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Dutch government charts its own AI course with €120 million

Sun, 08 Nov 2026 12:00:00 GMT

In its strategy Choosing AI for Everyone, presented last week, the Dutch government sets out how it plans to make its own decisions about the use of AI and reduce its reliance on foreign tech giants. State Secretary Willemijn Aerdts, whose portfolio covers the digital economy and sovereignty, outlined a strategy focused on responsible use, economic opportunity, and benefits for society. It has three pillars: responsible AI development, access to advanced technology and safeguards for its use, and steering the transition in line with public values.

First, the Netherlands wants to develop and use AI responsibly, taking into account ethics, transparency, and the impact on people. Second, it wants to secure access to advanced AI technology while avoiding dependence on a handful of foreign companies. Third, it wants to guide the AI transition in line with public values such as fundamental rights and safety. This approach is consistent with the EU AI Act, which sets requirements for safe and responsible use and bans certain applications. The government recognises that some technically feasible uses may be undesirable for society. In 2027 and 2028, members of the public will be able to have their say on the opportunities and limits of AI through praatmeemetdeoverheid.nl.

€120 million for European cooperation and infrastructure

The government has earmarked €120 million, available from 2027, to take part in a European AI project. The funding is intended to help develop new technologies and infrastructure and strengthen the Dutch and European AI value chain. The government is also working on a broader approach to data centres and AI infrastructure.

In early 2027, the government will set out how much computing power the Netherlands needs, along with a plan for the Dutch AI factory in Groningen. The initiative is intended to give businesses, researchers, and public authorities access to high-performance computing resources. The government is also looking into whether to establish a Dutch AI safety institute to identify and address emerging risks such as cyberattacks and disinformation.

Focus on healthcare, energy, food, security, and high tech

The Netherlands is focusing on five sectors where economic opportunities and societal challenges overlap: healthcare, energy, food production, security, and high tech. The government sees these sectors as offering the greatest potential for AI applications that benefit society. It describes ASML as a “unique asset in the global AI stack” because of its central role in semiconductor manufacturing, which is essential to producing AI chips. The government is pursuing “open strategic autonomy”, building enough domestic expertise and capacity to maintain access to critical technologies and make its own decisions.

Support for Dutch AI companies and SMEs

The government is taking several steps to help Dutch AI companies grow. It is developing a digital marketplace for validated AI applications and reusable components. AI tools that have worked well in government are to be rolled out more widely, with more joint procurement to share development costs. To help growing technology companies raise funding, the government points to two new bodies, the National Agency for Disruptive Innovation (NADI) and the National Investment Institution (NII). Both are intended to improve access to finance for Dutch AI companies. The government also wants to remove barriers that make it harder for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to adopt AI.

Safety and public values

Safety and the protection of public values are central to the government’s strategy. The government warns that hackers’ misuse of AI and its use to spread disinformation pose growing threats. It is developing an action programme to strengthen long-term digital resilience. The Prometheus initiative, which develops AI-powered cybersecurity solutions, is also expected to help. The government aims to avoid excessive dependence on foreign technology companies and sets limits on AI applications it considers harmful to society. The EU AI Act provides the legal framework. Public consultations and AI literacy initiatives are among the measures intended to prepare citizens and workers for the effects of AI on work and society.

The hardest innovation comes after success

Sun, 08 Nov 2026 10:00:00 GMT

Most entrepreneurs dream of it.

Developing a product that becomes so successful it sets the global standard. A technology that remains relevant for decades, conquers markets, and generates billions in revenue. But what happens after that?

That might just be a much more interesting question.

Take Gore-Tex. The story begins in 1969, when Robert Gore stretched a piece of PTFE much harder than he intended. According to conventional logic, the material should have broken. Instead, something unexpected happened: a porous structure that kept water out but allowed water vapor to pass through.

A failed experiment. Or so it seemed at the time. Later, that same “mistake” grew into one of the most successful material innovations of the past century. Gore-Tex became synonymous with high-quality rainwear, mountaineering gear, and technical textiles. A brand that virtually everyone knows and a technology that provided a massive competitive edge for years.

For many companies, that would be the ultimate goal. Success achieved. Mission accomplished. But innovation rarely works that way.

Because decades later, the world changed. The discussion surrounding PFAS, environmental impact, and sustainability became increasingly prominent. Materials that were once judged primarily on performance were now also evaluated based on their ecological footprint.

And suddenly, a new problem arose. Not because Gore-Tex is technically inadequate, but because the context had changed. This is a challenge that many successful companies face sooner or later. The market shifts. Regulations change. Customers begin to demand different things. What was an advantage yesterday may become a question mark tomorrow.

It is precisely at that moment that it becomes clear whether an organization is truly innovative.

In 2017, Gore announced it was working on new membranes and more sustainable alternatives. This may have marked the start of an innovation process even more difficult than the original invention of Gore-Tex itself. Because the first time, you’re building something new. The second time, you have to replace something that still works. That sounds subtle, but the difference is enormous.

When a product fails, everyone understands why you need to innovate. The need is obvious. The urgency is clear. But when a product is still successful, still generating revenue, and still valued by customers, innovation becomes much more difficult. Then you have to invest in a solution that might compete with your own success.

You must be willing to call part of your existing position into question. That takes more courage than many people realize. The history of Gore-Tex therefore shows that innovation has no end point. A breakthrough isn’t the moment when the work stops. It’s often the moment when a new phase begins.

The first innovation makes you the market leader. The second determines whether you remain one. Because anyone can explain how to innovate when something is broken. Innovating while it’s still working—that’s the true test of entrepreneurship.

The IO+ week: Could the brain make more of its own dopamine?

Sun, 08 Nov 2026 06:30:00 GMT

When I read Mauro Mereu’s story this week, I kept coming back to the cells that remain. Parkinson’s destroys dopamine-producing brain cells, but some are still at work when symptoms such as tremor and stiffness appear. What if those cells could make more dopamine? And what if the same approach could help keep them alive? Here's what Mauro found out after talking to researchers at the University of Amsterdam.

They are looking for a molecule that can switch on a receptor called Gucy2c. Levodopa, a standard Parkinson’s medication, enters the brain and is converted into dopamine. The Amsterdam team wants to prompt the surviving cells to make more dopamine where they normally produce it. Whether activating the receptor can also protect those cells is one of the questions the researchers are pursuing.

In mice, activating the receptor improved movement symptoms about as much as levodopa did during the experiment. The researchers had to deliver the compound directly into the animals’ brains, and they’re now looking for a molecule that could be suitable for people. It shows just how much work can sit between an encouraging result and something a doctor can prescribe.

AI helped the chemists sift through hundreds of thousands of candidate molecules. Then, in simulations, some of the promising candidates simply drifted away from the receptor they were meant to bind to. The team takes the strongest candidates into the lab and uses the results to refine the next round. I’d happily read a follow-up about what they learn from the molecules that fail.

https://ioplus.nl/en/posts/a-new-parkinsons-treatment-a-brain-making-its-own-dopamine

When your alarm clock was a person

Before alarm clocks were commonplace, you could pay someone to tap on your bedroom window with a long stick. Elcke's column on vanishing jobs revisits that wonderfully odd job before turning to taxi drivers, cashiers and, closer to home, journalists. If robots ever take over the writing, who gets the job of checking their moral compass?

https://ioplus.nl/en/posts/these-jobs-have-disappeared-remember-them

Eindhoven takes the active-living summit out on bikes

Where should a city add shade if it wants people to keep walking on hotter days? One Dutch-Spanish team is pairing satellite heat maps with street-level camera data to find out which paths people actually use. It’s one of the ideas at the ELIS Innovation Summit on 11 and 12 November. On day two, participants will cycle to some of Eindhoven’s testing sites, from an urban sports park to the pool where TeamNL swimmers train.

https://ioplus.nl/en/posts/eindhoven-puts-active-living-to-the-test-in-innovation-summit

Europe can take the compliment

Elcke Vels went to Milan to speak with Gary Shapiro, who chairs the organisation behind CES. He argues that Europe’s freedom to think and experiment draws talent, and points to its engineers and technology designed around people’s needs. I think we could stand to be a little prouder of those strengths. I’d also keep in mind that the man making the case has a trade show to fill.

https://ioplus.nl/en/posts/europes-culture-of-freedom-acts-as-a-magnet-for-talent

