Business

DDW: Radius project is recruiting high-tech startups that are disruptive in a good way

By Terry Boyd

Posted on October 13, 2017

Consider this our preview of the Netherlands’ largest gatherings of design innovators.

Dutch Design Foundation and organizers have just launched the Radius project to bring more and different kinds of startups to Dutch Design Week 2017, which runs from 21 October thru 29 October.

This inaugural year for Radius, nine startups will be part of Dutch Design Week 2017, where designers in every category, including architecture, urbanism, graphics and fashion display their work in Europe’s industrial design capital.

Startups are no strangers to DDW, having been included for years along with established firms among the thousands of designers on display at the nine-day event.

But Radius has recruited nine startups that fit their criteria of both being disruptive and improving peoples’ lives.

“We want to have a platform for startups in high-tech design, but also who are having a social impact,” said Fokert Huysinga, one of the RADIUS organizers.

Radius is a collaboration between high-tech accelerator HighTechXL, Technical University Eindhoven, Dutch Design Foundation, which puts on DDW, and Holland Innovative, a project management, product and process development and engineering firm. All are based in Eindhoven.

According to RADIUS organizers, this is just the beginning.

From a news release:

Our ambition for the coming years is to expand the project to include a minimum of 100 startup companies from around the world that meet the participation criteria.

The criteria basically comes down to having game-changing technology that also benefits society.

An investor writes a check to Sustonable on stage during HighTechXL’s Demo Day in March, 2017.

Here a quick bio for the nine startups for the first RADIUS

• Sustonable: We’ve written a lot about Sustonable, because they were a standout at the HighTechXL demo day last March, where they received 375,000 euros in funding on the stage! Sustonable turns plastic waste and other packaging into a unique market killer, a high-quality composite stone product that’s cheaper, lighter and more sustainable than natural stone.

• SEMiLLA: The SEMiLLA Sanitation Hub is a closed wastewater treatment unit using advanced space technology from the MELiSSA program to convert sanitary wastewater into clean water and nutrients for food production. Their focus is on helping refugees and people across the world made homeless by natural disaster or war.

• Xyhlo Biofinish: Xyhlo Biofinish is a sustainable and 100-percent environmentally friendly method for protecting wood in outdoor applications. It’s based entirely on natural resources and an environmentally friendly process. Xyhlo biofinish not only protects the wood for many years, but can repair damage without requiring additional treatment.

• Z3DLabs: Z3DLabs is creating a 3D-printing lab for Dutch hospitals in cooperation with software and additive manufacturing experts, material engineers, medical centers, and universities. The lab will produce biocompatible, durable and customizable bone implants. Z3D Labs is working on creating ceramic 3D-printed spinal cage implants with graphene oxide.

• Expivi: Expivi’s 3D technology allows clients to visualize, customize and quote any product with all possible options and without limitations inside any browser, even in VR. Expivi is an advanced web-based platform that makes it extremely easy to import and configure 3D objects. Users can visualize complex 3D objects in a matter of seconds, all within web-browsers.

• AVRGE: AVRGE is a specialized software developer of augmented reality, virtual reality and 360-degree video applications. For example, AVRGE technology can add a digital layer onto the existing textbooks: hard-to-visualize subjects pop-out in 3D when students aim their smartphones at a page. This solution delivers a new learning experience which has been reviewed as better understandable and fun. Applications are built for the most widely used systems. For example, not only applications for iOS and Android, but AVRGE also creates web-based solutions.

• The Tumble Project: The Tumble Project is integrating tech and human interaction to create friendlier versions of products we take for granted. Products include the Tumble Clock, a stand-alone alarm clock with which you can set the duration of your extended sleep period simply with one touch, and the Tumble Pulse, which enables you to intuitively manipulate settings of your smart home environment. Change the intensity of your intelligent lighting, shuffle through music playlists or change the volume of your sound system — all by simply moving the Tumble Pulse.

• Mestic – Mestic is one of the products of Jalila Essaïdi, a Dutch artist and entrepreneur based in Eindhoven. Essaïdi is specialized in the fields of bio-based materials and biological arts (bio-art). Mestic is a patented method to directly convert animal manure waste into new materials such as bio- textiles, plastic and paper.

• The Girl and the Machine: The Girl and the Machine makes 3D knitted garments, customized to your personal preference before they are made. The apparel is made out of 100-percent Merino wool.

The fee for joining RADIUS is 500 euros per startup to cover expenses.

For that, teams get a number of perks including:

• their own large space in Hall 1 of the Klokgebouw in Strijp-S for the duration of DDW. Startups from Dutch/French airline KLM, TU/e and other groups will also be there.

• inclusion in the Radius branding collateral.

• an opportunity to present at a special Drinks & Demo event during DDW, set for 26 October at the Klokgebouw, Eindhoven’s premier events space in the famous Strijp S creative district.

• media exposure for more than 100 media outlets/design arbiters including the New York Times and Dezeen covering the Netherlands largest events for creatives.

For attendees, this will be your chance to see just how sophisticated Eindhoven’s startups are … and properly showcased in a forum that draws 300,000 visitors each year.

We’ll have more details about future RADIUS plans as we follow up with a later DDW post.

About Dutch Design Week:

DDW is so big the “week” takes up nine days and 100 locations to welcome 2,500 designers from all over Europe between 21 and 29 October.

DDW presents 110 displays of processes, experiments and ideas, answers and solutions at various locations across Eindhoven, which is about 100 miles south of Amsterdam in the Brabant Region of the Netherlands.

See the full DDW schedule here.