Atomico's State of European Tech Report 2023 shows that the Netherlands is a standout success, strengthening its position as a star player in the startup ecosystem. For example, in terms of capital invested in private technology companies, the country has risen back into the top five countries with a projected $2.1 billion. And while Britain has seen the share of its invested European capital fall by almost 3 percent over the past three years, the Netherlands comes out on top, posting the biggest gains in Europe at almost 2 percent. The center of the Dutch startup ecosystem is Amsterdam, home to approximately 4,000 startups, including unicorns such as Mollie, Mambu and Backbase. Known for its international focus, collaborative ecosystem and diverse and skilled workforce, it is also committed to addressing pressing societal issues.
“Successful innovation in Amsterdam is driven by global challenges, such as the energy transition or the aging population,” explains Joël Dori of StartupAmsterdam, which is committed to bringing the public and private sectors together to support startups, scale-ups, entrepreneurs and other companies. to support. players in the local ecosystem “That is what founders and the public in Amsterdam care about.” However, Dori notes that issues within the city, such as the tight housing market and founder concerns over startup-related policies, need to be addressed to attract and retain the capital's high-quality talent.
Overstory
Vegetation is the biggest factor behind power outages caused by the power grid, by trees falling on power lines or by starting wildfires – and the problem is only getting worse due to the changing climate and more frequent storms. “Using images from satellites and aircraft, we use computer vision to find trees and estimate their height, health and species,” says Indra den Bakker, who founded Overstory in 2018 with Anniek Schouten. This allows electricity companies to direct their pruning work. efforts to areas where trees are more likely to come into contact with power lines. With backing from Pale Blue Dot, B Capital, CapitalT and Moxxie Ventures, Overstory has raised $25 million to date. Overstory's customer base already includes four of the ten largest U.S. utilities. For example, one investor-owned utility saved more than $3 million in vegetation costs. overstory.com
Cooling gradient
By 2030, data centers could consume 3.2 percent of global electricity consumption. However, few data center operators can effectively manage their energy and water consumption, which is a looming climate disaster. Participate in Coolgradient, founded by Jasper de Vries and René Gompel in 2023, with the aim of reducing 1 percent of global energy consumption by cooling data centers. The machine learning models provide detailed insight into the performance of all center assets, from the roof to the room, and analyze data from existing data center assets such as cooling systems and power distribution units. It then identifies inefficiencies and provides solutions for continuous optimization, saving up to 40 percent in utility use. In May, it completed an undisclosed funding round from early-stage impact investor 4impact. coolgradient.com
Monumental
More than half of European countries face a shortage of bricklayers, while 82 million Europeans are at risk of homelessness due to a lack of affordable housing. Monumental is addressing these two issues with small autonomous ground vehicles, which provide a cheaper, more available source of labor on construction sites. Once loaded with materials by humans, a trio of robots equipped with tower cranes work as a team: one lays the mortar, one delivers the bricks and the other does the actual building, driving along the wall until it is finished. Since Salar al Khafaji and Sebastiaan Visser launched it in 2021, Monumental robots have built multiple projects for top contractors in the Netherlands, including the facades of detached villas, social housing, industrial buildings and quay walls. The company has raised $25 million to date from Plural, Hummingbird and Northzone. New products in the pipeline include robots specialized in concrete blocks, plus access to new markets such as Germany and the United Kingdom. “We are working towards a future where beautiful, custom buildings are built in one day, with minimal labor,” says al Khafaji. monumental.co
Weaviat
Weaviate is an open source database that stores and manages the vector data that is integral to many AI applications. It makes it easier for developers to create and extend AI applications ranging from custom search and recommendation systems to ChatGPT plugins. Founded by Bob van Luijt and Etienne Dilocker in 2019, the cloud service gives developers the full power of the Weaviate database without any operational overhead. It has had over a million monthly OSS downloads and 10,000 stars on GitHub (TripAdvisor for developers), and contributes to the development of new product ideas through its own incubation hub. Investors such as Index Ventures, NEA, Battery, Zetta and Cortical have contributed approximately $67.6 million (€60.7 million) in funding. weaviate.io
Cradle
