The Netherlands has already become a home to various innovative and creative tech startups. It is attracting several international entrepreneurs due to its enviable work-life balance and charm. The successful nature of a startup depends a lot on the entrepreneurs behind the company and the talent hired. Hence, the country never misses a chance to appreciate those ambitious online entrepreneurs who achieve growth and innovation and thus inspires the Dutch online industry. LOEY Talent Award is one such initiative.
A joint initiative by Endeit Capital and Peak Capital, foundation LOEY holds the best online entrepreneur award every year and this year too, the organisation is back with the six most talented online entrepreneurs from the Netherlands in 2018.
LOEY Talent Awards 2018 — How does it work?
Basically, the online entrepreneur who stands out from the others in terms of growth, inspiration and innovation will be presented with the award. To be eligible to be presented with the privileged award, the entrepreneurs should be active for at least five years and should have made a turnover of at least €2.5 million in a financial year. Also, the entrepreneur should have made a profit of €250,000 to be nominated for the award.
In June 2018, the Expert Panel nominated the six most talented online entrepreneurs in the Netherlands in 2018 based on the eligibility criteria mentioned above. Take a look!
#1 Sjuul Berden (United Wardrobe)
Co-founder of United Wardrobe, Sjuul Berden founded the social clothing marketplace in 2014 along with Thijs Slijkhuis and Thijs Verheul. After being successful in the Netherlands and Belgium, the company has started focusing on Europe now. He won the Accenture Innovation Awards and was named one of the best young entrepreneurs in 2015 by Sprout magazine. United Wardrobe raised €1 million from Peak Capital in 2017.
#2 Thijs Bosgoed (BuyBay)
Thijs Bosgoed is the CEO and co-founder of BuyBay. The startup founded in 2014 develops and provides an online software solution for returned products in the e-commerce sector targeted at distributors, brands and retailers. He founded the startup along with his brother Erik. BuyBay is claimed to have achieved exponential growth. The startup has sent nearly 3.5 billion return goods in Europe. In March this year, BuyBay was granted €2 million by the European Commission.
#3 Milan Daniels (Otrium)
Milan Daniels is the CEO and co-founder of Otrium, an online fashion outlet platform. Milan Daniels and Max Klijnstra Daniels started this platform in 2015. It is an online outlet meant to sell existing collections on a private community. The co-founder developed this platform into a challenger to the conventional and offline outlet. Over 70 brands and 300,000 members joined the platform and over 15,000 transactions take place every month. Daniels received the Shopping Award for best starter and raised €1.4 million investment from Venture Fathers, Boralis and Keadyn.
#4 Paul Eggink (Temper)
CEO and co-founder of Temper, Paul Eggink is one of the nominees for the most talented online entrepreneurs in the Netherlands in 2018. Temper is an online platform where freelancers catering staff respond to commands from catering companies. Temper was founded in 2015 along with Jeroen Jochems and Niels Arntz. As of now, there are nearly 25,040 freelancers and catering companies working with Temper. The startup raised an investment from many private investors and in 2017.
#5 Joep Gommers (EclecticIQ)
Joep Gommers is the CEO and founder of ElectricIQ. The startup founded in 2014 is a platform facilitating access to cyber-intelligence. The company offers a dashboard with data and insights about the digital threats. This will warn the cybersecurity team of a company if they have to take action or not at a given time. ElectricIQ is one of the rapidly growing Dutch companies. In addition to expanding within Europe, the startup will also focus on the North American and African markets. The company raised a series B investment of €14 million from Keen Venture Partners in 2017.
#6 Charly van der Straten (Charly Cares)
Charly Cares co-founder Charly van der Straten is also one of the nominees of the LOEY Awards 2018. Charly Cares is a babysitting app meant for the busy families. The startup helps families in finding a reliable and personally screened babysitter. It was started in 2015 along with Xander Koenen. After expanding its presence to eight Dutch cities, the startup is now in plans to expand the services to London. It raised over €1 million via crowdfunding and private investors at the end of 2017.
Three finalists in already!
Of the six candidates mentioned above, recently three entrepreneurs have been already selected to go through the final round of the LOEY Talent Award slated to happen on Wednesday, September 12, 2018, next week. These three finalists are Thijs Bosgoed (BuyBay), Paul Eggink (Temper) and Joep Gommers (EclecticIQ). They will get a chance to introduce themselves to over 250 entrepreneurs in the Netherlands during the ninth award ceremony. And, the audience will decide the winner through SMS voting.
Let us know in the comments section below, which one is your favourite.
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