075BY CHRIS STOKEL-WALKER 52.3680° N, 4.9036° EAMSTERDAMCrispOnline grocery-shopping
startup Crisp is thriving
in the Dutch market. It
eschews bricks-and-
mortar stores, instead
showcasing products
from more than 200
suppliers in its app, with
next-day delivery across
the Netherlands, six days
a week. Co-founders
Eric Klaassen, René Bink
and Tom Peeters
raised €3 million in
November 2018. crisp.nlFramerFounded by ex-Facebook
employees Koen Bok and
Jorn van Dijk in 2014,
this AI-powered design
company has raised $33
million, including $24
million in November 2018.
It allows users to quickly
protoype app designs –
teams within Facebook,
Twitter, Dropbox and
Snap use it. The duo had
joined Facebook after
it bought their first firm,
Sofa. framer.comTe mp e rHugo Feenstra, Niels
Arntz and Paul Eggink
launched Temper in 2016,
aiming to standardise
freelance hiring in
the hospitality, retail
and charity sectors –
connecting experienced
workers with employers.
It has 70,000 workers
signed up, working more
than a million hours.
The firm recently secured
€4 million in funding.
temper.worksRobot Care SystemsLaunched by Maja
Rudinac and Aswin
Chandarr in 2014, Robot
Care Systems makes a
robotic walking frame
named Lea, which
monitors a user’s posture
while walking to prevent
them falling over – a
common cause of injuries
among elderly people. It
also senses obstacles
and applies the brakes
before collisions occur.
robotcaresystems.nlAidenceCo-founder Jeroen van
Duffelen started Aidence
with Mark-Jan Harte
in November 2015. The
company develops AI
systems that analyse
medical scans, such
as X-rays, to identify
underlying health issues.
Aidence now analyses
thousands of scans per
week in hospitals across
Europe. aidence.comIn the last 12 months, two Amsterdam-based companies – Adyen,
valued at $23 billion (£19 billion), and Elastic, valued at $6 billion –
navigated successful IPOs. That achievement hasn’t gone unnoticed: on
June 1, 2019 the Dutch government announced a national programme,
TechLeap.NL, to keep the pipeline of billion-dollar startups flowing. “The
biggest challenge to achieve this, not only in Amsterdam but nationally,
is to further improve access to talent, capital and markets for startups”,
says Nils Beers, director of StartupDelta, a Dutch startup lobby group.WHERE TO DRINK
Coffee & Coconuts,
Ceintuurbaan 282-284,
1072 GK
Not your typical
Amsterdam coffee shop,
this is a full-blown café
based in a former cinema
with top-class drinks.
coffeeandcoconuts.comDottFrench entrepreneurs
Maxim Romain and
Henri Moissinac set up
e-scooter-hire firm Dott
in 2018, and closed out a
€20 million investment
round by the end of the
year – before a single
scooter hit the road.
Dott’s e-scooters have
wider decks and bigger
wheels than most rival
brands. ridedott.comBidroomFounded by Casper
Knieriem and Michael
Ros, the membership-
based hotel-booking
platform offers steep
discounts on more than
120,000 hotels across
120 countries, all without
charging commissions on
bookings. In November
2018, the firm announced
€15 million in funding for
expansion. bidroom.comSwapfietsLaunched in 2015 by
Martijn Obers, Richard
Burger and Steven
Uitentuis, Swapfiets is
a subscription service
for cycling. €15 a month
gives access to a
bike – and if it breaks,
the company will fix or
replace it within a day.
The scheme operates
in 43 cities across the
Netherlands. swapfiets.nlNxChangeThis next-gen stock
exchange, founded in
2016 by Marleen Evertsz,
enables direct trading of
securities. The long-term
goal is that users can
visit a company’s website
and directly invest in
its future. NxChange is
licensed to operate as a
regulated market by the
Dutch finance ministry.
nxchange.comCharly CaresCharly van der Straten
set up Charly Cares in
2015, with co-founder
Xander Koenen. It’s a
marketplace for qualified
babysitters – all vetted in
person. The company has
crowdfunded €600,000
of investment, allowing
it to expand its services,
which cover eight cities
across the Netherlands.
charlycares.comAMSTERDAM09-19-SUstartup01.indd 75 22/07/2019 14:06