On 30 March 2015, the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship (ECE) opened the second floor of the ECE Campus at the Rotterdam Science Tower (RST). The floor was officially inaugurated by alderman Pex Langenberg. Minister Kamp (Economic Affairs) visited the campus.
Since the new floor is already jam-packed with companies, the 8th and 12th floors of the RST have now also been made available for startups. During the past two years, in collaboration with Erasmus MC, ECE has developed over 7,000m2 at the RST for innovative startups.
Minister Kamp was the first to receive a tour of the new floor, during which he took the opportunity to speak with several startups. He also joined a roundtable discussion with companies from the ECE community: Symbid, Dutch Domotics, Tickid, Kredietpaspoort, Declaree and The Venture Generator, to hear about their experiences. “Very insightful”, according to the Minister. He felt that ECE has managed to create an incredible environment for startups.
Apart from offices, meeting rooms, event locations, and flexible workspots, ECE now also has a brand new bar and a slide from one floor to the other. The opening was celebrated in style with drinks together with entrepreneurs from the ECE community and alumni from various ECE programmes. “Our goal is to bring together entrepreneurs, both large and small, to strengthen the innovative capabilities of the region, allowing them to innovate faster”, explained prof. Justin Jansen, academic director of ECE.
Since the arrival of ECE, more than 50 innovative companies now call the Rotterdam Science Tower their home and over 400 entrepreneurs have joined the ECE community. Various startups, such as Nestpick and Helix - who took their first entrepreneurial steps at ECE - have now expanded to places like Berlin and Hong Kong. Together, the companies at the ECE campus and the RST have raised over 6 million euros in investments, making the ECE campus a true hotspot for ambitious entrepreneurs.
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Jeroen Veenenbos, veenenbos@ece.nl