Amsterdam’s Selection Lab crowned KPMG Dutch Tech Innovator 2025, advances to global finals in Lisbon

On Wednesday, KPMG officially announced Amsterdam-based Selection Lab, led by Lotte Welten, as the winner of the KPMG Dutch Tech Innovator 2025 award. The winner was decided based on the pitch and a short Q&A.

“What an incredible evening filled with inspiring and impressive pitches. It was an honour to stand among such strong innovators and to come out as the winner. We can’t wait to represent the Netherlands at the KPMG Global Tech Innovator final during Web Summit in Lisbon,” says Welton in a LinkedIn post. 

Meet the winner

Founded in 2018 by Lotte Welten, Joeri Everaers, and Jordi Wippert, The Selection Lab is an online platform that provides objective assessments to help businesses hire candidates fairly and encourage diversity.

By combining personality assessment along with AI, the Dutch company helps organisations streamline their recruitment process, making it faster, fairer, and more insightful. 

Selection Lab claims to transform recruitment by automating 85 per cent of the employee selection process, from skill testing to shortlisting.

Jury Panel

The jury praised their use of innovative technology, ability to scale their impact, and rapid traction. The jury panels include:

• Jury Lars Crama (MD Innovation Quarter)
• Lotte Smit van Ditshuizen (Partner at Arches Capital)
• Meelf van Oosten (Partner INGENHOUSZ VC law firm & Partner at Million Monkeys)
• Pien Lucassen (co-founder WOPL!)

As a result, the AI-powered recruitment platform has earned the opportunity to represent the Netherlands at the KPMG Global Tech Innovator finals at the Web Summit in Lisbon later this year.

Finalists

Held as part of KPMG’s annual startup competition, the event spotlighted six promising Dutch startups from sectors ranging from medtech to HRtech, fintech, and sustainability. 

Each finalist presented their solutions before a panel of esteemed judges. Other 2025 finalists include:

• GoDutch – The fastest-growing business banking platform for Dutch SMEs, simplifying and automating financial admin.
• Carbyon – Developer of Direct Air Capture machines for large-scale CO2 removal.
• Veridis – Pioneer of industrial thermal analysis for detailed plastic stream composition, enabling smarter recycling.
• OpenUp – A platform offering accessible mental well-being solutions for resilient and engaged workforces.
• Lapsi Health – A medtech innovator using AI and sound to unlock novel diagnostic insights for healthcare access everywhere.

In the past 3 editions, Dutch scaleups Whoppah, InPhocal, and Incooling competed in the global finals.

The KPMG Global Tech Innovator is an international event that identifies and celebrates the most innovative tech companies around the world.

Beginning with national competitions in 25 countries, the winners from each country go on to compete in the global final.