City of Eindhoven gives Gerard & Anton Foundation a flying start with extra funding
The Gerard & Anton Founders Dinner in the Philips Stadium showed how a community of like-minded people can help each other move forward.
Published on November 25, 2024
Alderman Stijn Steenbakkers and startup officer Xaveria Vossen at the announcement of the extra funding for the Gerard & Anton community. Marieke Brouwers, Beatrix Bos, Bert-Jan Woertman, and Bart Brouwers received the check. Photo © Bram van Dal
Bart is the co-founder and co-owner of Media52 (publishing IO+) and a Professor of Journalism at the University of Groningen. He is responsible for all the branches of our company—IO+, events, and Laio—and focuses on commercial opportunities. A journalist at heart, he also keeps writing as many stories as he can.
Can you speak of a tradition after just two editions, or does that require at least three performances? The joke that presenters Beatrix Bos and Bert-Jan Woertman made about it during last Saturday's Founders Dinner was immediately cracked by host Philips: “Obviously, this is a tradition. After all, the Gerard & Anton community is more than welcome at the Philips Stadium next year, too.”
The annual Founders Dinner is open to the founders of the hundred former Gerard & Anton Award winners and their immediate network. Once a year, this event is a way for old and new winners to get to know each other, share experiences, and thus strengthen the community. It complements the two big public G&A events (G&A Peak awards in January and G&A awards in summer), the monthly Drinks, Pitches, and Demos, and digital channels such as newsletters and the website.
News: foundation, funding
It wasn't just entertaining last Saturday. There were two news moments in the formal part of the meeting. Most notable: Chromodynamics (winner in 2019) was able to announce a funding round of €2 million. In addition, there was also news for Gerard & Anton themselves: the intention to accommodate the community in a separate foundation - and thus give the professionalization a new push forward - was the reason for the Municipality of Eindhoven to give it a flying start with a check of €17,500.
In addition, there were speeches by Philips Benelux president Sylvia van Es and Braventure's data analyst Matthijs Bulsink, interviews with Johan Feenstra of Smart Photonics and Joris Castermans of Whispp and, of course, the traditional status update from Alderman Stijn Steenbakkers. He focused on the great importance of collaboration - something that is certainly more than desirable in these times. Together, they told the story of Gerard & Anton's growth and, with it, the startup ecosystem of Brainport Eindhoven. If you want to know the exact figures behind it, Matthijs Bulsink's presentation will do the trick. Is that still not enough? Then here is all the data on the 100 former winners. Together, these startups account for a valuation of no less than 4.5 billion euros.
Oh yes, there were more great figures on Saturday: PSV won 5-0.