Delft, the university town notable for its historical legacy, is home for the most famous startup incubator in the Netherlands, established by the local government in cooperation with the Delft University of Technology and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO). Currently, some 120 startups operate within the premises of Yes!Delft, focusing on innovative industrial solutions, health technology, info-communication, environmental industry and consumer goods.
Interested university students and their businesses established to develop and commercialise promising innovative ideas are assisted by highly qualified mentors in implementing their plans. To this end, the incubator house not only facilitates training programmes to encourage entrepreneurship but also actively promotes communication with investors, university or other research institutions, governmental and non-governmental organisations. As the startups participating in the programme receive most of their funding from venture capital, the incubator house assigns top priority to maintaining good relations with investors: in addition to providing up-to-date information to large multinational and Dutch enterprises and venture capitalist, Yes!Delft also organises regular Investor’s Afternoons, where they can directly meet the projects offered for investment.
The Innovation Ecosystem funding scheme, developed in line with the concepts of the NRDI Office, aims to create a national network of incubators in Hungary, which, similarly to Yes!Delft, efficiently stimulates cooperation between local startups, university and business actors, and involves an increasing share of private capital investment rather than public funds only.