/ News / Dutch Startup News: Resnap, Tass International, Holland Startup Fund I, Diversity is Growth

Dutch Startup News: Resnap, Tass International, Holland Startup Fund I, Diversity is Growth

What happens in the startup scene in The Netherlands right now? Find out in another Dutch startup news update!

News & Updates

ALBELLI acquires Nijmegen-based photo books startup RESNAP 

Albelli, a photo product companies headquartered in Amsterdam has acquired photo album startup Resnap. Financial details about the transaction are not disclosed. The management and employees of ReSnap will continue to work out of Nijmegen. “Combining ReSnap’s smart photo selection technology with Albelli’s current award winning software, we will be able to make the whole process of photo selection and photo product creation a lot easier for our customers,” says Tristan Money, CEO of Albelli, explaining the reason for the acquisition.

Siemens acquires Dutch Tass International,

Tass International is a provider of autonomous driving solutions. The German industrial manufacturing giant Siemens has announced that it will acquire 100 percent of the shares of the company in a move to strengthen its position in the automotive industry. The amount of the acquisition has not been disclosed. In the wake of this acquisition Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday in her weekly podcast said that the German car industry is lagging behind.

OrangeGames acquires the Berlin-based game company Plinga.

The Dutch game developer OrangeGames has acquired Rocket Internet backed game startup Plinga. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. Orange Game is known for the brands Stratego and Governor of Poker.

Airbnb for country side cabin natuurhuisje.nl facilitates payments 

The self-proclaimed booking.com and Airbnb for countryside lodges and cabins, natuurhuisje.nl, facilitates as of now payments through its platform. The startup under the radar is founded in 2013 by brothers Van Oerle and has facilitated 20 million in transactions last year. Given the name of the company and the fact that the website is only available in Dutch, the company is still focused on growing in the Netherlands first before providing its offering also to Europe and the rest of the world.

Funding

Venture builder, Holland Startup, launches €8M investment fund

The venture builder, Holland Startup, has launched its own early stage fund called Holland Startup Fund I. The size of the fund is expected to grow to 8 million euros by mid 2018. The newly launched fund has already participated in two startups, one of which is the fintech startup Bittiq.

Monday Morning Read

Diversity = Innovation = Growth
I am a big proponent of driving diversity in the workforce. Not only because it’s ethical, but also because it drives innovation and growth. Hundreds of studies have demonstrated that a diverse team in background, age, race, and gender preforms better than a more homogenous team. Nevertheless, there is still not a level playing field for minority groups. I interviewed a number of Dutch female entrepreneurs at the Web Summit in Lisbon in 2016 and was blown away by how far away we are still from creating such a level playing field. For such a level playing field a hospitable institutional environment for diversity is critical. As nobel laureate Douglass North explains people are agents of change.

As such they can change the institutional structure, cultural norms and standards and formals institutions like company rules and regulations. Accordingly executives and managers can reap the fruits of diversity by critically scrutinising their company’s culture and formalised standards and alter them if necessary. The good news: a recent empirical study of BCG and the Technical University of Munich demonstrates that ‘companies with higher levels of diversity get more revenue from new products and services.’  And that innovation increases as the proportion of female managers rises.

Microsoft Chasing European Startups for Future Cloud Business

Microsoft is doubling down on its attempt to back Europe’s next big software startups, in order to win over future business to its cloud platform.  The four-month accelerator program focuses on supporting companies that have raised early-stage financing and are building software in the areas of connected factories and vehicles, AI, blockchain databases and computer vision. Participants will receive $500,000 of Azure cloud-computing credits, along with access to outside investors, Microsoft sales teams, and technical experts.

 

Samir Saberi
Entrepreneur | Co-founder @StartupsAnoniem, @StartupJuncture | Partner @StartupDelta | Node1| Tech Blogger| Samir is interested in and loves to work with crazy, dissident, rebel startups that challenge the status quo to make things better. Drop him a line at samir[at]startupjuncture[.]com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Read on