Participants

Teams – Fall 2011

  • Cancer Visuals Steef Löwik, Laura Mezzanotte, Ivo Que, Marieke Stammes
  • Muscabiotics Rik Grosveld, Dies Meijer, Frank Grosveld
  • INCIT Pharma Andreas Bastian, Semme Moolenaar, Alessio Marcozzi, Anna Hirsch, Andreas Herrman
  • Prognostix Ralf Hoffmann, Kalyan Dulla, Gregor Tevz
  • Barricade Therapeutics Arie Reijerkerk, Joost Vos, Wouter Kamphuis

 

Winners Fall 2011: Prognostix and Muscabiotics

The Autumn 2011 edition of the Venture Challenge took a surprising turn when two winners were announced yesterday during the Dutch Life Sciences & Health conference in Media Plaza, Utrecht. Life sciences ventures Muscabiotics and Prognostix will split the €25,000 prize money. Muscabiotics focuses on the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases in livestock. Prognostix develops innovative diagnostic tests for prostate cancer. Read more

Teams – Spring 2011

  • Waste2Chemical Niels van Stralen, Kirsten Steinbusch, Tim Grootscholten, Angelo de Mul
  • PhenoVation Henk Jalink, Rob van der Schoor, Vincent Jalink, Jan Meiling
  • Cell4Pharma Martijn Wilmer, Bert van den Heuvel, Roos Masereeuw, Alexander Nicastia,
                                      Joram Sjoerts
  • ACTvaccines Alex Kersten, Ivonne Galesloot
  • Tox-O-Safe Joost van Delft, Danyel Jennen, Theo de Kok, Christina Mangkoufopoulou
  • MimeMedical Mathijs de Wit, Pieter-Bas Wulms, Gabrielle Tuijthof

Winner Spring 2011: PhenoVation

During the LifeSciences@work Event in Utrecht, start-up company PhenoVation was named the winner of the Venture Challenge Spring 2011. Using PhenoVation's innovative CropReporter, the yield and quality of crops can be enhanced by specifically tuning the climate settings in greenhouses to reflect real-time information on crop performance. PhenoVation is a spin-out from the Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture research institute at Wageningen University and Research Centre. Read more

Teams – Fall 2010

  • NightBalanceEline van Beest, Thijs van Oorschot, Nico de Vries, Belindade Groot
  • BiomimiqAbdoel El Ghalbzouri, Suzan Commandeur, Curt Daniël
  • Sec-CurePieter van der Zaag, Anja van de Stolpe, Harma Feitsma, Geert Maertens
  • EnCaRe BiotechFatih Arslan, Ferhat Isguzarer
  • MUSICJoris Parmentier, Anthony Brookes, Reinhold Wimberger-Friedl
  • NTRCGuido Zaman, Rogier Buijsman, Jay Iyer, Monique Duyndam, Rik Grosveld

Winner Fall 2010: NightBalance

Start-up company NightBalance is the winner of the Venture Challenge Fall 2010, as announced during the Dutch Life Sciences & Health conference in Amsterdam on 8 December 2010. Intelligent sensor for healthy sleeping grasps €25,000 prize money. Read more

Teams – Spring 2010

  • ClearDetectionsHans Helder, Renske Landeweert, Sven van Elsen, Jaap Vuijk and Joke de Jong
  • IronicsDorine Swinkels, Harold Tsjalsma and Guido Maertens
  • MyLife TechnologiesHarrie van Baars, Regina Luttge, Svetlana Bystrova, Michel Verhoeven
  • Nano-FMEdwin Schwander, Menno de Jong and Gerald Metselaar
  • Preselect Diagnostics Chris Meijer, Cor Verweij, Saskia Vosslamber and Willem van Wijngaarden
  • SafeGluten Curt Daniël, Frits Koning, Walter Zuijderduin, Jan Wouter Drijfhout 
  •                                   and Marije Marsman 

