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Graduation week!

Last Wednesday, February 16, we had the honors of saying goodbye to our amazing Fall 21’ cohort. After 10 weeks of hard work, intense training and growth, 8 start-ups crossed the finishing line which we celebrated at the Humanities Lab part of University of Amsterdam. Give a big round of applause to the following start-ups:

• ClothinGo – creates a sustainable value chain for returned fashion items and provides a CO2 free quick commerce solution within 30 minutes.
• DeepSign – builds real-time translation software to enable free flow of information and communication between signed, written and spoken language.
• Hapmag – develops state-of-the-art mid-air force and a tactile haptic feedback device.
• Plover Biosciences – aims to accelerate research in the field of experimental hematology.
• Respira – is a breath sensor for pre-symptomatic disease detection.
• ReviseMe – helps students to graduate by offering support in proofreading your work.
• S2S-AI – provides accurate sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) weather forecasts to increase climate resilience around the world.
• Sanguis Ai – is diagnosing anaemia from smartphones; non-invasive, inexpensive, and fast.

The official program came to a close during our Investor Day event that took place in an online format the day before – Tuesday February 15. During the 10 weeks of the program, the participants worked towards their final pitches. All 8 startups gave their final pitches in front of the ACE network of investors and received valuable questions, feedback and even invites for a follow-up conversation. We would like to thank you for your time and energy: Carol Tarr (Kavedon Kapital), Roel van Reenen (No Such Ventures), Sterre Witteveen (Holland Capital), Ivan Burkov (Inkef ), Peter Rutgers (Waterman Ventures), Ross Gordon (UvA Ventures), Jorinde Hoek (Arches Capital), Jonathan Fajardo Cortes (BOM), Paul Vernooij (BOM), Kyra Dresen (Volta Ventures), Tobias Ouwerkerk (Innovation Industries), Wessel van der Woude (Innovatiefonds Noord-Holland), Ilmatar Lutje Schipholt (Innovatiefonds Noord-Holland), Boy de Jonge (Forward One), Victor Bey-Smith (ASIF Ventures), Hidde van der Gaag (ASIF Ventures), Teun Visser (Lumo Labs) and Thijs Dijkman (Peak Capital).

The graduation ceremony on February 16 kicked off with a short presentation on going forward and what to expect next. ACE offers all graduates up to 2 years of full access to the ACE network and resources such as mentors, coaches and investors. And of course, we are always a phone call or email away with any questions that the start-ups may have. After this, we proceeded with the ceremony where each company received a certificate and to round the evening off we celebrated with drinks, snacks and mingling.

The evening ended with a last heartfelt farewell and we look forward to seeing what the future holds for these start-ups. Are you an entrepreneurial academic interested in joining the next cohort? Applications for our Spring ’22 incubation program are open now!