A cervical screening sample you could collect at home

Groningen startup CC Diagnostics won the MedTech Twente NextGen Award and €10,000 for a cervical cancer screening test it is developing. The idea is to let people collect a sample at home and send it to a lab for PCR analysis. The team plans to put the prize money towards getting pilot studies underway in the US.

https://ioplus.nl/en/posts/cc-diagnostics-wins-nextgen-award-for-home-cervical-cancer-test

When a chatbot starts to sound like a friend

Dutch developer Nick Hoogveldt wanted MiniAI to help children work through homework questions. Then his daughter started treating its friendly voice as an actual friend, so he toned it down. Radboud University professor Eliane Segers asks where to draw the line in the classroom. A chatbot can help children practise thinking or do the thinking for them, depending on how they use it.

https://ioplus.nl/en/posts/ai-as-a-friend-a-helpful-tool-or-a-bad-influence

Europe’s deep-tech scale-ups raise €4 billion

Companies in the EIC Scaling Club raised €4.06 billion in two years, according to the club’s own report, outpacing a group of comparable companies. About 80% of that money came in rounds that included the European Innovation Council or another public backer. A handful of big deals did much of the lifting, with nine rounds of €100 million or more accounting for just over half the total.

https://ioplus.nl/en/posts/eic-scaling-club-scale-ups-outpace-peers-with-4b-raised

Hardt Hyperloop gets another run

After one of its group companies went bankrupt earlier this year, Hardt Hyperloop has raised several million euros in a round led by US investor Green Rock. Hardt plans to continue developing systems such as magnetic levitation and high-speed track switching, which it tests on a 420-metre track in Veendam. The deal also opens the door to joint projects in the Americas.

https://ioplus.nl/en/posts/hardt-hyperloop-makes-a-comeback-with-a-multi-million-investment

The caravan designed with an electric tow car in mind

The Lume Ranger weighs 1,150 kilos empty and lowers its pop-up roof for the road, giving it a lower profile designed to reduce drag. How much energy it saves in practice is still an open question. Then there’s the charging stop. How many stations have room for a car with the caravan still attached?

https://ioplus.nl/en/posts/caravan-goes-electric-lume-ranger-rides-a-new-trend

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Intelic tops Deloitte’s Dutch Fast 50 with 10,404% revenue growth

Sat, 07 Nov 2026 12:00:00 GMT

The Amsterdam defence software company beat freelance platform Sweav and drinks dispenser maker Aquablu. Battery developer LeydenJar took the Deep-Tech Award, while camera sensor startup eyeo won both Rising Star prizes.

A military unit can buy drones from several suppliers and still struggle to use them together. Each system can come with its own controls, leaving operators to juggle interfaces during a mission. Amsterdam-based Intelic built its business around that problem. On 5 November, Deloitte named it the winner of the 2026 Dutch Technology Fast 50 after its revenue grew by 10,404% over four years.

Sweav came second with 9,768% growth, and Aquablu, last year’s runner-up, finished third with 3,859%. Helmond-based DENS ended in fourth place. Deloitte announced the results of its 27th Dutch edition at the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam. The ranking compares how quickly revenue grew over four years from each company’s own starting point.

One interface for drones from different suppliers

Intelic’s Nexus software lets operators control different types of unmanned aircraft and ground vehicles from a shared interface and connect them to military command systems. The company started in 2021 as Avalor AI. It says it secured its first operational contract for deployment in Ukraine in late 2024, opened an office there in 2025 and adopted the Intelic name later that year.

That approach is now shaping how the Dutch military plans to buy drones. In July, the Dutch Ministry of Defence signed an agreement with Intelic to develop a shared software environment for unmanned systems. The ministry described a reversal of the usual purchasing sequence. It will build the software environment first, then bring in hardware that works with it. For a military trying to keep up with fast-moving drone development, that gives it a way to add new aircraft to a system operators already know.

Intelic has also built a procurement business around Nexus. Its BASE platform lets defence ministries compare and buy unmanned systems that have already been integrated with the software. The idea is to give ministries a choice of suppliers while reducing the integration work that follows each purchase.

Freelance dealmakers and connected water dispensers

Sweav applies software to a different kind of search. A company that needs help with an acquisition or a strategy project can use its platform to find an independent specialist for the assignment. Deloitte says the network includes more than 450 freelancers across strategy, business transformation, and mergers and acquisitions. Sweav earns revenue when a match turns into a project.

Aquablu’s business starts at the tap. Its connected dispensers turn tap water into still, sparkling or flavoured drinks, giving offices an alternative to stocking single-use bottles and cans. The company’s software tracks dispenser performance across locations. Its next machine, BOLD, is part of an effort to reach customers outside the office, including in gyms.

From the lab to the production line

LeydenJar won the Deep-Tech Award for replacing the graphite anode in lithium-ion batteries with a thin foil made of pure silicon. The company says its anode can help a battery store up to 50% more energy in the same space. The next test is whether LeydenJar can make the material consistently in volume. Its first commercial factory, PlantOne at Eindhoven’s Strijp-T, is scheduled to start production in 2027. “Making it the same way every time, at volume, is a different discipline,” CTO Paul van den Broek said this week.

The imec spin-off eyeo won both the Rising Star Award and the Rising Star Audience Award for its work on camera sensors. Conventional colour filters absorb much of the light that reaches a sensor. Eyeo uses tiny optical structures to separate incoming light by colour and route it to the appropriate pixels. The company raised €40 million in May to move the technology towards commercial production.

Fairphone picked up the Sustainability Pioneer Award for designing modular electronics whose owners can replace worn-out parts and keep using their devices for longer. The Diverse & Inclusive Leadership Award went to The Selection Lab, an Amsterdam company that combines AI-assisted screening with skills assessments in recruitment. Deloitte’s jury cited how the company had embedded diversity, equity and inclusion in its own organisation, including the involvement of its founders and management team.

Delft, Eindhoven and Twente to get a national defence tech hub

Sat, 07 Nov 2026 10:00:00 GMT

How do you keep watch over the Dutch North Sea around the clock? The Ministry of Defence is putting that question to startups, established companies and researchers. Possible answers range from new surveillance sensors to autonomous patrol systems. The challenge is among the first for the newly launched National Institute for Defence Technology (NIDT), which plans to have regional hubs in Delft, Eindhoven and Twente.

Defence launched the institute on 5 November to get new technology into military use faster and build up the capacity to produce it in the Netherlands. The institute will be based in Amsterdam, with hubs near the technical universities in Delft, Eindhoven and Twente. The exact location of the hubs is still unclear.

From prototype to production

The institute will start with problems defined by the armed forces and look for teams that can help solve them. It will also visit universities and universities of applied sciences to find out what researchers are already working on. Promising ideas can be developed with the institute into working prototypes. Defence says it wants to test new technology under operational conditions, where military users can see whether it works in practice.

The institute will work at both ends of that process. Some projects will start with an idea for a military capability that does not exist yet. Others will start with technology already mature enough to move into production. Money has been set aside to buy successful inventions, although no figures have been given. For a young company, that potential first order matters. It gives the team a reason to plan for production while it is still working out whether the technology meets the customer’s needs.

What Twente already has

Twente brings together radar and sensor expertise, high-tech manufacturers and places to test hardware. Thales, Aeronamic and Demcon are among the companies active in the region. At Twente Airport, the former military airfield’s nearly three-kilometre runway and controlled airspace are already used to test uncrewed aircraft. Developers of experimental drones can use the site to assess whether their technology is ready for flight tests.

Defence has already identified Twente Airport as a destination for planned military cargo-drone flights from Deelen. That is a separate programme, but it illustrates what the region can offer a national defence technology network. A team developing an uncrewed system needs engineers and suppliers, and it also needs somewhere to fly it.

The NIDT will start as a separate company within TNO’s holding structure, with its own management and supervisory board. TNO is providing a temporary home so the institute can begin operating while Defence considers a permanent structure. The North Sea challenge gives it an early test of its own. Can it take a problem as broad as keeping watch over Dutch waters and get companies and researchers far enough along that the armed forces can try their solutions at sea?

These jobs have disappeared. Remember them?

Sat, 07 Nov 2026 07:00:00 GMT

The milkman. The shoe shiner. The human alarm clock. Many professions have now become extinct. Let’s try to predict which modern jobs will face the same fate in a few decades.

