Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide, and early detection is vital to surviving it. Amsterdam-based medical imaging startup Aidence has developed an AI-enabled pulmonary nodule management assistant, Veye Chest, which enables radiologists to more easily track changes in pulmonary nodules and detect lung cancer. The technology has already been installed in more than 10 hospitals in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Scandinavia and processes hundreds of images every week.

Founded in 2015 by Mark-Jan Harte and Jeroen van Duffelen, Aidence has just completed a €10 million Series A funding round. The investment was led by INKEF Capital along with Rabo Ventures, with participation from existing investors Northzone, HenQ and Health Innovations, bringing Aidence’s total funding to €12.5 million.

Last year Aidence was selected for SBRI Healthcare, an NHS innovation initiative, after their health economics team recognised Veye Chest’s potential to provide relief to radiologists’ large workload, and improve the detection of lung cancer.

“Since day one, we have been determined to deliver a tangible clinical AI solution that can be used by healthcare professionals to help their patients,” the company said in a statement. “We welcome INKEF and Rabo Ventures on our journey as we strive to shape the future of the medical imaging industry. With this funding we will continue building our European market expansion while also building towards FDA clearance giving us access to the US healthcare market. This investment will allow our research and development team to expand and explore new avenues for the Veye platform to support our radiologist AI pioneers and the patients they care for.”

Want to buy shoes online, but not sure if they’ll fit? That’s where SafeSize comes in. The Almere-based startup works with online and offline footwear retailers to help customers find the right shoe.

Using 3D foot scanning along with the world’s largest database of 3D scanned shoes, proprietary fitting algorithms, and machine learning, SafeSize matches people with the perfect pair of shoes in terms of both fit and functionality. Since it was founded in 2012, SafeSize has unlocked the potential for digital growth and personalisation in the footwear market for more than 2,000 leading retailers and shoe brands.

The startup has just raised €10 million in a Series B round from existing investors 3TS Capital Partners and Convent Capital, as well as additional strategic investors.

“’Business as usual’ is no longer an option for footwear retailers and brands,” said Angelos Stavrakis, CEO of SafeSize. “Consumers expect a seamless, personalised shopping experience across all channels. SafeSize enables footwear retailers and brands to engage online and offline with their consumers in a unique and personalized way. Our solution serves as the world’s best omnichannel sales assistant, combining deep shoe fitting expertise with tens of millions of shoe and foot data, processed using machine learning to constantly improve our recommendation algorithms. We’re thrilled about this new investment and about the continued support from our partners, who share our vision.”

SafeSize will use the new funds to continue to scale-up and strengthen its leadership in the virtual fitting recommendation space by attracting new talent, accelerating product innovation, and entering new markets.

“SafeSize enables footwear retailers and brands to succeed in a changing retail landscape, by driving increased customer engagement and other revenue streams,” said Elbruz Yılmaz, Investment Director of 3TS Capital Partners. “We believe with this funding round, Safesize will be equipped to scale further globally and we’re excited to support SafeSize in continuing its leadership as the global footwear recommendation platform for retailers.”

Back in 1999 when Kevin Ashton, the executive director of Auto-ID Labs at MIT first used the concept of IoT, he could not have known that 20 years later it would become a reality. The interconnectivity between the real and the digital world is greater than ever and IoT is fueling innovation in nearly every part of our lives, from turning our homes smart to transforming entire industries. Here are 10 European startups making this real:

German Autolabs – The Berlin-based deep tech startup is developing AI for automotive solutions. Their product is a voice assistant hardware, Chris, the world´s first digital co-driver which enables drivers to safely operate their Android phones using voice and gestures while driving, including messaging, navigation, calls and music. With €9M in funding, German Autolabs will bring digital life to any driver and any car.

Neuron Soundware – The winner of the “Idea of the Year 2016” award by Vodafone is developing a detection system that discovers machine problems through sound analytics. Founded in 2016 in Prague, they leverage IoT and artificial intelligence to detect anomalies and predict defects and so far Airbus, Siemens, BMW, Skoda, MVV Energie, Bosch, LG and Volkswagen have signed up the client list.

Ambrosus – Ambrosus is building blockchain-powered IoT network for next-generation supply chain for food, by creating unique digital identities for every item and keeping track of it as it moves from farm to fork, with the blockchain ensuring the integrity of the data. Founded in 2016, this Swiss startup was chosen as one of the three Rising food stars and joined the EIT Food Community.

Moona – Moona is revolutionising sleep with the first connected pillow, which regulates the body temperature throughout the night. The smart sleep system induces and deepens sleep, by adjusting head and neck temperature to improve sleep quality. The result: fall asleep faster, get better sleep and a gentle wake-up. Accompanying sleep tracker and environment sensors will provide analysis of the sleep quality as well.

Noomi – Noomi has developed a smart bracelet powered by AI for elderly care, a motion-sensitive wristband, ergonomically designed and built for 24-hour wear, with a battery life of a year, which continually learns an individual’s behavior and is optimized to their needs and conditions. Founded in 2015, their product was designed to improve the quality of life for the elderly and provide peace of mind for relatives and caregivers.

Nowi Energy – The Delft-based startup offers complete sensor platform powered by outside sources such as GSM and WiFi signals, or light and movement, enabling sensors to have an extremely long maintenance-free lifetime and simply become a ‘Plug & Forget’ solution. Nowi’s patented Energy Harvesting PMIC has been recognized worldwide and is a winner of a range of international innovation awards.

Phrasee – Phrasee developed a world-leading Natural Language Generation system, which uses AI to power email subject lines, Facebook and Instagram ads, and push notifications that outperform copy written by humans. The winner of the 2017’s Most Innovative AI Company by CB Insights has already helped Virgin, The Times and Domino get more clicks and conversions, so why not yours?

Prowler – Founded in 2016, this Cambridge-based startup is developing AI technologies for autonomous, adaptive and data efficient decision making in complex, dynamic and uncertain environments. Designed to revolutionize autonomous system design, Prowler is starting with application in the gaming industry, and slowly moving to autonomous vehicles, smart city simulations and robotics, with $15M in funding and a top-notch expert team.

