Rise programme - Meet Batch #1

As part of the program, the entrepreneurs will be put on the international map with corporates, investors and media. Founders are encouraged in groups of ten to fifteen participants to also learn from each other about the challenges of scaling up a company.  They receive support and feedback from top Dutch entrepreneurs who share their own insights and lessons learned with the new batch of promising scaleups. Every quarter Techleap.nl Rise will help a new group of entrepreneurs, apply here. 

The aim of Techleap.nl Rise is to support the emergence and development of world champions in the technology sector, to become less dependent on technological solutions from other countries and to create a climate in which two unicorns per year can 'rise' by 2023. By 2023, Techleap.nl Rise wants to have supported 250 promising scale-ups. The insights from the program will also be shared to further improve the tech-ecosystem in the Netherlands and to define bottlenecks and solutions for the growth challenges of scaleups.

The criteria to participate are strict: a scale-up qualifies for the program if they meet the following criteria: currently €10M+ is being raised in a funding round or they are preparing to raise it with their next round (which has probably already been funded €1-5M); an annual turnover in excess of €1 million; more than 10 FTEs employed; at least 50% annual growth and a clear understanding of the product/service and the market they serve. 

After receiving applications from around the Netherlands after our call to action to apply, 10 companies were accepted. An experienced independent selection committee selected the companies based on their overall value proposition, traction, potential to scale and program fit. The companies are from a wide range of sectors, on average have just over 30 employees and have raised €2 million in capital. 

When was the last time you got your eyes checked? Last month? Last year? Never? Easee removes the bother of visiting your optician by letting you test your eyesight in the comfort of your own home. All you need is a computer, a smartphone and about three metres of space, and Easee will guide you through a full virtual examination, delivering a fully-validated prescription into your inbox at the end of it. Each prescription is carefully examined by Easee’s in-house team of optometrists, and the tech has been extensively tested by the Utrecht Medical Centre, resulting in Easee being the first online eye exam to be given a CE-mark. 

Credit flexibility is so important for new businesses – everyday presents new challenges and hurdles, and yet, many business credit systems are stuck in the past, demanding fixed terms, interest rates and withdrawals. Floryn’s business credit accounts work differently – you can withdraw and repay money whenever you want, choose what rate you want to repay at and how long you want the account open for, just like a current account. Best of all, you can have a line of credit open in just 24 hours, without stacks of physical paperwork clogging up your offices! Floryn is business credit reinvented for modern business.

LTO Network is on a mission to drive efficiency and collaboration between businesses, using hybrid blockchain technology. Whilst thousands of businesses have successfully incorporated blockchain into their internal processes over the last few years, that efficiency drops away as soon as businesses start collaborating externally; because they use different systems, they’re forced to fall back on old communication methods like email, post and fax which don’t allow for data automation. LTO Network connects these systems and allows you to harness the power of hybrid blockchain, which combines the security of public blockchain with the speed of private blockchain.

As businesses embrace flexible working hours and hot desks, workplaces are becoming more flexible and mobile than ever. Mapiq is at the cutting edge of smart office technology – the platform maps out a digital 3D model of your office, cataloguing every room and workspace so you can see who is in and which rooms are in use, all in real-time. By making it easy for employees to connect with their teams and find workspaces that suit their needs, Mapiq helps businesses embrace the freedom of flexible working. Not only does the platform do that, it also channels all the data into a powerful analytics system which tracks everything from space occupancy and employee hours to office temperature.

According to the most recent figures, around 1 in 6 of us will suffer a stroke at some point in our lives. A stroke is life-threatening if not treated quickly, and the evidence on treatment is clear – the faster you’re diagnosed, the better your chances of recovery. Nico.lab’s StrokeViewer technology is making the process of diagnosis and treatment faster than ever – once a patient with stroke symptoms has received their neurovascular imaging (like an x-ray for the brain), StrokeViewer’s artificial intelligence algorithms analyze the imagery, providing healthcare workers with a diagnosis in just three minutes. When it comes to strokes, those minutes can mean the difference between life and death. 

With over 4 million onboarded merchants throughout Europe, Online Payment Platform is already establishing itself as one of the most trusted payment platforms on the market, offering global payments and market-leading safety across 150 marketplaces. Technology is at the very heart of what makes Online Payment Platform special; they offer incredible flexibility when it comes to payments – you can make single or recurring payments, split payments between multiple vendors, or add an escrow should you wish – as well as live analytics, dispute handling and dedicated support. Crucially, all of it is compatible with PSD2 – the EU’s latest payment services directive. 

Adventuring is supposed to be fun, but planning and documenting your travels can become almost as tedious as the job you just left behind! Polarsteps streamlines this process for every moment of your trip - from the spark of a travel idea, to reminiscing when it's all over and done. As you trek from place to place and take photos, Polarsteps automatically plots your path on a digital world map, creating a beautiful interactive journal for your friends and family to follow from afar. Once you’ve wrapped up your trip, Polarsteps can generate a personal, professionally-printed Travel Book, so you can remember your trip forever.

Freight makes up a huge portion of road traffic across Europe, but did you know, around 50% of the freight on the roads is at least partially or completely empty? This number inspired Avishai Trabelsi and Roni Liberman to found Quicargo in 2016. In essence, Quicargo is a digital freight network – it brings some of the largest freight companies in Europe under a single umbrella, utilising the combined logistics of their fleets whilst allowing businesses and consumers to ship pallets all over Europe at the drop of a hat. The result? Fewer empty trucks, less pollution, and more efficient shipping than ever.

Frustrated by the impersonal nature of talent acquisition, Lars van Wieren and Mark Berendsen came together in 2013 to form Starred – a start-up designed to change the way businesses handled feedback. Starred takes over the communication process with potential hires from start to finish – instead of bland emails, Starred provides candidates with a more personal experience that encourages them to provide feedback on the whole process, providing crucial insights into your talent acquisition process. Starred also keeps a dialogue open with current employees as well, allowing you complete customisation over the questions you want to ask as an employer, then funnelling all the information back into a powerful analytics platform. With Deloitte, Coca Cola, Roblox, Virgin Atlantic and more already on-board, the future looks bright. 

The internet is an incredible repository of information, but most of the time it comes with little to no filter. This is especially challenging for children in the throes of their education; kids have access to all the information in the world, but no way of deciphering what is relevant or irrelevant, what is real or fake. Wizenoze was founded to tackle that problem head-on – the company uses artificial intelligence algorithms to filter out the noise and curate a new internet, full of relevant, safe educational content for children. Wizenoze’s Web for Classrooms platform already boasts 16 million pages of approved content, and research has shown that the platform has helped 91% of students that use it.