SocialTech Startup Network Series by Yes!Delft!

It’s almost time! YES!Delft is organizing the SocialTech Startup Network Series together with the Municipality of The Hague and Innovation Quarter. After this program you will be investor-ready for the Innovation Quarter fund IQCapital and you will have access to a large network of potential partners in social care.

 

Domain: SocialTech

Technological innovation in the social domain is not straightforward, but it is becoming increasingly relevant for a healthy and resilient society. That is why YES!Delft decided to step in, build a dedicated ecosystem and offer support to startups that develop promising products or services. Think of solutions for mental resilience and a healthy lifestyle, youth care, care for the elderly, care for the disabled but also the purchase of care by the municipality.

 

Program: Startup Network Series

The network series are a part-time program of 6 weeks in which you map out the market, make connections with funds, experts and key stakeholders. On top of that, you have the chance to win a pilot with the municipality of The Hague. The minimum requirement is that a startup has at least 2 committed founders.

Does your startup offer a solution to the above mentioned challenges? Then this is your chance to discover your market opportunities in the social domain!

Want to know more about this program? Mail to YES!Delft startup scout: cailin@yesdelft.nl.

AI for Life: Episode 8

MI-robot: viewing tumors

 

How can technology help us to view cancerous tumors faster and better, thus saving lives? In this podcast episode of AI for Life, we are introduced to the MI robot. Radboudumc, Soteria Medical and Tesla Dynamic Coils are working together in this project to develop a robot that can take more targeted biopsies, using an MRI guided needle and antenna. We will discuss how to detect and identify tumors, and what the robot will mean for patient and professional. This new podcast is with:

 

Tom Scheenen from Radboudumc;
Gerrit Tigelaar of the company Soteria Medical;
And Thomas Meurs of the company Tesla Dynamic Coils.

Listen to the podcast (in Dutch)

Connecting 16 CVN ecosystems successfully

Last week we successfully connected 16 ecosystems within CVN, resulting in more than 30 1-to-1 sessions between corporates and SME’s/startups around the theme ‘Health(care) and Life Science. Many of them will also have a follow-up meeting.

 

The three CVN regional ecosystem partners (LIOF, BOM and OostNL) together with TNO, IMEC iStart, Brightlands Maastricht Health Campus, NLC Health and RWTH provided unique access to the innovations and technologies/services of 42 SMEs/startups in their portfolios that were relevant to the specific and latent challenges of 6 CVN corporates (Achmea, ASML, FUJIFILM, Medtronic, Philips and Unilever). The SMEs/startups can on their part benefit from the facilities, know-how, competencies and ecosystem of the corporates to boost their innovations. More than 50% of the SME’s/startups were invited to have a 1-to-1 conversation with the corporates and over 20% of them had a conversation with more than one corporate. The regional ecosystem partners are committed to further support “their” startups/SMEs with collaborations with the corporates.

 

To facilitate the information flow between the startups/SMEs and the corporates to prepare for the meeting, we used an innovative collaboration platform: Klever. Klever provides startups/SMEs a better way to tell their story and convey your proposition to the corporates and provides corporates a good insight into the capabilities of the startups/SMEs. The platform also enables corporates to involve relevant decision-makers internally and externally to optimize their decisions. (youtube about the event and Klever: click here; opening slides are on the CVN member page).

 

This event is not an isolated activity. As CVN, we are investigating how we can increase our ability to connect our members and partners’ ecosystems and foster collaboration, thereby creating more value for our members. How can we make better use of the wisdom of the CVN cloud, e.g., by using data-driven solutions such as the Klever platform?

 

What are the next steps? We are planning to have interviews with both the CVN members involved in the event of July 14th as well as several other CVN members that have expressed their interest in a similar event around the theme energy transition. Based on this input, we will prepare a plan that will be presented to the CVN members in a meeting in September (date to be set). More than ten years ago, we started as a platform for sharing good/bad practices. The next step has been to become an association of Corporate Venturing professionals (e.g. by creating the Corporate Venturing & Entrepreneurship Community and conducting research). We think that the next step in our CVN journey is collaboration and co-creating between ecosystems.

The valuation of start-ups. How do I deal with this as an angel investor?

Last week, three start-ups and scale-ups presented their investment plans at the Business Angels Network Nijmegen, which was set up three years ago by the Business Angels Network East NL team and others. Besides the interest in the pitches, the angels also meet to make mutual contacts and gain investment knowledge.

 

Planon

Successful Nijmegen entrepreneur Pierre Guelen (Planon) talked about the growth spurt of his company and the challenges he experienced in the first five years. He now runs a global facility management software company and has recently built his own campus for start-ups.

 

Aeternus

Aeternus as a new partner then gave an interesting story about valuing start-ups. What language do you have to speak and which elements of a valuation are important? Tips and tricks from practice were passed in review.

 

About Business Angels Network Nijmegen

Business Angels Network Nijmegen is the network of angel investors that strengthens the ecosystem of Nijmegen start-ups and scale-ups (Health and High Tech). The network brings together the angels and the selected and prepared start-ups and scale-ups on a regular basis. Other partners are Briskr, The Economic Board, Rabobank, BDO, Poelmann van den Broek, EP&C, Aeternus, Rockstart and the municipality of Nijmegen.

By now, a group of 60 active angels have joined our network and in the past 3 years we have “triggered” around €2.5 million in investments from these angels and other financiers/investment funds.