Vilisto – Vilisto develops energy-saving solutions. Their flagship product is self-learning radiator thermostats, able to save up to 40% of energy, based on self-learning algorithms and fully automated functions thanks to integrated people-presence recognition. The Hamburg-based startup was founded in 2016 and supported by KIC InnoEnergy, is solving the office energy consumption problem.

Infraspeak – This Portuguese startup develops facility management solutions, helping companies with large infrastructures, such as hospitals, banks, hotels or markets to simplify technology, boost productivity and reduce bureaucracy, risks and costs. Their technical operations platform has raised total funding of $2m, with investors including Tencent Holdings, Construtech Ventures, Caixa Capital, 500 startups and Innovation Nest.

Withlocals is a Dutch travel marketplace that allows travellers to enjoy cities like locals. Its platform connects tens of thousands of travellers each month with verified local hosts in over 30 cities across Europe and Asia, and offers personalised private tours and activities at scale based on travellers’ passions, such as food, music and sports.

Founded in 2013 in Eindhoven, the startup has just raised an €8 million Series B funding round led by London-based Keen Venture Partners, with participation from existing investor Inkef Capital.

“We believe Withlocals is tapping into a large latent demand of ‘experiential depth’ for traveling that breaks away from the cookie-cutter mould of holiday offerings,” said Robert Verwaayen, General Partner at Keen. “With great momentum the company is able to pull off a paradox: delivering uniquely personal experiences at scale.”

Withlocals’ hosts play a massively important role when it comes to customer happiness (9.8 out of 10 average), because the hosts go above and beyond to show travellers their city and their passion, from food to street art, music, and sports. As one of Withlocals’ customers put it: “I’ve been traveling all my life, but Withlocals made me see what traveling is all about.”

“The tours and activities segment is booming,” said Withlocals’ CEO Matthijs Keij. “Withlocals offers a welcome alternative to standard tours and skip-the-line tickets with personalized and unique experiences. This new round of funding will help us to connect more people and cultures, to offer a broader and more localized range of experiences and to build a strong community of hosts worldwide.”

The new funding will be used to offer end-to-end localisation, strengthen the community of local hosts, continue the growth in existing and new cities and offer more experiences based on people’s passions.

Withlocals is currently present in 30 cities across Europe and Asia and will continue to expand its presence in those cities and in parallel open up new destinations. This is an important step to reach a larger group of customers and hosts and in the long run make a meaningful impact in the tours and activities space.

California-based SurveyMonkey, the site which allows anyone to create their own surveys, has announced that it is acquiring Amsterdam-based Usabilla, a provider of Voice of Customer (VoC) technology, which collects in-depth customer feedback, expectations, and preferences. The price tag is approximately €70 million, and the acquisition is expected to close in Q2 2019. The acquisition of Usabilla will help SurveyMonkey to enhance its customer feedback solutions and retain customers.

Founded in 2009, Usabilla works with over 450 enterprises in 35 countries, including global brands like Lufthansa, Philips, and Vodafone, to collect, analyse, and act on real-time user feedback to improve their products and customer experiences. The startup helps clients to capture visual feedback, and uses targeted surveys to increase conversion on the web, in apps, and by email, collecting both qualitative and quantiative data.

“Usabilla’s outstanding user experience solution for capturing real-time digital feedback enhances our enterprise offerings and expands our international footprint,” said Zander Lurie, CEO of SurveyMonkey. “Every brand needs to offer a compelling digital experience to win and retain customers—Usabilla’s solution helps companies collect 100,000 feedback interactions daily so they can improve their digital experiences and drive growth. The acquisition of Usabilla strengthens our position in this rapidly growing multi-billion-dollar market. I’m thrilled to welcome the Usabilla team to SurveyMonkey for this exciting new chapter together.”

SurveyMonkey data shows that 75% of users have left a website and 58% have abandoned an online purchase because of a bug or poor user experience. At the same time, website owners and developers lack visibility on the digital experiences they offer as only a small fraction of customers find a way to give feedback.

“SurveyMonkey’s global reach in over 345,000 organizations, strong brand recognition and sales expertise will accelerate our growth in new markets and verticals,” said Marc van Agteren, CEO of Usabilla. “We share the mission to power the curious and a commitment to building SaaS offerings that help our clients improve their customer experiences.”

Usabilla’s platform makes it easy to collect the feedback that can transform digital experiences and accelerate sales. It will complement SurveyMonkey’s existing enterprise solutions to deliver the most comprehensive customer powered data portfolio. SurveyMonkey already offers SurveyMonkey CX, a turn-key NPS solution for businesses to collect, understand, and act on customer feedback, and TechValidate, which captures and transforms customer feedback into case studies, testimonials, reviews, and more. In line with SurveyMonkey’s open-platform strategy, Usabilla’s solutions easily integrate with leading SaaS platforms and other systems of record that SurveyMonkey customers already use, such as Jira and Slack.

While in this century it is widely understood that household tasks are the responsibility of both men and women, too often, women are still left holding the bag. And with today’s busy lifestyles and both parents working, we need the weekend to relax and enjoy ourselves. But if we have to do all the cleaning, washing, repairing, grocery shopping, etc, then our weekend is gone. What if you could check off your to-do-list with just a few clicks? Why not forget gender roles, split the cost, and leave your household chores to an app? These 10 startups can help you do exactly that.

Mr. Jeff – What if you could have your clothes washed and ironed without leaving the sofa? You can. The Spanish startup Mr. Jeff offers a hassle-free laundry and dry cleaning services, with delivery within 24 hours of placing the order online or through the app. Founded in 2016, the startup is rapidly growing. With a total funding amount of $15.5 million, over 1,000 franchises in seven countries and a team of over 150 people, their next stop is South America.

