What happens in the startup scene in The Netherlands right now? Find out in another Dutch startup news update!
News & Updates
Booking.com’s accelerator program doubles fund
Booking Booster, the accelerator program of booking.com, has announced the launch of two new programs: Booking Labs and Booking Cares. Part of Booking Cares is the Booking Cares Fund, a €2 million fund available for non-profit organisations with ‘the potential to disrupt in sustainable business’.
David Fastned loses court-case against Goliath Shell
Fastned, a startup that has since its founding had the mission to create a network of stations to enable fast charing of electrical vehicles has lost a civil law suit it had filed against Shell. Shell recently acquired Amsterdam-based NewMotion, the owner of one of Europe’s largest electric vehicle charging networks. Fastned claims that there is not a level playing field. The startup is not allowed to open a shop near its charing stations, leaving its customers literarily in the cold. While Shell is at the same time allowed to build charging stations at its proprietary stations, competing in effect with Fastned and other smaller companies (in Dutch).
10 % of Europe’s fastest growing companies hail from the Netherlands
The Deloitte Fast 500 list, which keeps track of the fastest growing companies in Europe, reports that 50 of those 500 are Dutch companies. Looking at the turnover growth between 2013-2016 Deloitte calculates that the parcel startup SendCloud is the fastest growing Dutch company. Growing with 5463 percent in that period. Bynder (3792 percent) claims the 23th spot while, Voipgrid is number 50 on the list (2216 percent). As a breeding ground for fast growing companies the Netherlands claims the third spot in Europe, after Frans and UK and, interestingly, before startup ‘mekka’ (Berlin) Germany.
Netherland’s sole Unicorn considers IPO
Amsterdam-based fintech Unicorn and Sillicon Valley darling Adyen considers to IPO next year. Bloomberg reports that according to some people familiar with the matter the company is considering an initial public offering as early as next year. According to Bloomberg data the company that doubled its revenue of 2015 to $727 million in 2016 could command a high valuation as it lists, considering that similar companies trade at 24 times their earnings.
Impact Accelerator World Startup Factory present new batch of startups
The World Startup Factory as announced the new batch of 10 startups are that are paving the way in the areas Smart City, Health & Ageing, Security, Smart Building and Mobility. Here is a full overview of the startups participating.
Funding
Renewable energy startup SolarNow raises $9m from Novastar and Shell
SolarNow, a Dutch renewable energy startup mostly active in Uganda and Kenya has raised $9 million dollar in a Series-B round led by Novastar and Shell. The capital raised will be used to strengthen the company’s position in existing markets and expand into news ones. Instead of selling appliances SolarNow sells tiered solution packages to its four target groups: households, small business, farmers, corporates.
Grocery delivery startup SuperBuddy raises 1 million euro
Zwolle-based startup SuperBuddy has raised 1 million euro from a group of investors, among which the regional development cooperation Oost NL. The service can be compared with the San Francisco based Instacart. SuperBuddy promises to deliver groceries in 2 hours. The ‘buddy’s’ are particularly students, pensionado’s and people in between jobs. Superbuddy aims to use the capital raised to expand to 60 cities in the coming years.
Monday Read
The coming avalanche of ICO failures
History shows that there is no short-cut to success, in any form. Also not in earning a lot of money very quickly. At least not for 99.99 of us and the 0.01 that is somehow struck by lightning gets burned by it due to post-all-off a sudden-millionaire-syndrome (PAOMS). But still, people tend to invest hundreds of million dollars in so-called initial coin offerings (ICO’s), with no idea of the likelihood of really making any money on the investment. China already banned ICO’s outright and now the USA government comes with new regulation to end the mania on its soil. Here is a great Techcrunch article on the topic. Main thesis: digital tokens are investment contracts. “An investment contract is an investment of money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of others.”
Photo by toine Garnier on Unsplash