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Five startups selected for Renew the Book

Renew the Book, a collaboration between accelerator Rockstart and Dutch book publishers, has announced the top 5 book related startups that will come to Amsterdam for an acceleration program. Novellic, StoryTourist, WriteReader, Writing for TiNY and Zola Books will come to The Netherlands for a 40 day acceleration program and a chance to win the 15k cash prize.

About Renew the Book

Renew the book, now in it’s second year, is an initiative to encourage innovation in the ook industry. The program has been initiated by the Dutch Group of General Publishers (GAU) and is run together with Rockstart, the Amsterdam based accelerator. It is a good example of an open innovation program where existing players and startups collaborate. External startups have been invited to apply (as announced on Startupjuncture in December) and 53 startups have responded. Out of these 53 startups, five startups have been selected as finalists, and will join a high pressure accelerator programme similar to the other Rockstart Accelerator programs. At the end of Renew the Book, on March 31st 2017, the startup with the best pitch will win a 15k cash prize. During the program, the startups will be mentored by mentors from the publishing industry.

Results from last year

Last year’s winner was Bookarang, a Dutch artificial intelligence startup that uses AI to help people find the most interesting book. Cofounder Frederique Schut is recommending the program to startups: “It was extremely valuable to get so much input, feedback and inspiration from people from the field. We are still in contact with some of the mentors.“. Rob Veneboer, one of the mentors at Renew the book is on the advisory board of Bookarang.

Selected book startups

The five selected startups are:

We hope all five startups enjoy their time in Amsterdam, benefit from the acceleration program, will connect to book publishers and stay in touch with the Dutch ecosystem. And perhaps the startups can also help the Dutch publishers learn more about innovation so that we will have a more nimble and agile book industry in The Netherlands.

Image credit: Maria Eklind CC from Flickr.

Sieuwert van Otterloo
Sieuwert van Otterloo is IT expert by day and startup enthusiast by night. IT expert via Softwarezaken | innovation expert via Node1 | editor and cofounder of StartupJuncture | member of StartupDelta | startup investor. Reach out to Sieuwert via otterloo @ gmail .com

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