The startup scene in Germany

Freiburg is a city in Germany that the City of Freiburg describes as the center of the South Upper Rhine economic and scientific region. Its city profile highlights environmental economy and renewable energy, IT and media, health and life sciences, medical technology, microsystems, and measurement, control, and regulation technology as local growth sectors. [97697, 97698]

The University of Freiburg’s Technology Transfer Office supports research and intellectual-property transfer, licensing, and startup activity for university members and industry stakeholders. The university’s Founders’ Office runs recurring startup gatherings, talks, and networking events, with its entrepreneurship lecture series also open to external participants. [97704, 97705]

Local company examples include Constellr, which FWTM says was founded in Freiburg in 2020 by three former Fraunhofer EMI employees and develops satellite measurement of Earth’s surface temperature; FWTM also reports a multi-million-euro Copernicus contract for the company in 2023. Constellr announced a €37 million Series A on February 10, 2026. Black Forest Labs launched its FLUX.1 text-to-image models in August 2024 alongside a company-reported $31 million seed round, and its December 2025 announcement lists headquarters in Freiburg and San Francisco. [97713, 97714, 97715, 97717, 97718]

FWTM’s 2023 survey covered 49 selected, growth-oriented startups founded after 2013, rather than the entire local startup population; it reported that the surveyed startups had created more than 800 full-time jobs since 2013. Separately, StartupBlink’s August 2026 index ranked Freiburg 393rd globally and 20th in Germany using its stated algorithmic measures of startup investment, employee count, and quarterly website traffic. [97700, 97701, 97699]