Winner Spring 2010: ClearDetections

New detection method for pathogenic worms clinches €25,000 prize money. ClearDetections, a spin-off from Wageningen University and BLGG AgroXpertus (The Netherlands) has developed a new method to efficiently detect nematodes – minute worms in the soil that cause approximately $80 billion damage annually to agricultural crops worldwide. "ClearDetections convinced us with the clarity of their plan, which addresses
a real need in the market. Moreover, they offer a validated solution", said Alie Tigchelhoff, president of the Venture Challenge jury. "Combined with the quality of the team, ClearDetections delivered the best performance all around." Read more

Teams – Fall 2009

  • PluriomicsStefan Braam, Robert Passier, Ronald Dekker, Anja van der Stolpe, Ehud Hauben
  • MAXAM MedicalJeroen Voorham, Fiebke Op de Macks, Petra van der Zalm
  • 4DBioLeo Price, Paula van Rossum, Floor Poot
  • AeolosRonald van Brempt, Jeroen Aerssens, Hinrich Goehlmann
  • PolarisSigi Neerken, Roel Penterman, Reinhold Wimberger - Friedl, Paul van de Wiel
  • 3D PharmaSandy Hogg, Ton Vries, André Heeres, Gunnar Flik, Frits Wijbenga

Winner Fall 2009: Pluriomics

Yet to be formally established, Pluriomics intends to develop and commercialise predictive human cardiotoxicity screening platforms, based on human stem cell technology. This spin-off company will be housed at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). Key reasons for the jury to select Pluriomics as winner of the NGI Venture Challenge Fall 2009 are that Pluriomics addresses a clear market need with a unique solution, is building strong strategic technological and market alliances, and has a solid team, including an experienced CEO. Read more

Recent developments:

Winner New Venture, round 2: MAXAM Medical

MAXAM Medical, one of the teams participating in the Venture Challenge Fall 2009, won the New Venture, round 2 - an annual business plan competition to support innovative start-ups. Read more

Winner Investors Forum, Life Sciences Capitals 2009: MAXAM Medical

MAXAM Medical, one of the teams participating in the Venture Challenge Fall 2009, won the Investors Forum prize at the Life Sciences Capitals 2009. MAXAM Medical was awarded for giving the best pitch. Read more

Teams – Spring 2009

  • Swan DiagnosticsJurjen Velthuis, Tolleiv Trimborn, Curt Daniel
  • FarmaScreenMichael Richardson, Eric Wielhouwer, Lily Xu
  • SolvartisJeroen Essers, Jan Schultz, Els Moltzer 
  • Specific DiagnosticsRenger Jellema, Arjan Brenkman, Rob Vreeken, Bernd van Buuren
  • iVitalityRudi Westendorp, Michael Catt, Nicky Vogels, Simon Mooijaart, Carolien Wijsman
  • Silenti SolutionsKarin von Eije, Ted Thederahn, Joris Heus

Winner Spring 2009: FarmaScreen

Farmascreen develops biochips for high-throughput toxicity screening. FarmaScreen is an early stage research enterprise that will soon be spin-off from Leiden University. The company will offer a prototype of a patent-pending biochip that can be used as a safety screen in the drug pipeline. It allows automated screening of compounds on zebrafish embryos at medium- to high-throughput. It produces large quantities of high-quality data that can reliably predict a compound's toxicity, at a fraction of the cost of mouse and rat screenings.
The commercial potential of the biochip is high. Read more

Teams – Fall 2008

  • VisimetrixEric Kaijzel, Tony Bartlett, Thomas Snoeks, Karien de Rooij, Ineke Oudshoorn,
  •                                   Alan Chan, Clemens Löwik
  • µLife SolutionsBram Brouwer, Hans van Veen, Jos Raaijmakers
  • GenovumRonald Nanninga, Steef Blok
  • CQ PathArjan Veenman, Elly de Bruyn, Marcel Kap, Ronald de Krijger
  • FluxTraxThomas Binsl, Hans van Beek, Koen Verhoef

Winner Fall 2008: FluxTrax

The first winner of the Venture Challenge was FluxTrax. FluxTrax develops software that determines the local metabolism of living cells using a single tissue sample. Practical applications include determining the extent of damage after a heart attack. This technology launched by FluxTrax provides pharmaceutical companies with a better and faster means of selecting new candidate medicines. FluxTrax is a spin-off in establishment of the Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre (NBIC). Read more