Amsterdam’s startup ecosystem is a hotbed of opportunities for startups, scaleups, and global corporations alike. Every year, more and more entrepreneurs recognise the potential of the city as a hub for innovation.
For the 22nd consecutive time, Deloitte organised the Technology Fast 50, an annual ranking that recognises fast-growing technology startups in the Netherlands for their exceptional growth performance.
In the recently announced results, Amsterdam-based Otrium grabbed the #1 spot in the rankings for the 2nd year in a row. In second place this year was Rotterdam-based Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR) while third place was grabbed by Amsterdam-based Storage Share.
Bart de Vries, partner at Deloitte and programme leader of the Technology Fast 50, says, “Corona has accelerated digital developments and the participants of this year’s Technology Fast 50 have been very successful in responding to this. That innovative adaptability deserves a podium, which we are highlighting with these awards.”
Winners of Technology Fast 50
Unlike last year, when the event was conducted virtually, this year’s event took place at the Theater Amsterdam, earlier this month.
Below are the details of the startups that make up the top 3 of the Technology Fast 50 rankings:
Otrium
Rank & turnover growth: Finished 1st with a turnover growth of 4846 per cent and bears this title for the second time (Winner of the Rising Star award in 2019)
Founded in: 2015
Founder(s): Max Klijnstra, Milan Daniels
Otrium is a technology platform where fashion brands can sell their leftover stocks at a discount. Its full-service marketplace allows fashion brands to open an online outlet with minimal effort and all the advantages. Through their platform, fashion houses can sell both outlet collections and previous collections while retaining full control over pricing, merchandising, and visibility of their excess inventory.
The company also arranges the storage, sale and shipment of the relevant collections. Fashion brands can simply select their available stock and Otrium takes care of the rest.
Academy to Innovate HR
Rank & turnover growth: Finished 2nd place with a sales growth of 2752 per cent
Founded in: 2016
Founder(s): Nando Steenhuis, Erik van Vulpen
Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR) wants to make HR future-proof by offering online education programs available anywhere, anytime. The company offers premium online education to help HR professionals expand their skill sets and keep up with the latest technologies and innovations.
Storage Share
Rank & turnover growth: Finished 3rd with a sales growth of 2628 per cent
Founded in: 2016
Founder(s): Niels van Eck, Julian Doorten
Storage Share is an online marketplace that makes vacant commercial properties such as office buildings accessible to individuals or businesses looking for storage. Its platform lists over 15,000 square meters of vacant space and since its launch in 2016, has been renting out spaces for some of the most prominent players in the real estate market such as Ad Hoc, Amvest, Annexum, a.s.r., Camelot Europe, CBRE Global Investors, Cool Investments, Hanzevast, HOD, Merin, and MSeven.
About Deloitte Technology Fast 50
The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 is a program that ranks 50 fast growing technology companies, public or private, based on percentage revenue growth over three years and includes all related industry sectors – communications, media, software, hardware, life sciences and healthcare, and clean energy.
This program is for companies that have developed a tech-related product and celebrates innovation and entrepreneurship. If a startup participates in the Technology Fast 50, in addition to a place in the rankings, it also has a chance to be declared a sector winner.
In addition, every year, an award for the Most Sustainable Grower is also presented to the company that has achieved the highest positions in the annual ranking for the longest consecutive period. Besides, there’s also a Rising Star category wherein companies which are under the age of four participate automatically.
Rising Star 2021 and Most Disruptive Innovator award
Besides the top 3 awards, the fast-growing companies under the age of four also competed for the Rising Star 2020 and Most Disruptive Innovator award. Amsterdam-based Silverflow took the win.
Silverflow was started in early 2019 by Robert Kraal and Anne Willem de Vries. It is a cloud-based platform that provides direct access to card networks for payment services providers, merchants, and acquirers. The company’s product and scalable technology provides value, creates efficiencies, and drives new opportunities for all. As of now, Silverflow has raised a total of €3M and is backed by investors including Crane Venture Partners, INKEF Capital, and notable angel investors from Pay.On, First Data, Booking.com, and Adyen.
This year’s Most Disruptive Innovator award was given to The Protein Brewery. This award is for a company that has developed the most disruptive technology. The winner offers an innovative solution and product – a protein (Fermotein) made from carbohydrate-rich crops.
Most Sustainable Grower & Most Absolute Grower
The award for “Most Sustainable Grower” was also presented to the company that has been in the ranking for the longest consecutive time. The award went to Dutch scale-up Sendcloud.
Founded in 2012 by Bas Smeulders, Rob van den Heuvel, and Sabi Tolou, Sendcloud is an all-in-one shipping platform for e-commerce businesses that want to scale. The company’s solution turns e-commerce logistics from a bottleneck into an accelerator, making shipping a competitive advantage.
Sendcloud’s shipping methods include cross-border shipping, delivery in parcel lockers, same-day delivery, and even delivery during a day and time slot of choice. Additionally, the company has access to over 400,000 service points across Europe, enabling customers to pick up their parcel at their most preferred parcel shop. Currently, Sendcloud has more than 23,000 customers across the Netherlands, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and Austria.
A new award, the “Most Absolute Grower,” was also presented. Where Otrium managed to achieve the largest percentage turnover growth, Sendcloud turned out to have the largest absolute turnover growth. As a result, this Fast 50 veteran has now won all possible prizes within the program.
21 out of the 50 startups are based out of Amsterdam
Besides the winners, there were 18 more startups in the list that are based out of Amsterdam. These include TimeChimp, Hubs, Matt Sleeps, Convious, Fixico, 24sessions, Blanco, E-biketogo, VanMoof, Crunchr, PastBook, Recruitee B.V., Zerocopter, Ikbenfrits, WIJCK, BUX, FeedbackFruits, and SOWISO.
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