BANN brings start-ups and investors closer together

The Business Angels Network Nijmegen (BANN) organised a meeting on March 8th. The network, set up a few years ago by Briskr, Oost NL, the municipality of Nijmegen, Rabobank and The Economic Board, is increasingly successful in connecting start-ups and scale-ups with investors. The two initiators, Martijn Kriens from Briskr and Bart Heuts from Oost NL, explain why.

No ATM
“A few years ago we started with the Business Angels Network Nijmegen”, Martijn Kriens, program manager at Briskr, begins his explanation. “You can support start-ups in all sorts of ways and this was happening in the region with knowledge and with loans as funding for the early phase. But there was still a lack of risk capital. That is why we started the Business Angels Network. Angels (potential investors, ed.) are very important for start-ups because of their knowledge and experience.”

Bart Heuts, project manager at Oost NL, adds: “Angels are generally prepared to invest amounts of between 50,000 and 250,000 euros in a company to which they often want to actively contribute themselves with both money and knowledge. The latter is very important; angels are not ATMs. They are all former entrepreneurs with a large network and a lot of entrepreneurial experience that they are happy to share.”

After Rabobank, other companies such as BDO and Poelmann Van den Broek soon joined as supporting partners. Through the network of Oost NL in particular, there are about 150 business angels. The network holds a meeting three times a year at which four start-ups or scale-ups are given a pitch each time.

Read the full article on the website of Lifeport (in Dutch).

Helpsoq wins both the Jury and Audience Award!

The innovation of Helpsoq has been unanimously declared as the winner of the National Care Innovation Award 2022. The National Care Innovation Prize gives the most innovative companies the opportunity to make themselves visible in the Dutch healthcare innovation landscape. During their presentation at the Health Valley Event, Helpsoq was announced as the winner of both the jury prize worth €10,000 and the public prize worth €5,000. An unique event in the history of this award.

About Helpsoq

Helpsoq is a device for donning therapeutic compression stockings. The device uses an electric motor to automate the difficult and heavy process of tightening the compression stocking. By pre-folding the stocking on a wide ring, the heavy work is done. In this way, patients who are mobile enough can put on the stocking without assistance. This makes a big difference for every caregiver who has to put on support stockings, as well as for the client who wears them. HelpSoq has already pitched to us at a BANN meeting at an earlier stage in their development.

Reinoud Wouters, director of Helpsoq, convinced the jury of his innovative solution. Jury chairman Jan-Kees van Wijnen indicated that a large target group will benefit from this innovation: “Helpsoq has the potential to prevent physical complaints and sickness absence, which makes this innovation very valuable. That makes this innovation very valuable.”

Aftermovie Health Valley Event

The Health Valley Event 2022 was taking place on 15, 16 and 17 March. We met start-ups with great new innovations in #health, such as Microcosmos and HelpSoq bv.

The theme was: Connect, Challenge and Grow! The programme offered a choice of various tracks for participants that all contribute to the social challenge:
“Ensure that we will at least live 5 years longer in good health by 2040 and reduce the health differences between social classes by 30%.

Watch the aftermovie:

New partnership: Brilliant Work

Today, Briskr and Brilliant Work announce a new partnership whereby Brilliant Work will provide support to Briskr start-ups and SMEs towards successful growth. Briskr is a consortium in the Nijmegen area with the aim of helping start-ups and innovative SME’s grow faster and make more impact in the Life Sciences & Health and High Tech sectors. Briskr believes that interaction between knowledge-intensive companies and knowledge institutes, such as universities and government bodies, is essential to realising innovation. Briskr operates in three areas – business support, project and program development for innovation activities and acquisition of innovative companies. In order to support start ups and innovative entrepreneurs, Briskr has brought together a network of companies able and willing to support these innovative companies in their growth.

Brilliant Work is an award winning business coaching, consultancy and training firm, specialised in helping small to medium sized companies grow and professionalise, both on a national and international scale. Most of their coaching engagements are on a subsidised basis, making it very affordable for their clients. Setting up, growing and leading a business is not easy, and Brilliant Work is there to help entrepreneurs and managers to make it easier, more enjoyable and reach their goals faster.

Brilliant Work is a great addition to the list of supporting partners of Briskr. Their expertise and drive in sales and entrepreneurship will help innovative companies in the Nijmegen area. With this addition we expect to further advance the startup eco system in the Nijmegen Area.

Martijn Kriens, program manager of Briskr: “We are happy that Brilliant Work is willing to join our network of services for startups. Broad support in sales and entrepreneurship is often important for startups. Brilliant Work has shown in the past to be able to help focus startups on growth. With the partnership with Brilliant Work we formlize and give shape to our cooperation in this field.”

Lizanne Jakobs, founder of Brilliant Work: “This new partnership is a very positive step foward. For businesses in life science, health and high tech, entrepreneurs have to juggle so many aspects of running a complex company at once. The Dutch eco system is there to help support them, but is not always easy to navigate. By joining forces with Briskr, we are thrilled to fortify the amazing all round support they offer as a consortium, locally, with the right people at the right time.”

Briskr and Qserve announce a new partnership

Today, Briskr and Qserve announce a new partnership whereby Qserve will provide support to Briskr start-ups and SMEs towards successful growth. Briskr is a consortium in the Nijmegen area with the aim of helping start-ups and SMEs to grow faster and make more impact on the Life Sciences & Health and High Tech sectors. Briskr believes that interaction between knowledge-intensive companies and knowledge institutes, such as universities and government institutions, is essential to realize innovation. Operating in three areas – business support, project and program development for innovation activities, and acquisition of innovation companies, Briskr brings together innovative entrepreneurs in its incubation program (start-ups), acceleration program (scale-ups), and activation program (established SMEs).

