How Level Up Award alumni Relement and ANTENNEX continue to lead

When Relement walked away with the Level Up Award in 2023, the Eindhoven-based startup was already making waves with its promise of renewable aromatics. A year later, deeptech challenger ANTENNEX followed in their footsteps, impressing the jury with its unique approach to testing next-generation wireless devices.

Now, with a new edition of Level Up approaching on 30 September 2025, and potential new winners can still register their ambitions, it’s worth pausing to see how both companies have built on that moment of recognition. Their journeys show how an award can be more than a trophy: it can become a launchpad for growth, credibility, and even industry transformation.

Relement: from lab to market

For Relement, the last two years have been about proving that green chemistry can be both sustainable and high-performance. Soon after their Level Up win, the company began scaling up the production of its flagship product, bio MPA (3-methylphthalic anhydride). In late 2024, they announced a manufacturing partnership with Weylchem-Allessa GmbH to move toward ton-scale production. “We are now accepting pre-orders and offtake agreements,” the company proudly wrote, underlining their readiness to shift from lab to market.

Relement wins Level Up Award 2023, © Bram Saeys

The momentum didn’t stop there. By the spring of 2025, Koninklijke Van Wijhe Verf, in collaboration with Relement and Worlée Chemie, had unveiled BIOmotion70, a concept paint with 70 percent renewable content and drastically reduced fossil solvents. Its unique properties were there thanks to Relement’s flagship product, bio MPA. At the European Coatings Show, painters were struck by how well the paint performed compared to fossil-based alternatives. One of them summed it up simply: “You’re on the right track.”

Recognition kept coming. In November 2024, Relement won the Tech Tour Bio-Based Industries Award, praised for its vision of turning biomass residues into high-value chemicals for coatings, adhesives, and foams. And in June 2025, the team welcomed Amyke Veurink as Senior Technical Sales Support Manager. She explained her choice to join Relement in clear terms: “Relement is on a mission to change the world of aromatic chemicals and is a frontrunner in renewable chemistry by creating aromatics from non-food biobased raw materials.”

For founder and CEO Roger Blokland, celebrating the 5-year anniversary was a good moment to reflect. What makes Relement so unique? "Sustainable materials offer huge potential, but customers buy value, not just sustainability. The moment I realized our biobased products could improve performance in hard-to-recycle materials, the opportunity became clear: combining sustainability and performance." From awards to new talent and contracts with industry players, Relement’s path since 2023 shows how quickly recognition can translate into real-world traction.

ANTENNEX: Wireless testing on the world stage

If Relement’s story is one of scaling chemistry, ANTENNEX’s is about reshaping how the wireless world measures performance. When they claimed the Level Up Award in 2024, the company had just started to make its mark with The Wireless Connector, an innovative test chamber for over-the-air antenna measurements.

Antennex wins Level Up Award 2024, © Bram Saeys

The months that followed were a whirlwind. In October 2024, ANTENNEX secured €1.5 million in investment, giving them the capital to accelerate product development and international expansion. Later, the Borski Fund joined the earlier investors. By early 2025, they were ready to move beyond the Netherlands. A distribution deal with Electro Rent opened the door to North American customers, which CEO Anouk Hubrechsen called “an important milestone… ensuring greater accessibility for our U.S. customers.”

Alongside commercial growth, ANTENNEX continued to innovate. At IMS 2025, one of the leading industry conferences, the team unveiled a new capability: over-the-air noise-figure measurements, a notoriously difficult challenge in antenna testing. Around the same time, industry magazine everythingRF profiled the startup, quoting Hubrechsen on how their solution helps customers automate complex measurements with more reliability.

And just this summer, ANTENNEX deepened its global footprint by joining Keysight’s Solution Partner Program, integrating its testing technology with one of the most established names in wireless measurement. It was another sign that what started as a promising deeptech startup is fast becoming part of the broader wireless ecosystem.

"It was fantastic to be chosen by an independent jury and in a sold-out Evoluon as the most promising and fast-growing startup with a distinctive social mission", Anouk Hubrechsen recalls. "The prize included participation in CES Las Vegas, which opened many doors to new markets for us!”

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Designed to celebrate

What unites these two stories, one rooted in renewable chemistry, the other in deeptech testing, is the way the Level Up Award served as a catalyst. Both companies entered the spotlight in Eindhoven with a compelling idea; both left with a powerful new platform. In the months and years that followed, that recognition helped open doors to investors, customers, and partners.

Relement now stands on the verge of commercial production, its biobased chemicals already entering paints and foams that could reduce the industry’s reliance on fossil feedstocks. ANTENNEX, meanwhile, has turned a Dutch startup success into an international contender, with its technology embedded in testing setups from Europe to North America.

Their progress embodies what Level Up is designed to celebrate: startups that combine ambition with the ability to make real impact.

A call to the next generation

As the 2025 Level Up event approaches, the stage is set once again for a startup to take the spotlight. For those considering applying, the message from past winners is clear: this award isn’t just about prestige. It’s about momentum, validation, and the visibility that can turn a local breakthrough into a global story.

Whether you’re building solutions in climate tech, digital innovation, deeptech, or life sciences, Level Up offers the chance to showcase your vision to a community that includes investors, corporates, and fellow entrepreneurs.

Applications are open now on the Level Up website. The deadline is in early September, and the winner will be announced at the event in Eindhoven on 30 September 2025.

Relement and ANTENNEX show what’s possible. The question now is: who will be next?