Rotterdam Startups to Watch in 2027: Verified Companies in Chips, Shipping, AI, Biotech and Climate Tech
Rotterdam runs Europe's largest port, so it is no surprise that many of its startups work on things that move, get built or get made: freight, ships, chips, building materials. The city is also home to Erasmus University and the Erasmus MC university medical centre, whose research turns into biotech and health companies. The 2026 version of this article listed ten Rotterdam startups, but when we checked them, two had been acquired, several were never based in Rotterdam, one had become a different company in another country and one could not be found at all. For this 2027 edition we started again: in October 2026 we checked every company on its own website, that it still operates, that it gives a Rotterdam address, what it sells and what it publishes about its funding. Rounds we found only in the press are named with the outlet. The old names and why they are gone are listed near the end. For a very different scene built around a government-backed hub, see our Abu Dhabi startups to watch.
Quick answer: the Rotterdam startups to watch in 2027 are Nearfield Instruments (measurement machines for chip factories), Shypple (a digital freight forwarder), Freeday (AI agents that do customer service and back-office work), Equalture (game-based hiring tests), Pan Cancer T (cell therapy for solid tumours), Paebbl (building materials made with captured CO2) and Captain AI (software for autonomous ships). Nearfield Instruments raised $380 million in June 2026, which the company calls the largest deep tech round ever in the Netherlands. Lox and Quantib from the old list were acquired, and Channext, Silverflow and Voicy are not Rotterdam companies.
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Why Rotterdam Matters for Founders in 2027
Rotterdam's startup scene is built around three strengths. The first is the port and logistics: maritime and freight startups can test their products with real ships, terminals and shippers, and PortXL, which calls itself the world's first maritime start-up and scale-up accelerator, runs programmes in Rotterdam, Singapore and Antwerp. The second is health: Erasmus MC spins out companies such as Pan Cancer T, and Quantib, an earlier Erasmus MC spin-off, was sold to a US company. The third is industry and climate: heavy industry around the port needs cleaner materials and energy, which is where companies like Paebbl come in.
Money is close by too. InnovationQuarter, the regional development agency for South Holland, helps technology startups with funding, partners, testing and international growth, and it appears among the investors of both Shypple and Pan Cancer T. For the wider picture, compare our guides to deep tech cities in Europe, the best countries for startups in Europe and the top startup cities in the Netherlands.
Rotterdam Startups to Watch in 2027 Compared
Sources: each company's official website or news page, checked 29 October 2026; funding as published by the company or the outlet named. Amounts are in the currency of the announcement.
The Rotterdam Startups to Watch in 2027
1. Nearfield Instruments: 3D measurement for chip factories
Nearfield Instruments builds automated, high-throughput 3D scanning probe metrology systems, sold under the name QUADRA, that measure the tiny structures on computer chips while they are being made. Its headquarters is at Vareseweg 5 in Rotterdam, and it lists offices in Nagasaki, Japan, and Pyeongtaek, South Korea, close to large chip factories. On 22 June 2026 the company announced a $380 million Series D at a valuation of $1.6 billion, led by Fidelity Management & Research Company with Temasek, Walden Catalyst Ventures, Innovation Industries, M&G Investments and Invest-NL; the Qatar Investment Authority joined as a new investor, and TNO Ventures and ING also took part. Nearfield calls it the largest deep tech funding round ever in the Netherlands and says the money will pay for more production capacity, application centres around the world and customer support.
Lesson for founders: the AI boom needs more than AI software. Nearfield sells a tool to the companies that make AI chips, and that "picks and shovels" position attracted some of the world's largest investors.
Best for: founders in semiconductors, photonics and precision equipment who want to see how a Dutch equipment maker raises growth capital on a global scale.
2. Shypple: a digital freight forwarder in Europe's largest port
Shypple is a digital freight forwarder: it books and manages shipments by ocean, air and rail for importers and exporters and shows them in one online overview, while keeping a personal contact for each customer. According to its company story, Jarell Habets started it in 2016 in Noord-Brabant and moved the headquarters to Rotterdam a year later. In 2021 it raised a EUR 7.14 million Series A in April and a further EUR 18.5 million in August, EUR 25.5 million in total, from investors including Dutch Founders Fund, Newtown Partners, InnovationQuarter and BOM Brabant Ventures, and it bought Milestone, a forwarder for perishable goods that now trades as Shypple Fresh. Its contact page lists offices in Rotterdam, Antwerp and at Schiphol Airport.
Lesson for founders: Shypple did not try to replace freight forwarders; it became one, with better software. In a traditional industry, customers often buy the familiar service before they buy the new technology.
Best for: founders in logistics, trade and B2B marketplaces, and anyone who ships goods from or to Europe.
