These start-ups have a chance of winning the Future Hamburg Award

Ten European start-ups have qualified for the final of the Hamburg competition. The decision will be made on June 10.

With the Future Hamburg Award, the City of Hamburg is honoring sustainable, innovative start-ups in the fields of mobility, logistics and hydrogen for the second time. The ideas of the ten finalist teams range from AI-based software to reduce air pollution and CO2 emissions to new strategies and technologies for plastic avoidance and a sustainable mobility solution that enables every vehicle to run on solar energy. The finalists on the shortlist come from Germany, Scandinavia, Belgium and France. Start-ups from 15 countries applied in total

"It's great to see how much commitment and unique ideas each of the start-ups is showing in tackling the pressing issues of the future," says Michael Westhagemann, Hamburg's Senator for Economics and Innovation. "With this award, we are helping young founders to become visible and giving the best start-ups in the world the chance to test their promising ideas with us."

Three of the ten finalists will be selected by an international jury over the next two weeks to be invited to a three-day trip to the Hanseatic city by the "Startup-Unit Hamburg". First place will also win a four-week participation in the international accelerator program of award partner Plug and Play in Silicon Valley.

The start-ups on the shortlist are

- Breeze Technologies from Germany provides local air quality data and AI-based decision support for air pollution control measures.

- Cirplus from Germany is a managed marketplace for the plastics recycling industry and offers procurement as a service.

- Everimpact from France helps cities and ports to track their carbon footprint in real time, certify their emission reductions and generate revenue from their carbon reduction projects.

- Geckomatics from Belgium builds mobile mapping systems based on machine learning that create digital twins of public spaces.

- Horizer from Germany offers a solar mobility solution by attaching the flexible, ultra-thin solar foils to the vehicle roof and connecting them to the vehicle battery.

- Infinite Mobility from Norway develops lightweight, solar-powered vehicles suitable for urban mobility.

- Natix from Germany makes cameras intelligent and video surveillance GDPR-compliant.

- Papair from Germany develops innovative technologies for the production of sustainable packaging materials, such as a "bubble wrap made of paper" that combines cost efficiency, cushioning and sustainability.