People with a migration background are playing an increasingly important role in the German startup ecosystem. According to the Migrant Founders Monitor 2025, 17% of founders were born abroad, and the figure rises to 23% for billion-evaluated unicorns. They are often better educated than average, strong-willed and ready to take risks, but they also have a particularly large number of challenges to overcome. With a new service page, Startup City Hamburg now offers them comprehensive information and support.
The site is developed in consultation with founders and partners
In Hamburg, there are a number of institutions and organisations that provide advice and support to international founders. Startup City Hamburg and the Startup Unit of Hamburg Invest have joined forces to bundle all relevant information on the topic and have also gathered feedback from founders and relevant partners and institutions in a workshop. Based on this, a landing page has been created to serve as a guide through the ecosystem. The content includes an article on the three biggest challenges and checklists with the most important steps for starting a business.
The list of contact points offering all kinds of support is particularly extensive. It is divided into the categories ‘Funding & accelerators’, ‘Supporting organisations’ and ‘Network & community’, supplemented by sections on what universities have to offer and on integration and language courses.
In the coming months, the information available on the landing page will be continuously expanded and supplemented by accompanying editorial articles, always in consultation with the relevant stakeholders.
Challenges for international founders
Bureaucracy? Visa? Housing ? What are the main challenges that immigrant startup founders face? The 2hearts community got together to chat about this at the Hamburg Innovation Summit 2025. Here are the highlights!
How international founders succeed in the startup scene
60 per cent of Unicorn startups have at least one person with a migration background on their founding team. We spoke to Elnura Ashimova and Noah Raissi about the challenges and solutions.