The world is constantly changing. New needs arise, new technologies emerge, and with them, new professions. What was once indispensable can suddenly become an outdated trade just a few generations later.

Take the milkman, for example. With the advent of modern supermarkets and preservation methods, the profession slowly disappeared from the streets. I remember well how my grandmother used to talk about World War II. Milk was incredibly expensive in her day. Her mother, who was normally a well-behaved and respectable woman but was in a financial bind, walked up to the milkman one day, scooped a small container of milk from his cart, and quickly walked away with it—without paying.

I also love seeing old professions pop up in movies and music videos. I could watch the music video for Bruno Mars’s Uptown Funk on repeat forever. Somewhere on a street corner, Bruno has his black-patent shoes polished by a shoeshine boy.

By the way, have you ever heard of human alarm clocks? It might be hard for us to imagine, but two hundred years ago, the alarm clock as we know it today didn’t exist. Yet people still had to get out of bed on time. That’s where human alarm clocks came in: armed with a long stick, they tapped on their customers’ windows until they woke up.

Threatened with extinction

I’ll be in Paris this weekend. Chances are I’ll take a taxi—without expecting for even a moment that it will drive itself. No, for now, there’s still a human behind the wheel.

But for how much longer? Self-driving cars are on the rise, and autonomous trucks are already driving around some industrial parks. The technology is developing rapidly and promises to eliminate more and more human error from traffic. I can easily imagine my grandson asking in fifty years: “Grandma, is it really true that people used to drive cars?” To which I’ll reply: “Yes, it’s really true. Those dangerous people with their slow reaction times were indeed behind the wheel.”

There are other professions that, sooner or later, are threatened with extinction. Cashiers are increasingly being replaced by self-checkout lanes. Surgeons are getting increasingly advanced robots as assistants, which in the long run might even take over a large part of their work. And journalists like me? One day, we’ll have to hand over the keyboard to robot writers: equipped with a sharp pen and a built-in moral compass to capture the right nuances.

New jobs will also emerge. After all, who will maintain the robot taxis? And who will check whether the moral compass of the robot writers is still properly calibrated? New technology demands new human expertise. Every job that disappears creates space for another somewhere else.

But what if one day machines become superior to humans in every respect? Stronger, smarter, more rational, and even more emotionally intelligent? Then we’ll truly be redundant in the labor market. We’ll get our hair cut by a robot barber, flown around by an autopilot, and judged by an AI judge.

Human Stubbornness

Who knows—maybe in twenty years you’ll still be reading one of my columns here on IO+. By then, AI colleagues will be able to write much better stories, but don’t underestimate human stubbornness!

Eindhoven puts active living to the test in Innovation Summit

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 12:00:00 GMT

At the ELIS Innovation Summit on 11 and 12 November, European entrepreneurs and researchers will show what it takes to bring ideas for healthier, more active lives from a local pilot to a wider market.

A satellite map can tell a city where its parks heat up. A ground-level camera can show where people actually walk. Put the two together, and a city planner can ask a more useful question: which paths do people keep using as temperatures rise? Dutch computer vision company ViNotion and Spain’s Green Urban Data are combining those two sources in GreenMotion AI, a tool designed to help planners understand how people use public space in different weather conditions.

That collaboration captures the question behind the ELIS Innovation Summit, which takes place at Melt at Avular in Eindhoven on 11 and 12 November. How do you get a promising piece of technology into the hands of someone who can use it to make everyday movement easier? For a city, that might mean deciding where to add shade. For a physiotherapist, it might mean finding a way to guide someone through exercises between appointments. Both depend on understanding what people do in the places they already spend their time.

When a prototype meets everyday life

Consider Smart Back to Sport, another case in the INSHAPE Inspiration Book, which will be presented at the summit. Valencia-based Blautic Designs brought motion-sensing technology to the project. Eurofitness, from Catalonia, brought physiotherapy experience and an understanding of the practical needs of people recovering from injury. Together, they developed a pilot to support exercises in fitness centres and at home, where a physiotherapist may be days away from seeing how a patient is getting on.

Early participants found the guidance motivating, and physiotherapists felt more confident assessing progress. The partners are developing an app and exploring cooperation with fitness-centre chains. That next step raises a question that comes up again in Eindhoven: when a tool could help patients, clinicians and employers in different ways, who will pay to make it part of routine recovery? One workshop brings together healthcare providers, employers, insurers, and entrepreneurs to examine the gap between medical recovery and being ready for work or daily life.

What makes a local pilot travel?

The EU-funded I3-INSHAPE project spent three years working on that transition. 15 partners across seven European regions supported 41 small and medium-sized businesses in 18 cross-border collaborations. The network paired companies with complementary expertise and helped them find places to test their ideas with users. Eindhoven is where the partners will present those results, hold the INSHAPE Innovation Award session and launch a network to continue the work.

The collaboration between Dutch sports innovator YOU.FO and the Finnish Sport Institute of Three Campuses shows how that can work in practice. The two met during an INSHAPE activity in Eindhoven, where the Finnish participants tried YOU.FO’s game themselves. In March, the company travelled to Finland to run workshops and demonstrations for students, coaches and staff. The institute could then explore how the game might fit into its teaching and coach training. For YOU.FO, the exchange offered a chance to see how an organisation in another country might use its game. The relationship grew beyond the programme's formal project partnerships.

Out of the conference room and onto the bike

The first day pairs business questions with choices about how places are designed. Movement scientist Lore Cuypers will speak about public space, and a workshop will ask how teenage girls can help shape places where they feel welcome to move and meet. Another session looks at how to measure the social and financial returns of investing in physical activity. For a municipality considering a change to a park or playground, those questions converge in a practical decision: whose behaviour should change, and how would the city tell whether it has?

On 12 November, participants will get on bikes to visit Eindhoven’s testing grounds. The route takes in Area 51 and the Urban Sportpark, the Workplace Vitality Hub at High Tech Campus Eindhoven and De Tongelreep, where TeamNL swimmers train. Each stop offers a different setting in which to ask what makes an idea stick. An elite swimmer can give a developer precise feedback on a training tool. A teenager deciding whether to return to a sports park, or an office worker deciding whether to move during the working day, offers a different kind of evidence. For the businesses in Eindhoven, finding out what brings people back may matter as much as getting them to try something once.

Here's more about the programme.

From mist curtain to microchip: GLOW brings photonics into view

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Artist Antoine Goldschmidt uses lasers and mist to make Eindhoven’s Hooghuis tower appear to change shape. SMART Photonics, TNO and PhotonJobs are backing the installation and using the festival to draw new talent into photonic chipmaking.

If you find yourself at the foot of the Hooghuis during GLOW, take a few steps back. That’s when you can see what Belgian artist Antoine Goldschmidt is doing with all 55 metres of the façade. He wraps the tower in a fine curtain of mist and sends coloured laser light through it. As the light scatters in the mist, the flat façade seems to take on depth. The building stands still, but from the street it looks as if it’s moving. Triple Point at GLOW

In Triple Point, Goldschmidt, who works through his studio Magicstreet, uses light to change the way visitors perceive space. A few kilometres away, Eindhoven’s chipmakers give light a different job. They design circuits that can generate, guide and modify light on a chip to transmit data, among other uses. SMART Photonics, TNO and PhotonJobs, an initiative of PhotonDelta, are helping make the installation possible. They also want visitors to see that the region has jobs for people who can design, make and test these chips.

When light carries data

A fibre-optic cable illustrates how it works. At one end, a transmitter converts an electrical data signal into variations in a beam of light. The light travels through the fibre to a receiver, which converts the signal back into electrical form. A photonic chip can bring several parts of that link together on a single piece of material. A laser supplies the light, a modulator encodes the signal onto it, and an optical waveguide directs it where it needs to go.

For data centres, what matters is how much data a link can carry per second and how much energy it takes. When large AI models are trained, many chips have to exchange data. Optical links can help them move more data while using less energy per bit. The benefit depends on the application and the link's total energy consumption, including conversion at both ends. TNO also sees applications for photonic chips in telecommunications and medical technology, where light can measure tiny changes.

“The same light that inspires wonder on the streets of Eindhoven during GLOW is also changing how information travels around the world,” says Ton van Mol, managing director at TNO, in the project announcement.

Who will make those chips?

