Here are 12 Amsterdam-based startups that raised funding in October

Amsterdam’s startup community has been rapidly expanding over the past ten years. The capital city of the Netherlands is a startup mecca, thanks to the infusion of new business owners, IT firms, and investors.

Over the years, a large amount of money has been coming into Amsterdam’s startup scene. In keeping with the Dutch government’s goals to assist entrepreneurs, this trend appears to be persisting.

According to a report by Dealroom, Amsterdam-based startups raised €698M in H1 2022. While this is a 75 per cent decrease year-on-year, the first half of 2022 was already the second-highest H1 for Amsterdam VC Investment, adds the report. Amsterdam also ranks 3rd for new funds raised in 2022 so far, second only to London and Berlin.

So today, we bring you a list of Amsterdam-based startups that raised funding in October, 2022. Certain details of these startups, such as founders’ names, founded year, and the total funding raised, have been sourced from Dealroom.

YourCampus

Founder(s): Florian Gendrault, Ruben van den Boogaard, Sven Cune, George Visniuc, Adil Bougamza

Founded in: 2021

Latest funding: €2.7M

YourCampus offers employees access to a digital wallet in a mobile app customised to their employer’s corporate identity. Employees can also use their budget in an online marketplace offering a wide variety of benefits.

The startup offers services and products from partners such as Brand New Day, HelloFresh, Swapfiets, Felyx, Classpass, and Inuka. In the Netherlands, YourCampus counts scale-ups like rapid delivery service Zapp, finance-analytics platform Owlin, and growth accelerator RocketX among its first clients.

Cryptorefills

Founder(s): Massimiliano Silenzi, Simonluca Landi, Mats Veenman

Founded in: 2018

Latest Funding: Undisclosed

CryptoRefills is on a mission to enable people all over the world to spend bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for their everyday needs. Using CryptoRefills, people from more than 150 countries and territories top up their mobile credit and purchase gift cards from the biggest digital and retail businesses in the world.

One of the first companies in the world to introduce Ethereum layer-2 payments (via Polygon Matic and Arbitrum) and fast finality blockchains (via Avalanche and Fantom) for e-commerce payments, CryptoRefills claims it is at the forefront of applied decentralised payments innovation and claims to be creating new technologies for the gift card sector. The company is also a member of the Holland Fintech Association and Blockchain Netherlands Foundation.

Fastned

Founder(s): Michiel Langezaal, Bart Lubbers

Founded in: 2012

Latest Funding: €75M

Fastned aims to accelerate the transition to electric mobility by giving freedom to electric drivers. The company develops a fast-charging infrastructure for electric vehicles across Europe.

Fastned owns and operates a network of 215 electric vehicle charging stations in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, and Belgium. The majority of its stations are located at Dutch highway rest areas. The company’s fast-charging infrastructure helps drivers to charge their EVs with up to 300 km of range in 15 minutes.

UPgraders Universal Banking

Founder(s): Corné van der Poel

Founded in: 2022

Latest Funding: Undisclosed

UPgraders Universal Banking says it is a new kind of online bank that believes banking is not about making money but about doing the right thing. The bank invests its money in ways to create a sustainable future for everyone. The company’s goal is to redirect cashflows to existing solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to create a sustainable society.

Brenger

Founder(s): Derk van der Have, Wisse Koedam

Founded in: 2016

Latest Funding: €2.5M

Brenger is a logistics platform that connects consumers and businesses with couriers to transport bulky goods. The company provides easy and affordable delivery by managing the planning and the location of couriers who are working for Brenger. This enables the company to optimise the loading capacity of every van on the road. 

By doing this Brenger is able to create quality transports for its business customers and more earnings for couriers on every kilometre, all while making transports more sustainable overall. The company has saved 3.500 tons of C02 so far.

FlapKap

Founder(s): Ahmad Coucha, Khaled Nassef, Sherif Bichara, Adel Hodroj

Founded in: 2022

Latest Funding: $3.6M

FlapKap enables e-commerce businesses to scale and grow by targeting businesses that have traditionally had limited access to bank or VC financing. The company offers insights and analytics to e-commerce businesses to help them accelerate growth and swift access to working capital financing for the deployment of inventory and digital marketing spending.

DJ Monitor

Founder(s): Yuri Dokter

Founded in: 2005

Latest Funding: Undisclosed

DJ Monitor claims to be the global market leader in monitoring electronic music. The company has developed tech-driven end-to-end services that enhance accurate music usage reporting and improved royalties for artists. Its services cover music festivals, nightclubs, venues, broadcasts, and online streaming events. The company is a preferred supplier of established collective management organisations in Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and Africa.