Happy Helper – HappyHelper is a leading Danish online platform for on-demand home services. In an “AirBnB like” online marketplace, customers are matched with 3,500 top-quality, pre-screened independent cleaners, coupled with a booking process and secure payment. In just a short time, Happy Helper has experienced rapid growth in its customer base and lots of positive publicity.

Picnic – Known as Europe’s fastest growing online supermarket, Picnic is a Dutch grocery delivery service that uses custom built electric vehicles. Founded in 2015, Picnic customers place their orders until 10pm via the app and then receive their purchases delivered to their homes the following day within a fixed time window. With a historic €100 million funding round, the next step for them is expansion in Germany.

Helpper – This Antwerp-based startup is focused on shared services, offering a platform for home services for local residents. Anyone who needs help with day-to-day tasks, such as babysitting, picking up children from school, cleaning, shopping, cooking or nursing can submit a request, and local residents who want to earn some extra money can reply. Founded in 2017, with €1 million in funding, Helpper is slowly revolutionising home care.

ProntoPro – ProntoPro is a marketplace for service professionals. Whether you need a photographer, a painter, an electrician, or a personal trainer, you can simply submit a request, compare quotes, and choose the most appropriate one. Available in Italy, Austria and Switzerland, ProntoPro has already reached over one million users in Italy and has registered over 350,000 professionals on its platform. The Milan-based startup raised €6 million in January 2019, bringing its total funding to €10 million.

Homebell – The Berlin-based startup Homebell is developing a platform for home renovation services such as painting, wallpapering or floor laying, where customers can get quotes on their requests within minutes. Founded in 2015 by Felix Swoboda and Sascha Weiler, the startup is currently available in Germany and the Netherlands, but after raising $11 million in funding in 2018, they are hoping to become the global go-to destination for requests around the home.

Patch Gardens – London-based Patch is an online plant retailer which helps you discover the best plants for your space, delivers them to your door and helps you look after them. Believing that plants make life so much calmer, healthier and joyful, Patch brings greenery to those who want it, but do not have time to get it.

Glovo – Too busy to go grocery shopping? Founded in Barcelona in 2015, Glovo is an on-demand delivery service that allows customers to order anything through its app with a click, and have it delivered to their home within an hour. Couriers, called “Glovers”, will pick-up and deliver just about any product, such as groceries, gifts, make up, electronics, books, or flowers. Over the past three years Glovo has grown rapidly, and its service is now available in 20 countries in 75 cities across the globe. The startup raised a €115 Series C round raised last July, and we interviewed its CEO Oscar Pierre in December.

Trouva – This London startup offers beautiful products to transform your home, with its marketplace that allows small, independent boutiques to get online and access customers across the world. Trouva helps with inventory management, shipping logistics and operations, while customers can choose from a variety of design-led homeware, fashion and accessories. Berlin is their first stop to international expansion.

Eelp! – Founded in 2017, this app allows you to order a range of services at your home, from cleaning to repairs, babysitting, cooking, deliveries, tutoring, or chauffeuring. Available in Barcelona and Madrid, Eelp! is Nuclio Venture’s first project and will definitely make your life a lot easier.

Sometimes, we all need a change. If you’re looking for a new job, EU-Startups job board is a good place to start, with a listing of over 400 jobs from startups across Europe that are hiring for content writers, software engineers, business managers, marketers, designers, and more. Below we’ve highlighted just a few of the positions available in Europe’s growing startup ecosystem:

On May 2-3 we’re going to host this year’s EU-Startups Summit in Barcelona, where we’re expecting about 1,200 entrepreneurs, startup enthusiasts, corporates, angel investors, VCs as well as media people to come together to network and learn about the European startup ecosystem. In order to make it a great conference, we’re looking for a great intern to take responsibility for tasks including logistics, marketing, and even design. You’ll get feedback and experience, and the opportunity to network with startups from across the EU.

Commercetools is looking for a Product Marketing Manager in Berlin, and a Marketing Manager in London. The Product Marketing Manager will help to define the roadmap through engagement with customers, partners, and competitive intelligence, as well as find interesting product features and capabilities and market them externally, while the Marketing Manager will be responsible for the planning, conception, and realisation of all online marketing activities for the UK market.

HousingAnywhere.com is a global booking platform for mid-term rental accommodation, and is hiring for a variety of positions at its office in Rotterdam, including a Team Lead Customer Solutions, a Spanish Speaking Account Manager, a Full Stack Software Engineer, a Lead Data Engineer, a QA Automation Engineer, and a Data Science Intern. Perks include opportunities to attend training and workshops related to your field of work, sponsored tech talks and other networking events, and Friday Cheers and Beers.

Founders is a startup studio based in Copenhagen that works with exceptional entrepreneurs to build companies from scratch, and scale them as independent companies when they gain traction. Founders is currently looking for a part-time Business Development Manager that will build financial and operational models to inform key decisions, as well as a Content Writer that can excite readers in both Danish and English.

By the way: If you’re a startup CEO and also looking for some rockstar employees for your company, make sure to publish a job opening with us now. While basic job ads are free, the standard option of Featured Job posts is available for just €49 and provides you with additional visibility.

Dutch fintech startup Finturi‘s mission is to help businesses grow by connecting them with financiers to borrow money against invoices, using blockchain and AI technology to make invoice financing secure, low-cost, quick and easy.

Founded in September 2018, the startup has raised an angel investment of €2 million from NetSam Participaties BV, which it plans to invest in growth and product development.

Finturi currently is working on building an invoice finance platform connecting businesses and financiers which is scheduled to launch in the third quarter of 2019. The team said that a later version of the platform will be completely peer-to-peer, and will also include clients of businesses. Finturi’s end goal is to optimise entire supply chain financing with the use of blockchain and AI.

“Even though small and medium enterprises contribute significantly to the economy, it is often challenging for them to raise working capital,” said Finturi CEO Johannes Brouwer. “The newer the business, the higher difficulty it faces to raise working capital. We want to solve this problem. We want to build a robust product that enables businesses to get a loan against invoices within 24 hours. We want to provide financiers with a platform for investing in invoices with minimum hassle.”

