{"id":162592,"date":"2019-01-04T06:01:49","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T05:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=162592"},"modified":"2019-01-04T06:01:49","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T05:01:49","slug":"start-ups-in-noord-brabant-brabant-sticks-to-its-strengths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/start-ups-in-noord-brabant-brabant-sticks-to-its-strengths\/","title":{"rendered":"Start-ups in Noord-Brabant: “Brabant sticks to its strengths”"},"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.\u00a0Innovation Origins<\/a>\u00a0is 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\u00a0StartupDelta<\/a>, we visited all Dutch provinces. In 14 episodes, published between December 24, 2018, and January 7, 2019, we\u2019re giving an overview of the start-up ecosystem in the Netherlands. The series has been made by the journalists of cooperation\u00a0PitchProducties<\/a>, commissioned by Innovation Origins. Today: Noord-Brabant.\u00a0Read the other episodes of the series here<\/a>\u00a0(as far as already published).<\/em><\/p>\n

The province where the lights are always on and the good times never end: Noord-Brabant. Who knows, this province might just be the best place to establish a start-up. New companies are invested in heavily, there are plenty of incubators and accelerators (of which\u00a0HighTechXL<\/a>\u00a0is the best known) and in several cities, the most favourable climates are created to let start-ups grow. There are many promising initiatives, but there’s still a lot of profit yet to be achieved.<\/p>\n

The start-up city: Eindhoven<\/em><\/h3>\n

When thinking about start-ups in Brabant, often and mainly, Eindhoven comes to mind. This city with campuses like the\u00a0High Tech Campus<\/a> Eindhoven (HTC), the University Campus and the\u00a0Brainport Industries Campus<\/a>\u00a0(BIC) is the engine of the start-up industry in Brabant. “When companies want to bring their enterprise to the market commercially, they’re at the right place with us,” says Paul van Son, marketing manager at the HTC. “There are now 45 to 50 start-ups located at our campus alone,” he says. A part of those is located in the recently opened\u00a0High Tech Plaza<\/a>, presumably the largest start-up hub of the country and the place where many HighTechXL alumni take their first steps towards the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s very specific knowledge here.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to Van Son, Eindhoven is the perfect place to launch technology start-ups. “Because the Technical University is here, a lot of new tech-companies are born here as well. There’s very specific knowledge here.” Besides, several multinationals are also located in the city, think of ASML, Philips, Intel and NXP. The start-ups can learn from the big companies and the other way around. “Start-ups are much faster and more flexible with innovations than the big companies. Then again, big companies have a lot of knowledge and a large network. It’s therefore not a matter of ‘competing against each other’, but more a matter of ‘learning from each other’,” says Van Son.<\/p>\n

In the map below, all start-ups established in Noord-Brabant after 2005 are represented based on data of\u00a0StartupDelta<\/a>. These companies have 2-50 employees. It’s clear to see that they’re spread across the whole province, but most of them are located in the cities, mainly in Eindhoven. Zoom in for details.<\/em><\/p>\n