Amsterdam-based Lumicks has won the Young Dutch Startup Award by Twente Innovation Events. After delivering a winning pitch, Lumicks CEO Olivier Heyning walked away with a main prize of €5,000. The company competed for the award with 11 more young startups from the Netherlands: Slim Opgewekt, Delft Hyperloop, ZTRDG, BitSensor, TrusttheSource, Emosys, Invi, Rural Spark, Clear Flight Solutions, TMI, and Plant-e.
Surprise, surprise
“There was a very good competition, and I had not at all expected that we would win,” Heyning told Silicon Canals. “As a result I was actually eating french fries during the awards ceremony, because I had totally not expected to be called on stage. […] We’re going to spend [the money] on decorating our new office. Something that is hard to find money for as a cash-strapped startup, and great that we can do this now.”
Biomolecules manipulation equipment
Founded in 2013, Lumicks has developed a range of equipment for single-molecule biophysics experiments. Heyning explained: “Lumicks brings to the market the very first instrument that can measure and film how diseases arise and how drugs interact at the single-molecule level. Up until now, these crucial biological processes could only be measured in a static or averaged manner. Being able to film is a big breakthrough for fundamental life-science research and drug discovery.”
The Jury: Corporates, Entrepreneurs, and the Government
This year’s jury of the Young Startup Award consisted of Herman Kienhuis, the director of KPN Ventures, Leo Essink, co-owner and CEO of Topicus Holding, Eelco Osse, the owner of OEM Group, Eric de Vries, CEO 4Silence, and Geert Braaksma, the chairman of the Twente Board. When choosing the winner, the judges looked first of all at commercial and/or technological innovation, scalability of the project, quality of the team and proven entrepreneurial success.
Young Startup Awards organizers
The Young Startup Award is an initiative of Powered by Twente Innovation Events. It is organized by Knowledge Park Twente, PPM Oost, EY, and Leap. According to the creators’ idea, the award encourages innovativeness of the Dutch startup ecosystem. This year’s final was combined with the Nederland Valoriseert!, a conference that marked the sixth anniversary of the initiative. Organized by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the valorization program supports twelve consortia across the Netherlands in shaping their activities in the field of entrepreneurship education and knowledge transfer.