 

If you are a business angel and interested to join this network, please contact Martijn Kriens or Bart Heuts for more information

 

 

Follow the Nijmegen pathway to entrepreneurship in Health and High Tech!

The Nijmegen area is the hotspot of innovation in Health and High Tech. Entrepreneurs and researchers are developing their innovation and growing their business, supported by a strong ecosystem. Over the past four years, this already led to many great results. For the next years we want to build upon this foundation to further accelerate ofinnovative entrepreneurship for the region to grow the regional economy and create a societal impact.

Together with our partners and, most importantly, the entrepreneurs in our network. Follow this pathway and discover the journey of entrepreneurs through our ecosystem. Explore how input becomes output, and the way we eventually reached our most important objective: 570 new jobs in Health and High Tech. Let’s continue this journey together!

Download the Nijmegen pathway as pdf file

 

Slides and recording Briskr ‘Trends & developments in the medical sector in China’

We organized the Briskr workshop’ Trends & developments in the medical sector in China: business opportunities for the Netherlands on May 31.  This session interactively addressed the Chinese demand for Dutch products and technology and highlighted steps Dutch companies can take in order to do business with China.

 

Judith van de Bovenkamp, OostNL, kicked off this meeting on the trends and developments in the medical sector in China. She explained how Go4export can support you in doing business abroad. For example export vouchers are available for entrepreneurs, you can participate in a trade mission or visit an international fair. Judiths tip: Learn from the experiences of other entrepreneurs and make use of the international network. this way, you can prepare yourself well in doing business with China.

 

The second speaker was Nico Schiettekatte, from the Dutch Embassy. He informed us that the ministry can support entrepreneurs who want to do business with China in sectors such as pharma, medical devices & health. And he gave an overview of facts and figures in medical markets. The ministry can help you in finding reliable contacts, partners and events (from contact to contract!). There are several offices of the Dutch government in China to help you on the spot.

 

In the final part, Reinout van Malenstein, HFG IP Firm Shanghai explained us that it is necessary to register your IP. There are some important things you have to know to protect your trademark in China. There are differences between trademarks and patents in Europa and in China.  You need to register it also in China, otherwise you do not have any protection. Even if you do not (yet) have any trade in China, you have to register in China. As European rights will not work in China.

 

We closed this workshop with a Q&A and online networking. This is the first in a series of workshops on doing business (far) abroad. More countries/dates will be communicated shortly.

Presentation Judith van de Bovenkamp, Project Manager International, Oost NL

Presentation Nico Schiettekatte, attaché Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport

The recording will follow soon.

 

MIT R&D Cooperation Projects

Do you want to set up a research & development project together with 1 or more SMEs? If so, you can apply for a subsidy from 1 June 2021 at 9 am. There is one important change compared to previous years: your plans must fit within one of the following Knowledge and Innovation agendas:

  • Energy and Sustainability;
  • Health and Care;
  • Agriculture, Water and Food;
  • Safety;
  • Key Enabling Technologies;
  • Social Earnings.

Does your plan fit within one of these agendas? Then you can apply for a subsidy for an R&D Collaboration project.

More information by this link (in Dutch).

 

AI for Life: podcast 6: Self-learning algorithms

The 6th episode of the podcast series AI for Life is live, and this time it’s about “self-learning algorithms”.

Many smart algorithms get completely lost when change occurs within the context in which the algorithm has been trained. This often leads to errors that may be logical but come across as very stupid to the unsuspecting user. So the question is: how can we make algorithms more resilient to changes in context? In this episode, we talk about “self-learning algorithms” with experts:

 

– Marcel van Gerven, Professor of AI at Donders Institute of Radboud University and Radboudumc.

– Elsbeth van Dam, researcher at Noldus Information Technology and PhD candidate at Radboud University.

– And Lucas Noldus, founder of Noldus Information Technologies and currently also a professor at Radboud University.

 

Listen to the podcast with this link.

Look back to the Expert session: The power of H2 cross-border cooperation

As part of The Future of Us, Go4Export / Oost NL and Kiemt together organized an expert session. During this online event the strengths of the cooperation between the Netherlands and Germany in the field of hydrogen were discussed.

One conclusion was the striking political will and willingness to cooperate between East Netherlands and West Germany in the field of hydrogen. The tooling has already been developed and we also see driven entrepreneurs who want to get started across the border. It means we have to get started! Therefore, there will be a follow-up to this expert session.

Did you miss this session? Then watch it again on their website (in Dutch).

 

Recording from SMB meeting on High Tech in healthcare (March 4, 2021)

The topic of this SMB meeting was cooperation with OnePlanet. OnePlanet is a new initiative by IMEC together with Wageningen University, Radboudumc and Radboud University. Their focus is on technology innovations in Food, Health and our environment. The Oneplanet Program can play a major role in our region in the next decade in terms of the invention of new technologies, the validation of those and in sucessfully bringing these to the market. Chris gave an overview of some of the cool projects they are working on and how he looks towards future collaboration on creating impact. His presentation was followed by two pitches of startup companies that already collaborate with OnePlanet: Ivido, Hans Niendieker and ConnectedCare, Martijn Vastenburg. Final speaker was Harry van Goor, Prof. dr. at Radboudumc, who talked about the importance of collaboration in innovation from his perspective as a medical doctor and the need of monitoring real patients in studies like the Virtual Patient Monitoring Platform.

You can watch the recording below: