Eindhoven’s Round One Ventures bags funding from VDL Group to help build robust startup ecosystem

Eindhoven-based Round One Ventures, a VC fund that invests in promising student startups, announced that it has received investment from the VDL Group. 

Through this investment, VDL Group aims to actively help in building a robust Startup ecosystem.

Consequently, VDL Group joins the growing list of investors, including Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), Eindhoven University of Technology, Tilburg University, and private investors. 

Round One Ventures is now a step closer to its target amount of €2.5M.

Round One Ventures: Helping enterprising students

Round One is an initiative of student entrepreneurs from Eindhoven, Tilburg, and ‘s-Hertogenbosch, supported by the Province of North Brabant. 

By investing early in young technology companies, Round One aims to improve the entrepreneurial climate for students. 

It makes the fund the first of its kind in the southern part of the Netherlands. 

“We are proud that a leading company like VDL Group believes in our mission,” says Round One founder and chairman Jur van Bergen. 

He adds, “Round One was founded to help entrepreneurial students with funding, networking, and guidance. In this way, we want to ensure that innovation, conceived in the lecture halls, is transformed into impact, for example in AI, smart mobility, and medtech. 

“We look forward to working with VDL to further grow the fund,” he adds.

VDL Group: What you need to know

VDL Group is an industrial company focused on the development and production of products, machines, components, and total solutions for five different sectors: Science, Technology & Health, Mobility, Energy & Sustainability, Infratech and Foodtech.

Since its founding in 1953, the family business has grown into a company with over 15,000 employees across 19 countries. 

The group comprises more than 100 flexible, independent operating companies, each with its own specialty and who cooperate intensively among themselves.

“As a family business with a focus on the long term, we like to encourage the entrepreneurship of talented students, especially in the field of technologies that so characterise our region and fit the earning potential of the future,” says Bart Rooijmans, managing director of VDL Participation.