{"id":162230,"date":"2018-12-29T06:00:06","date_gmt":"2018-12-29T05:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=162230"},"modified":"2018-12-29T06:00:06","modified_gmt":"2018-12-29T05:00:06","slug":"groningen-has-everything-in-terms-of-start-up-initiatives-but-with-the-size-of-a-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/groningen-has-everything-in-terms-of-start-up-initiatives-but-with-the-size-of-a-village\/","title":{"rendered":"Groningen “has everything in terms of start-up initiatives, but with the size of a village”"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there is one category of companies that are responsible for innovation in the Netherlands, it would have to be the start-ups. Innovation Origins<\/a> is always looking for relevant innovations, therefore there is every reason to really capture the complete Dutch start-up ecosystem. Armed with the data sets of\u00a0 StartupDelta<\/a>, we visited all Dutch provinces. In 14 episodes, published between December 24, 2018, and January 7, 2019, we’re giving an overview of the start-up ecosystem in the Netherlands. The series has been made by the journalists of cooperation PitchProducties<\/a>, commissioned by Innovation Origins. Today: Groningen.\u00a0Read the other episodes of the series here<\/a> (as far as already published).<\/em><\/p>\n

HackerOne<\/a>, Dataprovider<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Paylogic<\/a>: these are three random examples of start-ups from Groningen that have already spread their wings. When the Dutch start-up ecosystem is examined, Groningen should definitely not be underestimated. In the recently published, annual edition of the Deloitte Technology Fast50<\/a>\u00a0are no less than eight companies in Groningen among the fastest growing Dutch technology companies.<\/p>\n

Although the Deloitte election is about companies that are older than five years, the success in Groningen doesn’t come out of nowhere. After all, these companies were also once young.<\/p>\n

Koen Atema, involved with the start-up portal\u00a0Founded in Groningen<\/a>\u00a0and founder of the Groningen flexible workplace Launch Caf\u00e9<\/a>, mentions a number of advantages of the start-up ecosystem in Groningen. He thinks one can speak of a good cooperation between province, municipality of Groningen and local start-ups.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, he points out the\u00a0demographic structure of the city itself. “25 per cent of the inhabitants are a student, 50,000 students in total. That means there are a lot of smart people living in a relatively small area. And that always does very interesting things.”<\/p>\n

Groningen likes to profile itself as an innovative city and region. Think about initiatives like the knowledge campaign\u00a0Groningen: <\/a><\/span>City of Talent, internet experimental garden\u00a05Groningen<\/a>\u00a0or the campaign of\u00a0Top Dutch<\/a>, launched a couple of years ago with the original goal to convince the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, to build a European production location for electric cars in the north of the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

A digital approach can also be seen among start-ups in Groningen. “Groningen has a strong ecosystem in the field of\u00a0digital<\/em>“, Atema states.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n