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3. Freeday: AI agents that do the work, paid per result
Freeday sells what it calls digital employees: AI agents that handle customer service, identity checks (KYC) and invoice processing over voice, chat and email. It charges per resolved interaction rather than per seat, and says it is ISO 27001 certified. Its about page says its founders Marcus Groeneveld and Mathijs Gast first built the automation company Ciphix in 2018 and launched Freeday in 2022, and it names TUI, Pathé, Erasmus MC, Bitvavo, BUX, Roompot and ATAG as customers. Its office is at Hofplein 20 in Rotterdam. According to Tech.eu, it raised a EUR 4 million seed round in May 2022, led by the Amsterdam venture firm henQ.
Lesson for founders: outcome-based pricing makes an AI product easier to buy, because the customer pays only when the work is done. It also forces you to measure your own results honestly.
Best for: founders building AI agents for businesses, and companies that want to see how a service business turns into a software product.
4. Equalture: hiring tests that look like games
Equalture builds game-based assessments for hiring: candidates play short games, and the platform compares their cognitive and behavioural results with those of a company's best existing employees. It calls the games "AI-resistant", says it is used by companies such as DHL, Rituals, BCG and Randstad, and focuses on retail, blue-collar and professional hiring. Charlotte and Fleur Melkert co-founded it, and its contact page gives its Rotterdam office at Coolsingel 139. Its about page links to a Dutch news report that Equalture raised EUR 2.5 million extra from its existing investors; it does not give a date.
Lesson for founders: Equalture started with a mission, unbiased hiring, but its homepage now leads with business results such as faster hiring and lower early staff turnover. Selling the result, not only the mission, is often what gets a purchase approved.
Best for: founders in HR tech and anyone hiring many frontline staff who want an alternative to CV screening.
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5. Pan Cancer T: cell therapy for hard-to-treat tumours
Pan Cancer T develops TCR-T cell therapies: it engineers a patient's own immune cells to recognise and attack solid tumours, which the company calls one of oncology's greatest challenges. It was founded in 2020 as a spin-out of Erasmus MC and has its address at Marconistraat 16 in Rotterdam, with a second site in Leiden. On 8 December 2025 it announced EUR 10 million: EUR 5 million from its existing investors Van Herk Ventures, Thuja Capital, Erasmus MC and InnovationQuarter, and a EUR 5 million Innovation Credit loan from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. The money is for the first trial in humans of its lead therapy, PCT1:CO-STIM, in women with triple-negative breast cancer, after a regulatory filing with the European Medicines Agency that the company planned for 2026. It is still an experimental therapy, not an approved treatment.
Lesson for founders: biotech founders in the Netherlands can combine equity with public loans such as the Innovation Credit. Half of Pan Cancer T's latest round came from the state, which kept the dilution lower.
Best for: founders spinning out of a university or hospital, and anyone following European cell therapy.
6. Paebbl: turning CO2 into building material
Paebbl turns captured CO2 into a mineral powder that replaces part of the cement in concrete, so the CO2 is stored in buildings permanently; its current product is called Rebond. Its site lists Rotterdam first among its offices, with Stockholm, Helsinki and London, and says its R&D centre is in the Rotterdam region. In 2026 it announced an equity investment from the European Innovation Council (August), Prologis Ventures and the JLL Foundation as new partners (August), and a partnership with Agilis, part of France's NGE Group, whose concrete safety barriers cut embodied carbon by 26%. With Holcim and GOLDBECK it delivered what it calls the first industrial floor slab in Germany made with carbon-storing ready-mix concrete. According to IO+, Paebbl raised $25 million in October 2024 in a round that included Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund and Holcim.
Lesson for founders: Paebbl brought its future customers in early: Holcim invested and builds projects with it. In heavy industry, a pilot with a big buyer is worth more than any pitch deck.
Best for: founders in climate tech, construction and materials who need to sell to large, conservative industries.
7. Captain AI: software for autonomous ships
Captain AI is based in the Port of Rotterdam, at Scheepsbouwweg 8, and is working towards fully autonomous shipping using simulation, sensors and AI. Its site presents a maritime AI assistant: its news page describes a collision warning system used by Watertaxi Rotterdam, work on combining high-resolution radar with AI tracking, and its participation in PROACTIF, a European robotics and unmanned technology project. It does not publish funding figures, so we cite none.
Lesson for founders: Captain AI sells a safety assistant today on the way to full autonomy tomorrow. A product that earns money now buys you time to build the big vision.
Best for: founders in maritime tech, robotics and computer vision who want to test in a real port.
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Where Rotterdam Startups Get Support
- Cambridge Innovation Center Rotterdam: offices and coworking at Stationsplein 45, a minute's walk from Rotterdam Centraal. CIC says it is an official facilitator for the Dutch Startup Visa, runs an International Soft Landing programme for companies entering the Netherlands, and hosts the Venture Café network events.
- Erasmus Enterprise: the entrepreneurship hub on Erasmus University's Woudestein campus. It brings together Erasmus Research and Business Support, the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship and the YES!Delft incubator, and runs programmes such as the Erasmus University Challenge, the Startup Voucher and the NL Startup Competition.
- PortXL: the maritime accelerator in Rotterdam, Singapore and Antwerp that connects startups with port companies as partners and first customers.
