Announcements of financing rounds show how startups can convince with their business models and get on track for growth. 2025 was not an easy year for young companies in Hamburg, but some of them managed to secure remarkable investments. Find out which ones in this article.
January: 7 million euros for Flowfox
Flowfox had a particularly promising start to 2025. In mid-January, it announced a 7 million euros financing round, continuing its string of successes. Flowfox had already secured a seven-figure investment in 2023, and in 2024 a pilot project with the shipping company Hapag-Lloyd and the logistics company Kühne+Nagel further advanced the startup. Founded in Hamburg in 2019, it has built up an automation platform for container imports here and has already gained customers worldwide.
March: Flexvelop receives 44 million euros
Startups have various options for raising capital. They can bring investors on board and give up company shares in return, or take out traditional loans. In Flexvelop's case, it was a mixture of both, that led to a total of 44 million euros. Of this, 40 million euros came from credit lines from various refinancing partners. The remaining 4 million euros were provided by existing investors. Flexvelop has made a name for itself with leasing offers for equipment and machinery aimed at companies.
August: plancraft secures 38 million euros
One of Hamburg's biggest startup success stories in recent years is called plancraft. Founded officially in 2020, the company secured 12 million euros in a financing round in 2024, with another 38 million euros added this year. plancraft solves several problems faced by handicraft businesses: a shortage of skilled workers and time-consuming administrative and bureaucratic work. Software provides a remedy here. Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), its application is set to become even easier and more intuitive, for example through voice input.
September: 8 million euros for suena energy and 6.3 million euros for encentive
September was a good month for Hamburg-based startups, with two high-value financing rounds announced within a few days of each other. In both cases energy supply solutions are central. suena energy offers AI-supported software for optimising the trading of battery storage systems and renewable energy plants. The 8 million euros will be used to accelerate expansion into international markets. encentive has developed a software solution that enables industrial companies to flexibly control their energy consumption, reduce their electricity costs by up to 20% and significantly lower their CO2 emissions. Here, 6.3 million euros will be used to accelerate growth.
November: Sonia raises 12 million euros
The last major financing round of 2025 for a Hamburg-based startup went to Sonia. Its business idea is similar to that of plancraft, albeit designed for a completely different industry. Sonia offers AI-supported software that assists with documentation and administrative tasks in medical practices. Speech recognition is also the key element here. Until now, the focus has been on dentistry, but thanks to the 12 million euros, other medical disciplines can now also be tackled.
By the way, not every announcement of a successfully completed financing round is linked to a specific figure. In July 2025, for example, it was reported that 1KOMMA5° had expanded its pre-IPO financing round of 150 million euros, which was completed in December 2024, by an undisclosed amount. Other press releases mention seven-figure sums, the exact amount of which can only be speculated upon.
