Brand new pre-seed fund for Wageningen startups

With the launch of a new pre-seed fund, promising startups emerging from Wageningen University & Research will gain faster access to capital, supplemented by an extensive network of experienced entrepreneurs and investors. WUR and Graduate Ventures are joining forces to stimulate entrepreneurship with Wageningen knowledge.

For Graduate Ventures, which has been active in Rotterdam and Delft for five years, the expansion is part of its strategy to support startups throughout the Netherlands with venture funding, networking, and expertise. WUR is among the world leaders in its field. The university is working on issues that will only become more urgent in the coming decades, such as food security, sustainable agriculture, and the protein transition.

Teams and startups are already being supported by the Starthub Wageningen incubator and the European accelerator StartLife. However, researchers and students who want to take the step into entrepreneurship still lack funding and experience in the earliest stages. Private capital for startups that are not yet generating revenue and need to prove their concept is scarce. Equally important is the support of experienced entrepreneurs who know what that step entails.

Over 200 successful entrepreneurs

Graduate Ventures is changing that. Behind the Graduate startup platform are over 200 successful entrepreneurs, including former Philips CEO Frans van Houten, Picnic founder Michiel Muller, biotech entrepreneur Eline van Beest, and former Unilabs CEO Jos Lamers. The alumni form the backbone of a movement that wants to help the next generation break through by providing capital, networks, and expertise. Graduate Ventures calls this combination “smart capital.” It's mainly about the doors that this opens.

"The Netherlands has a wealth of knowledge. The best ideas in the world come from our universities, but the step from research to business is still too often a stumbling block. We are changing that. Wageningen is a logical next step. Nowhere else in the world is work being done at this level on the future of food, climate, and agriculture. That knowledge deserves to reach the market, especially through Dutch entrepreneurs," says Auke van den Hout, managing partner of Graduate Ventures.