From idea to startup in 48 hours – that, in a nutshell, sums up the concept of a hackathon. In Hamburg, this has actually worked on several occasions in recent months, namely with FiberGuard, GravNav and Guardian Labs EU.
The winners of the first iF Sprint © Impossible Founders
FiberGuard
With the launch of iF Sprint in December 2025, the Startup Factory Impossible Founders hit the mark: no fewer than two startups emerged from this hackathon. One of them is FiberGuard, founded by Sophia Lorenz. The physicist proposed the idea of using fibre-optic technology to inspect bridges and other infrastructure-related structures, providing real-time data and detecting damage at an early stage. Since the hackathon, FiberGuard has received ongoing support from Impossible Founders and is optimistic that it will soon be able to test its solution in practice.
GravNav is similar to FiberGuard in many respects: it also has its origins in the first iF Sprint, its founder Felix Rönne is also a physicist, and Impossible Founders has played a major role in the startup’s further development. An initial small-scale field test has even already taken place here in the Port of Hamburg. GravNav is developing a reliable alternative to the fault-prone GPS-based navigation of ships. To do this, it analyses gravitational anomalies – deviations in the Earth’s gravitational pull from a theoretical normal value – which give every location a unique characteristic comparable to a fingerprint.
Winning team Guardian Labs at the AI Hackathon Hamburg
Guardian Labs EU
The story of Guardian Labs EU begins in February 2026 at the AI BEAVERS hackathon. Around 400 people from 40 countries had travelled to Hamburg for the event, including Rita Barbosa from Portugal. She is tackling a problem that primarily affects older people: fraudulent phone calls in which, for example, supposed family members ask for large sums of money to be transferred immediately. Using an app and AI, Guardian Labs aims to ensure that such calls never get through in the first place. Although emerged in Hamburg, the startup is initially focusing on the Portuguese market.
