(Editor’s note: This business briefing is part of Dispatches’ Tech Tuesday series. We cover tech because so many of our highly skilled internationals are engineers, physicists and entrepreneurs.)
Welcome to the 16 May 2023 Eindhoven Business Briefing … except this is going to be the European Business Briefing version of the EBB, with the addition of news items we’ve gotten from across Europe. And after all, Eindhoven is Europe’s most important tech hub.
Consider our lead item as more of a preview of things to come.
High Tech Campus Eindhoven has started the first stage of a buildout that will take it – Europe’s largest R&D campus – into the middle of the 21st century, adding as many as six new buildings on the less developed south side.
The first of several new buildings is under construction and will be known as HTC 91. The construction site is next to the Shimano European headquarters.
We know the vague outline of what’s coming, but not all the details, with Campus officials planning a media event before summer, according to our sources.
Here’s what we know:
• HTC 91 will be 12 floors
• It’s a “spec building,” the commercial real estate term for a building developers construct first and lease later.
• It’s the footprint of HTC 91 that’s really interesting. It will be 12,600 m2, or about 130,000 square feet -three acres under roof for you Americans. Using a low-ball figure of about 2,700 euros per square meter, the new building would cost about 34 million euros to construct and roughly the same amount for a high-end tenant finish.
• That would make it the largest building on Campus constructed post-Philips, which built the Campus back in 1998 before fleeing to Amsterdam.
• The architect is INBO BV, based in Amsterdam, one of the biggest firms in the Netherlands.
• Our sources say five more buildings are in the works. In the past two years, Campus executives have hinted that long-stay accommodations are part of the expansion plan for the campus but haven’t made public any plans.
All this links back to the purchase of High Tech Campus back in 2021 by Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital and the estimable Howard Marks. Oaktree had $155 billion in assets under management back in 2021 when they made the High Tech Campus acquisition. Now, that number is $172 billion.
Just after the deal was finalized, Oaktree’s Hermann Dambach referred to the “sizable land bank” HTCE has acquired under previous owner Marcel Boekhoorn, undeveloped land ready for expansion. Dambach predicted the Campus will add another 5,000 employees “over time.” Existing buildings will be renovated and possibly reconfigured, he said. And of course, a huge amount of leasable space added.
Our sources tell us that Oaktree co-founder Bruce Karsh is coming to Eindhoven next month. As beautiful as Eindhoven is, we’re thinking this will be a business trip, not a sight-seeing tour.
Stay tuned ….
Eindhoven now the most important tech hub in Europe
This is subjective, but lately we’ve been thinking in relation to the HTCE expansion about where Eindhoven ranks in importance and it occurs to us that this is now the biggest tech hub in Europe, and not by a little bit.
When you think of the competition – Munich, London, Stockholm and Amsterdam – those are nice but they don’t have cutting-edge companies. Munich is cars. London is high finance. Stockholm is all about fun tech and Amsterdam fintech.
But Eindhoven is the only city that’s headquarters for two major deep-tech semiconductor companies – ASML and NXP – as well as all the R&D institutions – TNO, Holst Center and imec – and there are 300 companies on HTCE alone. Now, throw in VDL, Vanderlande, several of the emerging photonics companies and young but huge companies such as Neways, and there are a huge number of headquarters jobs here as well as thousands of engineers, physicists and management types. All the ingredients (except capital) for a critical mass that will produce more and more advanced technology.
The sad thing is no one is noticing ….
Best of the rest of Europe
Thanks to Daria Chaika, senior PR manger at SLOVA Agency and others for sending Dispatches these releases.
Begin a beautiful partnership with L’Oreal
We just got this out of the blue from Jeffery Tan at Agorize, which brings together startups and corporations. We checked it out, and this really is connected to Paris-based L’Oreal, the world’s largest cosmetics company.
Hello, Dispatches Europe,
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Apply now to showcase your startup and network with the best in the beauty industry.
OSavul raises $1 million
This is timely … OSavul the Ukrainian AI company focusing on information security, countering disinformation and information environment assessment, raised $1 million from the SMRK venture fund in the seed round.
