Investment figures highlight Amsterdam UMC’s role in regional health innovation
It has long been recognised that Amsterdam UMC plays a leading role in promising healthcare innovations. Innovatiefonds Noord-Holland (INH) has announced that half of its investments are made in collaboration with researchers and doctors from the academic medical centre.
The secret?
“Strong science only really makes an impact when knowledge institutions, entrepreneurs and early-stage investors are able to find common ground,”
says Arjen Brussaard, Vice-Dean for Valorisation at Amsterdam UMC.
The importance of connecting with one another
Developing new treatments and medical technologies takes a great deal of time and money. It is particularly in the early stages that start-ups often struggle to find investors, as their technology still needs further validation.
Amsterdam UMC plays a key role in this. It is only by connecting scientists, entrepreneurs and investors that it becomes possible to translate research into new companies, products and treatments. More than half of the companies in INH’s healthcare portfolio have emerged from this process.
“This milestone shows that strong science only really makes an impact when knowledge institutions, entrepreneurs and early-stage investors are able to connect with one another,” says Arjen Brussaard, Vice-Dean for Valorisation at Amsterdam UMC. “That collaboration is essential for developing innovations from Amsterdam UMC into companies and applications that add value to healthcare.”
Innovatiefonds Noord-Holland celebrates milestone of 30th investment
The INH acts as a bridge in this process: it invests at the stage when companies need to develop their innovations further towards market readiness. Since its establishment in 2018, the INH has invested in 94 innovative start-ups and scale-ups, 30 of which are in the health sector. In practice, this initial capital acts as a catalyst: for fifteen health innovations, the INH partnered with private co-financers in the first round.
The INH supports entrepreneurs in the province of North Holland in a number of ways. It manages two funds: a fund for innovative start-ups, supported by the RVO, and a fund for academic start-ups, supported by the ERDF.
