At the end of 2011, the Hamburg public agency for creative stakeholders and enterprises - Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft (HKG) - and the crowdfunding platform StartNext co-created Nordstarter. The platform was created with the aim of opening up additional financing for Cultural and Creative actors in Hamburg. The establishment of Nordstarter has institutionalized crowdfunding as part of the financing ecosystem of cultural and creative actors in Hamburg. Both the credibility of HKG and sound reputation of StartNext has enabled Nordstarter to convince Hamburg creatives and backers across Germany to use crowdfunding. A total amount of € 2,327,073 has been raised on Nordstarter since its launch in November 2011 until December 2016. 454 crowdfunding projects have been posted on Nordstarter with an average success rate of 58%. This high success rate can at least be partly attributed to the coaching and support that HKG and StartNext offer to creatives to introduce them to crowdfunding and to help them setting up and running a successful crowdfunding campaign. The pioneering partnership between HKG and StartNext has inspired other German cities to follow in their footsteps. Following the example of Hamburg, the German cities of Dresden, Bremen, Berlin and Kassel have all set up partnerships with StartNext to open up crowdfunding to (specific target groups within) their cities.

Funding raised through Nordstarter €2,327,073