Scenexus: the startup seeking to improve urban planning worldwide radically
Every month, we interview a startup that has recently received an investment. This month: Scenexus.
Published on February 5, 2025
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The brand new spin-off from TNO received a €1.6 million investment from Lumo Labs and TNO immediately upon its founding. We spoke with Jeroen Borst (CEO) and Bart Vuijk (CCO) about the company's origins, challenges, and great ambition: to improve urban planning worldwide radically.
From slow calculation process to real-time insight
Jeroen Borst has a background in physics and environmental physics. After a little detour, he ended up at TNO's health institute in 1998, mapping cities' noise and air quality. “The problem was: it took an incredibly long time. Calculating a noise map of a city like Tilburg? That took ten days of calculation time. A traffic analysis? At least 24 hours.”
Bart Vuijk (left) and Jeroen Borst.
That had to change. Together with Walter Lohman, now CTO of Scenexus, Borst explored how new ICT technologies could speed up computational models. “With the power of GPU (graphics processing unit, ed.) we could perform the same calculations in seconds to minutes. Our goal was clear: within the time an alderman finishes his coffee, he should have an answer to his policy question.” This innovation turned out to be faster and more fundamental: an integrated approach combining traffic, environment, and a host of other urban aspects.
From TNO spin-off to independent startup
That Scenexus would one day become an independent startup was in line with expectations, but it took some time. “Within TNO, more and more innovation was linked to our urban strategy approach,” says Vuijk, then business developer mobility at TNO. “Once a technology reaches a certain TRL level, TNO sells it as a license to an existing company - or establishes a spin-off.”
In 2022, Tjark Tjin-A-Tsoi became CEO of TNO. Most recently, he expressed in an interview with FD that the research institute wants to invest more in Dutch startups. Last year, Borst presented his Urban Strategy in San Diego. “'This has to go outside,' Tjark said immediately afterward,” says the brand-new CEO.
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Digital twin for global cities
Several significant transitions - the climate transition and the housing challenge - are forcing cities to prepare for new circumstances. “Take Eindhoven,” Borst gives as an example. “There, the municipality is getting stuck on planning new housing. Mayor Jeroen Dijsselbloem was in our demo room. He has to build 100,000 homes, and it's all in batches of 20 to 500. He has to do environmental calculations and traffic tests for all those projects. Not to mention the interaction between all those different projects.”
With our technology, we could show him what would happen if you put x number of houses in this neighborhood. Scenexus offers cities a digital twin: a digital copy of a town in which policymakers can test scenarios at lightning speed. “What happens if we close a road? What is the impact of 10,000 additional homes on traffic flows and air quality? We can answer those kinds of questions within seconds,” Vuijk explains.
Challenges and growth
Scenexus' success also brings challenges. “One of the biggest stumbling blocks is that cities are not used to this way of working,” says Vuijk. “There is no standard process for procuring an integrated digital twin. Municipalities often work with European tenders, which take months, whereas we offer fast and flexible analyses.”
Yet confidence in their technology is growing. In the Netherlands, cities like Amsterdam and Breda have already worked with Scenexus and see potential in the US. Borst: “In San Diego, they were impressed. There, spatial planning is enormously complex because of the region's strong growth, so they immediately saw the benefits.”
The future: global leader in urban strategy
Scenexus' ambition reaches far. “By 2030, we want cities to use Urban Strategy by default to make their city a fine place to live,” says Borst. “We empower cities to thrive” is our mission.
And that ambition is shared by the team. The team consists of TNO employees. Vuijk: “There are four of us now, but everyone gets so much energy from this. We have something unique, and the potential is enormous.” The €1.6 million investment will enable Scenexus to develop its technology further and expand internationally. “The challenges are great, but the impact is even greater,” Vuijk concludes. “We are only at the beginning.”
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