Qserve is a consultancy company operating in the worlds main medical markets. The team of experts and professionals support manufacturers worldwide to help improve patient safety and health by supporting the advancement of biomedical technology. Qserve assist medical device and in-vitro diagnostics manufacturers worldwide with market access, medical device approvals, clinical trials and achieving and maintaining regulatory compliance.

Qserve is an important addition to the Brisk ecosystem. For many startups in healthcare certification is an important hurdle in order to enter the market. Qserve will, together with Briskr and other supporting partners, develop workshops around certification and help coach startups in relation to certification and clinical validation. With this addition we expect to further advance the startup ecosystem in the Nijmegen Area.

Martijn Kriens, program manager of Briskr: “We are happy that Qserve is willing to expand our network of services for startups. Professional support early in relation to certification and quality information is important for startups to have access to. With the partnership with Qserve we enhance the access to these.”

Martin de Bruin, Partner at Qserve Group: “Qserve is highly engaged with start-ups, bringing new devices and/or technologies to the market that improve patient safety. With the Briskr program we can help the start up community with our practical approach; to translate the existing regulations into understandable requirements.”

Look back: How2Finance

Yesterday morning we gathered early for the breakfast session on #How2Finance.
A large group of startups and entrepreneurs listened to various experts from Oost NL, Orion, Rabobank, Oneplanetcrowd, Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and Briskr who elaborated on a solid life cycle funding; Which options on financing can be used in different phases of the development of a company?
We then offered various rounds of speed dating with the experts so entrepreneurs could discuss their individual case. In the meantime we enjoyed the networking, drinks and bites.
We look back on a dynamic event with enthusiastic entrepreneurs that we can hopefully help grow their businesses in the near future.

BANN event 8 March

Business Angels Network Nijmegen is the network of informal investors that strengthens the ecosystem of Nijmegen start-ups and scale-ups.

The network brings these business angels and the start-ups and scale-ups together on a regular basis. On 8 March the following four start-ups were allowed to pitch: HomEvap, XHEAL Dx, LumiNose and SPL Medical.

Podcast AI for Life #10 – Will siri soon be speaking ‘Fries’?

Speech recognition has been around for a while now and has made great strides. Think of Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, which are used by millions of people every day. Yet speech recognition still works best when spoken clearly or in a simple or narrow specialised domain. The challenge is to take this even further, so that speech recognition also works when the circumstances are more difficult. Think for example of spoken dialect where the training possibilities of the AI are often limited by the smaller data sets. Or in cases of a speech impediment after a stroke, for example. Another new direction is the detection of emotion in speech and using this to better recognise the context of what is being said.

Within the Radboud University and Radboudumc, together with Telecats, work is being done on more advanced forms of speech recognition in which atypical speech is also better recognised. For this podcast we talk to:

Henk van den Heuvel (Radboud University CLST)
Sandra van Dulmen (Radboudumc)
Arjan van Hessen (Telecats)
The podcast is moderated by Martijn Kriens (Briskr)

Call for proposals HTA methodology – round 1

Medical innovations are constantly being developed in order to provide better care. The discipline Health Technology Assessment (HTA) offers methodology for assessing the (added) value of medical innovations. The (further) development of HTA methodology contributes to making adequately considered decisions.

Subsidy for (further) development of HTA methodology
The purpose of this grant is to develop or improve the methodology for conducting an HTA in the field of medical technology; so that stakeholders can better assess the (added) value and make better decisions about appropriate use, efficient procurement of care and/or package management.

Since 18 February 2022 the subsidy call HTA methodology, round 1 is open. The deadline for submitting an application is 19 April 2022, 14.00 hours.

More information. (in Dutch)

Voucher helps SMEs seize online business opportunities

Students of the Digitale Werkplaats Arnhem Nijmegen, DWAN, help SMEs with advice on online marketing, website optimisation, online findability and more, so that the organisation can take steps to boost productivity and profit and work on future-proofing. Entrepreneurs can download the SME voucher via the DWAN website and make free use of the online session with students from the MBO, HBO and WO.

Members of the Lindus business association attended the CS in 2021 and see the added value according to the online member magazine (p. 27).
Investment and result online session
With the voucher, the entrepreneur only invests contact moments and receives:

a non-binding intake;
3-hour online session with max. 5 students under the supervision of professionals;
the advisory report with all ideas and practical advice;
the consultation on the possible implementation of advice by students.

Online session appreciated by entrepreneurs
Since 2020, several entrepreneurs have made use of the online session, including the owner of TIG Academy, which makes online instruction videos about TIG welding for starters and advanced students: “The assignments were good, they make you think in a different way and enlarge your perspective. The interaction with each other generates new ideas, which is not only inspiring, but also gives more direction.”

After the online session, students helped TIG Academy develop the basic communication plan and the Brandbook.

How does the entrepreneur get the voucher?
The SME voucher is for entrepreneurs between 2 and 50 FTE. More information about the voucher and how to download it can be found here. Follow the steps on the voucher and guarantee a place with students. There is a limited number of places available.

Contact
You can mail us: DWAN@han.nl.

Our project officer, Marie-Thérèse, will be happy to help. You can find our website here.

Oost NL is one of the initiators of digital workshops.