Since 2020, DJ Monitor has also facilitated the live streaming of physical events, integrating online and offline experiences and offering services that cover monitoring, online transactions, and international licensing.

OpenUp

Founder(s): Gijs Coppens

Founded in: 2019

Latest Funding: €15M

OpenUp aims to make mental health accessible to all by reducing the barriers to health coaching and therapy. Through its online platform and technology, users can schedule a consultation and are connected with a qualified psychological professional. Additionally, the platform includes courses, health checks, interventions, inspiring interviews, and talking to a psychologist 1-on-1 via video, phone, or chat. 

Currently, the company offers support in more than 10 languages, from English to Mandarin, and Dutch to French. Over 550 companies in the European region provide their employees with free access to OpenUp’s platform.

Crisp

Founder(s): Tom Peeters, Michiel Roodenburg, Eric Klaassen

Founded in: 2018

Latest Funding: €75M

Crisp aims to make better food accessible for everyone. It claims to be the supermarket-app for fresh food. The service distributes groceries throughout the Netherlands and Belgium seven days a week. Orders placed through the app before 10 PM get delivered the next day. Products from more than 800 local farmers and food providers are included in the assortment.

Crisp claims that it has had exponential growth since it entered the Belgian market in June 2021 – orders there have again increased recently. The company distributes using its own fleet of cars in both the Netherlands and Belgium, and it is fast converting to 100 per cent electric delivery. Its total product range has also grown 36 per cent in 2022, driven in part by the launch of the first range of non-food related items.

Almacena

Founder(s): Dimo Yanchev

Founded in: 2021

Latest Funding: €3.5M

Almacena is a platform for next-generation coffee sourcing that promotes fair trade and enables customers to buy coffee directly from the farmers, negotiate terms, sign contracts and execute the deals digitally. Its Trade Dashboard integrates finance, storage, logistics, insurance, and data collection from African producers to the European warehouse or factory.

Currently, Almacena’s coffee marketplace has over 160 cooperatives with 300,000 farmers onboarded. AlmacenaOrigin App is used by co-ops in four African countries to map data from over 18,000 smallholder coffee farmers. The platform serves leading importers and roasters in 11 European countries.

Optics11

Founder(s): Davide Iannuzzi, Hans Brouwer

Founded in: 2011

Latest Funding: €5M

Optics11 Life and Optics11 are two business units of a spin-off of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Both businesses bring “unique” fibre sensing technology to the life science and industrial markets.

Optics11 Life addresses key instrumentation needs for the future of medical treatment. According to the company, developments based on 3D cell culture such as organoids and engineered tissues will improve drug development, regenerative medicine and diagnostics processes. 

Optics11 Life’s sibling, Optics11 claims to be a photonics sensing technology powerhouse. Its fibre sensing systems address key needs in condition and structural health monitoring of the power grid, wind power, the manufacturing industry, and underwater acoustics for defence and security. Its fibre sensing system portfolio includes acoustic emission sensing, hydrophone arrays, and reliable strain, temperature and acceleration sensing.

Vurdere

Founder(s): Daniel Pisano

Founded in: 2018

Latest Funding: €500K

Vurdere connects social profiles to ratings and reviews, which makes shopping convenient for customers.

DOPS Recycling Technologies

Founder(s): Roeland Jan Dijkhuis, Harmen Oterdoom, Wiebe Pronker, Michiel Spits

Founded in: 2021

Latest Funding: €300K

DOPS Recycling Technologies develops technology that separates waste and biomass into usable (clean) molecules in the gas and/or solid form in a patented thermochemical reactor. Compared to garbage incineration, this drastically minimises greenhouse gas emissions and lets molecules stay in use for longer.

The building of a laboratory reactor (TRL4-5), which is scheduled for commissioning in December 2022, is the first stage of the Proof-of-Concept project. The reactor’s goal is to increase public trust in the technology and accelerate its development. The results of the tests with the laboratory reactor are expected in the first quarter of 2023.

Talk360

Founder(s): Dean Hiine, Hans Osnabrugge, Jorne Schamp

Founded in: 2016

Latest Funding: €7.13M

Talk360 aims to fix the connectivity issue of apps that rely heavily on an internet connection. The company’s app can be used to place international calls on any mobile phone or landline worldwide and works even if the receiver doesn’t have an internet connection.

Talk360 also aims to become the world’s first single checkout platform combining all local currencies and payment methods for all underserved communities. With offices in South Africa, The Netherlands, India, and Nigeria, the company also looks to accelerate its mission to create jobs and reduce unemployment in the communities it serves through its growing agent network.