Six most prominent Dutch university-linked Incubators commit to Fundsup
With these partnerships, Fundsup becomes the most significant link between startups of university incubators and informal investors, fulfilling a prominent role as enabler of innovation in the Netherlands.
This is the original press release (see here the publication on Emerce.nl in Dutch from 24–06–2019)
4-bullets Factsheet
- What’s new? The incubators of all six major Dutch universities will collaborate with Fundsup: YES!Delft, Bright Move (Eindhoven), Novel-T (Twente), Startlife (Wageningen), ACE Incubator (UvA, VU, HvA, Amsterdam UMC) and UtrechtInc.
- Why? To make it easier for their early-stage startups to come into contact with smart capital.
- Because? Entrepreneurs spend a lot of time (and money) on finding suitable investors who, in addition to capital, also bring in their network and knowledge. This has an inhibiting effect on innovation in the Netherlands.
- The result? More suitable investment opportunities for individual early-stage investors + more smart capital for startups = more innovation in the Netherlands + more efficient use of public funds.
In March this year, YES!Delft, the incubator affiliated with TU Delft, was the first to decide to assist its young entrepreneurs in their search for smart capital by partnering with Fundsup, thé online matching platform that facilitates meaningful connections between entrepreneurs and early-stage investors. And now the incubators connected to the other three Dutch technical universities, Bright Move (Eindhoven), Novel-T (Twente) and StartLife (Wageningen), are also collaborating with Fundsup. In addition, the accelerators of all the Amsterdam knowledge institutions and the University of Utrecht — ACE incubator and UtrechtINC — have decided to join Fundsup.
By using Fundsup, it becomes much easier for startup founders to build up a relevant investor network. Fundsup also offers them insights into the traction their company receives from investors. Incubator startups are also given a badge for recognition, making it instantly clear to investors that these startups are connected to an incubator and which one.
Arjen Strijker, founder of Fundsup, is pleased with all these new collaborations:
“The fact that we have connected almost all university incubators in such a short period of time confirms once again that Fundsup fulfills an enormous need in the world of early-stage financing”.
For incubators it’s indeed a great challenge to build up and maintain an informal investor network for their startups. The choice for a partnership with Fundsup is therefore a logical one. The platform efficiently creates valuable connections between screened startups and verified investors, thereby facilitating high quality deal flow.
The collaborations between Fundsup and these incubators also generate a valuable social impact. The fact that the market for early-stage investments has so far been opaque and highly inefficient, which slowed down innovation in The Netherlands. By collaborating with incubators, Fundsup facilitates interregional and international improved access to high quality risk capital.
“This so-called smart capital makes more private money and — above all — expertise available. Which is so much needed amongst early-stage startups. The Dutch government, which has so far financed 60% to 70% of all early-stage startups in The Netherlands with relatively ‘dumb’ capital in a fairly arbitrary manner, can now deploy our taxpayers’ money in a much more supportive manner, alongside real smart capital” says Strijker. By definition, this will lead to more innovation.
Representatives of the university incubators about their partnership with Fundsup:
Jan Geert van Hall, investment director of YES!Delft:
“Deal sourcing for real early stage startups is traditionally a difficult and time-consuming process, which does not always lead to success. For us as an incubator, this is simply not possible to organise efficiently. That’s why we welcome initiatives like Fundsup: it allows us to ‘plug in’ networks of investors that are relevant to our startups and thus generate a high quality deal flow.”
Erik Boer, director of ACE Incubator:
“Easier and faster early-stage financing for science and tech startups will help enormously in successfully bringing university knowledge to the market”.
Remon van der Woude, Novel-T’s fund manager:
“Founders start out in good spirits with their search, spend a lot of time visiting matching-events and have consultants look for the right investor, but very often without results and with the necessary frustration. Because of the great diversity and quantity it is also a huge challenge to find the right match. Most of the time not only the ratio plays a role, there also has to be a ‘click’. As a third party, it’s hard to get that type of matching on feeling done! That’s why I have a lot of confidence in the solution that Fundsup offers and why I warmly welcome the cooperation with the hubs and incubators connected to universities.”
Robert Al, Director Bright Move incubator:
“In the Brainport Eindhoven region, we have experienced an enormous growth of knowledge-intensive startups over the past decade. Many starters with a special potential, but all with one common challenge: finding risk capital. Our experience is that this is a continuous struggle, characterised by enormous inefficiency. Fundsup’s idea appeals to us because it brings supply and demand in this market closer together and lowers the barriers for our startups.
About Fundsup
Fundsup is a matchmaking platform that facilitates meaningful connections between entrepreneurs and early-stage investors. Entrepreneurs in need of capital create an extensive company profile that they can publish after screening by Fundsup or a Fundsup partner. In this way, they can efficiently and effectively bring their company to the attention of a rapidly growing network of investors that are right for them.
In turn, investors on Fundsup can find interesting new startups more easily and anonymously. They simply indicate their investment criteria by means of filters. When a new deal opportunity that meets their criteria is published, they receive a push notification in the Fundsup app (iOS and Android). If the investor is indeed interested, then it is possible to contact the entrepreneur directly via a chat function.
Currently, 380+ Dutch investors already use Fundsup. Roughly 80% of them are informal investors and 20% are VCs, government funds and Regional Development Agencies. More than 2,500 registered startups are using Fundsup today.
