Digitalize High-Volume Project Financing with HCOB

Hamburg Commercial Bank AG (HCOB) is a private commercial bank headquartered in Hamburg, Germany.

HCOB offers its clients a high level of structuring expertise in real estate financing. It is one of the major players in the B2B real estate financing market, offering a range of services such as traditional commercial real estate financing, acquisition financing, and project financing.

HCOB has a strong focus on financing large and complex commercial real estate transactions and has expertise in various sectors such as office, retail, logistics, and hotels. The bank also offers customized financing solutions that meet the specific needs of its clients.

In recent years, HCOB has expanded its presence in the European commercial real estate market, particularly in the Netherlands and the Nordics. The bank's strategy is to support its clients with long-term financing solutions and to build long-lasting relationships with them.

#1 Register
First of all, you have to register on our platform. You can find a tutorial in the question "How to create an account on our platform and how to set it up?".

#2 Select the challenge 

The Future Finance Innovation Program consists of various challenges. Scroll up, look over the challenges and choose the one you are interested in, by clicking on ‘more information’. You will find the complete challenge briefing. Read it thoroughly.

#3 Select options of participation 

There are different options as to how you can participate in our challenges: You can create a new team for the challenge, join an existing team or participate alone (for further information: Look at the next question).

#4 Submit your idea 

Develop or apply your ideas and approaches and submit them via our platform's challenge workspace before the given deadline has passed. Keep in mind that you have to submit the submission template in order to participate in the challenge.

#1 Participate as a team 

You are already friends, fellow students or colleagues and want to participate together? You have already (pre)founded a start-up? That is great! One person from your team needs to click on the 'Join Now' button and select 'Start Your Own Team'. If you already have all the members you need, ignore the last question 'What does your team need?' in the pop-up. When you are ready to add new members, fill it out so your team is open to requests.

All remaining team members: Register on the platform, sign in and request to join the team of your teammate in the tab "Teams". Every team member has equal rights, there is no admin position.

#2 Join an existing team 

You know that you want to participate in a team, but you do not have anyone in mind to join? Have a look at the question "Questions or looking for team members?" and learn more about our team matching opportunities.

#3 Not sure yet? Team Matching! 

You are not sure if you want to participate and want to see what's out there first? No problem! We have provided you with a team-matching channel on Slack! Just click on the “find team-mates” button in the challenge info box.

The legal process within the Challenge is as follows:

All final teams agree to enter into discussions with the Challenge provider within three months of the programs completion regarding possible further use of the solution. During this period, the final teams also agree not to enter into discussions with hird parties regarding further use of the solutions 

Background IP, i.e. IP that already exists and is brought into the Challenge by participants, is not affected and will not be transferred or granted.   

Foreground IP of the winners, i.e. potential rights that are created during the challenge and in the cooperation with the challenge provider in the collaboration phase, will be "shared" with the challenge provider and thus non-exclusively transferred or granted against payment of the prize money. 

At the start of the elaboration phase or during the Innovation Bootcamp, an obligatory coordination meeting between the qualified participants and the client will take place. Here a binding agreement on what is to be understood as a Foreground IP needs to take place. 

If wished for from both parties different, individual agreements can be reached on the handling of Foreground IP, Background IP and blocking period. 

Important: If the parties (Challenge-provider and participants) cannot agree on a procedure, the Challenge-provider is entitled to appoint a successor and to exclude the team concerned without compensation. 

If you don’t belong to the finalists of our challenge no rights will be transferred or granted. 

All information can be found in the conditions of participation.

For the submission, it is sufficient to describe your idea or approach in the submission template and upload it via our platform. It doesn't have to be a fully developed concept with a concrete implementation strategy. A visualization of your approach ( e.g. a sketch, visual drafts or prototype) is beneficial – it should be as well developed as possible but appropriate to the time you have. Remember, there will be an elaboration phase for the finalists of this challenge, in which you will develop your submitted idea/approach.

Your business idea fits to our challenge? Excellent! Then take part and let's take the next steps together. You only have to fill in the submission template. In addition, you can upload further materials, such as a pitch deck.

Check out our tutorial: Get started! 

Check out our tutorial: Join a Challenge!

Your participation is not binding until you submit the Submission Template, and the qualification phase ends. You can always withdraw your submission before the deadline. Once you have uploaded your submission and you want to take part, please consider the timeline and be aware that you should be able to participate in every further step.

After the end of the deadline, the submissions will be reviewed by the challenge provider. The final teams will be selected and invited to our Final Event of the Future Finance Innovation Program in Berlin. We will inform you via mail. Check the timeline.

Meet our Future Finance Finalists for Hamburg Commercial Bank

1st Place: Genesys & Pega (USA / Germany)

Katharina Aey, Katharina Hecht, Konstaintin Kuhn, Giancarlo Boi & Michl Baldauf

1st Place: adesso SE (Germany)

Anna Cenkiel, Stefan Lindner, Alexander Laxgang & Arne Sötje