Author profile picture


Heliox wins audience prize in FD-Contest “New Champions”
The jury of Financieele Dagblad‘s yearly contest ‘De Nieuwe Kampioenen’ (the New Champions) has named Additive Industries the most promising young technology company of 2017. ‘De Nieuwe Kampioenen’ are ambitious and fast growing companies with disrupting technologies serving international markets that are born in The Netherlands.

Additive Industries is, according to the jury, “a leader with a unique and complex technology in a whole new market. The company is growing fast, has a good market position, interesting clients and a strong knowledge base. Its innovation, the serial printer, is also well-defended with patents. Additive manufacturing can play an important role in the transition to a circular economy.”

The jury, existing of Jan Hommen, Eva Gladek ,Justin Jansen and Robert Verwaayen, went looking for New Champions for the third time this year. These are fast growing young companies with groundbreaking products or services for which the Netherlands is too small: “Successful companies who dare to take risks, have ambition to conquer new industries with innovative technologies and originated on Dutch grounds.”

After a thorough evaluation, Additive Industries had reached the final eight and now has been announced the winner. “We are extremely proud to win this competition. It is a recognition of our industrial 3D metal printing systems, producing high-end products and parts for leading companies like Airbus, GKN, and BMW in demanding industries every day”, said Daan Kersten, CEO of Additive Industries.

“Moreover we view this as a huge compliment to our team, investors, supplier, and customers. Together, they collaborate day-in-day-out in a very open way to advance the technology and drive it to become the industry standard for 3D series production”, added Jonas Wintermans and Mark Vaes, COO and CTO of Additive Industries.

Every year, Het Financieele Dagblad (FD, the Dutch Financial Daily Newspaper) is looking for the most promising young, innovative companies with the highest potential for growth. It is already for the third time that the FD, through its “New Champions” series, is looking for Dutch innovative companies and this year it provides a diverse harvest. The companies are younger and mainly come from Amsterdam and Eindhoven. From a wide selection of potential champions (23 nominees), eight companies are selected as finalists eligible for the grand prize.

Heliox

Heliox, producer of fast chargers for electrical buses from neighbouring city Best, has been voted to be public favorite, with according to FD 38% of the 6088 votes. The jury also had a lot of praise for this company from best, which came second, right after Additive: “A beautiful new and progressive product, that offers a solution for the urban issues and makes an important contribution to the energy transition. Heliox has achieved a strong market position.”

The jury also had a warning for both companies, because they are operating in competitive and fast developing markets, respectively 3D printing and electrical transport, with major competitors.