About last week…Here's what happened in Holland's startup scene.
Funding
Online bike rental platform BimBimBikes got 250.000 euro in funding from several anonymous members of the ‘old boys’ investors club BrownCow.
Management platform for commercial EVs ViriCiti got a 700.000 euro investment from Mainport Innovation Fund II and Breesaap Green Link SL.
Helloprint, a printing service platform from Rotterdam, announced a 3 million euro investment in the company.
News
The Netherlands for the “first time” belongs to Europe’s leading countries as regards innovation, says The European Innovation Scoreboard, of the European Commission. “The Netherlands is an Innovation Leader”, the report says. “Performance improved steadily up until 2012, then increased strongly in 2013 (among others due to an increase in the share of product or process innovators), and after an increase in 2014 it declined in 2015. The performance relative to the EU is at 21% above the EU average.”
The Scoreboard provides a comparative analysis of innovation performance in European countries and regional neighbours. It assesses relative strengths and weaknesses of national innovation systems. “Significant declines in performance are observed for Non-R&D innovation expenditures (-6.5%) and Venture capital investments (-3.1%)”, the report notes about Holland.
The people of the Startup Heatmap Europe report asked 700+ European founders about what moves them, literally and figuratively. The main question: Where would you like to start up if you could begin all over again? As it turns out: Amsterdam stays popular among European founders. The startup workforce in The Netherlands grew the strongest.
Cloud code editor Cloud9 has been acquired by Amazon. The company, originally from The Netherlands but now with its HQ in San Francisco, is joining the Amazon Web Services family.
Updates
Dutch boat sharing startup Barqo announced a collaboration with its French counterpart Click & Boat. Barqo brings sailors and boat owners together to be able to share boats via a web platform.
Dutch startup Gerrard Street (former Pelican House) is well underway with their headphone-as-a-service, delivering the first 500 products as of last week. Customers pay a fixed rate per month for a modular headphone. Whenever something breaks, it will be replaced.
Software start-up VIBES.technology has signed German automobile manufacturer BMW Group as customer, collaborating in a first R&D project in the summer of 2016. The company develops applications that help solve vibration-related issues at an early stage of product development.
Remember Sellaband? Ten years ago Pim Betist launched this crowdfunding platform in The Netherlands, the first of its kind with a reward based model. Nowadays he helps startups by transforming their ideas into successful businesses. To celebrate his ten years anniversary as an entrepreneur, Pim shares his five most important lessons with StartupJuncture.
Monday Reads
We are inventors, entrepreneurs, engineers, investors, researchers, and business leaders working in the technology sector. We are proud that American innovation is the envy of the world, a source of widely-shared prosperity, and a hallmark of our global leadership. We believe in an inclusive country that fosters opportunity, creativity and a level playing field. Donald Trump does not. An open letter from technology sector leaders on Donald Trump’s candidacy for President – NewCo Shift.
Check out the first Dealroom industry research paper, about travel: new developments, identified opportunities and companies to watch. The scope is global, but with a European perspective and emphasis.
Certainly, bad things have been done in the name of “improving metrics.” Be sure to read Metrics Versus Experience – Medium / Julie Zhuo.
Image credit: Gisela Giardino (Flickr)