House of Finance and Tech Berlin

HoFT opened in April 2024 as a public-private partnership, "financed by public funds and the commitment of the private sector". Four organizations stand behind it: the Investitionsbank Berlin, the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, the Berlin Finance Initiative and Berlin Partner for Business and Technology. The Senate's announcement named Deutsche Bank, N26, Solaris and Qonto among the first members.

Its CEO, Sebastian Schäfer, ran TechQuartier in Frankfurt for eight years before he moved to Berlin, as he told Invest in Berlin. HoFT held its kick-off with Mark Branson, the President of BaFin, as a guest.

HoFT built its work around financial wellbeing, which it defines as the state "when people control their finances, absorb shocks, achieve goals, and have freedom to make choices". It measures four dimensions: control of current spending, security against shocks, freedom to afford what matters, and planning for the future.

On its About page, HoFT puts Germany's Financial Wellbeing Score at 53 out of 100 and aims for 60 or more by 2035. For its market data it tracks more than 10,000 companies in 18 sub-clusters.

HoFT lists Deutsche Bank, Berliner Volksbank, the Investitionsbank Berlin, Visa, DKB, DWS, N26, Solaris, Qonto and KPMG among its premium members, with more than 70 other banks, fintechs, insurers and advisers behind them. Members join through a support association.

Member services are benchmarks, market intelligence and access to innovation partnerships. The campus in Berlin has workspace, a showroom and a sandbox, and the community side runs events and publishes reports and research.

The Fintech Immersion Programme is HoFT's structured training, and the Scale-Up Academy helps later-stage fintechs with compliance, leadership and fundraising. Under the name RegCircle, HoFT on Tour brings regulators, banks and fintechs together on rules such as PSD3 and the Payment Services Regulation.

Its largest event is the FinWell Summit in December, with more than 250 leaders from finance, fintech, employers and regulation, masterclasses and awards. The Fintech Germany Award also held its gala at HoFT.

Berlin is home to 57 percent of Germany's fintechs, 80 percent of its fintech scale-ups and 85 percent of the sector's total valuation, according to HoFT. The fintech scene in Berlin grew without a stock exchange or central bank head office nearby.

In Frankfurt, TechQuartier is the fintech hub of the de:hub initiative. The Berlin Finance Initiative, one of HoFT's four founders, promotes the traditional and new financial market players of Berlin.

Finance Loop holds events in Berlin as well as Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg, and its calendar lists the Berlin dates. Finance Loop is built in collaboration with Frankfurt Main Finance and TechQuartier, the Frankfurt hub that HoFT's CEO led for eight years.

Finance Loop is also a founding member of the Bitcoin Bundesverband, which was formed in Berlin.

HoFT Berlin is the House of Finance and Tech Berlin, the fintech hub of the city and part of the federal de:hub initiative. The State of Berlin set it up with the Investitionsbank Berlin, the Berlin Finance Initiative and Berlin Partner. Its work rests on financial wellbeing, on scaling fintechs and on bringing banks, fintechs and regulators together.

At Saarbrücker Straße 36, 10405 Berlin, in Prenzlauer Berg. House of Finance and Tech Berlin GmbH is registered at that address, and the campus with its workspace and showroom is there as well.

HoFT's members come from fintech, banking, insurance and advisory firms, and they join through its support association. HoFT lists the membership options and contact details on its own site.

No. The House of Finance in Frankfurt is a research center of Goethe University on the Westend campus. The House of Finance and Tech is the Berlin fintech hub and has no link to it.