Zivver, Chattable, Bardoggy, Cloudgames, Tom Kabinet, Digitale Nazorg and GreenBattery are the seven startups that have been selected for the final event of the HaarlemValley startup award. The award aims to put a spotlight on the lively startup ecosystem in Haarlem.
People in the Netherlands know Haarlem as an interesting city close enough to Amsterdam to commute on a daily basis, but far enough to have it’s own character. For international startup founders, Haarlem is less known: The proximity to Amsterdam makes it harder to see the Haarlem contribution to the Dutch ecosystem. To make sure that Haarlem does get it’s fair share of attention, once a year the HaarlemValley startup award is organised. This award is organized based on a dragon’s Den model: the panel of judges does not merely select a winner: the judges can also invest directly in one or more startups that they believe in. Last year’s winners are speedreading startup UseClark and women’s fashion startup DoubleDutchBras. This last startup indeed received additional investments during the 2014 event.
2015 edition
This year the organisation has selected seven startups that will pitch tonight during the final event. The selection is interesting because it covers the whole breath of the Dutch startup ecosystem: from retail to games to green technology to cyber security. It is hard to compare such different startups. Hopefully each startup will receive the funding they needed from the 30 investors, mentors and other jury members. Here are the seven finalists in no particular order:
Zivver: Zivver is a Dutch cyber security startups that helps companies keep documents confidential. The Zivver service uses a clever combination of encryption and scanning to keep documents secure: users will get a warning when trying to send a confidential document to a new address. Zivver focuses on the healthcare market and is preparing the first pilot implementations.
Chattable is a social dining app. With chattable, people who do not know each other yet can go to restaurants together.
Bardoggy is an also aimed at the hospitality section, but focuses on bars. People that use the app receive relevant offers whenever they are near a bar, helping people to discover new hotspots and bars to find new customes. The app launched earlier this year and has already completed a successful crowdfunding campaign on Symbid and was a finalist at the Loey startup awards.
Cloudgames is a new gaming platform that is based on the new HTML5 technology. This ‘new’ standard allows website to offer a user experience that is almost as good as a downloaded game. On the platform users can play games for free. The platform has an internation focus, aiming at middle east and Africa.
Tom Kabinet is a Startupbootcamp alumnus. The company is the first exchange platform for secondhand e-books. The company is a real icebreaker since it is exploring new legal territory: not all publishers agree that their books can be resold after reading.
Digitale Nazorg (digital aftercare) is a platform for the next of kin of a deceased person, and helps the next of kin deal with the digital and online legacy of a person. The company helps for instance with access to locked computers and with closing social media accounts.
GreenBattery offers large stationary power supplies for festivals. Currently many festivals use noisy and polluting Diesel engines for power supply. GreenBattery replaces these with silent batteries that have been charged with wind and solar power. Especially for green festivals this is an attractive proposition.