Nordic Startup Challenge: Your smart access to Hamburg's industry
Welcome to the Nordic Startup Challenge!
From March 24 to 26, the Handelskammer Hamburg once again hosted the Nordic Startup Challenge, welcoming 10 outstanding startups from 10 Northern European countries.
Over the course of three intensive days, the startups participated in a tailor-made program designed to provide them with valuable insights, connections, and opportunities within Hamburg’s thriving innovation and startup ecosystem. The participating startups engaged in expert-led workshops, networking sessions, and exclusive company visits, all aimed at helping them explore the potential of Hamburg as a launchpad for their international expansion. Key focus areas this year were circular economy and new materials, highlighting Hamburg’s strengths in these industries, including its vibrant research institutions, strategic business partners, and engaged communities.
The grand finale of the challenge took place at the Handelskammer’s Forum, where each startup had the opportunity to pitch in front of an audience of investors, industry experts, and ecosystem leaders. The event showcased the diversity, creativity, and innovative potential of the startups, emphasizing how Hamburg can serve as a gateway for groundbreaking ideas.
Recognizing Excellence: The Winners
The first prize was awarded to TEGnology ApS from Denmark, whose groundbreaking technology harnesses temperature differences to generate energy, offering immense potential for Hamburg’s industrial and energy sectors. Additionally, a special award was given to Catalyco from Latvia, recognizing their innovative catalytic technology for more sustainable production processes.
Looking Ahead
The Nordic Startup Challenge 2025 has once again proven that Hamburg is a prime destination for international startups looking to grow and scale their businesses. With a strong innovation network, strategic location, and a welcoming entrepreneurial ecosystem, the city continues to attract forward-thinking companies that will shape the future of their industries.
We look forward to the next edition and can’t wait to see what’s in store for the startups that joined us this year!
2025 Competitors
BioHifas, Lithuania
Bloom Biotech, Belgium
Biohifas is a biotechnology company specializing in fungal fermentation to upcycle food industry sidestreams, such as breadcrumbs, brewer’s spent grains, and potato pomace, into high-value protein ingredients. Our innovative approach reduces food waste while providing sustainable, scalable, and nutrient-rich alternatives for food manufacturers. By leveraging modular fermentation technology, we enable efficient and cost-effective production with minimal infrastructure upgrades. Biohifas is committed to driving the circular economy and shaping the future of alternative proteins.
Bloom Biotech is developing sustainable & carbon-negative microalgae-based textiles, the fabrics of the future. Our materials are produced using our soon-to-be proprietary bioprinting technology, transforming naturally produced microalgae biopolymers into fabric-like materials, in a plastic- & solvent-free way. Our aim is to revolutionize textile production, leading as a B2B supplier of microalgae-based textiles, by offering a safer and less impactful alternative to plastic-derived products.
Fibu AB is pioneering a sustainable alternative to fossil-based foams with its innovative, patented wood fiber foam. Targeting diverse applications such as packaging, insulation, and acoustics, this biodegradable and recyclable material has substantial demand in markets where eco-friendly solutions are essential. With significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions (60-90% less than conventional plastics), excellent absorbent properties, high acoustic dampening, and anti-static features, Fibu's foam is a price-competitive, eco-friendly alternative to fossil-based foams.
Moree's smart reusable packaging helps food brands quit waste and save money. Food brands are under increasing pressure from governments, consumers and rising prices to stop using wasteful single-use packaging, but have no viable solution for reusables. Moree's solution combines our patent-pending flexible reusable packaging with our SaaS platform for tracking packaging and its usage history and environmental savings data.
Catalyco is revolutionizing the local supply chain for sustainable ZnO and CuO by effectively recovering these materials from industrial waste streams. With the EU currently dependent on 40% imported ZnO, we are determined to replace these imports with locally sourced, sustainable alternatives.
KiriCore Sustainable Materials is a young company that develops and offers a sustainable core material for composite materials. Our KiriCore Sustainable Material is an alternative to hydrocarbon-based foams and balsa wood currently used in the production of wind turbine rotor blades. Hydrocarbon-based foams and balsa wood create a dependency on critical raw materials in the renewable energy sector. Our sustainable material KiriCore is based on Kiri wood, which grows in Europe. Kiri wood meets the requirements placed on core materials for composites and is also more economical.
100% natural, compostable, highly protective and aesthetically beautiful packaging material to substitute single-use plastics. RAIKU is a cleantech company that has developed a breakthrough 100% natural packaging material. We've won multiple international awards, raised €1.1M from investors, and secured €8.8M in support from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator. RAIKU is recognised as a strategic technology in the fight against packaging pollution.
TEGnology is a cutting-edge Danish company that specializes in thermoelectric technology, with a core focus on providing autonomous power supply solutions and sensor systems based on thermal energy harvesting. By converting waste heat into electricity using advanced thermoelectric materials, TEGnology enables sustainable, self-powered sensor systems that operate independently of external power sources. These solutions are ideal for remote monitoring and industrial applications where conventional power options are limited or unavailable.
We are a spinoff company from Aalto University, Finland. Our product is an onsite vacuum dryable wood construction module with dynamic insulation feature for extreme lifecycle, sustainability, energy efficiency and functionality in any climate on Earth. The beacheed market for us is warehouse-like buildings for moist environments (indoor / outdoor) but in the future we aim to offer our modular construction technology for residential and office buildings as well.
Woolero is a circular startup from Norway, aiming to replace traditional petroleum-based plastics with an innovative natural material derived from surplus sheep wool.
