Deals Over Dinner sparks 132 new deals between startups and corporates

How do you accelerate the energy transition? It starts by bringing the right people together. Together with Startup Amsterdam, nlmtd and InnoEnergy we brought together 40 startups and corporates during Deals over Dinner: a three-course dinner designed around one simple goal: accelerate the energy transition.

“Getting in front of the right corporate takes time. Getting into their budget cycle takes even longer. Time startups simply don’t have. With Deals Over Dinner we shortcut that first step, bringing a carefully curated set of innovations straight to the right people,” says Thijs Sprangers of WTC Amsterdam.

At WTC Amsterdam, we believe we can help bridge that gap. As a home to businesses across finance, impact and technology, we want to create opportunities for people and organisations to meet beyond their usual networks, and turn those connections into action. And it worked: by the end of the evening, 132 deals had been made.

From conversation to collaboration

Deals Over Dinner took place in our new lobby. Instead of traditional networking, participants were carefully matched and changed seats between courses, creating new conversations throughout the evening.

Around the tables were organisations including Invest-NL, InnoEnergy, the City of Amsterdam, Schiphol, Dura Vermeer, Vattenfall, ROM InWest, SET Ventures, Stedin, Big Circle Ventures, TSMC, Vermaat, Gasunie, KH Engineering, Enexis, Alfen, Equans, Data Safe House and Boskalis.

They met startups and scale-ups including Accu’t, Project Enki, Ingy, GreenCompute, Enline, Phytonics, Heatpower, Aquabattery, Powerhive, Liion Power, Flow Volta, ML6, Ecop, Nesetten, Covolt, Zympler and Emmett Green.

The 132 deals made during the evening show the appetite on both sides to work together. And a deal doesn’t necessarily mean an investment. For young technology companies, access to customers, expertise and networks, or the opportunity to test and deploy technology at scale, can be just as valuable.

Paul Kunneman of Project Enki and Roel van Diepen of InnoEnergy, for example, met over dessert. “The setting led to a very different kind of conversation,” says Roel. “We spoke to three startups and we’re already moving ahead with introductions. It beats a cold call any day.”

Paul adds: “We spoke to the government, investors and corporates, so we had several different perspectives around the table. By dessert, we’d made five deals. We actually ran out of deal cards and had to carry on using the placemat.”

Shout out to the founders of Phytonics, Frederik Mayer and Ruben Hünig, who came all the way from Germany to attend the event. Jardo Stammeshaus and Stefanie Schachtschabel from Liion Power will be attending again on October 1 for our next Pitch Elevator event.

A broader ambition

For WTC Amsterdam, Deals Over Dinner is part of a broader ambition: to be more than a place where organisations work alongside each other. “We want to create an environment where our community and partners can connect across sectors, exchange ideas and find new ways to collaborate. Because bringing together finance, impact and technology only becomes valuable when those connections lead somewhere. And 132 deals in one evening is a promising start”, says Thijs.

Next up: Pitch Elevator event

On October 1 we invite start-ups and scale-ups in the Netherlands to pitch their businesses directly to investors at the Pitch Elevator, a matchmaking event hosted by World Trade Center Amsterdam, Golden Egg Check and StartupAmsterdam. Sign up here.

Companies currently raising capital can apply until 22 September to be matched with relevant investors based on their sector and growth stage, followed by four 15-minute speed-dating sessions, including a 60-second elevator pitch. The event offers founders a focused opportunity to connect with investors such as No Such, Lumo Labs and Volve Capital.