The tie-in with GLOW comes as Eindhoven works to scale up production. At the High Tech Campus, TNO is building a pilot line where companies can manufacture and test photonic chips on larger indium phosphide wafers. The material is well suited to components that generate their own light, such as lasers. SMART Photonics manufactures these chips for other companies and announced in September that it would work with GlobalFoundries to launch a manufacturing service combining indium phosphide and silicon photonics.

Scaling up also raises the question of who will do the work. Designing a chip is one step. Someone then has to find out whether it can be manufactured consistently at higher volumes, how to connect it to an optical fibre, and how to test whether it still works as intended once assembled. That takes a range of specialists, from designers to process and test technicians. PhotonJobs connects jobseekers with companies in the Dutch photonics industry. With Triple Point, the partners are also reaching out to people who have never looked for a job in photonics.

For visitors, it starts with an effect they can see from the pavement. Where light meets mist, a sense of depth appears where by day there’s only a façade. Inside a photonic chip, the opposite happens. Light follows a precisely defined path so that it delivers a usable signal at the other end.

Triple Point is free to see at the Hooghuis from 7 to 14 November. The GLOW route in Eindhoven is open daily from 18:30 to 23:00. Visitor information

VÆRIDION raises €30 million for nine-seat electric aircraft

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 08:00:00 GMT

Nine passengers, two electric motors and batteries in the wings. With its Microliner, aircraft developer VÆRIDION aims to make regional flights of up to 400 kilometres fully electric. The German company, which carries out some of its research and development in Delft, has raised €30 million to build its first prototype for certification. A second, larger source of funding is also in sight. The European Commission has selected VÆRIDION for €94.5 million from the EU Innovation Fund. The grant agreement has not yet been signed.

Funding for a prototype and a factory

The two sums are intended for different stages. VÆRIDION will use the investment to build the prototype and carry out further tests on its batteries and electric propulsion system. Alongside Dutch lead investors SHIFT Invest and Invest-NL, existing investors World Fund, Project A, Vsquared Ventures and InnovationQuarter are taking part, as are several European family investment funds. Including previous rounds, VÆRIDION says it has raised about €60 million.

The EU grant is intended to help the company move into production. Through its CAROLUS project, VÆRIDION plans to set up an assembly facility at Oberpfaffenhofen Airport near Munich and scale up operations there. The company has been testing its batteries and propulsion system at the airport since March. According to VÆRIDION, CAROLUS was the only aviation project among the 12 large-scale projects selected. The company expects to sign the grant agreement in 2027.

“This funding round allows us to build our first prototype aircraft for certification,” says founder and CEO Ivor van Dartel. Part of the development work takes place in the Netherlands. Van Dartel studied at TU Delft, and the company works with the university’s Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. VÆRIDION has more than 75 employees.

Why the batteries sit inside the wing

The wing takes its cues from a glider. VÆRIDION houses the battery modules inside the wing, where their weight helps counteract the forces that bend it in flight. The company says this should reduce the aircraft’s structural weight. Two separate electric motors drive a single propeller. The system is designed to keep running if one motor fails.

The target range is 400 kilometres, excluding the required energy reserves. The cabin is designed to carry nine passengers or up to ten cubic metres of cargo. VÆRIDION is targeting short, direct routes between regional airports. Microliner technical specifications

Could a flight cost the same as a first-class train ticket?

The Microliner's economics hinge on the cost per flight. Electric propulsion requires no jet fuel and has fewer moving parts. VÆRIDION therefore expects to spend less on energy and maintenance than operators of conventional turboprop aircraft. The company thinks a flight could eventually cost about the same as a first-class train ticket. For operators, the numbers will also depend on how often the aircraft can fly, how many seats they can fill on each route and how quickly the batteries can recharge between flights.

VÆRIDION is targeting commercial service in 2030. The company reports commercial commitments for more than 130 aircraft with a combined value of over €730 million. ASL Group is its launch customer.

The design has passed an initial formal review, and VÆRIDION has signed a second agreement with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to prepare for certification. The company must now use the prototype to demonstrate that the batteries, motors and propeller meet the requirements when operating as a single system. The Microliner can enter commercial service once it is certified.

‘Europe’s culture of freedom acts as a magnet for talent’

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 05:30:00 GMT

Europe holds a strong advantage when it comes to technological innovation: the freedom to think differently. That’s according to Gary Shapiro, Executive Chair of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). This is the driving force behind CES: the world’s largest technology trade show. “Freedom acts as a magnet for talent.”

Anyone involved in technology is familiar with CES in Las Vegas. The annual trade show is one of the largest international stages for technological innovation. From artificial intelligence and medical technology to mobility, companies present their latest developments to investors, business partners, and the international media. During CES 2026 in Las Vegas, more than 4,100 exhibitors showcased their technology to 148,392 visitors.

CES has long since expanded beyond Las Vegas. Through events like CES Unveiled—which has previously taken place in cities such as Amsterdam and Paris—the organization connects European startups and innovators with the international technology network. In October 2026, CES Unveiled made its debut in Milan. The organization aims to give European innovation a larger international stage through this initiative.

Shapiro was also present in Milan. Together with Kinsey Fabrizio, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, he addressed the audience. He also made time for interviews with the press, including IO+. Early in the interview, his mission becomes clear. He describes himself as a “cheerleader for technology.” Like CES itself, Shapiro’s enthusiasm extends far beyond the United States. He sees interesting technological developments emerging all over the world, “especially in Europe.”

Freedom as a magnet for talent

Shapiro emphasizes that creative minds and innovators settle in places where they can be themselves and are respected. “Freedom of speech, freedom of the press; the brightest minds in the world want to live and work in countries where they are given the space to be themselves and realize their ambitions,” says Shapiro.

He compares Europe and the U.S. to countries like China, where strict social monitoring and a lack of personal freedom stifle creativity in its infancy. “In China, citizens are assigned a social score based on their behavior. That doesn’t feel like an environment where you can think freely or experiment,” says Shapiro.

Even more strengths

According to Shapiro, freedom and room for creativity are essential for innovation. But Europe has more assets at its disposal. The continent also plays an important role in various technological fields. “For example, Europe excels at developing technology that puts people first.” This is evident, for instance, in medical technology that improves diagnoses and treatments, and in technology that helps people with disabilities live more independently.

Technical education is also, according to Shapiro, a major strength. “Europe generally has a very good education system for training creative engineers. And each country has its own distinct character in this regard.” The European Commission estimated that in 2023, 26.9 percent of students in higher education in the EU were enrolled in a STEM program: a degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. In Germany and Finland, that share was significantly higher, at 35.5 and 35.3 percent, respectively.

Challenges: regulation and capital

Nevertheless, Europe faces significant challenges, Shapiro emphasizes. He points to complex regulations and the slow availability of capital, which sometimes hold startups back compared to the U.S. Many Dutch startups want to move to the U.S. because it’s faster and easier there. Still, he sees room for improvement. “Europe could, for example, adjust its pension systems to make capital available for innovation.” Work is already underway in several European countries. For example, in September 2026, the ABP pension fund invested 250 million euros in the Scaleup Europe Fund, which is designed to help European technology companies continue to grow.

A preview of what’s to come

CES Milan was a preview of what awaits us in Las Vegas in January. According to Shapiro, a large number of companies from outside the U.S. will also be present there. “CES Las Vegas has become the premier international event for innovation. Companies come not only to do business in the United States, but to meet people, investors, and partners from all over the world. More than a third of our visitors come from outside the U.S.”

AI is the main theme of this year’s trade show. But there are a number of other technological developments that Shapiro is enthusiastic about. “I’ve been enthusiastic about self-driving vehicles for a long time. And about robotics.” He cites an exoskeleton—which helps workers lift heavy objects—as an example. “There are many people worldwide who have to do physical labor that we really shouldn’t be asking of them.”

What moves him even more is the impact technology can have on people with disabilities. “I hope that with new technology, we can eventually give people with, for instance, spinal cord injuries, more opportunities and independence.”

One thing is certain: in January, these solutions will take center stage on the Las Vegas show floor, alongside thousands of other innovations from around the world.

CC Diagnostics wins NextGen Award for home cervical cancer test

Thu, 05 Nov 2026 16:44:58 GMT

CC Diagnostics wins the MedTech Twente NextGen Award with its non-invasive cervical cancer detection technology. The startup, based in Groningen, earned the jury’s approval for the high impact its technology can have.

