Dispatches Europe, a news platform for English speaking expats in Europe that was founded last year, launched an initiative to connect Eindhoven startups to American investors. According to Terry Boyd, owner of Dispatches Europe and originating from the American Midwest, Eindhoven has an unprecedented collection of impressive startups and talents. But there is one problem: “We’ve talked with local entrepreneurs, investors and economic-development officials and they all agree on one point: Angel funding simply doesn’t exist here in any meaningful way.”
Boyd says there are just a few places with a comparable concentration of talent like Eindhoven. “The Netherlands is home to some of the smartest companies in the world. Eindhoven has some of the most sophisticated firms in the high-tech hardware and medtech categories.”
Dispatches already started working with Dutch startup officials to bring American VC’s and angels to the Netherlands from the Midwest and South – starting with Eindhoven – to fill the funding gap. “Later, we’ll take Dutch startups to Midwest cites such as Columbus, Cincinnati and Louisville for demo days.”
Why the Midwest, why Eindhoven? Cities like Cincinnati, Nashville, Louisville and Columbus are of interest to Boyd because “there is a lot of “under-deployed capital”. And Eindhoven “is a Silicon valley-level destination for Europe’s top technical talent”.
Boyd has been living and working in Eindhoven for nine months now, and is impressed by the city. He already wrote several articles on Eindhoven, and his current action must be viewed in that light as well. Boyd currently is visiting the US for two weeks to get investors interested. He hopes to implement his ideas as early as the first quarter of this year. “Our plan has potential risks and rewards for both sides of the Atlantic. But it also has the potential to bolster both regions’ profiles as innovation centers.” If the plan succeeds, Boyd also sees opportunities for cities such as Amsterdam and Groningen.
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