“Blockchain technology combined with AI has a massive potential of eliminating inefficiencies in the current financial processes,” said the lead investor from NetSam Participaties BV. “It can save costs as well as make processes faster and secure. I am extremely happy to see that one of our portfolio companies is leading the blockchain revolution. We are confident in Finturi’s team and are sure that this investment will drive Finturi to innovate further and be world’s leading invoice finance platform.”

Based in the Hague, Finturi currently has a team of 12 people, with a good mix of developers, product, business, and marketing professionals.

Amsterdam-based messaging platform ​I AM POP, which allows record labels, artists, and events to send private messages to their fans, as well as create and broadcast interactive narratives,​ has secured €2 million for further expansion.

“We are entering an era of post-social,” said I AM POP founder Tim Heineke. “Private messaging is the new social network. Users are increasingly flocking to DM, private chat, groups and stories, fuelled by privacy concerns. Meanwhile, messaging apps are turning into full platforms. With 2 billion users and 100 billion messages shared daily, messaging services are the most popular apps in the world, however, many artists don’t yet have a presence. ​Our goal is to provide a simple platform that anyone can use and this funding will enable us to continue developing it.”

Founded in 2016, right now I AM POP’s platform is being used primarily through Facebook, but the startup will use the new investment will be used to integrate its chat editor into other messaging apps, as well as to increase the company’s fifteen strong workforce.

The news comes as some of the world’s most exciting music businesses, including MAMA Festivals, Mad Decent, The Orchard, Elrow and Ministry of Sound join the likes of Sony, Warner, AWAL and [PIAS] as I AM POP clients. With social media newsfeeds now delivering engagement rates as low as 2% due to filtering and algorithms, I AM POP’s average open rates of 94% are driving success for the company, helping establish it as the go-to messaging platform for the music industry.

“​In the age of newsfeed algorithms and the public’s wider understanding of online privacy issues, fans are relying on closed group communications via direct messaging at an increasing rate,” said Aaron Bogucki, VP Digital Marketing, AWAL Recordings. “AWAL’s approach to identifying, engaging and converting our artist’s fans using I AM POP’s platform has helped us develop a valuable direct marketing channel for a number of our artists.”

​“I AM POP has been the most effective way for us to integrate Messenger into all of our campaigns,” said Alex Thomson, Director of I AM Pop client Greenhouse Group. “I can imagine it will only become more powerful over time as Messenger incorporates more e-commerce opportunities. The functionality it offers, and ease of using the app, for the huge pay off in response from our audiences… is just incredible.”

Digital marketing analytics and reporting startup Whatagraph, which counts among its customers many Fortune 500 companies, has just received €600k in investment. Open Circle Capital, one of Lithuania’s largest VC funds, contributed half of the investment, while the remaining funds were raised internally by the co-founders of the company. We featured the company as one of the top Dutch startups to look out for in 2017.

Whatagraph automatically creates presentation-ready infographic reports that take away the pain of manually creating analytics reports. The Amsterdam-based startup creates visual Google Analytics and social media reports. Founded in 2015 by siblings from Lithuania, Whatagraph chose the Netherlands as the company’s headquarters after the team joined the Rockstart accelerator and started scaling internationally.

So far, the startup’s average year-over-year growth is as high as 250%, while its client list is full of well-known brands worldwide, including Heineken, The New York Times, Ogilvy and Berkshire Hathaway. According to co-founder Justas Malinauskas, the new round will allow the business to grow its revenue by 300%.

“The additional investment will allow Whatagraph to prepare for a Series A investment round,” said Malinauskas, the acting CEO of Whatagraph. “It will also enable the company to expands its operations – doubling the current number of employees. It shall expand at both development office in Klaipeda, Lithuania and sales and marketing hubs in Vilnius and Amsterdam. The largest expansion is planned for the sales team.”

Delft-based Solar Monkey provides software for the design and remote monitoring of solar energy systems, allowing installers to design and offer solar systems without a home visit. The startup has raised over €1 million in funding, which it will use to accelerate the deployment of solar energy internationally. The new financing comes from 4impact and existing investors.

Solar Monkey has developed software in partnership with TU Delft that is easy to use and offers precise calculations. Solar Monkey customers experience a much more efficient process and greater sales conversion. At the same time, performance monitoring gives owners of a solar power system the assurance that their system is working well.

The company already serves hundreds of installers within the Netherlands, and is now focusing on international markets in line with its mission to accelerate the deployment of solar energy. At the request of its customers, Solar Monkey has already taken the first steps in Belgium. More countries will follow, especially where installers still have to use manual methods to prepare designs and budgets.

“This round of capital allows us to gain a critical competitive advantage while serving new markets,” said CEO Jan Pieter Versluijs. “We want to offer maximum value to our new partners and customers, so we invest every penny in improving our product and telling our story.”

“Solar Monkey is showing tremendous traction in the rapidly growing solar energy market,” said Pauline Wink, Managing Partner of 4impact. “We see the efficiency they offer through advanced software with great ease of use. That efficiency helps accelerate the energy transition. The opportunities for the company are enormous and we look forward to working with the dedicated team and existing investors so that the company grows both locally and internationally.”

On May 2-3, we’re going to host the EU-Startups Summit in Barcelona. It will be the 6th edition of our annual flagship event – and with 1,200 startup founders and investors from across Europe also our biggest one so far!

Today we’re excited to announce another great speaker who will join us this year. It’s Daniel Gebler, the Co-founder and CTO of Picnic.

Founded in 2015 and based in Amsterdam, Picnic is the world’s fastest growing online supermarket. Allowing customers to order food through a simple app, Picnic aims to make grocery shopping fun, affordable, and fast for everyone. Customers can order food via the app until 10pm and receive their groceries the next day, delivered by Picnic’s fleet of electric vehicles. After raising a historic €100 million round in 2017, the startup’s next step is the expansion into Germany.