Cervical cancer is the 5th most common cancer in women, and every year, thousands of cases go unnoticed. Currently, women need to undergo invasive and uncomfortable testing procedures. Nearly a quarter of all cases are missed by current screening practices.

The Groningen startup has developed an innovative PCR testing kit – working similarly to a home test for COVID-19 — with patented biomarkers that enables earlier detection while improving patient comfort. “The advantage is that women can simply test at home and ship the sample to a laboratory, without even needing to step into a gynaecologist's practice,” said Ilinka Stanciu, the startup's quality assurance manager.

The NextGen Award recognizes healthcare technology startups, and it is organized by MedTech Twente, the University of Twente’s (UT) medtech cluster. The final took place during the TechMed event, a gathering of health tech professionals hosted today on the UT campus.

Impact for millions of patients

Four finalist startups competed for the prize. Inspired by the Dragon’s Den, each startup had three minutes to pitch its idea to a jury, which then had five minutes to ask questions. In addition to the judges’ feedback, the winner received a €10,000 prize. “We plan to use this money to accelerate to start pilot studies in the US,” said Stanciu.

“We saw four really great ideas, all of them ready for the market, and we listened to four nice pitches,” said judge Harald Vonkeman, Professor of Patient-Centered Health Technology at UT. “Of all the four, we believed that CC Diagnostics’s idea can really have an impact on healthcare.”

Henk Westendorp, a partner at venture capital firm NLC Health Ventures and a jury member, shared extra advice for the winner when presenting the prize. “You only have one chance in this kind of business, so make sure that you are well set and conditioned to enter the US market,” he said.

The other finalists

The three other runners-up also presented ready-to-market ideas to improve healthcare.

FlowBeams - founded at Twente University - is developing non-invasive injection technology, aiming to disrupt cosmetic and pharmaceutical treatments. Instead of using a needle to inject medicine, their technology uses a laser to heat the liquid to be injected into the body. As the temperature rises, a rapidly expanding microbubble forms, propelling a high-speed jet through the skin for quick absorption.

I See U Baby Care developed a system to check on premature babies’ sleep. The technology combines a camera that records sleep with an algorithm that makes sense of the data. Tracking sleep in premature babies is crucial because, due to their condition, they sleep fewer hours. Sleep is essential for healthy growth, immune function, and brain development. Tracking premature babies helps caregivers and patients understand how to support the newborns.

Twente Medical Optics has developed HAPI, a handheld device to scan organs before a transplant. The startup pitch underlined how a large share of organs, although good to use, are discarded. The device could help perform more transplants, saving more lives. Having gained experience in burn assessment, the company is gearing up for the next step.

The hospital of the future

The four innovations align well with MedTech Twente’s vision: designing the hospital of the future. As care evolves, pressured by staff shortages and an aging population, and helped by AI and robotics, new technologies can help shape the future.

To this end, the TechMed Event hosted a day-long program of presentations, panels, and exhibitions to think of how to integrate technology into healthcare pathways. AI, robotics, and personalized medicine were among the hot topics of conversation, alongside the ethical consideration that the adoption of these innovations entail.

The sector agrees: there is no way to guarantee high-quality care in the years to come, without a fruitful technology input. A tip for innovators, as a hospital clinician on stage remarked: “Make sure to develop technology with us and not for us.”

ING unlocks €128.5 million to strengthen European autonomy

Thu, 05 Nov 2026 10:05:11 GMT

ING is making €128.5 million in new capital available to Dutch small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) looking to invest in innovation and digitalisation. The bank is doing so through a partnership with the European Investment Fund (EIF), which partially guarantees the financing. The scheme is supported by the European InvestEU programme.

“Our goal is to strengthen competitiveness, sustainability and innovation as part of Europe's strategic autonomy,” says Marjut Falkstedt, CEO of the EIF. According to her, the guarantee enables ING to make more capital available to Dutch SMEs.

About the financing

The capital will be provided in the form of subordinated loans on favourable terms. These loans allow companies to strengthen their balance sheets and make it easier to secure additional regular bank financing. This creates more financial room for investments in areas such as new technologies and digital applications.

Most of the funding is earmarked for innovation and digitalisation. ING and the EIF aim to make at least €102.8 million in new loans available for these purposes. An additional €25.7 million has been reserved for investments in sustainability.

The partnership is intended not only to help Dutch businesses grow, but also to contribute to Europe's strategic autonomy. By strengthening innovation and the competitiveness of European companies, the EIF aims to reduce Europe's dependence on other parts of the world.

Europe invests €525 million in chip design

Thu, 05 Nov 2026 09:36:15 GMT

Europe invests €525 million in a new platform designed to support European chip design companies. The European Chip Design Platform provides startups and SMEs with access to specialized software, technical expertise, and manufacturing facilities. Through this initiative, the European Union aims to stimulate the development of new chips in Europe.

The platform was launched by Henna Virkkunen, European Commissioner for Technological Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy. It is part of the European Chips Act, through which the EU aims to strengthen its position in the semiconductor industry and reduce its dependence on other parts of the world.

Access to expensive technology

Chip design is a key component of the semiconductor industry. This phase determines how a chip functions and what characteristics it will have. Although there is a great deal of innovation in this area, European chip design companies currently account for less than one percent of global revenue in this sector.

For startups, developing chips is also costly. Specialized design software, technical support, and access to manufacturing facilities are often difficult to afford. The new platform is intended to lower those barriers.

Startups can apply for grants through the platform. Young companies can receive up to 100,000 euros to build and test an initial prototype. Companies that are further along in their development can apply for grants of up to 16 million euros to make the transition to commercial production.

Startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can also receive guidance from the European network of Chip Competence Centers.

Boost for the European chip industry

Of the total investment, 440 million euros is earmarked for grants. The remaining 85 million euros will go toward the development and management of the cloud platform, supporting services, and open-source design tools.

The platform will be managed by a consortium led by the Belgian research institute imec. It is collaborating with, among others, international providers of design software and intellectual property for chips.

In addition, twenty startups are participating in EuroCDP’s development programs. They will receive technical and commercial guidance to turn their ideas into market-ready products.

With this platform, Europe aims not only to foster the creation of more chip design companies but also to increase demand for chips designed in Europe. This is crucial for the European chip industry: new factories are only viable if there are enough companies willing to have their chips manufactured there.

Trump Is losing ground at home, but could still surprise Europe

Thu, 05 Nov 2026 08:00:00 GMT

The November 2026 U.S. midterm elections have changed the political landscape in Washington. The Democrats have taken control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This will make it more difficult for Donald Trump to push through his domestic agenda. But on the world stage, he is not yet finished. A president who is losing influence at home may turn to foreign policy to secure his political legacy.

A president’s waning power

An American president can exert a great deal of influence during his term in office, but that power is not unlimited. Especially when his party loses its majority in Congress, it becomes more difficult to implement domestic policies. After all, Congress decides on legislation and budgets. In the realm of foreign policy, a president has more authority of his own. For example, he can launch diplomatic initiatives, conduct negotiations, and, as commander-in-chief, make military decisions. Even as his domestic political leeway shrinks, he thus retains influence on the international stage.

Bush as an example

George W. Bush used his final year in office to adjust various foreign policy issues. For example, in the final months of his presidency, several U.S. drone strikes took place in Pakistan. According to Pakistani intelligence officials, attacks in November 2008 killed, among others, Al-Qaeda leader Abdullah Azzam al-Saudi and British Al-Qaeda suspect Rashid Rauf.

Presidents want to secure their legacy

Bush was not the first president to seek to exert influence in the final phase of his presidency. In 1801, John Adams hastily appointed a series of federal judges, the so-called “midnight judges.” In December 1980, Jimmy Carter signed the Superfund Act and the Alaska Lands Act, thereby enshrining important environmental protections in law for the future. During the final months of his presidency, Dwight Eisenhower’s administration developed the plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. The invasion ultimately took place in April 1961, under his successor, John F. Kennedy.

These examples show that presidents also try to shape their political legacy toward the end of their terms.

Trump loses ground domestically

With his domestic leeway reduced, Trump can focus more of his attention on foreign policy issues. His previous actions, such as withdrawing from the nuclear agreement with Iran and the subsequent “maximum pressure” campaign, show that he is willing to revise existing international agreements and employ economic and diplomatic leverage.

