Fab City Hamburg

What Fab City Hamburg does

Fab City Hamburg e.V. is a registered non-profit association headquartered at Zippelhaus 5a, 20457 Hamburg, Germany, founded in October 2020 to coordinate and expand the Hamburg maker ecosystem in service of the Fab City Global Initiative's Vision 2054 — a transition from product-in/trash-out to data-in/data-out urban production. The organization was preceded by Hamburg becoming the first German city to join the Fab City Initiative in June 2019.

The core product set centers on physical and educational infrastructure for digital fabrication and circular economy: open maker spaces equipped with 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC machines, and electronics workstations; the OpenLab Mobile (a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter with 12 workstations that brings fabrication to enterprises across the Hamburg metropolitan region); educational programs for schools (Make Your School hackdays, the loanable Fab-Edu-Hardwarekit, and 3D-Druck Support); enterprise-facing offerings (RE:MAKE circular team events, FEMALE MAKER CHALLENGE, Maker Challenge); recurring community formats (OpenLabDay, Female Maker Club, Circular Talk, T-Shirt Druckwerkstatt); and research collaborations (LAUDS Factories, FabCity research project). Underlying technology is open source hardware and digital fabrication, with shared building plans and knowledge flows within the 50+ member organization network and 50+ global Fab City network.

The business model is a hybrid non-profit structure: recurring membership fees (€60/year institutional with voting rights; €20/year personal without voting rights), fees for workshops and corporate events, project-based funding from Hamburg authorities BAWI (Behörde für Arbeit, Wirtschaft und Innovation) and BUKEA (Behörde für Umwelt, Klima, Energie und Agrarwirtschaft), and grant support from foundations including the Klaus Tschira Stiftung (for Make Your School). Customers span schools, individual makers, startups, enterprises, Hamburg district offices, and research institutions. Governance is led by two managing directors (Karen Löhnert and Dirk Pieper), with a 7-member Scientific Advisory Board (founded June 2024) and a newly established Aufsichtsrat (supervisory board) reflecting 2024 and 2026 bylaws amendments.

Name

Fab City Hamburg

Legal name

Fab City Hamburg e.V.

Website

https://fabcity.hamburg

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Fab City Hamburg e.V. is a Hamburg-based non-profit association coordinating 50+ member makerspaces, schools, startups, and research institutions to advance open-source digital fabrication and circular urban production under the Fab City Vision 2054.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Maker & Circular Economy Services

NAICS

Social Advocacy Organizations (8133)

akta.pro primary industry

Makerspaces & Fab Labs (Open Build Studios) (EDAMADAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Makerspace, Innovation Lab & Fab Lab Operations (Tools, Safety, Programming) (EDAEAGAI)

Keywords

• Digital fabrication services
• Maker space programs
• Circular economy workshops
• Open source hardware education
• Urban production network

Headquarters

HQ city

Hamburg

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Fees: The association generates revenue through annual membership fees: €60/year for institutional members (with voting rights) and €20/year for personal members (without voting rights). Membership is open to legal entities, public bodies, partnerships, sole proprietors, and individuals who support the association's goals.
2. Workshop and Event Fees: Revenue is generated through fees for workshops, events, and network formats including OpenLabDay, Circular Talks, T-Shirt Druckwerkstatt, and Female Maker Club events. RE:MAKE circular team events for enterprises represent a commercial service offering.
3. Government Funding: Fab City Hamburg e.V. is supported by the Behörde für Arbeit, Wirtschaft und Innovation Hamburg (BAWI) and the Behörde für Umwelt, Klima, Energie und Agrarwirtschaft (BUKEA). The association pursues funding acquisition for projects and initiatives.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Fab City Hamburg is a non-profit association that coordinates a network of open maker spaces and educational programs for urban production and the circular economy in Hamburg. Its offerings include physical maker spaces with digital fabrication equipment (3D printing, laser cutting, CNC, electronics), a mobile fabrication truck (OpenLab Mobile), school programs (Make Your School, Fab-Edu-Hardwarekit, 3D-Druck Support), enterprise circular economy services (RE:MAKE, FEMALE MAKER CHALLENGE, Maker Challenge), and recurring community events (OpenLabDay, Circular Talks, Female Maker Club). The association is funded through member fees, government grants, and project partners.

Product overview

Fab City Hamburg is a non-profit association (e.V.) operating as a network of open maker spaces and educational programs focused on urban production and circular economy. The portfolio includes physical maker spaces with digital fabrication equipment, mobile fabrication services (OpenLab Mobile), school programs (Make Your School, Fab-Edu-Hardwarekit, 3D-Druck Support), startup and corporate offerings (RE:MAKE, FEMALE MAKER CHALLENGE, Maker Challenge), and regular community events (OpenLabDay, FEMALE MAKER CLUB, Circular Talks, T-Shirt Druckwerkstatt). The organization also supports scientific research through LAUDS Factories. All offerings center on making circular economy and urban production accessible to citizens, schools, and businesses in Hamburg.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• OpenLab Mobile: A mobile 3D printing workshop bringing digital fabrication to businesses in the Hamburg metropolitan region.
• Make Your School
• Fab-Edu-Hardwarekit
• 3D-Druck Support
• RE:MAKE
• FEMALE MAKER CHALLENGE
• Maker Challenge
• Circular Talk
• OpenLabDay

Products and services

• Maker Spaces
• OpenLab Mobile
• Make Your School
• Fab-Edu-Hardwarekit
• 3D-Druck Support
• RE:MAKE Circular Team Event
• FEMALE MAKER CHALLENGE
• Maker Challenge
• OpenLabDay
• FEMALE MAKER CLUB
• Circular Talk
• T-Shirt Druckwerkstatt
• LAUDS Factories
• Institutional Membership
• Personal Membership