According to data from European Bioplastics, replacing the annual global demand for fossil polyethylene (PE) with biobased PE would save more than 73 million tons of CO.2. However, designing proteins is an arduous, time-consuming and expensive trial and error task. Cradle's AI platform, launched in 2021, allows biologists to upload a protein sequence that they want to optimize because, for example, they need more stability at higher temperatures. From a wide range of variations generated by the model, it can find the most promising ones to test in the laboratory. It reduces experimental rounds by up to twelve times and uses ten times fewer resources than conventional methods. This greatly increases the chance of success. For example, a US biotech found new, high-performing mutations that traditional methods had failed to identify. Cradle, founded by Elise de Reus and Stef van Grieken, has raised $34 million (€30 million) in funding led by Index Ventures and Kindred Capital. cradle.bio
Carbon equality
Lara Koole, Jeff Gomez, Liza Rubinstein and Jacqueline van den Ende founded Carbon Equity in 2021 based on two observations: “We need billions of dollars to finance climate technology solutions, and the affluent and wealthy individuals own trillions of dollars but have no access to private markets,” says Van den Ende, CEO of Carbon Equity. The company offers investors unique access to a diversified portfolio of leading venture capital and growth equity funds. Since launch, nearly 1,000 investors have invested more than €250 million ($278 million) through the platform, helping scale more than 120 unlisted climate tech companies ranging from CO2-free cement (Sublime Systems) to long-term energy storage (Form Energy) and green steel (H2 Green Steel). Carbon Equity has raised €9 million ($10 million) from leading investors including French fintech fund Blackfin Capital Partners and Netherlands-based venture capital fund 4Impact. Carbon Equity will soon open an international office in Berlin and offer its clients a new climate infrastructure fund and lower investment minimums. carbonequity.com
Bloom & Wolf
Due to the intensive use of water, pesticides, greenhouses and refrigerated transport, the cut flower industry is disastrous for the environment. Premium silk flower service Bloom & Wolf offers an alternative that is four times cheaper than a typical fresh subscription and reduces CO2 emissions 85 times. The company's flowers are manufactured in Asia, shipped abroad to a European wholesaler and then processed into bouquets by the startup in Amsterdam. When the consumer is finished (he usually changes his bouquet every season) it is collected, refurbished and reused. The company's circular model has been serving a range of customers since its launch in 2023 and has gained significant traction in the premium office and hotel sector, with clients including NH Hotel Group and Bilderberg. Founder Gwen Van de Pas has her sights set on Europe and the US, helped by a €1.4 million seed round led by CapitalT. bloomandwolf.com
Solvimon
Solvimon's all-in-one billing and revenue platform, launched in 2022 by Kim Verkooijen and Etienne Gerts, who cut their teeth at Dutch fintech unicorn Adyen, is designed for fintech and SaaS companies with complex billing needs. With fast-growing startups such as TrueLayer, Yapily, Yuno, Hawk and SurePay in its current customer base, Solvimon's vision is to make invoicing a tool that stimulates, rather than hinders, new business. The startup enables scaling revenue operations across multiple countries and currencies, reducing manual invoicing efforts and improving financial management. Solvimon raised €9 million ($10 million) in a seed round led by Northzone in late 2023, and has set its sights on growing its modest team of eight. solvimon.com
10X
As the war for talent intensifies, fractional work – the practice of hiring experts in the field for part-time or contractual positions – is increasingly becoming an option for both employers and employees. To connect companies with experienced fractional CxOs, professionals and experts, serial entrepreneur Angelique Schouten launched the subscription-based AI-powered platform 10X (pronounced “1 zero X”) in 2023. With more than 500 fractional professionals offering their expertise, it has already united companies such as Mobility Concept, ParkBee and Talk360 with former leaders from Schiphol, Knab and Meta. In May, 10X raised €1 million ($1.1 million) in seed funding from angel investors. This will be used to launch a new version of the platform, which will include AI-based analytics of candidates' videos and randomly selected references from previous employers. 1zerox.com
Haafen
Founded by Thomas Leeson, Davide Cardu, Sacha Bloem and Dédé Kruisman in 2023, Haaven is a one-stop shop for building tiny houses – meaning any space smaller than 50 square metres, making them easy to build as a single module or can be transported as a separate module. flat packed on a truck. Consumers choose a design from the collection, personalize it and within 15 weeks they have a new, CO2-neutral space thanks to a network of engineers and prefabricated construction companies. Prices range from €1,500 per square meter for a finished exterior alone, while one including flooring, lighting, kitchen and furniture can reach €5,000 per square meter. All quotes are final, so there is no project creep as with traditional construction. Working with star architectural firms such as Sigurd Larsen and Park + Associates, the company has built 30 spaces to date and raised €1.1 million ($1.2 million) in pre-seed funding, led by Speedinvest, Golden Egg Check and angel investors like Quintin. Schevernels and Erik Nieuwenhuis. haven.com
This article first appeared in the November/December 2024 edition of WIRED UK.