It is uncertain what steps he will take in the coming years. However, his previous decisions do provide insight into the tools at his disposal.

What does this mean for Europe?

For Europe, a president who is losing his domestic leeway can present both opportunities and risks. He may make decisions that affect transatlantic relations. Consider the following scenarios.

One scenario is a sudden trade deal. Under time pressure, Trump may try to force a bilateral agreement with the EU. He has repeatedly demonstrated how he uses trade policy to pressure other countries into making concessions. In April 2025, he announced import tariffs on virtually all of the U.S.’s trading partners. He then gave countries a 90-day deadline to conclude a trade agreement, under threat of higher tariffs. This led to a series of separate negotiations. In addition to the European Union, Japan and the United Kingdom, among others, concluded trade agreements with Washington. The agreements included not only tariff reductions but also commitments regarding investment, energy, and market access.

According to Creon Butler of the Chatham House think tank, Trump is using access to the U.S. market to extract economic, financial, and political concessions from trading partners. The report also warns that countries cannot automatically assume that existing trade agreements will remain in effect.

A second scenario concerns NATO and European defense. Trump may announce a new NATO strategy or a bilateral defense agreement in the coming years. Europe must therefore prepare for unexpected changes in the transatlantic security architecture. This scenario is not far-fetched. During his second term, Trump repeatedly called into question U.S. security guarantees to Europe. He linked U.S. commitment within NATO to higher defense spending by allies, threatened to withdraw from the alliance, and announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Germany in 2026. In addition, the Pentagon is working on a review of the U.S. military presence in Europe.

It is uncertain whether these scenarios will become reality. But these developments show that Europe must not only take into account domestic political dynamics in Washington. Even a president who is losing influence at home can still make far-reaching decisions on the world stage. Europe will have to anticipate this.

AI as a friend: a helpful tool or a bad influence?

Thu, 05 Nov 2026 05:30:00 GMT

Children see their parents using ChatGPT and want to ask AI questions themselves. However, regular chatbots are not always suitable for young users. For example, they do not necessarily take a child's age into account and may provide answers that are inappropriate for their world of experience.

A few years ago, Dutch developer Nick Hoogveldt noticed that his own children enjoyed talking to AI, but he also saw its limitations. “An AI doesn't know how old a child is and sometimes says strange things,” he explains. That is why he developed MiniAI, a chatbot specifically designed for young users.

AI as a learning tool

MiniAI was developed to introduce children to AI in an accessible way. The application also helps them learn and do their homework. Rather than providing the answer straight away, the chatbot tries to guide children towards a solution themselves through explanations and examples.

Children can type their questions or simply ask them out loud. The AI then responds using a voice. This makes the application more accessible to children. “You should also be able to understand it without being able to read and type very well,” Hoogveldt says.

During testing, he discovered how important a simple interface is. For example, his own daughter would keep calling out to the screen when the AI did not respond as she expected. “That is why we extensively tested the interface and adapted it to the way children interact with technology.”

Parents can also view their children's conversations. When children ask personal questions, MiniAI refers them to their parents, as not every question is suitable for a chatbot to answer. These may include questions about sexual orientation, for example.

Inequality

According to Eliane Segers, professor of Learning & Technology at Radboud University and one of the programme leaders of the pedagogical and educational track at the National Education Lab AI (NOLAI), AI offers children opportunities to develop new skills.

Children are increasingly encountering the technology, not only online but also in everyday devices such as smart refrigerators. “Precisely because society is changing so quickly, it is important for children to learn how to use it.” If children only become familiar with AI at home, this could increase inequality between pupils. Children whose parents know a lot about AI can learn to work with it at home, while others may miss out on that opportunity and fall behind.

That does not mean AI should replace teachers. “You cannot let a computer or AI take over the classroom. That is complete nonsense. Teachers are indispensable by definition.” For example, a teacher can demonstrate how AI works on a digital whiteboard and deliberately show examples of the technology making mistakes. According to Segers, AI can help tailor education to individual pupils, for example in classrooms with different language levels and learning needs. The technology offers opportunities to support education, but its added value must be clear for each application.

Thinking skills

According to Segers, the impact of AI on children's thinking skills depends on how they use the technology. To explain this, she refers to the PISA study. “The study shows that pupils who say they use AI to do their work for them score lower than those who use AI to support their learning. And when someone else does my thinking for me, my abilities deteriorate. It's like going to the gym with a robot that lifts the weights for me.” When AI takes over the entire thinking process, children have fewer opportunities to practise thinking for themselves and solving problems.

Segers also warns that children can easily accept a chatbot's answers as the truth. AI can sound convincing even when the information is incorrect. This is particularly challenging for children, who often have less prior knowledge to recognise such mistakes. “If you have never seen grass before, it is difficult to argue with an AI that confidently tells you grass is blue.”

Chatbots that behave like a friend who always agrees with you also pose a risk, according to Segers. This is not limited to AI designed for children: regular chatbots, such as ChatGPT, can also reinforce users' beliefs, even when those beliefs are incorrect. “It is not healthy to surround yourself with people who always agree with you.”

AI as a real friend

Hoogveldt also noticed that children can start to see AI as a real friend. According to him, an earlier version of MiniAI's voice sounded so friendly that his daughter began to regard the chatbot as an actual friend. He therefore made the voice less emotional. Segers also warns about so-called emotional companions: children who start to see chatbots as their best friends. “At some point, a child may no longer be able to distinguish between what is real and what is fake.”

That is why children need to learn to assess answers critically and understand that AI can make mistakes. Parents and teachers play an important role in this. “You need to stay involved and show them how it works. Above all, show them when something goes wrong, so children understand that AI can say something stupid. They really need that awareness,” Segers explains.

From supermarkets to blood banks: Europe’s fridge hacks escalate

Wed, 04 Nov 2026 14:54:45 GMT

France’s national blood service, the Établissement Français du Sang (EFS), confirmed a cyberattack on November 1 that disrupted refrigeration systems storing blood plasma and platelets. Hackers remotely altered temperature settings in three cold storage sites, pushing levels from -30°C to as high as 110°C.

Technicians intervened before any products were compromised, but the incident underscores the vulnerability of critical healthcare infrastructure to cyber-physical threats. The attack is part of a coordinated wave targeting refrigeration systems across Europe, including supermarkets in at least 11 countries.

Over the past weeks, hackers have targeted refrigeration systems in supermarkets across Europe, causing temperatures to spike to 50°C in stores in Belgium, Sweden, Ireland, and eight other countries. In October, Dutch retailer Albert Heijn was hit by an attack that shut down its websites, delivery services, and parts of its store operations. The U.S. military also reported suspected cyberattacks on commissary refrigeration systems in August. Authorities suspect state-sponsored actors or lone-wolf hackers, though no group has claimed responsibility.

How the attacks unfolded

The cyberattacks leveraged flaws in refrigeration controllers. These vulnerabilities allowed hackers to bypass authentication using a hidden daily password and execute remote commands to manipulate temperature settings.

In the EFS case, the attackers targeted systems supplied by Coolworld, forcing freezers to defrost and risking the spoilage of blood plasma, which must be stored below -25°C. The French cybersecurity agency CERT-FR had previously warned about these vulnerabilities, urging organizations to remove public internet access and restore remote access via secure VPNs. Despite these alerts, over 2,765 Danfoss refrigeration systems remained exposed to the internet.

Response and mitigation efforts

The EFS acted quickly to mitigate the impact, with its technicians promptly detecting the anomaly and transfering blood products to other facilities, preventing any damage. The agency also reinforced temperature monitoring and alerted France’s national cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, and the health ministry.

Meanwhile, EU officials convened an emergency meeting of the interinstitutional Task Force, involving ENISA and Europol, to coordinate a response. National authorities in Italy, Belgium, and Sweden launched investigations, with some treating the incidents as deliberate attempts to disrupt critical supply chains. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre warned that AI-powered malware could exacerbate such threats in the coming years.

This attack highlights once more the systemic vulnerabilities of the so-called operational technology (OT) systems, often overlooked in cybersecurity strategies. Many refrigeration controllers lack basic protections, such as strong authentication or network segmentation, making them easy targets for remote manipulation.

