Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

Overview
Frankfurt School of Finance & Management is a private business school in Frankfurt am Main, recognised as a university under Hessian law and holding unrestricted doctoral rights. It descends from the Bankakademie, founded in 1957 to train bank employees, and took its present name in 2007. Since January 2008 it has been a non-profit gGmbH funded by the foundation of the same name, accredited by EQUIS, AMBA and AACSB. Its own figures record 3,917 students in academic programmes, around 90 professors and some 14,500 Executive Education participants in 2024. Its place in the DACH startup graph rests on the Centre for Digital Economics, founded in 2017 as the Blockchain Center, the Entrepreneurship Centre and the Futury platform.

Why this entity matters
The school matters structurally, not reputationally, for three reasons. The first is geography. Germany's financial-services cluster sits in Frankfurt, and the institutions that decide whether a fintech is viable — the European Central Bank, the Bundesbank, BaFin and Deutsche Boerse — are a few kilometres from its campus. A school in that geography can convert regulatory proximity into research practitioners read, teaching that produces regulatory talent, and convening power. The second is that it built vehicles rather than claiming the position: the Blockchain Center carried much of the German-language academic argument on tokenisation and crypto-asset regulation for a decade, and its successor centre now spans blockchain, artificial intelligence and quantum computing in financial services. The third is the move from commentary into company formation, through a staged entrepreneurship funnel and the January 2024 acquisition of the Futury platform; that leg is the least proven, since the entrepreneurship figures are self-reported.

Institutional history and mandate
Professor Karl Friedrich Hagenmueller and Dr Reinhold Sellien founded the Bankakademie in Wiesbaden in 1957 to train bank employees. It moved to Frankfurt in 1966; its first programme, the Bankfachwirt, remains a core qualification, and since 1972 the examination has sat with the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce. The degree-awarding Hochschule fuer Bankwirtschaft followed in 1990, serving bank employees studying part-time after their vocational training. International Advisory Services was added in 1992, Executive Education in 1995, and Bachelor and Master formats in 2000. Doctoral rights and state recognition as a university came in 2004; the remaining time limit was removed at the end of 2016. In 2007 all departments were united under the Frankfurt School brand, and the Adickesallee campus opened for the 2017/18 winter semester. The mandate spans Bachelor to doctoral programmes in finance, economics and management, Executive Education, the Ausbildungsakademie and International Advisory Services, which advises organisations in developing and emerging markets on ESG and development finance. In the Financial Times European Business School Ranking 2023 it was placed 26th in Europe.

Role in the DACH startup and technology ecosystem
Three vehicles carry the ecosystem role, each specific to the Frankfurt cluster. The Frankfurt School Blockchain Center, founded in February 2017 and directed by Prof. Dr Philipp Sandner until 2024, became one of the most visible German academic voices on blockchain, tokenisation and crypto-asset regulation, convening the Crypto Assets Conference and running the DLT Talents and DeFi Talents programmes. Prof. Co-Pierre Georg, Professor of Practice in Digital Finance and Technology, became director in September 2024, and on 25 March 2026, announced at that year's Crypto Assets Conference, the centre was renamed the Frankfurt School Centre for Digital Economics. Under the new name it pairs research with prototyping on distributed ledgers and trusted execution environments, keeps blockchain while adding artificial intelligence and quantum computing, and anchors a Master in Financial Technology. The Entrepreneurship Centre runs Idea Talks, a year-round incubator with open entry, and a six-week accelerator limited to six startups in two cohorts a year, each closing with a demo day. It reports more than 215 startups incubated since 2022, 46 currently in portfolio, more than 240 mentors and more than EUR 40 million raised, all self-reported. On 1 January 2024 the school acquired Futury GmbH, founded 2015, and its FUTURE Institute for Sustainable Transformation from the Werte-Stiftung; Futury works in construction and real estate, packaging, food and cyber security, and moved onto the campus in April 2024.

Selected relationships and affiliations
Founded 1957 by Prof. Karl Friedrich Hagenmueller and Dr Reinhold Sellien. President: Prof. Nils Stieglitz. Centre for Digital Economics: founding director Prof. Dr Philipp Sandner, director of the Blockchain Center until 2024; director since September 2024 Prof. Co-Pierre Georg. Entrepreneurship Centre: Ram Shoham, Director of Entrepreneurship. Named subsidiaries are Frankfurt School Financial Services GmbH and Futury GmbH, the latter bought from the Werte-Stiftung in a transaction on which Allen & Overy advised the seller. In 2026 the Centre for Digital Economics announced a partnership with the crypto market-data provider Kaiko. Startuprad.io fintech-cluster peers include Bitbond, Iconic Holding, Amazing Blocks and BISON.

Startuprad.io relevance
Frankfurt School is the institutional anchor of the Frankfurt fintech and digital-asset cluster in the Startuprad.io graph, where its regulatory, academic and startup layers meet. Five tagged posts connect to it, spanning the digital euro and stablecoins, Bitbond's regulated security token offering, Iconic Holding, Amazing Blocks and BISON. Its value in the graph is as a connector between the regulatory and startup layers of that cluster.

Public source context
Sources include https://www.frankfurt-school.de/en/home/newsroom/history , the March 2026 renaming announcement https://www.frankfurt-school.de/en/news/2026/03/centre-for-digital-economics , the centre page https://www.frankfurt-school.de/en/research-and-faculty/research-centres/centre-for-digital-economics , the Entrepreneurship Centre programmes page https://entrepreneurship-centre.fs.de/programmes , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School_of_Finance_%26_Management and https://rankings.ft.com/rankings/2954/european-business-school-rankings-2023 . Entrepreneurship and Futury metrics are self-reported.

Startuprad.io coverage of Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management appears in the following Startuprad.io interviews, analysis and long-form profiles.

The Digital Euro and Why Stable Coins Matter — Founder Interview
Published: 15 March 2026
Last updated: 14 August 2026
Coverage type: Interview
https://www.startuprad.io/post/the-digital-euro-and-why-stable-coins-matter-founder-interview

Meet Berlin-based Fintech Bitbond, the Company Behind Germany's First Regulated Security Token Offering
Published: 07 January 2021
Last updated: 27 August 2026
Coverage type: Interview
https://www.startuprad.io/post/meet-berlin-based-fintech-bitbond-the-company-behind-germany-s-first-regulated-security-token-offer

Iconic Holding Wants to Be The Largest Crypto Asset Manager in Europe
Published: 10 February 2021
Last updated: 14 August 2026
Coverage type: Analysis
https://www.startuprad.io/post/iconic-holding-wants-to-be-the-largest-crypto-asset-manager-in-europe

Amazing Blocks can tokenize Any Asset Legally
Published: 09 December 2020
Last updated: 09 May 2026
Coverage type: Analysis
https://www.startuprad.io/post/amazing-blocks-can-tokenize-any-asset-legally

The BISON App Allows Uncomplicated and Reliable Trading of Cryptocurrencies on the Smartphone
Published: 14 December 2020
Last updated: 14 August 2026
Coverage type: Analysis
https://www.startuprad.io/post/the-bison-app-allows-uncomplicated-and-reliable-trading-of-cryptocurrencies-on-the-smartphone

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Canonical record: https://www.startuprad.io/entities/frankfurt-school