Eindhoven startup Alphabeats declared bankrupt
Alphabeats wanted to conquer the American market with its ‘Flow State’ technology, but ultimately failed to do so.
Published on December 19, 2025
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The Eindhoven startup Alphabeats, which developed a mental training app that allowed users to influence their brain activity through music, has been declared bankrupt. The Oost-Brabant court made that decision this week. The company had hoped for a breakthrough through a collaboration with Apple, but that didn't happen. As a result, it was unable to achieve sufficient scale to cover its costs, according to reports in the Eindhovens Dagblad newspaper. Alphabeats won a Gerard & Anton award in 2023.
Alphabeats was founded by Han Dirkx and Jur Vellema and was based at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven. The company developed an app that subtly adjusted music based on brain waves measured via a headband. The goal: to bring users into a deep state of relaxation or focus. The technology was primarily aimed at top athletes, who, according to the founders, could perform better through this form of mental training.
However, the big dream lay on the other side of the Atlantic. Alphabeats saw the United States as its most important growth market and hoped that Apple would integrate the company's sensors or functionality into products such as AirPods. In that scenario, Alphabeats could have limited itself to selling an app and subscriptions. “Alphabeats had hoped that Apple would incorporate the company's sensors or functionality into AirPods, for example,” says curator Jeroen Tulfer in the Eindhovens Dagblad newspaper. “Now it's a lot more difficult.”
Because that collaboration failed to materialize, growth remained limited. Alphabeats ultimately had about 300 paying customers. According to the curator, that number was insufficient to cover operating costs. An additional problem was that the company was dependent on external suppliers for the headbands needed to measure brain activity. That dependency put additional pressure on the business model.
Alphabeats hopes to conquer the US market with its ‘Flow State’ tech
Alphabeats, having won the CES Innovation Award and a Gerard & Anton Award, is expanding into the US market, backed by seasoned Spotify executives and significant seed funding.
The bankruptcy comes a few years after Alphabeats successfully raised capital. Three years ago, the company received approximately €1.5 million from a tech fund in which ASML and Philips, among others, participated. It also received support from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and presented itself several times at the CES technology fair in Las Vegas in an attempt to attract international attention.
The financial damage appears to be limited for the time being. According to the receiver, the debt amounts to less than €200,000, partly because the company had already made significant cost cuts in the recent period. All employees had already been laid off in the run-up to the bankruptcy.
It is not yet clear whether a restart is possible. The receiver is in talks with the current directors, shareholders, and an external interested party. Another factor is that the technology can be used freely in Europe, while licenses are required in the United States. “I don't dare say yet whether there will be a restart,” Tulfer said in the Eindhovens Dagblad newspaper.