The funding will be used for marketing and development of the technology platform, particularly integrating Large Language Models technologies, according to a news release. OSavul plans to expand the product to international markets and cooperate with foreign companies and government organizations.
OSavul was founded in March 2022 as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Its founders Dmytro Pleshakov and Dmytro Bilash have significant experience in the field of IT development and artificial intelligence.
The company is working on the development of three products:
- CommSecure is a software platform for conducting information environment assessment, detecting and analyzing narratives and information threats in the media environment.
- CIB Guard is a module for analyzing coordinated inauthentic behavior between accounts in media, messengers and social networks.
- InfoOps is an integrated service where the company provides software and performs analytics and disinformation counteraction tasks.
The OSavul software has been implemented and used by the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and Ukrainian security and defense agencies.
The experience and successful results of the work in Ukraine prompted the founders to turn the initial idea into a business organization to help democratic countries, Ukraine’s allies and companies build resilience to disinformation.
Allbionics
Allbionics is a Ukrainian-Polish startup that offers bionic prostheses to Ukrainian citizens who lost their upper limbs due to military operations. The project was founded by Volodymyr Bandura (CEO, Ukraine), and Steven Van Fleet (CTO, author of 18 patents in the field of electronics, USA).
The Allbionics team encountered substantial challenges in cooperating with international prosthetics manufacturers, including lengthy production and delivery times, high costs and a lack of support services for clients in the country. As a result, Allbionics decided to create their own innovative prosthetic technology in cooperation with GlobalLogic, Droid Technologies and Design Company Aranchii Architects.
The project’s team utilizes 3D scanning and 3D printing technologies to size individually each of the prostheses. The scanning procedure is simple and efficient and can be done by volunteers where patients are located, without a need to travel to specialized clinics. The result is an individual socket that is created based on the scan results, followed by the manufacturing of the prosthetic. The entire process takes only three to four weeks at a significantly lower cost than international prosthetics.
This initiative has the potential to change the lives of many Ukrainians who have suffered the consequences of war.
BlockDown Festival
The Web3 experience of BlockDown Festival is back and continues across Europe to Algarve, Portugal, 10 thru 12 July, leading the way in merging the physical and virtual worlds.
BlockDown Festival: Portugal, hosted by Web3 Creative Marketing and Communications Agency EAK Digital, will be kicking off its second annual in-person Web3 and blockchain festival in Algarve, Portugal. And who wouldn’t want to attend a startup/tech event in Portugal?
The festival will bring together key leaders in Web3 and the creator economy, with a focus on creative industries such as music, fashion, entertainment, sports and gaming and arts, among others. With the large influx of Web2 brands over the last 18 months, BlockDown Festival will also host speakers from major traditional brands discussing their entrance and experience into Web3. Speaking content will range from exclusive fireside chats, panels, debates and keynote speeches.
You can get tickets here, starting at 375 euros.
Bringly launches sustainable shipping platform with 1.5 million euro investment
Amsterdam-based Bringly has completed a new investment round with multiple investors. They include Eyos Capital, the Polish SpeedUp Energy Innovation and existing investors Shamrock Ventures, Ponooc and various angels. The sustainable shipping platform for e-commerce uses the growth money for further (inter)national growth and development of the platform.
Bringly helps brands throughout Europe make their logistics more sustainable. This is done on the basis of its renewed platform that offers the most sustainable shipping methods to (web) shops. To this end, the company has developed a unique software solution that compiles the most sustainable delivery per package based on the most optimal route and the available capacity. Currently, more than 100 different types of carriers in Europe are affiliated with Bringly.
Bringly’s software solution makes it possible for e-commerce players – web shops and retailers – to split the entire delivery process from different stock locations on the basis of different carriers, in order to achieve more sustainable deliveries. Bringly’s algorithm monitors the available capacities and performance of connected carriers and couriers in real time. It then provides direct insights into the associated CO2 reduction in both the check-out of the web shop and the weekly reports.
With more than 300-percent growth in the past year, the startup has attracted international clients such as the MediaMarkt, Dille & Kamille and Dyson.
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