Delft Enterprises has launched the TechScout Venture Fund to support early stage startups by enterprising researchers and engineers at TU Delft. Startups arising from research projects at TU Delft which are less than two years old are eligible for a convertible loan of €50,000. “Our aim is to accelerate the development of startups in the earliest phase”, says Ronald Gelderblom, Investment Director at Delft Enterprises.
The TechScout Venture Fund was set up to relieve the insufficient financing instruments, avoiding long delay of grants and providing extra resources for young spin-off companies to develop and help them apply for future funding aimed at startups that are already further along. Startups are reasonably free to spend the award on any aspect they want, ranging from materials for a prototype to exploring the commercial viability of an innovative technology or service. The stipulation is that the appropriation of the funds must take the startup a step further towards obtaining follow-up funding.
On May 18th, 2022, City Analytics became one of the first two companies to receive the €50,000 award from the TechScout Venture Fund, together with MuTech, a startup developing technologies to reduce the noise made by wind turbines. “Due to the coronavirus, the crowd management market has stood still for the past two years”, explains Dorine Duives, founder and CTO of City Analytics, “Thanks to the loan from TechScout Venture Fund, we can now get straight down to business.”