Quantifiable outcome

• Students develop functional prototypes in 3-day hackdays at Make Your School events
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

22 partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• Fab City Global InitiativecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2019Fab City Hamburg is part of the global Fab City Initiative, an international network of over 50 cities and regions working towards local production and circular economy by 2054. The initiative connects cities that share open building plans and build circular economy locally, with the Fab City Foundation based in Tallinn, Estonia.
• Welcome Werkstatt e.V.coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization - open workshop providing maker space services in Barmbek, Hamburg. One of the founding institutional members of Fab City Hamburg e.V.
• Fabulous St. Pauli (Fab Lab Hamburg)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization - Fab Lab Hamburg operating as an open laboratory for digital fabrication in the St. Pauli district. Founding member of the association.
• DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization - leading German research center providing makerspace facilities and contributing to digital fabrication and innovation ecosystem.
• Bucerius Law SchoolmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization and home to Prof. Dr. Dana Beldiman on the Scientific Advisory Board. Contributes expertise in law and intellectual property.
• Technische Universität Hamburg (TUHH)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization contributing research expertise. Home to Prof. Dr. Moritz Göldner (Data Driven Innovation) and Prof. Dr. Kerstin Kuchta (Recycling, Circular Economy) on the Scientific Advisory Board.
• HafenCity Universität Hamburg (HCU)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization contributing urban planning and production expertise. Home to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ayse Glass and Prof. Dr. em. Dieter Läpple on the Scientific Advisory Board.
• Helmut-Schmidt-Universität Hamburg (HSU)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization contributing manufacturing technology expertise. Home to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens P. Wulfsberg on the Scientific Advisory Board.
• Kühne Logistics University (KLU)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner organization contributing logistics and supply chain expertise to the network.
• Hamburg Kreativ GesellschaftmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization supporting creative industries and innovation in Hamburg. Public body supporting the Fab City Hamburg ecosystem.
• Bücherhallen HamburgmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization - public library network in Hamburg hosting maker spaces and Fab City Hamburg activities including Female Maker Club.
• Wachstumsinitiative Süderelbe AGmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization and operator of OpenLab Mobile, bringing mobile digital fabrication and circular economy workshops to the Hamburg metropolitan region.
• HoFa LabcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization - open workshop/hackerspace in Hamburg hosting OpenLabDay events every Tuesday at 18:00.
• attraktor e.V. HamburgminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization - hackerspace and maker community in Hamburg.
• Curious Community Labs e.V.minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization - community labs combining biology and technology.
• Code for HamburgminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization - civic technology and open data initiative in Hamburg.
• Verbund Offener Werkstätten (VOW)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner organization - German network of open workshops, sharing the motto 'Freiraum zum Selbermachen' (Freedom to Do-It-Yourself).
• Open Source Ecology Germany e.V.minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner organization - German chapter of Open Source Ecology, developing open source industrial machines.
• LibreSolarminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization - startup developing open source solar electronics and energy solutions.
• XYZ CargominorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization - startup in the Fab City Hamburg ecosystem.
• ZRKULARminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization - startup focused on circular economy solutions with motto 'THE FUTURE IS CIRCULAR'.
• Wissenschaft im DialogmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHub partner for Make Your School program - Germany's central organization for science communication, supported by major German research organizations including acatech, DFG, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, and Stifterverband.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves11 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Fab Foundation: Global non-profit that stewards the Fab Lab network and originated the Fab City concept. Fab City Hamburg operates Fab Labs under this umbrella and implements the Fab City vision, making it the closest direct institutional peer.
• Fab Lab Barcelona: Former Fab Lab of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and another founding node of the Fab City Global Initiative. Operates the same mix of digital fabrication, education, and citizen innovation programming as Fab City Hamburg.
• Verbund Offener Werkstätten (VOW): German national network of open workshops sharing the 'Freiraum zum Selbermachen' mission. Listed as a partner of Fab City Hamburg and competes for the same community-maker audience in Germany.
• Open Source Ecology Germany e.V. German chapter of the global Open Source Ecology movement developing open-source industrial machines. Listed as a partner of Fab City Hamburg and shares the open-source, circular-economy philosophy.

Broad incumbents

• MakerBot Industries: Established 3D printing hardware and ecosystem provider that supplies many maker spaces and educational programs. Comparable because Fab City Hamburg's outputs depend on the same digital fabrication tooling MakerBot commercializes.
• Autodesk (Fusion 360 / Education): Major provider of digital fabrication and design software (Fusion 360, Tinkercad) widely used in maker spaces and education. Comparable because it supplies the upstream tooling on which Fab City Hamburg's programs depend.
• Impact Hub Network: Global network of impact-focused community spaces and incubators. Comparable to Fab City Hamburg in combining community, education, and entrepreneurship support, but operates more broadly across sectors and counts corporate and venture partners.

Emerging players

• DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) Innovation Center: Member organization of Fab City Hamburg that also runs its own maker and innovation programming. Comparable because it operates both as a partner and as a parallel provider of maker space access in Hamburg.
• TUHH / Hamburger Innovationsinfrastruktur: TU Hamburg is already a Scientific Advisory Board member and runs adjacent innovation programs. Comparable as a Hamburg-based academic-industry innovation platform that competes for similar funding and corporate partners.

Regional players

• Wissenswerkstadt / CityLAB Berlin-style civic innovation labs: CityLAB Berlin and similar German civic innovation labs pursue comparable agendas of citizen making, open hardware, and municipal innovation. They do not compete locally but offer an alternative model for future Fab City Hamburg replication.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/fabcityhamburg
• Facebookfacebook.com/fabcityhamburg
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/fab-city-hamburg/posts
• Instagraminstagram.com/fabcityhh

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Fab City Hamburg