de:hub Berlin and fintech
Berlin has two hubs in the federal de:hub initiative of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy: one for fintech and one for deeptech. The Berlin fintech hub is run by HoFT Berlin GmbH, the company behind the House of Finance and Tech, with Berlin Partner for Business and Technology and the Berlin Finance Initiative as partners. The central office of the whole network, hub:agency, is also in Berlin, at Lützowstraße 106.
The fintech hub at the House of Finance and Tech
De:hub calls Berlin "the heart of the German FinTech scene". According to its hub page, more than two thirds of all German fintechs are based in the city, and Berlin attracts 90 percent of the sector's venture capital. HoFT.Berlin, the platform of the hub's operator, describes itself as "the central platform for innovation, networking and growth in the financial and technology ecosystem" and supports scale-ups. Its members, its work on financial wellbeing and the FinWell Summit are on the page about the House of Finance and Tech Berlin.
The hub has two contacts, one at Berlin Partner and one at HoFT. The Berlin Finance Initiative is the third partner. On the hub page the partners say they want to create an environment for startups, established companies and international players.
From IoT and fintech to a fintech hub
The ministry named Berlin a hub in 2017 with two fields, the Internet of Things and fintech. The fintech side got its first building in 2018: H:32, about 11,000 square meters at Hardenbergstraße 32 near Zoologischer Garten, opened by the company builder FinLeap, as IT Finanzmagazin reported (in German). The Internet of Things had its own hub in Kreuzberg.
Berlin Partner coordinated de.hub Berlin for both fields and used it to give Berlin international visibility as a contact point for fintech and IoT. De:hub now lists the Berlin hub with fintech alone, at the House of Finance and Tech, Saarbrücker Straße 36 in Prenzlauer Berg.
What de:hub Berlin offers fintech founders, banks and investors
A fintech founder in Berlin can list the company in the de:hub Start-up Finder, where corporates, mid-sized businesses and investors search more than 1,000 startups from all hubs by industry and location and contact them directly. Banks and other companies find programs of all 25 hubs in the Program Finder on the de:hub page for companies, by target group, program type or place. The de:hub Pitch Night puts eight selected startups with tested use cases in front of investors, corporate leaders and policymakers.
The second Berlin hub: DeepTech
The other Berlin hub is de:hub DeepTech Berlin at Motionlab in Bouchéstraße. It is built for hardtech startups and has workshops with 3D printing and laser cutting, coworking, offices and private maker garages. It has no finance focus.
Upcoming fintech events in Berlin
Finance Loop in Berlin
Finance Loop holds events in Berlin as well as in Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg, and its calendar lists the Berlin dates. The formats in the city are on networking events in Berlin, together with the Claude Code workshop and the Bitcoin seminar in Berlin. Finance Loop is also a founding member of the Bitcoin Bundesverband, which was formed in Berlin.
What is de:hub Berlin?
De:hub Berlin is the Berlin part of the Digital Hub Initiative: the fintech hub at the House of Finance and Tech, the DeepTech hub at Motionlab, and hub:agency, the central office of all 25 hubs. The page on the Digital Hub Initiative describes the whole network.
Is de:hub Berlin the same as the House of Finance and Tech?
The House of Finance and Tech runs the fintech hub of de:hub Berlin. De:hub Berlin also has the DeepTech hub at Motionlab, and the House of Finance and Tech has members and programs of its own beyond its de:hub role.
Which de:hub covers fintech in Frankfurt?
TechQuartier, the fintech hub Frankfurt. HoFT's CEO, Sebastian Schäfer, ran TechQuartier for eight years before he moved to Berlin.
de:hub Berlin and Finance Loop
Finance Loop brings fintech founders from Berlin together with the banks, asset managers and supervisors in Frankfurt, where Finance Loop is built in collaboration with Frankfurt Main Finance and TechQuartier, the Frankfurt de:hub. Berlin fintechs work with Finance Loop as members, by sponsoring a meetup or a webinar, by hosting an event or through a partnership. Fintech growth describes the route into the German finance market.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the adoption of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.