Daniel Gebler is the Co-founder and CTO of Picnic, leading their product design to sweep across Europe with on-demand groceries. Daniel was previously the Director of R&D of the e-commerce company Fredhopper, where he was responsible for the product and technology roadmap, and led engineering teams located in Amsterdam and Sofia. Daniel holds a PhD in Computer Science as well as an MBA.

At the EU-Startups Summit, Daniel will hold a keynote speech about how Picnic is innovating in the huge market of grocery shopping, and about his learnings along the way.

If we already sparked your interest for the upcoming EU-Startups Summit, make sure to secure your ticket now!

As in the previous years, we’ll showcase a selection of Europe’s hottest startups (incl. a big pitch competition) and come together to learn from some of the most successful European entrepreneurs of our time. You can expect huge list of exciting speakers, many high-profile investors, great networking opportunities and much more.

That being said, it would be awesome to meet you at the 2019 edition of the EU-Startups Summit on May 2-3 in Barcelona. More info can be found here (page will be updated on a weekly basis) and in the video below!

Amsterdam-based Brand New Day is an online pension bank that provides asset management, wealth management, and insurance brokerage services. Founded in 2009, Brand New Day has just raised an investment of €25 million from existing investors.

Thanks to a rapid growth in customers, Brand New Day has been already been profitable for several years. The new investment will be used to strengthen the bank’s equity so that it can grow faster in the pension savings market in the coming years.

Brand New Day has had a banking license since 2017, and can therefore offer products based on savings. To attract and release pension savings, a bank must hold a certain amount of equity, and the extra equity gained from this recent investment will allow Brand New Day to grow faster in the pension savings market and thus increase its profitability.

“Pensions used to be quite dull,” said Director Kalo Bagijn. “Something that was arranged for you and that you didn’t have to worry about. That has changed; massive discounts on pensions are imminent, and young people consider retirement after salary the most important employment condition and discuss it with their friends. The sustainability and future of our pension system has become part of the national debate. Brand New Day has established itself as a newcomer in the pension battle, and we are growing fast. Currently, around 260,000 account holders and 4,500 companies have entrusted Brand New Day with their pension.”

Apple products are famously expensive. Laren-based startup Go Lemon was founded to offer consumers an affordable alternative by leasing them.

Since it was founded in 2017, the company has already attracted hundreds of subscribers, and has now raised €700k in funding from angel investors.

As of March 2019 Go Lemon offers a monthly iPhone subscription, making it the first company that allows consumers to use Apple devices on a completely flexible basis, without purchase or minimum-term subscription, for a fixed monthly fee.

Unlike the purchase of Apple products via telecom providers, an iPhone via Go Lemon does not affect a consumer’s credit score, because Go Lemon is the owner of the phone.

“Of course, we carry out an extensive credit check beforehand. Users get a brand-new piece of equipment, insured and all,” said Bas van der Putten, founder of Go Lemon. “Should a device get damaged by accident, then we’ll immediately send a replacement. We want everybody to be able to use their favourite Apple gadget.”

“It’s old-fashioned to be tied to a long-term contract,” continued van der Putten. “People not only want to watch and listen but also call however or whenever it suits them. In this respect, Go Lemon is a product of the times.” 

Given that the last five years have been the hottest in recorded history, we’re all concerned about the dramatic impacts that climate change will soon have on our world. Can startups and technology keep up with the pace of global warming? Many are trying, and cleantech has itself become a hot new sector, with companies innovating to increase sustainability by reducing energy usage, developing more affordable renewable energy solutions, introducing greener mobility solutions, and even changing the ways we produce food.

Though electric mobility solutions don’t necessarily eliminate greenhouse gases – depending on the source of the electricity – the future of electricity in Europe is hopeful; Iceland already relies on 100% renewable energy, Norway’s energy is over 97% renewable, more than half of Sweden’s energy is now renewable, and Germany has recently announced that it is shutting down all of its coal plants. Moreover, other startups are emerging to help companies, homeowners, and entire industries to increase their share of renewable energy usage.

Here are 10 European cleantech startups helping us to reduce waste and emissions, and transition to a more sustainable way of living:

Helsinki-based startup Solar Foods is where cleantech meets foodtech, creating “food out of thin air”. The startup is producing an entirely new kind of nutrient-rich protein using only air, water, and electricity. Solar Foods is revolutionising food production, as its product is not dependent on agriculture, the weather, or the climate, and the technology has vast potential in terms of preserving land and water resources. The company plans to start commercial production of its protein by 2020, which it expects will be cheaper than other sources such as soy protein. Just founded in 2017, Solar Foods has already raised €2 million and we featured it as one of our 10 Finnish startups to look out for in 2019.

Swiss startup DEPsys believes that the world should be powered entirely by renewable energy. With its GridEye solution, it is paving the way towards a future of smart grids and microgrids. Its versatile control platform allows power grid operators to run distribution grids safely, reliably and optimally – making it possible to feed large quantities of renewable energies into their grids from decentralised sources. GridEye also allows for the easy management and control of micro-grids and neighbourhood solutions. The clean energy startup raised €11.6 million in Series B funding in February.

Norwegian startup Otovo is making green energy more accessible for residents in Nordic states by helping them to easily install solar panels on their roofs. Founded in 2016, Otovo has created unique platform that sells solar panels, simplifies installations, and compares the costs of dozens of local installers in a moment. Otovo’s solar panels generate clean energy for 25 years, and the startup buys back any extra energy produced by homeowners. Otovo was the winner of the Oslo Innovation Award 2018, and recently raised €10.5 million and acquired the French solar panel startup In Sun We Trust to bring solar energy to rooftops across Europe.

