istart.nl Seed Fund: new early-stage investment fund for Dutch tech startups

By Bart Brouwers

Why we write about this topic:

Funding promising start-ups in high-tech and deep-tech is essential for our future society. This new fund is very promising in that respect.

The new istart.nl Seed Fund aims to invest in sixty to seventy Dutch technology startups with an average investment ticket of between €100,000 and €250,000 over the next ten years. The new fund grew from the accelerator that imec.istart and University of Twente-affiliated Novel-T started a year ago. According to the initiators, the new Seed Fund will fill an essential position in the early-stage funding supply for tech startups in the Netherlands, as it is “currently insufficient.”

In addition, imec.istart.nl is also entering into a strategic partnership with the Leiden Life Science incubator Unlock_ and the Leiden Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship PLNT. Previously, imec.istart started cooperation with Radboud University, Radboud UMC and the University of Twente. The focus in Leiden is on startups in medtech and e-health.

The investors behind the istart.nl Seed Fund are VDL Participaties, imec international, Cronos Group, University of Twente, OostNL, TNO, Verhaert, Somerset Capital Partners and Simal Beheer. In addition, RVO contributes through the Seed Capital loan. An investment from the fund does not only consist of money; there is also always an imec.istart.nl acceleration program of 12-18 months, with support from a team of venture acceleration managers. 

The spin-off from the spin-off

Want to know more about valorization at technical universities? Read this series.

Besides education and research, valorization is a growing task within Dutch knowledge institutions, especially at the four technical universities. The incubators of these knowledge institutions annually produce hundreds of new startups that have a major impact on our economy and society. However, a substantial proportion of these startups do not survive, despite a promising startup phase. They have difficulty raising investments in the early stages of technological invention. This is what the istart.nl Seed Fund wants to address by offering these promising tech startups a greater chance of survival with an early-stage investment and acceleration program. 

An investment from the istart.nl Seed Fund is always accompanied by a transfer of 6% of the shares in combination with a Convertible Loan Agreement. imec.istart is originally Belgian – where it has already financed some 260 startups – and is run in the Netherlands by imec.istart and Novel-T. 

Turning Dutch universities into places of entrepreneurship requires a paradigm shift

Accepting his honorary doctorate at Twente University, Prince Constantijn emphasized the need for universities to support startups and create more spin-outs. Read his appeal here.