(Editor’s note: This Eindhoven Business Briefing is part of our Tech Tuesdays series. Dispatches covers tech and the startup world because so many of our highly skilled internationals are engineers, entrepreneurs and managers.)
If you’ve ever wondered how Dispatches Europe makes money, it sure as heck isn’t off advertising revenue. That goes to the big social media platforms these days. We had to come up with new unconventional business lines that complement our website and communications company.
One of those is Tier1 Tech Talent, where we work with European startups and even take them to the United States for funding and market expansion.
The big news is, we have a new relationship with a private equity firm in the U.S. with significant capital to invest in Europe.
This PE firm is looking to invest in software-based startups for the obvious reason – low cost of entry and infinite scalability. And as Marc Andreessen so famously noted, “software is eating the world.”
If you have an Eindhoven-based or Netherlands-based startup or scale-up working in some flavor of software – enterprise software, SaaS, embedded software or B2B, such as marketing intelligence – send us a quick email and let us know what you do and how you do it.
Now, here’s the tricky part: Our PE friends are looking for a very narrow slice of the startup world. That would be those that are pre-Series B, but with significant revenue, at least 5 million euros. Oh, and a solid business plan to increase that revenue quickly should our American friends invest. In turn, this isn’t like larger PE firms … if possible, they leave management in place.
This a serious investor with significant funds and a history of exits.
Ping us at: [email protected]
Events schedule for the rest of 2023
Most people are returning to the ecosystem as Eindhoven works from holiday to holiday … next stop, fall break, then the major and minor holidays of Christmas. But until then, there are a lot of startup and tech events coming up at High Tech Campus Eindhoven or the Evoluon to get our brains working and creative juices flowing.
• August 31: Gerard & Anton Awards 2023 + Startup BBQ
The 9th edition of the Gerard and Anton Awards is already sold out as Eindhoven celebrates the most promising startups in the Brainport region. On Thursday, the 19 winners of 2023 will be announced at the event on High Tech Campus, in conjunction with HTC’s annual startup BBQ.
The Young Talent award, introduced last year, will also be presented. At that 2022 event, we discovered several promising startups at this event, including Ambagon Therapeutics, a cancer treatment spin-out of Technical University of Eindhoven that had raised 75 million euros at that point.
It’s a hell of a party and Dispatches is a sponsor, so we’ll take a look at the winners in the next EBB.
• 4 September: Marketing Maniacs #5: The LinkedIn Edition
Marketing Maniacs will be back for its 5th Edition on 4 September, focusing on LinkedIn. Learn from LinkedIn expert Jan Willem Alphenaar and unlock the true potential of LinkedIn for your business. We predict this one will be a sell-out, so register early.
• 6 September: Drinks, Pitches & Demos
If you haven’t been to a #DPD event, you haven’t really connected to the ecosystem.
Drinks, Pitches and Demos is a free monthly event which brings together startups, innovators, investors and students in the Brainport region.
Companies or people working in the technology field can pitch their company, project, ask for help or simply share their successes. Networking is the name of the game at #DPD, so come to kibbitz. The event is at High Tech Campus Eindhoven in HTC 9, aka the Beta Building near the sports fields.
It’s free and you can register here.
• 25 September: LEVEL UP 2023 (at Evoluon)
Boost the growth of your startup and register for LEVEL UP 2023, the leading event for the national and international startup community. Meet inspiring founders, daring entrepreneurs and relevant investors.
- Learn how to better align your business model with your market.
- Experience how others put together their best team ever.
- Strengthen your pitch in the Level UP Investors Café.
- Share your challenges in the Level UP Clubhouse and get answers from peers.
- Network with entrepreneurs, accelerators and investors.
This all-day event is free and you can register here.
• 27 September: AI Meet-up Startup Edition
Make sure you save the date for the upcoming AI Meet-Up Startup Edition. The AI meetups are an easy and fun way to get in touch with the artificial intelligence community and the ecosystem of the AI Innovation Center, HTC 5 at High Tech Campus Eindhoven. The program of this meet-up will be announced soon.
