Image credit: Lalaland.ai
The Amsterdam AI ecosystem is booming and bustling, with many startups already having an international impact. Now, the ecosystem takes another step to spread its wings and fly across Europe, as Dutch AI coalition NL AIC has officially joined the European AI Landscape.
Joining France, Germany and Sweden
The European AI Landscape is an international initiative to put AI startups and scaleups on the map. This allows young, innovative companies in the field of AI and machine learning to connect with peers. It will also be easier for SMEs and corporations to find European startups that use AI to solve problems they themselves are facing.
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The initiative started in early 2020, to foster and accelerate the application of AI in Europe. It was initially started by Germany (AppliedAI by UnternehmerTUM), Sweden (Ignite Sweden, AI Sweden and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden) and France (Hub France IA), jointly mapping over 500 startups. Together with the Dutch AI ecosystem, Norway also joins the collaboration.
‘Promote our selected startups’
“It’s great that the Netherlands is participating in the European AI startup landscape”, says Anita Liverdink from NL AIC. “It’s a fantastic way to promote our selected startups on an international level and thereby increase their access to potential customers, partners and investors.” NL AIC has been selecting startups since last December and is adding 127 Dutch AI startups and scaleups to the map.
NL AIC is the umbrella initiative under which Dutch AI hubs are gathered. One of those hubs is the Amsterdam initiative ‘AI Technology for the People’, a collaboration between government, academic, medical and other organisations in Amsterdam to help the city develop and deploy responsible technology in AI. Among the collaboration are the Amsterdam Universities and academic hospitals, the City of Amsterdam and the centre of mathematics and computer science (CWI). The Amsterdam hub is committed to investing €1 billion over the next 10 years to develop AI technologies in the local ecosystem.
Amsterdam represented
Amsterdam is already home to a bustling AI ecosystem. Of the 127 startups included in the database, 32 are from the Dutch capital. The heavy collaboration with academic hospitals makes it a great spot for healthtech startups Nico.lab or Skinvision. Several startups are employing AI for B2B software, like Kaizo while startups like Lalaland (pictured above) are using AI to disrupt the fashion industry.
Read also: 24 Amsterdam-based AI startups that are hiring in 2022
The goal for the EU European AI landscape is to bring together startups and corporations. While many companies require a broad selection of technologies, startups often specialise in a single niche allowing them to better offer necessary solutions with the latest technology. It also recognises that AI systems often improve when there’s more data available.
A system from a startup that supplies many companies will likely yield better results than stand-alone systems custom-built for a single corporation. On top of that, building and maintaining AI solutions is complicated and expensive and might prove challenging for companies that don’t have AI as their core business.
Join the landscape
With the addition of The Netherlands to the European AI Landscape, there is now a database of hundreds of trusted AI startups. Besides creating the database, the landscape also aims to hold events to further connect AI startups with European companies. Startups that want to be part of the landscape in Europe as one of the top startups of 2022 can still apply, through NL AIC.
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