May 31 2013
The Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands – in collaboration with WeWork – today announced a delegation of the Netherlands’ most promising tech startups will visit New York City from June 3-6 to experience the booming NYC tech scene.
The Dutch startups will experience first-hand the opportunities available in the NYC tech industry, and their New York-based counterparts have the opportunity to learn more about the tech startup community in the Netherlands. The Dutch Consulate hopes the event will drive collaboration between Dutch and NYC technology entrepreneurs.
The highlight of the visit will be “Dutch Demo Night” on Thursday, June 6. There, Dutch startup entrepreneurs will present themselves to a group of prominent NYC tech experts, venture capitalists, and government leaders who all share the goal of growing the tech community in both the Netherlands and New York City. Dutch Demo Night is a joint effort of the Consulate General and WeWork Soho.
In addition to Dutch Demo Night, highlights of the trip include visits and meetings with Foursquare, Alley NYC, General Assembly, Union Square Ventures, Shapeways, BWise, and 500 Startups.
“We are very pleased to announce this first ever ‘Holland in NYC boot camp’ for Dutch startups,” said the Consul-General of the Netherlands to New York, Rob de Vos, “Our goal is to help provide a unique opportunity to showcase Dutch tech entrepreneurship in NYC, while providing an opportunity for Dutch startups to learn first-hand about opportunities that Silicon Alley has to offer.”
Participating start-ups from the Netherlands include eFaqts, which helps users study textbooks better and faster; IQNOMY, a SaaS company that develops websites which automatically adapt their content to each individual visitor; Plot, with a location-based marketing plugin for apps, allowing app publishers to reach out to their users based on location and time; 20/20 vision, which provides a world class procurement solution automating invoices; Dayview, an innovative worldwide news service that filters and analyzes relevant news; and Nanotronics, which provides essential tools for building a Quantum computer.
The Netherlands (particularly Amsterdam and Eindhoven) is a European hub of high-energy, high-tech expertise. The Netherlands is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of IT services, and holds 5th place in the 2012-2013 Top-10 of ICT Index of the World Economic Forum, thereby surpassing the US and the UK.
“Looking at the European tech cities, Amsterdam definitely has the highest density of tech and creative startups in a relatively small area” said Bas Langelaar from NextStage, the leading Dutch network for entrepreneurs, investors and experts.
“Old canal houses are packed with young and creative techies, working close to each other, which helps them create new ideas and stimulates them to become the best. International companies love the atmosphere and cultural scene in Amsterdam. It’s a small city with a metropolitan image.” said Maarten Lens-Fitzgerald, co-founder at Layar. “It is not easy to find great engineers. We attract these successfully with Layar's brand name and with the fact that Amsterdam is a great city to work in and has a large tech community.”
“We feel that Amsterdam is a great beachhead for tech start-ups from New York that want to conquer Europe,” said Daniel van Vulpen, Area Director, Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency New York. “Amsterdam’s creative atmosphere is a huge draw for young and talented people from all over the world and the Dutch government stimulates growth in the tech business with incentives.”
Unlike other European industries, the Dutch ICT market is growing substantially each year - with an annual turnover of 30 billion euro that amounts to 5% of the Dutch GDP. ICT is responsible for 20% of the economic growth, 70% of all innovation and provides well over 250.000 jobs. Total R&D expenditure equals 31% of all R&D in the Netherlands.