Based in Rotterdam, The Ocean Cleanup has taken on the huge goal of cleansing the oceans of 90% of their plastic waste by 2040. Founded in 2013, in September 2018 the startup finally launched its solution – tube barriers that act as an artificial coastline,  passively catching and collecting ocean debris – in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch located between California and Hawaii. Though the project recently experienced a setback after part of the device broke off at the end of 2018, with five trillion pieces of plastic currently in the ocean, cleaning it up is no easy task. The startup is now working to fix the device, and plans to have it up and running again by summer. The Ocean Cleanup has raised $35.4 million to date, and Time Magazine placed it on its 25 Best Inventions of 2015 list. 

Swedish startup Orbital Systems originally collaborated with NASA to develop the technology for their shower system, called OAS, which the company claims reduces water waste from showers by 90%. With a built-in purification system, OAS reuses the same batch of water, using only two gallons per shower – versus 20 gallons used in a typical shower. The company plans to take this technology developed for space and put it in people’s homes, which will not only save water, but save families a lot of money, the company says. The startup has raised $47 million to date.

Land and soil are becoming increasingly scarce as the population increases, and clearing land for agriculture has led to deforestation on a mass scale, contributing significantly to climate change. Hydroponics allows farms to grow crops without soil or the need for arable land, instead placing the roots of the plants in a nutrient-rich solution. Founded in 2016 and based in the UK, Phytoponics has developed a commercial-scale hydroponic growing system called Hydrosac, which is cheaper and easier to install than traditional hydroponic systems. Employed on a large scale, hydroponics provide an innovative solution that can address world hunger and sustainability. The startup’s CEO, Adam Dixon, believes that using hydroponic solutions like Hydrosac, we’ll only have to use 10% of land for agriculture by 2050.

Norwegian startup Ducky is tackling climate change with innovative tools to measure, educate, and mobilise people to take action on carbon sustainability. Ducky’s platform offers a range of products based on climate and environmental research data, where you can monitor your personal footprint in their climate calculator, learn about climate psychology, and reduce carbon emissions through friendly team competitions. The startup provides tools for businesses, organisations, and schools to mitigate their impact on the climate. Founded in 2014 and based in Trondheim with offices in Oslo and Stoke, UK, 15,000 people have already participated in competitions on Ducky’s platform. The startup recently raised €330k.

German startup Lilium Aviation is developing a VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) electric jet, which it plans to deploy commercially as an air taxi that can be booked easily through an app by 2025. The jet will be emission-free, with energy efficiency better than or comparable to an electric car. And with an expected range of 300 km and estimated top speed of up to 300km/hr, the Lilium Jet promises faster inter-city travel than other mass transit systems. Avoiding road congestion, passengers will be able to travel from San Francisco to Palo Alto in less than 15 minutes, and from Munich to Frankfurt in just over an hour, with prices that will rival traditional car services.

Stockholm-based startup Tibber has created an app that acts as an energy company and advisor for homeowners. The app works as an intelligent assistant that can buy, control, and save energy. You can buy electricity directly through the app, which also monitors your home, using smart analyses to find ways to save you energy, and allowing you to control your home from your mobile. Founded in 2016, Tibber has raised $1.8 million to date.

With e-scooters sweeping sidewalks across the continent, Berlin-based Wind Mobility is one of the newer startups to join the crowd. Like other other e-scooter startups, Wind’s scooters are electric and emissions-free, and users can unlock, park, and pay for its dockless scooters through an app, with prices starting from €1 per use. Unlike other e-scooter startups, Wind uses replaceable batteries in its scooters – so that the scooters don’t need to be collected at night and charged externally, thereby reducing energy use and emissions spent in transporting scooters to charging facilities. The startup also plans to use IoT technology to update its scooters remotely, and raised €19.2 million in a seed round in November 2018 to expand internationally.

Amsterdam-based startup Close has developed a marketing platform and mobile app for organisers in the event industry. Through its chat-based app, organisers can easily share exclusive information with attendees immediately after they buy their ticket, as well as during and after the event. Founded in 2017, the startup has just raised €3 million in a round led by Disruptive Technology Ventures.

Buying a ticket for a concert or museum is usually the end of a transaction instead of the beginning of a valuable relationship between an artist or a brand and a visitor or customer. Close wants to change this, creating a better experience for event goers. With Close, guests can access exclusive information, such as personal messages or the event program. Its platform also provides organisers with relevant customer data so they can better serve clients and create new cross-selling opportunities, for example to offer tickets for their next show.

“With the data, you can create more personalised experiences, but this is not yet used enough in the live event industry,” said founder Kiliaan Toorenaar. “With Close, we offer brands and organisers the technology with which to build that relationship with visitors, so that their experience before, during and after events is better and more beautiful.”

“Close is an instrument that allows me to interact with my clients for more time and more intensively,” said Nathalie Peters, Director of Digital Transformation, one of Close’s first clients. “In addition, the solution fits with the current Zeitgeist: platforms are being developed and we are all looking for ways to enrich consumer experiences.”

Kiliaan Toorenaar, the former commercial director of Marktplaats, started Close along with CTO Wiebe Weikamp (co-founder of the search engine Ilse) and Chris Gruijters. The company now empoyees 18 people at its office in Amsterdam.

On May 2-3 we’ll be hosting this year’s EU-Startups Summit at the Convention Centre of the Hesperia Tower Hotel in Barcelona. Along with fireside chats with inspiring founders, interesting speeches, and networking opportunities, we’ll have an exciting pitch competition with 15 promising startups from across Europe!

The winning startup team of this year’s Pitch Competition will receive a prize package worth €75,000 and gets prominently featured by EU-Startups and other publications. The prize package includes €50,000 in AWS cloud hosting credits (while each one of the 15 finalists will receive also $5,000 in AWS credits plus $5,000 in premium support), €9,000 in credits for an enterprise package of the social media monitoring tool Senti.One, €8,500 in credits for the explainer video creation services from mysimpleshow, €2,000 in credits for the design marketplace 99designs, a Spaces coworking membership for 2 people & 1 year (value: €3,600), and €1,900 in credits for premium job posts on the EU-Startups Job Board.

