The most impactful solutions often come from those who’ve lived the problems they aim to solve. At the second edition of the NN Social Innovation Startup Award, six startups pitched their solutions to pressing social challenges aimed at improving well-being.
Punto Health, a company transforming dementia care, emerged as the winner, receiving a €100,000 grant and a year-long mentorship programme from NN Group and Amsterdam’s Rubio Impact Ventures.
Runner-up honours went to The Hacking Games, a Belgium-based startup that received €50,000. Co-founder Fergus Hay and his team focus on a unique approach: identifying digital talent in gaming communities and online forums and channelling that potential into cybersecurity careers. Their mission is to turn cybercriminals into cyber defenders, supporting digital safety across the Netherlands and Belgium.
Punto Health: Transforming cognitive care
Founded in 2023 by Anna Muñoz Farré and Jack Eckersley, Punto Health is working to transform dementia care through AI-powered tools that assist patients, families, and healthcare providers in managing care more effectively.
Co-founder Anna Muñoz Farré, says, “One in two people will be affected by dementia during their lifetime, and women are impacted, both as patients and as carers.”
“This €100,000 grant from NN Group, combined with Rubio’s network and expertise in scaling impact startups, gives us everything we need to transform dementia care and help families better manage the rising burden globally.”
Punto Health offers two products:
- PuntoCare – A mobile app that supports people with cognitive impairment and their families through personalised daily care plans, expert-validated articles, a symptom diary, and an AI assistant that provides tips and answers in real time.
- PuntoClinic – A clinical platform that uses a speech-based digital biomarker for remote cognitive assessment, early detection, and monitoring. It also supports pre-screening patients for clinical trials and new treatments.
Meet the other inspiring finalists
This year’s finalists showed how lived experience, combined with innovation, can drive powerful change. Each of the six startups selected for the final round is contributing to better health, education, and safety outcomes in society.
The other four finalists also received awards for their work. These include:
naext – €20,000 (Eindhoven, Netherlands)
Founded by Victor van Dinten and Lukas van Delft, naext addresses the challenges faced by people with sensory disabilities in public transport. Their AI navigation system provides voice guidance, tactile paths, and low-stimulus routes to improve routes across the Netherlands.
iYoni App – €10,000
Founded by Katarzyna Goch and Professor Krzysztof Jan Łukaszuk, iYoni App was created after seeing couples face fertility struggles without support. With 186 million people affected and 70 per cent undiagnosed, the app uses AI to detect reproductive conditions earlier and is now active in 176 countries.
Juvoly – €10,000 (Leiden, Netherlands)
Founded by software developer Thomas Kluiters and GP Maarten Timmers, Juvoly transcribes doctor-patient consultations in real time and generates structured summaries for electronic health records. The platform responds to the growing administrative burden faced by healthcare professionals in the Netherlands.
Morphoses – €10,000 (London, the UK)
Founded by Anna Natsvlishvili and Alexandros Pithamitsis, Morphoses Skills is an edtech platform that supports soft skills development in children aged 6 to 17. It offers live, activity-based sessions that use game-like formats to teach emotional intelligence in Greece and Romania.
Brief about the NN Social Innovation Startup Award
NN Group, founded in the Netherlands in 1845, and Amsterdam’s Rubio Impact Ventures organised the NN Social Innovation Startup Award during The Next Web Conference.
The programme supports early-stage startups working on solutions in health, finance, and education by providing funding, mentorship, and exposure.
Lonneke Roza, Head of Community Investment at NN Group, says, “We designed this award to champion early-stage social enterprises that provide innovative solutions for improving financial, physical and mental well-being. Developing products and services that create solutions for people at scale is still a challenge for many social entrepreneurs to make the impact that they envision.”
“The diversity of solutions this year shows that technology can truly be a force for good. From AI transforming dementia care to platforms redirecting digital talent toward cybersecurity—these are the innovations that make a difference for people who need it most.”
Ilonka Jankovich, Venture Partner at Rubio Impact Ventures, adds, “Some of the most impactful startups are built by people with deep personal insight into the problems they’re solving. But turning that into a scalable business—especially in sectors like mental health, healthcare access, or financial resilience—is incredibly hard without the right kind of support.”
“This award was created to fill that gap. Not just with funding, but with the guidance from NN Group and Rubio and the support of the community of innovators we’ve created with this competition. Each and every one is committed to changing the system, so that tech-driven solutions for well-being become the norm, not the exception.”
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