The eleventh edition of the Hamburg Innovation Summit (HHIS) reaffirmed its status as the most important event of its kind in the Hanseatic city. Around 2,200 visitors had gathered in the Oberhafen quarter to learn about the wide variety of the innovation landscape. The event culminated in the presentation of the Hamburg Innovation Awards by Dr Carsten Brosda, Senator for Culture.
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June 19, 2026
visflo, Aortex and ReductStore win Hamburg Innovation Awards
Opening talk with Lars Reger (NXP), Robert Axmann (DLR), Senator Dr Melanie Leonhard and moderator Martina Offeh about quantum computing. © Mathias Jäger / Hamburg Startups
Innovation has many facets
The HHIS did not limit the term ‘innovation’ to purely scientific or technological developments. Cultural topics and, more prominent than ever before, social entrepreneurship were also featured. The opening session with Senator for Economic Affairs Dr Melanie Leonhard focused on a field of research in which Hamburg is a world leader: quantum computing. This presents a major opportunity to transform a leading role in science to an economic level as well. Medicine is another field in which Hamburg can point to numerous promising innovations. Startups play a key role in this, such as PROVIREX, which is developing a treatment for HIV.
Dr Sanaz Bahari Javan, founder of VitaSeq. © Mathias Jäger / Hamburg Startups
Strong presence of startups at the Hamburg Innovation Summit
Startups were strongly represented throughout the HHIS, at several exhibitions across the eight event areas and on five stages. The Startup Area was even completely dedicated to them. Startup City Hamburg, IFB Innovationsstarter and the Hamburg Investors Network (HIN) shared a joint stand there. The programme included a pitch that put three female founders in the spotlight. Yelda Nur Demirdöğen from exaere presented a process for recycling rare earths, with which she had won the Female StartAperitivo competition a week earlier. Anusha Akkina from Aurelytix had also competed there with her AI solution for corporate financial management. At the Summit, Dr Sanaz Bahari Javan made the biggest impression on the jury. With VitaSeq, she aims to detect Alzheimer’s before the as yet incurable disease manifests itself.
The jury of the Hamburg Innovation Awards. © Mathias Jäger / Hamburg Startups
Medical topics dominate the Hamburg Innovation Awards
The closing highlight was the final of the Hamburg Innovation Awards startup competition. Over 80 entries had been received, with three young companies in three categories qualifying for the decisive pitch. The ‘Ideation’ category recognises startups that are still in their early stages. SYMS Biodynamics offers personalised gait analysis using artificial intelligence. Lunar converts information available only in visual form – such as bus timetables – into text spoken by AI for visually impaired and blind people. visflo received the highest score from a panel of experts for a method that determines stress levels by analysing sweat for cortisol content and displays the results in real time via an app.
The winners of the Hamburg Innovation Awards 2026: Nidhi Mote (visflo) & Kamila Kanatbay, Maximilian Dunker (Aortex) and Anthony Cavin (ReductStore). © Mathias Jäger/Hamburg Startups
A medical topic also came out on top in the ‘Start’ category for more advanced startups. First place here went to the multi-award-winning Aortex for an innovative stent graft that makes the treatment of aortic aneurysms simpler and safer and can thus save many lives. Also qualified were Universal Carbon, which captures CO₂ from the air, and hackers&wizards, which helps companies with their AI transformation. In the ‘International’ category, there were two winners: first place went to ReductStore for a solution to manage large volumes of data from robotics and industrial production. This startup will represent Hamburg at the International Founders Summit in Frankfurt in September, as will GravNav, which enables precise navigation of ships using gravitational features. Kolsetu, with its AI voice assistant Elba, rounded off the line-up in the category honouring founders with an international background.
