In 2019, the technological advances rate of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has outpaced Moore’s Law, and startup venture investments in the AI field set a new record. According to the National Venture Capital Association, in total in 2019, 1,356 AI-related companies raised $18.457 billion (€16.57B) in the US.
While Europe still has a huge venture capital gap compared to Silicon Valley, but still it is making big strides in positioning itself as a winning hub for AI startups. One of the countries which is putting in a lot of efforts is The Netherlands. Some brilliant AI startups have born in the Dutch cities including in several fields like e-commerce, medtech, fintech and more. While Amsterdam and Rotterdam are the most popular startup hubs in the country, there’s one more city which is home to some really interesting AI startups, Utrecht.
Today, with the help of Dealroom, we have listed some of the most promising AI startups born in Utrecht and are here to stay.
FRISS
Founders: Jeroen Morrenhof, Christian van Leeuwen
Funding: €15 million
Founded year: 2006
Why its hot: FRISS is focused completely on automated fraud and risk detection for P&C insurance companies across the world. Its AI-powered detection solutions for claims, underwriting, and SIC have helped over 150 insurers take their business to the next level and provide a better customer experience by delivering actionable insights. FRISS detects fraud, supports digital transformation, and mitigates risks.
StackState
Founders: Lodewijk Bogaards, Mark Bakker
Funding: €4.5 million
Founded year: 2015
Why its hot: StackState is the market-leading monitoring and Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) platform in Utrecht. The company plans to utilize the funding to accelerate product development. StackState helps organizations make better decisions faster and avoid high severity outages while utilizing their current IT investments, machine learning, and (predictive) analytics. StackState’s growing customer list encompasses a range of industries — from finance, telecom, to managed service providers — and includes global enterprises like IBM Global Services, Vodafone, KPN Telecom, and ABN AMRO Bank as well as local innovators, such as NS International and Schuberg Philis.”
MRIguidance
Founders: Marijn van Stralen, Peter Seevinck, Roel Raatgever
Funding: €1.5 million
Founded year: 2016
Why its hot: MRIguidance is a participant of the UtrechtInc program in 2015. The company offers the first medical imaging technique called BoneMRI, which visualises bone and soft tissue simultaneously without any harmful radiation. The goal of this startup is to provide orthopedic surgeons with improved tools for effective diagnosis and personalised treatment planning for patients.
Clocktimizer
Founders: Bram Fokke, Pieter van der Hoeven
Funding: €180k
Founded year: 2014
Why its hot: Clocktimizer provides intelligent time-planning and time-keeping technology for companies in the legal sector. Its software solution analyses the time-tracking data of legal firms. This makes the fee structure transparent and helps law firms get to know the most profitable practice areas. This Utrecht-based startup works with the largest law firms in the world such as Hogan Lovells, Clifford Chance, Greenberg Traurig and more.
Zero Foodwaste
Founders: Olaf van der Veen, Richard Beks, Bart van Arnhem
Funding: €50k
Founded year: 2018
Why its hot: Why its hot: Zero Foodwaste operates with the mission to make the world’s food system sustainable. It uses innovative and progressive technology to achieve its mission. Zero Foodwaste provides hospitality organisations with a complete insight into food waste and helps them cut the waste by almost 50% with the use of recent developments in Artificial Intelligence and computer vision. It uses a smart camera on top of a waste bin and connects it to a scale to register all food that goes waste.
Ynformed
Founders: Jaring Hiemstra
Founded year: 2016
Why its hot: Ynformed is one of the pioneers in data science in the Netherlands. The company focuses on social issues and makes an impact by translating data into real-time insights as well as forecasts. The team of data scientists, data consultants and data engineers have enough experience and use machine learning techniques.
Watermelon
Founders: Alexander Wijninga, Charl Haas
Founded year: 2017
Why its hot: Watermelon operates with the mission to make customer service conversation smoother and faster. The company lets you build your own chatbot, which will be your digital colleague. Watermelon wants to enable the use of Chatbots and ensure that customers get a better experience in the future. Though the company went bankrupt, it came back into operations.
Worldwatch.ai
Founders: Fedor Klinkenberg, Taco Hiddink
Founded year: 2019
Why its hot: Worldwatch.ai was started to do things differently by focusing on applying Artificial Intelligence to unlock value and deliver smart solutions. The AI-powered Market Intelligence platform analyses public and alternative data to create better-informed companies and lets them make better decisions. With Worldwatch.ai, marketing and sales professionals can discover market insights, monitor competitors, find new prospects, and get instant updates on product as well as market trends.
Main image picture credits: Watermelon
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