Hello there! Here’s what you need to know about the Dutch startup scene.

Funding

Quite some funding in the last weeks of 2015!

‘Dynamic planning’ app Calendar42 received funding from the Mainport Innovation Fund.

Rental space startup from Holland/Germany Nestpick secured an additional 2 million dollar (€1.8M) in funding from VCs Target Global and b-to-v Partners to improve its user experience.

Amsterdam-based software startup Relay42 secured ‘several millions’ from venture capital firm Holland Venture.

CustomerGauge, an Amsterdam-based company offering customer success software solutions, announced it raised $2,5 million in Series A funding, led by Newion Investments.

The national railways (NS) is setting up an investment fund of 5 million euro for smart mobility startups.

Updates

Fairphone, an Amsterdam-based company creating ‘ethical’ smartphones, recieved the Momentum for Change Award from the United Nations during the Sustainable Innovation Forum 2015 (COP21).

Sport eXperience is “Hollands first acceleration-program for sport related startups.” (Link in Dutch).

RTLZ Journalist Hella Hueck interviewed Skype founder Jonas Kjellberg (at Twinkle 2015), who recently invested in Dutch Directlyfrom.nl – stating he would not set up a company in The Netherlands, because it would take him too much time. (Link in Dutch).

Amsterdam-based Photo-bundle app Bundle decided to launch a big opening offer: giving away 100.000 free printed books! Only a couple of books left to grasp!

In the first hours of going live on Companisto, the Hamburg-based start-up TripRebel raised over €75,410 toward its €400,000 funding goal. In 2015, the European Commission selected TripRebel as the ‘Best European Startup.’

Monday read

This note is meant to help those founders who have recently closed a round of funding think through their company’s untimely demise. (Techcruch).

A Bad Review Is Forever: How to Counter Online Complaints. (NY Times).