Friday is here and so is TNW's weekly round-up of tech news from our glorious home country.
This week saw advances in medtech, quantum breakthroughs, and calls to further boost the Dutch chip industry. Our highlights have you covered, but we'd also love to hear your thoughts on the local ecosystem.
Drop us a line if you want to showcase your startup, share a digital tip, or just tell us your deepest, darkest secrets.
In the meantime, let's get to the news.
What we're writing
- Dutch startup to test hearing via brain-computer interface
- Dutch minister fears ‘national security risk' from Chinese ownership of Anteryon
What we're reading
- Gelderland is also asking for support for the chip sector: The Chopin project (Het Financieele Dagblad)
- Dutch-based QuiX Quantum's new breakthrough unlocks novel way to scale photonic quantum computing (Silicon Canals)
- Billions more needed for ASML expansion in Eindhoven (RTL)
- Damen launches first electric tug to operate in Europe (Seatrade Maritime)
Dutch startup of the week: Vitestro
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Blood tests might be an uncomfortable experience for many (including myself), but they're key to medical diagnosis, determining between 60% and 70% of doctor decisions.
However, a shortage of skilled laboratory professionals is putting increasing pressure on healthcare systems.
Utrecht-based Vitestro has a solution: a robotic blood drawing device.
The startup's devices use infrared, ultrasound, and AI to autonomously draw blood with submillimetre precision.
This week, Vitestro raised €20mn to bring its product to hospitals. You can read our coverage here.
TNW Conference speaker to watch
Each week one of our writers will share a top tip for TNW Conference. Today's pick comes from Thomas Macaulay:
One of my conference highlights mixes two of my great passions: sports and technology. Bringing them together is António Félix da Costa, a world champion of Formula E — the electric cousin of the petrol-powered Formula 1.
As well as being an elite driver, da Costa is an expert on the electrification and digitalisation of cars.
From automation software to fast-charging EV batteries, automakers are constantly testing their latest innovations in race cars. That gives da Costa unique insights into our future vehicles.
Da Costa shared some of these insights in a March interview with TNW. At his conference talk on June 21, da Costa will fully pull the curtain back on the cars of tomorrow.
That's all for this week's round-up. Until next Friday, tot ziens!
As we count down to TNW conference in Amsterdam on June 20 and 21, we're ramping up our coverage of the Dutch IT sector. If you're interested in attending the tech festival, we've got a special offer for our readers. At the ticket checkout, use the code TNWXMEDIA to get 30% off your business pass, investor pass, or startup packages (Bootstrap and Scaleup).