The incidents have forced retailers and healthcare providers to reassess their OT security posture, with experts recommending Zero Trust segmentation, inline enforcement, and multicloud visibility. The EU’s NIS2 Directive and DORA framework now require stricter cybersecurity measures for critical infrastructure, but compliance remains inconsistent. The financial and operational fallout from these attacks underscores the need for urgent action.

8 Dutch startups that raised money in October

Wed, 04 Nov 2026 12:59:06 GMT

RougeTx raises $58M to develop vascular disease treatment

Biotech startup RougeTX has raised $58 million to develop a treatment for a genetic disease: hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). People living with this condition develop abnormal blood vessels and experience frequent bleeding. The company is working on a drug that can help restore the stability of HHT patients' blood vessels.

The money will help the spin-off of the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) progress with the development of its drug candidate RTX-001, a medication that could come in tablet form and be designed to be taken once a day. With its periSCOPE platform, RougeTx plans to explore therapies for other diseases that cause blood vessel instability.

€28 million for Eindhoven-based semiconductor company XIVER

XIVER, a company producing chips, infrared sensors, and thin-film products, received €28 million in financing from bank ABN AMRO. With this investment, the company is modernizing its production facilities and machinery. A key purchase is a DUV lithography system from ASML, which will enable XIVER to further increase its production capacity.

The sum is part of a €55 million investment program to help XIVER expand its production output and its technological capabilities. With demand surging, driven in part by AI, the Eindhoven-based company aims to meet that demand and strengthen its position in the semiconductor industry.

Photon Bridge raises €10 million to tackle AI's laser shortage

Photon Bridge secured €10 million in new funding for its laser-making technology. Lasers are playing an increasingly influential role in data transfer, particularly in AI data centres. Optical connections can carry more information at a faster pace, doing so with less energy. Every one of these connections needs a laser light source.

Seeing that high-power lasers are a niche with small volumes, the startup has come up with a solution that combines the light of multiple, weaker lasers into one. Instead of ever harder-to-build single lasers, the company solves this through design.

Indurex raises €7M to shield critical infrastructure with AI

Indurex, an Amsterdam-based company that uses AI to protect critical infrastructure, has raised €7 million in new funding. Refineries, power stations, water plants and factories run on control systems that open valves, set temperatures and shut equipment down when something goes wrong. A digital problem in these systems can quickly become a physical one.

While most security tools for the sites monitor the network, the company takes a step further, as a plant's engineering settings and safety functions are equally crucial. Therefore, its Indurex SafeGuard AI™ pulls in data from a site's control, safety and alarm systems and its IT security tools. AI agents then flag the unusual changes that need a human to look at them.

PaperFoam lands €2 million to expand its compostable packaging

Dutch packaging maker PaperFoam has secured €2 million to make more of its plant-based, compostable packaging. The money comes as a loan from Invest International, the Dutch government-backed organisation that finances companies growing beyond the Netherlands.

To make its packaging, the company mixes industrial starch, natural fibres, water and a premix of its own into a thick paste. That paste is then moulded and baked, resulting in light yet sturdy trays into which to insert or fit shaped products. PaperFoam will use this financing to expand its factory in the Czech Republic and support its operations in Malaysia and the United States.

Skytree lands €1 million to take its air-captured CO₂ to Iceland

Climate tech company Skytree has secured a €1 million development loan from Invest International to prepare its first carbon capture hub abroad. The project, called a Skypark, will be built in Iceland.

SkyTree makes machines that can capture CO₂ out of ordinary outdoor air. Carbon dioxide is used in many industrial processes, including as a feed for greenhouse-grown plants, fizz for drink makers, and dry ice. Iceland is a good test case as it imports most of its CO₂, but it has plenty of geothermal energy, which the Skypark will use for both the electricity and the heat its machines need.

Ultra-processed food scanner app FLTRD raises over €500,000

FLTRD, the Dutch startup whose app tells shoppers how processed their food is, has raised more than €500,000 in a pre-seed round. Through their app, users can easily find out whether a product they want to buy at the supermarket is ultra-processed, pointing to healthier alternatives.

The company will use the money to grow its team, launch in Belgium before the end of the year, and start licensing its rating, the PureScore, to food producers and supermarkets. The app now covers more than 150,000 products from seven supermarkets and has over 35,000 users on iPhone and Android.

TU Delft spinout lands €150K to speed up antibody testing

Startup Constellate Proteomics has closed a pre-seed funding round, worth €150,000, for its tool that accelerates antibody quality control in biopharma applications. Drug development faces a critical bottleneck: slow, expensive, and expert-dependent protein analysis.

Constellate Proteomics addresses this gap with RAYmAb™, a platform that delivers four distinct quality analyses—titer, glycosylation, aggregation, and charge variant—from a tiny, untreated sample of the liquid cells were grown in, in minutes. This reduces reliance on large, expensive equipment and specialized operators, making high-resolution analysis accessible to a broader range of developers.

EIC Scaling Club scale-ups outpace peers with €4B raised

Wed, 04 Nov 2026 09:49:38 GMT

European deeptech startups are gaining momentum, a new report by the EIC Scaling Club finds. The analysis took into consideration the 120 startups that are part of the club, which have raised a combined amount of €4.06 billion in funding in the past two years. The EIC Scaling Club is a community of 120 European deeptech scale-ups — companies developing technology based on a fundamental research breakthrough — that have been supported by the European Innovation Council (EIC). The EIC is the EU's arm to support the commercialization of high-risk startups.

The report, "Europe’s Deep Tech Scale-ups: Building Momentum", reveals a 40% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in funding, far outpacing a comparable control group. Public backing, particularly from the EIC, has been a critical catalyst, de-risking investments and attracting private capital.

Patrik Sobocki, Senior Investment Director at Industrifonden and an EIC Scaling Club council member, says the data show “the strong effect of scale-up support in Europe.”

Public funding accelerating growth

Since its launch in April 2024, more than half of the 120 within the club have raised new capital, totalling €4.06 billion. This represents a 128% increase compared to their pre-joining funding levels. In contrast, a control group of 240 comparable companies raised just 56% of their prior funding during the same period.

Public funding has played a pivotal role in crowding in private investors. Approximately 80% of the capital raised after joining the Club came in rounds that included EIC or other public backers.

Early EIC Accelerator grants and EIC Fund equity investments de-risked deep tech ventures, making them more attractive to private investors. Each EIC Fund-backed round attracted an average of five additional investors, underscoring the program’s ability to mobilize specialized private capital. The EIC Fund co-invested in 22% of the companies that raised after joining, while national and EU bodies like Invest-NL, CDTI, and CDP Venture provided steady support.

Maria Zubeldia, Director of Entrepreneurship at Oxford Saïd Business School and an EIC Scaling Club council member, points to the Club’s role in “connecting deep tech scale-ups with investors, corporates, mentors and international networks,” so European innovators can grow and compete globally.

Strategic autonomy in the lead

The report also reveals that funding is concentrated in sectors critical to Europe's strategic autonomy. New Space, Next-Gen Computing (Quantum & AI Compute), and Renewable Energies accounted for 80% of the total capital raised. Nine mega-rounds of €100 million or more drove 51% of the post-joining funding, with Multiverse Computing (€755M), PLD Space (€488M), and Axelera AI (€361M) leading the pack.

These sectors align with Europe’s push for technological sovereignty, including the EU Chips Act and REPowerEU initiatives. However, non-European investors, mostly from the US, held 27% of the investor slots in these mega-rounds, compared to 18% across all post-joining rounds.

Money is not enough

Capital alone does not guarantee success. The report identified 210 publicly disclosed partnerships, with commercial collaborations (32%) and strategic alliances (25%) leading the way. These partnerships span R&D, sales, and supply chain integration, helping companies scale their technologies and validate their solutions.

Sectors like Next-Gen Computing, Batteries & Energy Storage, and New Space saw the highest partnership activity, mirroring their leadership in funding. However, the report notes that European demand and procurement remain fragmented, calling for aggregated efforts under initiatives like the EU Innovation Act and Startup & Scale-up Strategy.

AI is reshaping work, but businesses are slow to adapt

Wed, 04 Nov 2026 09:27:49 GMT

AI is making businesses more efficient, but so far it has had a limited impact on how organisations operate. This is according to Deloitte’s international study The State of AI in the Enterprise 2026.

