Time for some coffee (or tea) and your weekly dose of Dutch startup news. What happened last week and what lies ahead?
Funding
Less than one year after launch, Bux has reached 200.000 user and announces 1.7 million euro investment round. Lead investor is international investment fund Initial Capital.
Flower subscription service Bloomon, a startup not even a year old, announced an investment (series A) of 3.5 million euro led by Dutch INKEF Capital.
Launches & updates
The LOEY award for best internet entrepreneurs, was awarded to Steven Schuurman from Elastic, who is “relatively unknown in the Netherlands but a star in the USA”, according to the jury.
MediaMonks CEO Victor Knaap and Hyves founder Remco Bos today announce their new venture investment and acceleration program Venture Fathers, in an interview with Emerce. (Link in Dutch)
InnovationQuarter announced an investment in ‘Smart City’ cloud provider Munisense (2008). The amount was undisclosed, but no more than 2.5 million euro.
Groningen based MedWear (2014) part of medical startup network Lavoiser Medical, designed a ‘futuristic’ t-shirt that warns chronic obstructive respiratory disease (cord or copd in Dutch) patients when they will get short of breath. Sensors in the shirt measure the amount of air in the lungs. The regional Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij Noord-Nederland (NOM) already funded this striking innovation (Link in Dutch).
MY-WAY, the two-year European project set out to improve the startup ecosystem for students in Europe, last week released a research study to identify the needs and capabilities of the student networks and young adults across Europe regarding web entrepreneurship. Here are some of the key findings of the online survey.
Zencap, a German market place for sme-credit, also active on the Dutch market, secured 230 million euro from US-based Victory Park Capital for the Dutch, German and Spanish markets. Zencap is a Rocket Internet-startup that arranges loans for companies up to 250K.
Events
Amsterdam Capital Week is coming! (23-26 September). A week in which startups from around the world travel to Amsterdam to meet and pitch for over 500+ investors. With 20+ events, workshops and (crowd)funding festivals. Amsterdam Capital week is initiated and part of the StartupAmsterdam Program.
The city of Amersfoort will host the IT Innovation Week (22-24 September). One week filled with the best of IT innovation.
Monday morning read
Forbes. – With far too many things being shown at the Berlins IFA – not by chance it is considered Europe’s largest consumer electronic fair – it’s easy to get lost. Here’s a top 5 of coolest gadgets of IFA 2015.
Pando – Pando has heard that Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is reportedly raising a new mega round of funding – and if the source is accurate – it’s passing Uber in valuation again.
Photo by BlazerMan (creative commons via Flickr)