2023: The event will bring together the entrepreneurship community of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region at HAW Hamburg’s Forum Finkenau. Framed by inspiring pitches, interesting field reports and exciting discussions, there will be plenty of opportunity for networking with cool drinks and snacks. More information on the event and the opportunity to register can be found on the Startup Port website.
Joint statement by the leaders Tatjana Timoschenko and Sebastian Bartosch:
“We are very proud that we have joined forces to form one of the largest start-up-supporting university networks in Germany! Through the close cooperation of so many institutions, we can offer our founders a more comprehensive network, more services and broader expertise. The aim is to provide seamless support in the early entrepreneurial phase, from the innovative idea to market entry. Scientific findings are thus increasingly transferred to the regional economy and ultimately made useful for society.”
Composition of the network:
Partners are the German Electron Synchrotron DESY, the University of Applied Sciences Wedel, the Hamburg Media School (HMS), the Helmholtz Centre Hereon, the Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Federal Armed Forces, the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg), the Leuphana University Lüneburg, the Technical University Hamburg (TUHH), the University of Hamburg (UHH) and the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf.
The network is funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) as part of the programme “EXIST- Potentiale – Gründungskultur mit dem Schwerpunkt ‘Regional vernetzen'”, by the Ministry of Economics and Innovation of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (BWI) and the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK) under the auspices of the Technical University of Hamburg in cooperation with Hamburg Innovation GmbH.
Startup Port
Harburger Schloßstr. 6-12
21079 Hamburg
+49 40 76629 -3144
