The 2023 Atomico’s State of European Tech Report reveals Netherlands to be a standout success, cementing its place as a star participant within the startup ecosystem. When it comes to capital invested in its non-public tech corporations, for example, it’s risen again into the highest 5 nations with a projected $2.1 billion. And whereas the UK has seen the share of its European capital invested drop by virtually three per cent throughout the final three years, the Netherlands comes out prime, capturing the most important positive aspects in Europe at virtually 2 per cent. The hub of the Netherlands’ startup ecosystem is Amsterdam, which hosts round 4,000 startups, together with unicorns like Mollie, Mambu and Backbase. Identified for its worldwide focus, collaborative ecosystem, and numerous and expert workforce, it’s additionally devoted to tackling pressing societal points.
“Profitable innovation in Amsterdam is pushed by world challenges, such because the power transition or the ageing inhabitants,” explains Joël Dori of StartupAmsterdam, which works to bring the public and private sectors together to support startups, scale-ups, entrepreneurs and other players in the local ecosystem. “It’s what founders and the public in Amsterdam care about.” Dori notes however, that issues within the city, such as the tight housing market and worries from founders about startup-related policies, must be tackled in order to attract and retain the capital’s high-caliber talent.
Overstory
Vegetation is the single greatest factor behind power outages caused by the electrical grid due to trees falling on power lines or by sparking wildfires—and the problem is only worsening due to changing climate and more frequent storms. “Using images from satellites and airplanes, we use computer vision to find trees and estimate their height, health and species,” says Indra den Bakker, who co-founded Overstory with Anniek Schouten in 2018. This allows electric utility companies to direct their tree-pruning efforts to areas where the likelihood that trees will come in contact with power lines is higher. Raising $25 million to date, with support from Pale Blue Dot, B Capital, CapitalT, Moxxie Ventures, Overstory’s clients already include four of the top ten American utilities. One investor-owned utility, for instance, has saved over $3 million in vegetation costs. overstory.com
Coolgradient
By 2030, data centers could use 3.2 percent of global electricity consumption. However, few data center operators can effectively control their energy and water usage, which is a looming disaster for the climate. Enter Coolgradient, founded by Jasper de Vries and René Gompel in 2023, with the aim of reducing one per cent of the global energy consumption by cooling data centers. Providing detailed visibility into the performance of all center assets, from the roof to the room, its machine learning models analyze data from existing data center assets such as cooling systems and power distribution units. It then identifies inefficiencies and offers solutions for continuous optimization, saving up to 40 per cent in utilities usage. In May, it completed an undisclosed funding round from the early-stage impact investor 4impact. coolgradient.com
Monumental
More than half of European countries are grappling with a shortage of bricklayers, as 82 million Europeans are at risk of homelessness due to lacking affordable housing. Monumental is tackling these two problems with small autonomous ground vehicles, which are a cheaper, more available source of labor on construction sites. Once loaded with materials by humans, a trio of its robots, set with tower-style cranes, work as a team: one lays the mortar, one supplies the bricks and one does the actual building, driving alongside the wall until it’s finished. Since Salar al Khafaji and Sebastiaan Visser launched it in 2021, Monumental robots has built multiple projects for top contractors in the Netherlands, including the facades of free-standing villas, social housing units, 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 specializing in concrete blocks, plus entry into new markets such as Germany and the UK. “We’re working towards a future where beautiful, tailor-made buildings are built within a single day, with minimal labor,” says al Khafaji. monumental.co
Weaviate
An open supply database that shops and manages the vector knowledge that’s integral to many AI functions, Weaviate makes it simpler for builders to create and broaden AI functions, which vary from custom-made search and advice programs to ChatGPT plugins. Based by Bob van Luijt and Etienne Dilocker in 2019, its cloud service offers builders the complete energy of the Weaviate database with none of the operational overhead. It has had greater than one million month-to-month OSS downloads and 10,000 stars on GitHub (TripAdvisor for builders), and has a hand in creating new product concepts by way of its proprietary incubation hub. Buyers equivalent to Index Ventures, NEA, Battery, Zetta and Cortical have contributed some $67.6 million (€60.7 million) in funding. weaviate.io
Cradle
