Amsterdam-based AI venture studio Slimmer AI, and VC firms Keen Venture Partners and Dutch Founders Fund (DFF) have announced the launch of a “first-of-its-kind” collaboration to focus on early-stage (pre-seed) European startups that are capitalising on advances in artificial intelligence (AI).
The AI ventures alliance, Samen Slimmer, promises to back and develop 12 new firms over the next two years by offering founders a mix of capital, AI software product and technical capabilities, deep tech-entrepreneurial expertise, and an “unrivalled” network.
JC Heyneke, CEO of Slimmer AI, says, “The time to build AI software products is now! The amazing pace of AI development is opening up unimaginable new use cases and potential applications.”
“We’ve been building AI software for more than 10 years – and bring our expertise, team, and ready-to-use tech platform to founders to launch a fully operational AI software product in record time. Especially now, with the explosion in AI tech and applications, time-to-market is of the essence.”
Why Samen Slimmer?
The Samen Slimmer aims to provide founders with an unfair advantage – not just in the speedy development and launch of their new AI product, but also in growing their product and business.
Slimmer AI’s tech knowledge guarantees that the solution is designed for data, algorithm, and feedback scalability, while Keen and DFF give finance and assistance to businesses during the scale-up and growth phases.
According to Alexander Ribbink and Djoni de Vos of Keen Venture Partners, startups require more than just technology and capital to create the next global category leader.
Ribbink and De Vos say, “We partner with founders that want to go big and provide them with the necessary capital, advice, support, and access to a European network. When capital, ideas, and good people come together, wonderful things can happen.”
Laurens Groenendijk, Founding Partner of DFF, adds, “From Slimmer AI’s ‘people powered AI’, Keen’s ‘radically human venture capital’, to DFF’s ‘founders investing in founders’ approach – we are all intensely focused on supporting founders.”
“This partnership unlocks a unique trifecta of benefits, granting access to all the tools that an early-stage founder needs: capital, expansive network and domain expertise. A true win-win-win situation for those building AI-driven companies.”
This alliance will be yet another crucial cornerstone for enhancing the climate for Dutch tech startups. Constantijn van Oranje, a special representative for Techleap, adds, “It’s exciting to see that players in the Dutch ecosystem collaborate in very novel ways to offer unique support to very early-stage ventures!”
About Slimmer AI
Founded in 2009, Slimmer AI assists startups and entrepreneurs in achieving their objective of establishing AI-powered digital enterprises.
The AI B2B venture studio also believes that firms must continuously iterate and improve their digital ventures, from go-to-market strategy and product roadmap to engineering and machine learning models. This journey can be time-consuming and even become a roadmap.
Slimmer AI collaborates as a co-builder to speed up the process. It also adds extensive AI software expertise to ensure that AI becomes a long-term competitive advantage.
Backing “exceptional” teams across Europe
Keen Venture Partners is a VC firm with offices in Amsterdam and London. It invests from seed to Series B in “exceptional” teams and fast-growing European technology startups.
The firm employs a thesis-driven approach to investing, developing investment ideas based on underlying developments in certain areas of technology. Even before investing, Keen offers its network of operators, experience, and skills to founders.
The portfolio includes over 20 European startups and scaleups.
The Dutch Founders Fund
Amsterdam-based Dutch Founders Fund (DFF) is an early-stage startup capital firm established by the founders of WeTransfer, Just Eat, Treatwell, and fonQ.
DFF backs B2B marketplaces and other businesses based on network effects, supporting entrepreneurs throughout Europe and the MENA region. The fund has almost €100M in AUM and currently invests from its second vehicle.
Since its inception in 2018, DFF has invested in 23 companies. These include YourCampus, Shypple, Vintage Cash Cow, Lumaly, Blanco, Nostics, Reveall, Veylinx, Wonderkind, Voicebooking, Fleks, Minimum, Caya, Winc Academy, Buildstream, Govin, Underline, Vamstar, Smiler, Northladder, Reverse Supply, VonWood and Tracedock (exited to CM.com).
01
The achilles’ heel of cloud security: Why two-factor authentication isn’t enough