Meet four Dutch startups that raised money in April
Every month, we list the investments that caught our attention the most.
Published on May 6, 2026
Team IO+ selects and features the most important news stories on innovation and technology, carefully curated by our editors.
€41 million for ONWARD for the treatment of spinal cord injuries
ONWARD Medical, the company developing an innovative therapy pathway for patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), announced it raised €40.6 million. The financing was obtained by issuing more than 13.5 million new shares.
The medtech company is working on different therapies for people suffering from SCI. Their ARC-EX System, for instance, uses spinal cord stimulation to enhance arm and hand function, potentially allowing patients to regain limb use, improve their independence, and significantly improve their quality of life. The ARC-IM System instead addresses blood pressure instability - a major unmet need for individuals with spinal cord injuries.
ONWARD Medical is making strides to push its technology to the market, planning to expand sales of the ARC-EX System. Last year, the company had also received the green light from the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a clinical study on its ARC-IM System.
Smart Robotics raises €10 million to fund growth in Europe
Robotic solutions developer Smart Robotics raised €10 million. The company has been active in developing solutions for warehouses and factories for over 10 years. Its intelligent systems help speed up warehouse operations, such as product picking. A robot can perform up to 1000 operations per hour.
With the new funding, the company aims to accelerate growth in Europe, expand its commercial activities, and further improve its AI technology for automated product picking and placement.
AirHub receives €4.4 million for European drone software
Dutch drone software startup AirHub secured €4.4 million in funding to scale up its drone operations software. As the demand for reliable software to support drone operations grows, the company will expand its international team, broaden its product portfolio, and strengthening multiple operational centers.
The company has a clear focus on European sovereignty. Their software is developed locally and customers can keep a total control over their operational data, running it on their own servers. AirHub’s drone software is already widely used in critical sectors, with organizations such as Dubai Police and the Belgian Federal Police among its adopters.
Maeconomy raises €1.5 million to accelerate circular construction
Maeconomy, a startup based in Heerlen that transforms construction materials into verifiable and tradable circular assets, has raised €1.5 million. With this investment, the company aims to accelerate the development of a marketplace for circular materials in the built environment. The funding round is led by LUMO Labs and LIOF.
The European construction and demolition sector is responsible for more than one-third of all waste in the European Union. At the same time, many materials retain significant residual value after demolition or renovation. However, this value is currently hardly visible, tradable, or reliably documented. Maeconomy addresses this challenge with a platform that digitizes building and material data and translates it into concrete commercial insights. In doing so, it lays the foundation for a truly circular construction sector.