In accordance with European Bioplastics knowledge, substituting the annual world demand for fossil-based polyethylene (PE) with bio-based PE would save greater than 73 million tonnes of CO2. Nonetheless, designing proteins is an arduous, time-consuming, costly trial-and-error process. Cradle’s AI platform, launched in 2021, permits biologists to add a protein sequence they need optimized, equivalent to needing extra stability at larger temperatures. Out of a variety of variations generated by the mannequin, it may well discover essentially the most promising to check within the lab. It reduces experimental rounds by as much as 12 instances, and makes use of 10 instances fewer sources than standard strategies. This vastly boosts the possibility for achievement. For instance, one US biotech discovered novel, high-performing mutations that conventional strategies hadn’t recognized. Cradle, based 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 Fairness
Lara Koole, Jeff Gomez, Liza Rubinstein and Jacqueline van den Ende based Carbon Fairness in 2021, based mostly on two observations: “We need billions of dollars to fund climate technology solutions, and mass affluent and high-net-worth individuals hold trillions of dollars but have no access to private markets,” says van den Ende, Carbon Fairness’s CEO. The corporate grants traders distinctive entry to a diversified portfolio of main local weather enterprise capital and progress fairness funds. Since launching, practically 1000 traders have invested greater than €250 million ($278 million) by way of the platform, serving to scale greater than 120 non-listed local weather tech corporations, starting from CO2-free cement (Elegant Techniques) to long-duration power storage (Type Vitality), and inexperienced metal (H2 Inexperienced Metal). Carbon Fairness has raised €9 million ($10 million), with lead traders together with the French fintech fund Blackfin Capital Companions and Netherlands-based VC fund 4Impact. Carbon Fairness will quickly open a world workplace in Berlin and supply its shoppers a brand new local weather infrastructure fund and decrease funding minimums. carbonequity.com
Bloom & Wolf
With heavy use of water, pesticides, greenhouses, and refrigerated transportation, the reduce flower trade is disastrous for the surroundings. Premium silk flower service Bloom & Wolf gives an alternate that’s 4 instances cheaper than a typical contemporary subscription, and reduces carbon emissions by 85 instances. The corporate’s flowers are manufactured in Asia, shipped abroad to a European wholesaler, then made into bouquets by the startup in Amsterdam. When the patron is completed—normally altering their bouquet each season —it’s collected, refurbished and reused. Supplying a variety of shoppers since launching in 2023, the agency’s round mannequin gained important traction within the premium workplace and resort trade, with shoppers together with NH Lodge Group and Bilderberg. Founder Gwen Van de Pas has her sights set on Europe and the US, aided by a €1.4 million seed spherical, led by CapitalT. bloomandwolf.com
Solvimon
Launched in 2022 by Kim Verkooijen and Etienne Gerts, who reduce their enamel on the Dutch fintech unicorn Adyen, Solvimon’s all-in-one billing and monetisation platform is designed for fintech and SaaS companies with advanced billing wants. With fast-growing startups such TrueLayer, Yapily, Yuno, Hawk, and SurePay in its present consumer base, Solvimon’s imaginative and prescient is to make billing a device that drives new enterprise, quite than hinders it. The startup permits scaling-up of income operations throughout a number of nations and currencies, a discount in handbook billing efforts and enhanced monetary administration. Solvimon raised €9 million ($10 million) in a seed spherical led by Northzone in late 2023, and has set its sights on rising its modest group of eight. solvimon.com
10X
Because the battle for expertise intensifies, fractional work—the follow of hiring specialists within the subject for part-time or contractual roles—is more and more ticking the field for each employer and worker. To attach corporations with completed fractional CxOs, professionals, and specialists, serial entrepreneur Angelique Schouten launched the subscription-based AI-supported platform 10X (pronounced “1 zero X”) in 2023. With greater than 500 fractional professionals providing their experience, it’s already united corporations equivalent to Mobility Idea, ParkBee and Talk360 with former leaders from Schiphol Airport, Knab and Meta. In Might, 10X raised €1 million ($1.1 million) in seed funding from angel traders. This can be used to launch a brand new model of the platform, which can function AI-based evaluation of candidate’s movies and randomly chosen references from earlier employers. 1zerox.com
Haaven
Haaven, based by Thomas Leeson, Davide Cardu, Sacha Bloem, and Dédé Kruisman in 2023, is a one-stop store for constructing tiny homes—that’s any house smaller than 50m², which makes them straightforward to move as a single module or flat-pack on a truck. Customers choose a design from the gathering, personalize it, and inside 15 weeks, they’ve a brand new, carbon-neutral house courtesy of a community of engineers and prefab development corporations. Costs vary from €1,500 ($1,100) per m² for a completed exterior solely, whereas one together with flooring, lighting, a kitchen and furnishings runs as much as €5,000 ($5,500) per m². All quotes are last, so there’s no venture creep as with conventional development. The agency works with starchitect corporations equivalent to Sigurd Larsen and Park + Associates, has constructed 30 areas so far, and raised €1.1 million ($1.2 million) in pre-seed funding, led by Speedinvest, Golden Egg Verify and angel traders like Quintin Schevernels and Erik Nieuwenhuis. haaven.com
This text first appeared within the November/December 2024 version of WIRED UK.
