We’re so excited to celebrate the launch of the €100 million DeepTechXL Fund I! Investors and co-initiators of the fund include ASML, Philips, Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), research institute TNO, Invest-NL and PME pensioenfonds.

HighTechXL and PhotonDelta will combine expertise and collaborate to identify integrated photonics technologies around which we will build high-performance teams that take the tech to market, further strengthening the Brainport ecosystem and establishing the Netherlands as a world leader in integrated photonics. And it seems our timing was perfect. The partnership was signed on the same day PhotonDelta announced the news they landed €1.1 billion through the Dutch National Growth Fund to usher in a new generation of semiconduction technology.

Nine alumni teams were there to talk to potential candidates for dozens of open positions, and the HTXL team was eager to talk to those interested in joining a startup in our fall cohort. Our goal was to bring together interested parties, get some interviews on the calendar and help our alumni fill positions with highly skilled talent so they can staff their fast-growing companies. Mission accomplished.

Incooling won the top prize – €20K – and now advances to the Extreme Tech Challenge global bootcamp and category finals in San Francisco in May. Helena Samodurova delivered the powerful pitch, and Incooling CEO Rudie Verweij joined Helena on stage for the Q&A. ''It was definitely not the first time we were on stage pitching – pre-covid such events were a given and we were trained well. And although things are returning to how they were, there was this nervousness in the air – and everyone felt it. All the rush and excitement ... it was just like we were doing it for the first time, again,'' said Helena.

We're searching for an animation intern to join the video production team. Develop animation that helps our deep-tech ventures explain their technologies and their vision to all kinds of audiences (public, potential team members and potential investors) in a unique and creative way.