For the study, Deloitte surveyed 3,500 business leaders across 25 countries. Although 81 percent say AI has improved the speed of decision-making and execution, only 25 percent use the technology to fundamentally transform their business operations. Organisational change is therefore lagging behind technological progress.

According to Deloitte, the challenge is no longer the availability of AI, but adapting workflows, business models and decision-making processes to make better use of its potential.

AI Is changing the way people work

Sixty percent of the organisations surveyed have redesigned jobs to some extent or to a moderate degree around AI. However, extensive changes remain rare: only 15 percent report making substantial or complete adjustments. Just 15 percent also say AI has led to significant or fundamental changes in decision-making.

One example in the report is a well-known furniture retailer that introduced an AI tool allowing customers to design rooms. The technology did not replace human designers, but changed their tasks. After receiving additional training, they took on a different role and were able to add more value. One executive described this as optimising the workforce, rather than reducing it.

At other organisations, AI helps employees work faster, but they still follow the same approval procedures. In these cases, the technology speeds up existing processes without fundamentally changing them. Deloitte therefore argues that businesses should look beyond which tasks they can automate and consider how work, responsibilities and decision-making authority could be reorganised.

Maintaining control over AI

As AI systems become more autonomous, clear rules on accountability are becoming increasingly important. Forty percent of organisations allow AI to make decisions or take action independently, to some or a moderate extent, without human approval. Yet at 23 percent of organisations, it is unclear who is responsible when an AI system produces a negative outcome.

This calls for oversight that reflects what a system is allowed to do. An AI tool that only makes recommendations requires different controls from a system that independently takes action. Businesses should therefore establish who is responsible, when human approval is required and when a system must refer a decision to an employee.

The underlying technology and infrastructure also play a role. For example, 74 percent of organisations consider it important for their data and computing power to remain available within specific geographical regions. In addition, 62 percent are concerned about their dependence on foreign AI technology and computing providers. Deloitte refers to this as Sovereign AI: maintaining digital autonomy and limiting geopolitical dependencies.

To retain control, organisations are exploring their own AI capabilities, regional suppliers and private cloud or on-premises infrastructure. Decisions about technology, infrastructure and oversight are consequently becoming increasingly important to business strategy.

Physical AI is growing faster than expertise

Software-based AI is not the only technology gaining ground in businesses. Physical AI, which combines AI with sensors, robots and intelligent machines, is also becoming more widespread. Currently, 25 percent of the organisations surveyed use this technology to some or a moderate extent. That figure is expected to rise to 48 percent within two years.

One example in the report is a European chemical company that uses a robot to monitor factory operations. The robot can determine its position independently and interpret its surroundings, but does not fully replace employees. An infrastructure company also opts for human-machine collaboration: it automates repetitive tasks while an employee remains responsible for approval.

The growth of Physical AI does, however, expose a shortage of knowledge and skills. Only 19 percent of companies rate their own expertise as high or very high. The technology requires knowledge of robotics, hardware integration and safety. Companies that already have this expertise are leading the way: 64 percent use Physical AI to some or a moderate extent, while 28 percent have extensively deployed or fully integrated the technology.

Getting more value out of AI

The findings point to the same challenge: businesses are using AI more widely, but the organisational changes needed to make the most of the technology are lagging behind.

According to Deloitte, companies need to get more value from AI by redesigning work and decision-making responsibilities. This requires insight into AI costs, links to commercial results and appropriate governance. Businesses must also build expertise in Physical AI and maintain control over their data, infrastructure and suppliers. This will enable them to scale AI safely and make better use of it to drive growth and innovation.

PIC Summit 2026: Europe’s chips need the right pressure to scale

Wed, 04 Nov 2026 09:19:34 GMT

When Peter Wennink was CEO of ASML, a table full of engineers taught him a lesson that became his mantra: apply the right pressure, and everything comes through. "That has been a mantra for me during the rest of my career and my life," the former ASML chief told the audience of the PIC Summit in Eindhoven yesterday. "How do you create the right pressure?"

The PIC Summit is a two-day event on photonic chips organized by the nonprofit Photon Delta, focusing on integrated photonics. Held at Eindhoven’s Evoluon, the event reached its fifth edition this year and revolved around the theme of “Scaling integrated photonics for global impact,” bringing together companies, experts, and policymakers.

How to scale the potential that’s there? Europe, Wennink argued, has the creativity, the people, and the collaborative model. What is missing is urgency. "How do we create this pressure, so that this sense of urgency is actually paramount and things can happen now?" he asked. "We cannot wait. It's now or never."

Photonics is one domain where Europe can still have a say, home to influential players such as ASML, NXP, and Infineon. Photonic chips, also known as photonic integrated circuits (PICs), use light to transmit data, enabling faster, more efficient chips. They can process and transmit information faster than conventional electronic chips and can also be manufactured using established production processes.

Stuck at the pilot line

Alongside the former ASML’s CEO keynote, there was also space for talks by NXP’s CTO Lars Reger and the European Commission's head of the sector of the microelectronics and photonics industry, Werner Steinhögl. The same problem resurfaced: Europe excels at proofs of concept, but is not as good at turning them into volume.

Reger put the scaling problem in semiconductor terms. "For NXP, we have the slogan internally: the fun only starts if we can sell 500 million pieces of one chip," he said. "Let's make sure that we are not stuck on the pilot-line level, because that is my biggest fear at the moment in the European ecosystem. They are getting enough subsidies to have a pilot line, and they don't have the momentum to fire stage two of their rockets."

The EU’s stance

The European Commission broadly agrees. Over 85% of the Chips Act budget, a legislative package aimed at stimulating semiconductor production in the bloc, has been committed, and about €32 billion in production investment has begun. However, only 2 of the 20 projects receiving state aid are in photonics.

The Chips Act 2.0 aims to close this gap. A new instrument supports the stage between pilot line and fab, with photonics explicitly listed in its scope. Moreover, the first iteration granted state aid for a first-of-a-kind project, not for full manufacturing capacity. Taking input from the industry, that will now be possible.

"The pilot lines stop at a certain technology readiness level, and then you have to build the fab, but there is something in between," Steinhögl said. "Scaling is super important. This we understood in Brussels."

Running at photonic speed

In a following panel discussion, Wennink and Reger were joined by Bart Groothuis, a member of the EU parliament. The politician argued that Brussels’s role is shifting. "In the previous Chips Act we would subsidize your technology, maybe a pilot line," he said. "Now we set you up with data-centre owners. We finance the qualification process to make sure that you're in the market. We help you with standardization, and in permitting."

The Commission has proposed a 12-month permitting deadline for new fabs; Groothuis wants six. "We measure the progress not in billions, not in the number of fabs," he said. "I measure the success of the Chips Act at speed."

Wennink pointed to where speed actually breaks down. A proposed AI gigafactory in Rotterdam has port land, North Sea wind power the grid cannot absorb, and an anchor customer for a third of its capacity, yet it is stuck on permits. "The problem in society these days is we have democratized the decision-making to the lowest level," he said. "On the major issues, it needs to be centrally led." His fix: binding agreements with national governments on digital and energy.

Groothuis added that the bottleneck is no longer only supply. "The global trend in politics is not supply politics, it's demand politics, and Europe is the last in line," he said, recounting talks with Asian lawmakers. "We are very good at financing innovations, but we need to be good at finding our first customers."

Applying the right pressure

So who applies the pressure? Wennink's answer starts with rules: state aid that backs start-ups and scale-ups, competition law that lets European champions combine, and wider guardrails for finance. "We do take risk, but we're not informed. We don't understand risk," he said of Europe's pension funds and banks. "Risk is good, and risk should be supported and not blocked."

But his deeper point was about society. "Politicians are still in their own trenches, looking at each other and shooting arrows at each other. It's like World War I, and nothing moves," he said. "But in the end, politics is not an alien life form. Politics is us. We determine who should lead."

Reger turned the pressure back on industry. When Ukrainian contacts asked whether NXP's automotive radar chips could detect drones, his engineers wanted six months to qualify a new chip. "I said, stop! There is a chance to have either nothing in Ukraine or a system that is overheating, and you need to put a cooling fan there," he recalled. "We cannot wait for politics, and we cannot point to others to do our jobs."

The speakers converged on relevance rather than autonomy. "We should focus on indispensability," Groothuis said. "If you don't sit at the table, you're probably on the menu."