This week we paid a visit to Groningen, undoubtedly the best kept secret in Dutch startup ecosystems. Just let us test this fact with you: HackerOne, Crowdynews, Tvilight or … Catawiki…where do they come from? San Francisco, Amsterdam? No. They come from Groningen, or the region around Groningen. During the meeting, where the stakeholders of the Groningen ecosystem were gathered by Koen Atema, he presented how Founded in Groningen had united parties to the goal of strengthening cooperation in the region. They had inspiring examples of how Groningen was a testbed for 5G, Internet of Things and how they innovated the energy sector. In addition they even explained how they translated the famous expression by our former football Hero Johan Cruyff "elk nadeel heb z'n voordeel" and turn a terrible disadvantage of suffering from earthquakes into a constructive asset by profiling themselves ambitiously in the field of earthquake resilient building. Groningen is here to stay! And not to mention their fantastic startup workspaces like the Mediacentrale and the Big Building, former owned by old stakeholders in the energy sector and Dutch mail.
We see the Netherlands as One Single Hub for startups. This means "sharing and joining" networks, information and ideas between all the innovation hubs. Not only within your region, but reaching out to other hubs in your country and even internationally. Groningen has what it takes and a lot more. After this week Groningen will make itself visible on the map. We are sure about that. Groningen Goes Global! From 3G to 5G. Away with modesty!
On Thursday ASML, amongst others, presented the fantastic initiative Make Next Platform for emerging hardware startups in the Netherlands with an inspirational speech given by Peter Wennink, CEO ASML. Peter is one of our members of the International Circle of Influencers. A great opportunity and example of cooperation between corporates and startups. Not only for the region, but for the Netherlands as a whole. The areas Eindhoven, Aken and Leuven have one of the most excellent and powerful networks of technology stakeholders in the world. This platform will make use of that exceptional quality and assist emerging companies to scale up within that network. If other countries in Europe aim for the next Google, we let them dream on. We aim for the next ASML.
Today we will be discussing the fiscal measures StartupDelta proposed with state secretary Wiebes. These measures are backed by the startup sector, as AnneWil Lucas made clear again this week. We are confident that this will lead to good results for the cooperation with both the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs.
All in all: StartupDelta is still going very strong. Three more months to go in this setting and together with our StartupDelta partners who are boosting the ecosystem with their ideas and powerful initiatives!
Neelie Kroes, Special Envoy for Startups
Sigrid Johannisse, Director StartupDelta
Foto Credits DVH.