Ten finalists ready to LEVEL UP 2025
Voting for the Audience Award is already underway - which Benelux startup is your favorite?
Published on September 20, 2025
Team IO+ selects and features the most important news stories on innovation and technology, carefully curated by our editors.
After Antennex (2024) and Relement (2023), it's time to assess the finalists for the 2025 LEVELUP Award. With the new edition of Level Up approaching, the jury has selected ten finalists. This year’s top ten showcase the diversity and depth of the startup ecosystem, with breakthroughs ranging from healthtech and wellbeing to fintech, materials, and engineering. Each one is tackling a pressing challenge with creativity, determination, and vision. The winner will be announced on September 29, but voting for the audience award is already underway.
These are the ten finalists:
Aumens: Autonomy for aging
Aumens designs devices that help people stay independent as they grow older, while easing the burden on informal caregivers. Their patented 'Compass' always points home, giving people with dementia the confidence to go on adventures and return safely. Tested with over 30 users, it sets a new benchmark for intuitive design.
“We believe autonomy shouldn’t fade with age. Our mission is to give people tools that keep them independent and give caregivers peace of mind.”
DXcrete: Reading health in a drop of sweat
DXcrete is pioneering a new approach to monitoring health by transforming sweat into a continuous, non-invasive diagnostic tool. Their discretized microfluidics platform enables the analysis of extremely small sweat volumes, overcoming one of the biggest hurdles in clinical sweat sensing.
“Sweat carries crucial health information. Our technology makes it possible to read those signals continuously, without needles, without delay.”
GoDutch: Banking reimagined for entrepreneurs
GoDutch was born out of frustration with slow, expensive, and opaque banking services. Since 2024, founder Thomas Vles and his team have built a business banking platform designed for speed, fairness, and personal service. It’s banking made simple, for entrepreneurs who want to get to work, not wait in line.
“Fast. Honest. Built for entrepreneurs. That’s how we believe banking should be.”
EviSafe: Breaking the cycle of violence
EviSafe develops AI-powered mobile apps that detect, prevent, and disrupt patterns of domestic violence. The app provides silent alarms, forensic evidence collection, and direct links to local support networks. Beyond technology, it empowers users with knowledge, safety, and dignity, contributing directly to the UN’s SDGs on gender equality and safe societies.
“Our mission is to give people at risk the tools to act, the confidence to seek help, and the chance to break free from violence.”
Hephaistos CAD: Designing in augmented reality
Hephaistos is revolutionizing computer-aided design by bringing it into augmented reality. Engineers, architects, and product designers can now view and adjust their 3D models in real-time, reducing errors and eliminating the need for costly physical prototypes. The result: faster, cheaper, and more sustainable design cycles.
“Why wait for a prototype when you can hold your design in your hands today?”
Bright Bird: Mental well-being for digital natives
Bright Bird offers proactive, digital-first mental well-being support. Its app blends scientifically validated therapies with a modern user experience that resonates with digital natives. By breaking down barriers of accessibility and stigma, Bright Bird helps individuals and organizations build resilience and healthier work cultures.
“Mental health care should be as intuitive and accessible as the digital tools we use every day.”
Recharge Yourself: Step into the cocoon
Recharge Yourself offers immersive 20-minute sessions of light, music, aroma, and visuals inside the Recharge Cocoon, a multisensory experience designed to counter daily overstimulation. The sessions boost energy, strengthen the immune system, and help prevent burnout, offering a much-needed pause in a hyperconnected world.
“Step inside, switch off, and recharge. In just 20 minutes, you feel the difference.”
Salvia BioElectronics: Relief for migraine sufferers
Salvia BioElectronics is pioneering neuromodulation therapy for people with chronic migraine. Its ultra-thin implant targets nerves involved in migraine attacks, aiming to provide meaningful, lasting relief. Based in Eindhoven and active internationally, Salvia is driven by one belief: people with migraine deserve their lives back.
“We are here for the millions who live in pain. Our goal is simple: give them their life back.”
Twente Medical Optics: Handheld breakthrough in blood flow imaging
Twente Medical Optics has developed HAPI, a handheld laser perfusion imager that enables accurate assessment of blood flow during burn diagnosis, flap reconstruction, and dermatology procedures. By combining Laser Doppler Imaging with Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging in a compact device, TMO is pushing diagnostics from the lab into the clinic.
“Our handheld device gives doctors precision where it matters most: at the patient’s bedside.”
You2Yourself – Urimon Research: Detecting disease before it strikes
Urimon is a groundbreaking medical study exploring how changes in urine and blood can reveal the earliest stages of severe diseases. The ultimate goal: a preventive health monitor that detects risks such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, or neurodegeneration long before symptoms appear.
“Early detection saves lives. By reading the body’s signals sooner, we can treat earlier, with better outcomes and lower costs.”
The jury (Evelien de Vries, ASML's Partnership manager Startups and VC, An-Katrien Vandekerckhove, Managing Partner at Cronos BV, and Frank de Jonge, Director of Public Services at Netherlands Enterprise Agency) will make its decision on September 29, but the Audience Award voting is live already. Cast your vote today and help your favorite nominee shine at the grand finale. Vote here for your favorite.