In total we reviewed about 950 applications from all across Europe. The precondition was that applying startups should be in pre-seed or seed stage, not more than two years old, and be based in Europe. Aside from the idea, market potential and founding team, we also tried to evaluate English and presentation skills. It was a tough decision, but here are the 15 early-stage startups that made it to the finals:

Tradler is an employee engagement software that recognises people for the work and contributions they do. The Startupbootcamp alumni is based in Barcelona, and its software increases engagement in the workplace by creating an employee loyalty system that provides the employee with the relevant incentive at the right time. Companies just put in the actions and KPIs they want to reward, and Tradler does the rest.

SplittyPay is a platform that allows people to easily split payments, thereby cutting down on any confusion or arguments arising from group reservations or purchases. Its tool also aims to reduce shopping cart abandonment rates by giving customers the option to share the total amount in equal or customised parts, and pay with more than one credit or debit card. Founded in 2018 in Italy, SplittyPay recently has already raised €360k in equity crowdfunding.

Uhura is an AI platform that reads and understands contracts and agreements just as humans do. Uhura helps financial institutions significantly speed up review and decision-making processes using AI that streamlines the process of analysing and drafting contracts. Based in London, the startup was part of the 2018 Barclays Accelerator powered by Techstars.

mietwise offers a digital solution for landlords and tenants to deal with the often time-consuming and manual process of rental deposits. Based in Munich, its simple platform eliminates all paperwork, and allows landlords to handle their rental deposits in less than five minutes. mietwise also provides an effective API for existing property management platforms.

Percept Imagery is a UK-based startup which offers a cloud-based immersive platform called Foresight, which helps the architecture and construction industries to win more contracts, reduce errors, and collaborate in VR on proposed designs. Foresight instantly converts any architectural design into a collaborative VR experience, providing accurate spatial projections and making the design and approval process sustainable by reducing costs and resources.

Farmdok is a digital tool for planning and record keeping in agriculture. Its mobile app offers several features including a farm management system, a field diary, and other tools to help farmers keep records, meet legal documentation requirements, reduce costs, and make better decisions. Based in Austria, the startup was awarded with the Agritechnica Innovation Award in 2017.

Inga has created a new type of recruitment software that provides companies with leads through social networks and chatbots. Through targeted marketing, the Frankfurt-based startup Inga makes professionals aware of attractive job opportunities through social networks, and makes recruitment more specific, faster, and more effective.

Antifragile helps businesses integrate risk management across the supply chain by providing real-time damage monitoring. The Romanian startup offers multiple types of monitoring devices that give shippers the data they need at a price they can afford, so they can stop damage caused by impacts, vibrations, or tilts – saving countless dollars in repairs, replacement, and reshipping, not to mention such indirect costs as troubleshooting and down time.

Polaroo allows users to centralise their recurring expenses into a unified monthly payment to save time, money and headaches. The Barcelona-based startup works with many providers to find the best offers adapted to customer needs, and if they accept the offer, they will just pay one flat fee each month, and Polaroo will pay bills on their behalf. Polaroo’s business model relies on commissions from providers, as well as monthly commissions based on customers’ consumption.

Neuroflux combines, visualises, and analyses wastewater pumping station data, reducing the need for manual work. Based in Helsinki, Neuroflux uses machine learning to detect pipe blockages and leaks immediately based on measurements from pumping stations and flow meters, without any human input or added hardware, with real time alarms and trend analysis to optimise the operations of water networks.

Cohosting is a hospitality SaaS solution for accommodation to offer extra services for AirBnB vacation rental owners. Cohosting automates the reservation process for services such as luggage storage, transfer, fridge stocking, tours, car rentals or even babysitters. Based in Seville, the startup charges Airbnb managing companies a monthly fee for its services.

TeiaCare is the first virtual assistant for caregivers, capable of generating multiple smart alerts, reminders, and reports. The startup provides Contact-Free Continuous Monitoring (CFCM) for post-acute hospital patients and nursing home residents. Based in Milan, TeiaCare leverages deep learning analytics to detect early signs of health deterioration, thus enabling pre-emptive care.

Deliverart produces cloud-based software for small and medium-sized food companies. Based in Rome, the startup is an aggregator that helps food businesses to collect all their home delivery orders and manage the entire food delivery cycle, from receiving the order to tracking the delivery, while providing automated tools and statistics to give businesses an overview of their performance.

Flowlity is a logistics startup that helps retailers and manufacturers to avoid understocing and overstocking using AI and supplier data. Based in Paris, the startup gives recommendations to businesses about how much and when to order from their suppliers. In 2017, retailers lost $1.75 trillion due to a combination of overstocks and understocking, because planners are often still working in silos with suppliers, while Flowlity’s SaaS platform solves this problem by providing real-time stock optimization and replenishment using machine learning.

Ziticity is a logistics startup that dubs itself an “Uber for things”, offering last-mile on-demand delivery. On its platform anyone can sign up to be a “Zitter” and earn a little extra money in their free time delivering packages, documents, and other items from pick-up points to customers throughout Vilnius and now in Tallinn, with an average delivery time of 42 minutes. Founded in 2017, the startup is already working with major delivery services and planning collaborations with supermarkets in the future, as well as expansions to more cities.

The Jury: The selected teams will get a lot of valuable feedback from a jury of well-known venture capital investors. Our jury includes Ravi Kurani (earlybird), Marie-Helene Ametsreiter (Speedinvest), Stephan Glänzer (formerly Passion Capital), and Stéphanie Hospital (OneRagtime).

Interested to join us at this year’s EU-Startups Summit? Secure your ticket now! Aside of the 15 startups listed above, we’ll have hundreds of other promising startup founders and many high profile investors at the event. Tickets can be purchased here!

Our Event Sponsors

Arrow is a global technology company with thousands of engineers, exclusive online design tools, distribution services, marketing and supply chain expertise all set up to support you! They teamed up with leading entrepreneurship platforms like Indiegogo to help bring new ideas from concept to market, to put every resource in the hands of entrepreneurs.

