In February 2026, the French scaleup Naboo announced the completion of a series B funding round worth 70 million US dollars, with Silicon Valley-based Lightspeed Venture Partners as the lead investor. This enabled the company to further drive forward its international expansion, which had led, amongst other things, to its entry into the German market in 2025. In this interview, Glenn Bialek, a founding member of Naboo Deutschland GmbH, explains why Hamburg was chosen as the location.
News
June 22, 2026
Why the French scaleup Naboo chose Hamburg
Hanna Woywod and Glenn Bialek run Naboo's Hamburg office © Naboo
Dear Glenn, to start with, could you tell us a bit about yourself and Naboo?
I’d be happy to! I’m Glenn Bialek. I’ve been working in the events industry for over ten years, specialising in event tech, and I’m a founding member and Enterprise Account Executive at Naboo Deutschland GmbH. Naboo – named after a planet from the Star Wars saga – was founded in Paris in 2022. We operate an AI-driven procurement platform for planning and booking corporate events, also known as MICE. The acronym stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences/Conventions and Exhibitions. The problem we’re solving is that MICE expenditure is traditionally regarded as one of the least controlled categories in corporate procurement. Bookings are managed in a decentralised manner, reporting is lacking, and potential savings go untapped.
We’re bringing this category under centralised control for the first time, with full cost transparency and measurable savings. We are now among the market leaders in this segment: global companies use us to manage their entire volume of meetings and events via a central platform, and we combine AI-powered software with personalised service. Naboo employs around 300 people worldwide across offices in Paris, London, Barcelona, New York, Montreal, Singapore and, of course, Hamburg.
How did the expansion into the German market come about, and how did the search for the most suitable location unfold?
In February 2025, Naboo successfully completed a Series A funding round worth 20 million euros. At the same time, we saw a significant increase in enquiries and bookings in Germany, which further accelerated the decision to expand. So we had both the funding and a clear market signal. As one of the world’s strongest economic powers, Germany was right at the top of the list; the only question was which location might be the most suitable. We focused on three factors: the structure of the companies based there, accessibility and quality of life. Initially, the options included Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and Düsseldorf.
The German team of Naboo © Jules Despretz & Naboo
What was the deciding factor in choosing Hamburg?
In Hamburg, we are closer to the companies for which we develop our solution – from SMEs and industrial firms to international corporations. This enables us to engage in very direct dialogue with the market. There are also many companies in the hospitality sector and agencies here, and Hamburg is a major centre for events and conferences. This helps us to attract new staff who come from precisely this background. Hamburg is, after all, the gateway to the world – and you can really feel it: the city thinks globally, and so do the companies here. That suits a company like Naboo, which is expanding from Paris out into the whole world. The quality of life is just as high as in Munich, but with a lower cost of living. What’s more, Hamburg is easily accessible by transport, not least in terms of further expansion in Northern Europe, which represents an important future market for us. In the end, it wasn’t really a difficult decision.
How would you rate the Hamburg startup ecosystem?
With our Hamburg team, we’re just one part of the team of over 20 people working on the German market. As part of an international company, we’re not as deeply involved in the ecosystem as startups founded here. However, we can see that Hamburg is increasingly developing into an important tech hub in Germany, particularly for B2B companies with scalable business models. The environment is geared towards sustainable growth, and that’s exactly what suits us. Incidentally, many startups and scaleups are among our clients. We’re sometimes the first to hear about a successfully completed funding round – namely when startups and scaleups approach us with a request for a company offsite. We’re naturally delighted about that.