• 28 September: Lunch & Learn #4: Cybersecurity for startups
The Cyber Resilience Center Brainport (CWB) is coming to High Tech Campus to teach startups how to make their companies more cybersecure. SMEs are targeted by cybercriminals at a higher rate than big companies, yet only 29 percent of SMEs see cybercrime as a threat. The CWB is a non-profit organization providing services and education for a more cyber resilient Brainport region.
Want to learn about cybersecurity and upcoming changes in cybersecurity law? Join us at the AI Innovation Center, HTC 5 on September 28.
• 2 November: AI Summit Brainport 2023
After the success of the first edition of the AI Summit Brainport with more than 500 participants, this year’s edition of AI Summit Brainport with the theme “Human-Centered AI” will take place in Evoluon, Eindhoven. Meet people in the ecosystem during the startup track. In this track, startups can rally around compelling AI topics by storytelling AI entrepreneurs, with AI support organizations and investors present.
Ready to meet researchers, industry leaders and other AI enthusiasts in Brainport Eindhoven and enhance your AI knowledge and skills? You are welcome to join the AI Summit Brainport on Thursday the 2 November.
• 30 November: PyData Eindhoven 2023 at the High Tech Campus Eindhoven Conference Center.
PyData Eindhoven 2023 is a two-day conference scheduled for 30 November and 1 December.
At the PyData Eindhoven conference, users, contributors and newcomers can share experiences and learn from one another to solve hard problems and grow a stronger open-source community.
Keep an eye out for PyData’s announcement of their startup track for this year’s conference. Our friend Gareth Thomas is a busy man with big plans.
NXP in deal to build new chip fab in Germany
The demand for computer chips will only increase in the next few years, and Eindhoven-based NXP is positioning itself for the next tech wave. The chipmaker is forming a partnership with TSMC, Infineon Technologies and Bosch to build a 10 billion euro fab in Dresden, Germany, according media reports. The fab will make current generation microchips for the auto industry. You’re thinking, “Why not Eindhoven?” It’s because the German government is coming through with a sweet incentive package worth 5 billion euros.
TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker and a major ASML customer, will own 70 percent of the fabrication facility, with NXP, Infineon and Bosch each owning 10 percent.
The NYTimes has more on the chip shortages and how new AI startups are scrounging for Nvidia’s A100 and H100 GPUs. “It’s almost like talking about drugs: ‘I know a guy who has H100s,’” says one person quoted in the post.
Money mismatch
We get the PitchBook newsletter (who doesn’t, right?) and a recent segment, “How the overcapitalization of VC changed the funding landscape,” caught our attention. The crux of the post is that changing equity markets have turned the river of risk capital pouring into venture capital firms into a trickle. Of course, the number of startups is always increasing and they need more and more capital as they grow through funding rounds. Which means demand for risk capital is quickly outstripping supply and that translates to more teams struggling to get funding. Of course, all this takes time to work through the system, complicated by fund vintages and all the other arcane constructs of the VC world.
Not good news for startups.
From the post:
Our demand-to-supply model has shown the VC late-stage at a deficit of nearly 3x, meaning companies currently need about three times more capital than is entering the market. This is a huge deficit, but up until recently, the market hadn’t seen some of the expected impacts.
While new startups will have trouble raising money, the more mature companies appear to be surviving on revenue or cash runways from when times were flush.
You can download the PitchBook report here.
We’re making a list and checking it twice
We’re working our networks, compiling a list of the people you need to know in the Eindhoven ecosystem. Of course, this includes you. This will be a resource for everyone, from those wanting to jump into a startup to investors looking for opportunities.
As we’ve been working on this project, we’ve noticed our names are falling into two categories – connectors and builders.
The connectors are the people who know everyone and who are always happy to make introductions. The builders are the founders, entrepreneurs and investors who are, well, building the companies of the future.
Obviously, some people fall into both buckets. Whatever the case, we’d love to hear from you and get your suggestions as to who should be on the lists and why.
Email us at: [email protected] or ping us on LinkedIn.
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Read more about Eindhoven here in Dispatches’ archives.
Co-CEO of Dispatches Europe. A former military reporter, I'm a serial expat who has lived in France, Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands.