Catalonia Trade & Investment is the public agency that works to attract foreign investment to Catalonia, promoting the area as attractive, innovative and competitive business location. Check their offerings and the Catalonia Startup Directory.

InfoJobs is the leading platform in Spain to find new job opportunities and the best talent. In 2018, more than 3 million jobs were offered and 1 out of 3 people who apply find a new job. Already over 50,000 companies in Spain are trusting InfoJobs every year to find talented employees.

Catalunya Emprèn, a program of the Generalitat de Catalunya, promotes public and private actions for the support of entrepreneurship. The creation, growth and success of startups and new companies, as well as the promotion of entrepreneurship, are the main objectives of this initiative.

SAP.iO is growing a generation of revolutionary software businesses in the SAP ecosystem. Through the SAP.iO Fund & Foundry, they help the next wave of enterprise software innovation build products, find customers and change industries by investing in and accelerating startup innovation.

Target Global is an international Venture Capital firm headquartered in Berlin, with €700 million in assets under management. Connecting the key European startup ecosystems, Target Global leverages the unique DNA of each of their target geographies, across their global network.

K-Startup Grand Challenge, organised by the Korean government agency NIPA, is a startup competition helping startups to expand into the Korean market and the broader Asian market. The application phase starts in April. The top 40 startups will be invited to Korea for a 3½ month-long accelerator program. Free office space and financial support included. The 1st prize winner will receive $100K cash prize.

Spaces offers creative working environments with a unique entrepreneurial spirit and a great community. Add an international network of mobile workspaces and a full calendar of business events and networking lunches, and you’ll see just how Spaces keeps you engaged and open to new possibilities. Originating in Amsterdam, Spaces wants to redefine the way work is done.

On May 2-3, we’re going to host the EU-Startups Summit in Barcelona. It will be the 6th edition of our annual flagship event – and with 1,200 startup founders and investors from across Europe also our biggest one so far!

Today we’re excited to announce another great speaker who will join us this year. It’s Djordy Seelmann, the CEO of HousingAnywhere.

Founded in 2009, HousingAnywhere is an online marketplace that brings together demand and supply of housing for international students and young professionals. On its platform, renters can search for a place, chat directly with local advertisers, book online, and pay first month’s rent to reserve their room. Starting out with just a single room in Rotterdam, the platform now has a listing of more than 80,000 rooms in over 500 cities around the world.

Before becoming CEO of the company a year ago, Djordy was COO of HousingAnywere for four years, and helped to scale the startup into a global marketplace with rooms available in over 100 countries and with a team of 100+ people.

At the EU-Startups Summit, Djordy will speak on a panel about the future of the online flat rental market along with the CEOs of Spotahome and Badi, and share his experiences scaling HousingAnywhere into a global housing marketplace.

If we already sparked your interest for the upcoming EU-Startups Summit, make sure to secure your ticket now!

As in the previous years, we’ll showcase a selection of Europe’s hottest startups (incl. a big pitch competition) and come together to learn from some of the most successful European entrepreneurs of our time. You can expect huge list of exciting speakers, many high-profile investors, great networking opportunities and much more.

That being said, it would be awesome to meet you at the 2019 edition of the EU-Startups Summit on May 2-3 in Barcelona. More info can be found here (page will be updated on a weekly basis) and in the video below!

San Francisco-based LiveRamp, an identity data platform, has acquired Amsterdam-based Faktor to streamline consent management across the open web. Factor provides tools for digital advertising and privacy, and the acquisition will reinforce LiveRamp’s focus on privacy and data stewardship. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

Due to evolving consumer privacy regulations like GDPR and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which will go into effect in 2020, companies need to navigate more complexity around compliance than ever before. With the acquisition of Faktor, LiveRamp can further help clients and partners ensure compliance as part of its larger privacy-focused suite of offerings in Europe, North America, and across the globe.

“The world’s largest and most innovative companies all believe that giving consumers increased visibility and control over their personal information is incredibly important, and recent regulatory requirements such as GDPR and the upcoming CCPA only make this more critical,” said LiveRamp CEO, Scott Howe. “With the acquisition of Faktor, we hope to send a powerful message to our customers, partners and the industry—that everyone should be informed and have control over how their data is used.”

Faktor is a consent management platform (CMP) that helps consumers to better manage how and where their data is used, publishers to receive the tools they need to operate sustainable business models, and brands to provide more meaningful experiences to their customers.

“This is a tool every single one of our enterprise customers and publisher partners should adopt, as it will significantly simplify and streamline the compliance process and enable better online experiences for their consumers,” added Howe.

In the coming quarters, any client or partner who needs to manage consent and maintain transparency to ensure compliance with CCPA will be able to utilize LiveRamp’s suite of privacy tools, and LiveRamp’s identity platform will also be fully integrated with Faktor’s offerings. This will enable consumers to use centralized consent management and persistent cross-device privacy controls, and give publishers access to a fully integrated consent and identity platform, enabling improved monetization and stronger consumer relationships.

“When we founded Faktor, we did so because we wanted to give consumers heightened control over their data, while still enabling brands and publishers to thrive. We wanted to power a real online value exchange,” said Tim Geenen, CEO of Faktor. “Through this acquisition, we’re excited to expand into new markets and to scale our platform to accommodate the growing need and demand for a simplified, people-centric consent management platform at the enterprise level.” 

“Faktor is a trustworthy partner for us, and they enable choice and transparency to our users. This has been instrumental in enabling a stronger relationship with our customers,” said Mila Dimitrova, Data Protection Officer at NOVA Broadcasting Group. “They provide an excellent product and managed service, and we are excited for the increased commitment and capabilities that will come through the LiveRamp acquisition.” 

Faktor will remain headquartered in Amsterdam, though it will leverage LiveRamp’s global foothold and solutions to cross-sell products and services to the combined customer portfolio. Maintaining an independent roadmap, Faktor will have its own dedicated product and engineering resources allowing for collaboration with LiveRamp to unlock synergies both ways.