Ximedes was present at the FinTech week Hamburg (October 15-18). We found the event well-organized, with enthusiastic participants, and thouroughly enjoyed our visit. While there, We got the opportunity to fill in a speaker-slot, during which we were interviewed by the founder and head of Hamburg Fintech, Clas Beese.
The main reason for our visit is that we recently opened our first German office in Hamburg - a logical choice as it is the [second largest FinTech city of Germany](http://fintechnews.ch/fintechgermany/fintech- hamburg/18869/). In Hamburg, several universities, leading banks and Fintech companies, supported by the so-called Finanzamt, are working hard on expanding Hamburg's Fintech position. One of the immediate results of these efforts is the opening of several FinTech locations and co-locations.
According to a report by government-owned German bank KfW, Hamburg is the capital of founders in Germany, beating out Berlin in 2017 in terms of the number of people per capita who have started a business. According to Fintech Hamburg, 42 of the 575 start-ups are Fintech companies. Some of the bigger ones are Kreditech, a platform for short-term loans; Deposit Solutions, a provider of an Open Banking platform for deposits connecting banks and depositors across Europe; Finanzcheck, a credit comparison site and online insurance broker; and Figo, a banking service provider.
In the autumn of 2018, a new campus tower called Finhaven in HafenCity is set to become home to Hamburg’s Fintech scene. The tower will have around 1,000 square meters of space and some 100 workstations.
Ximedes is considering Finhafen as the base for our German operations - a great place on the harbor where innovative financial and IT companies will meet each other. With easy access to the Nordics and direct access to the German marketplace, Hamburg will be the center of the next stage of development for Ximedes GmbH, after the successful market entrance with our payment solution Pecunda, servicing various German Universities and companies like Daimler, Miele, HDM and the European Patent Office.
We are looking forward to supporting German Banks becoming Fintech.
Cover photo by Claudio Testa
Article photo by Kevin Schmid