Eindhoven third best place to invest in Europe

After London and Helsinki, the relatively small city of Eindhoven, birthplace of companies like Philips and ASML, has made it to the Financial Times’ shortlist of ‘European Cities and Regions of the future’. Two other Dutch cities Rotterdam and Utrecht have also jumped on to the bandwagon, and together with Amsterdam, the three newbies, bring up the count of Dutch cities on the list to four. What makes the ranking of Eindhoven so striking is the mention of the incubation services and the attractive ecosystem for new ventures, as stated by the fDiInteligence.

“The city of Eindhoven ranked first in the FDI Strategy category for all small European cities, thanks in part to its offer of incubation facilities at both the High Tech Campus in the city and the University of Technology Science Park, as well as its provision of ‘soft-landing’ services, which allow investors to establish links and develop a base in the city.” Which is highly rewarding for DIA's member, Brainport Development, that has been investing to create a vibrant ecosystem since 2005. Check this report on: www.fDiIntelligence.com

Services Valley goes Europe

Not many incubators in The Netherlands have a corporate background. Services Valley is an exceptional incubation programme that has launched over 70 new ventures over the last 2 years. Being founded by Océ-Cannon, Excer and the province of Limburg in 2011, it has now distanced itself from its corporate sponsor and is expanding to other European markets.

“Services Valley has a surprising success for start-ups and SMEs developing new online services. Although we have key technology areas of expertise like printing, imaging and workflow management – which come from the technology areas in which Océ-Canon leads the world – our key success factors are the open mix of entrepreneurship spirit, creativity and the global corporate network. One of the companies we’re very proud of is Apostle, a social media management service company that didn’t profit much from our technical support, but did very well from our global network,” said Floris van Eck, when he was asked to elaborate on the origins of its success. “Based on the evaluation of our first phase, in this phase we’ll introduce an intensified development programme called ‘Test Stage’ in which we also invest in the share capital of the new venture. In search for more investment potential we’ll be looking all over Europe for talented entrepreneurs, at the same time involving other corporates to enhance their innovation ecosystem." Services Valley is one of the DIA members who are engaged in adding value to the entrepreneurial landscape of the region.