- BlueCity: a former swimming pool, the old Tropicana at Maasboulevard 100, that rents production space and offices to circular startups and runs a Startup Studio with a Demo Night.
- InnovationQuarter: the regional development agency and investor for South Holland, an early backer of Shypple and Pan Cancer T.
- Rotterdam Partners: the city's promotion agency, whose Invest team helps companies that want to set up in Rotterdam.
- YES!Delft: not in Rotterdam but in neighbouring Delft. It says it has supported more than 600 startups, that 82% are still in business or were acquired, and that they raised more than EUR 1 billion.
Rotterdam Companies From the Old List That Changed or Could Not Be Verified
The 2026 version of this article listed ten companies, most with funding claims we could not confirm. Here is what we found:
- The Ocean Cleanup: real and based in Rotterdam, but a non-profit foundation funded by donations, not a startup. Boyan Slat founded it in 2013 in Delft; its headquarters is in Rotterdam and it has more than 150 staff. We removed the old "$35 million" and "billions in funding" claims.
- Lox: the Rotterdam platform for managing delivery issues and carrier claims was acquired by Sendcloud, the Eindhoven shipping software company, which announced the deal on 19 December 2024.
- Quantib: the Erasmus MC spin-off for AI in radiology was acquired in 2022 by the US imaging company RadNet and has been part of its subsidiary DeepHealth since 2023, as its old website now explains.
- Channext: channel marketing software, but its site gives no Rotterdam base, and its 2022 funding announcement, as published by Emerce, placed it in Utrecht.
- Silverflow: a real card payment processing platform, but its site gives no Rotterdam address. We removed the unsourced "Series D" claim.
- Voicy: the address voicy.co now belongs to an Israeli company that builds AI voice agents for Hebrew and Arabic, not a Rotterdam audio branding startup.
- Dutch Waffle Systems: we found no company under this name, so we removed it.
Pan Cancer T and Equalture from the old list are still operating in Rotterdam and are in the list above, with their real funding. We also removed the old article's unsourced figures and generic "pro tips".
Which Rotterdam Startup Should You Learn From?
- You build hardware for a global industry: study Nearfield Instruments and how it raised from the world's largest investors.
- You want to modernise a traditional service: study Shypple, which became a freight forwarder with better software.
- You build AI agents for businesses: study Freeday and its pay-per-result pricing.
- You build HR or people software: study Equalture and how it sells hiring results, not only fairness.
- You spin out of a hospital or university: study Pan Cancer T and how it mixed equity with a state loan.
- You sell to heavy industry: study Paebbl, which turned its future customers into investors and partners.
- You build for ports and shipping: study Captain AI, and apply to PortXL to meet port companies.
How Founders Use Rotterdam's Startup Scene
Notice who funds these companies: InnovationQuarter backed Shypple and Pan Cancer T, Innovation Industries and Invest-NL are in Nearfield's round, and the European Innovation Council invested in Paebbl. If you build technology, meet these investors early. Compare them with the funds in our guides to deep tech VCs in Europe and early-stage VC firms, and look at programmes like PortXL and Erasmus Enterprise next to the ones in our list of startup incubators in Europe and our alternatives to YES!Delft. Non-dilutive money helps too: see our lists of grants for early-stage startups in Europe and grants for female entrepreneurs in Europe, and enter one of the startup competitions in Europe.
Setting up in Rotterdam? Read our guide to registering a business in the Netherlands and the European startup ecosystem country by country, and meet people at the startup events in the Netherlands and in Amsterdam. Comparing cities? See our lists of Eindhoven startups to watch, Berlin startups to watch, Chicago startups to watch, San Diego startups to watch and Mexico City startups to watch, and the best cities for AI startups in Europe.
Before you copy any of these business models, validate your startup idea with real customers. B2B and deep tech founders often leave marketing until a funding round depends on it, so start early: list your startup in the F/MS marketing directories, publish your startup press release, and write about your product with the F/MS AI SEO Tool or the AI SEO Blog so customers, investors and AI assistants can find you.
FAQ About Rotterdam Startups to Watch in 2027
Which Rotterdam startups should I watch in 2027?
Our verified list: Nearfield Instruments, Shypple, Freeday, Equalture, Pan Cancer T, Paebbl and Captain AI. Each still operates and gives a Rotterdam address on its official site, checked in October 2026.
Which Rotterdam startup raised the most money recently?
Nearfield Instruments, which announced a $380 million Series D on 22 June 2026 at a valuation of $1.6 billion. The company calls it the largest deep tech funding round ever in the Netherlands.
Is The Ocean Cleanup a Rotterdam startup?
It is based in Rotterdam, but it is a non-profit foundation funded by donations, not a startup. Boyan Slat founded it in 2013 in Delft.
What happened to Lox and Quantib?
Both were acquired. Sendcloud announced it had bought Lox on 19 December 2024, and RadNet acquired Quantib in 2022; Quantib has been part of RadNet's DeepHealth since 2023.
Which Rotterdam startups work in health and biotech?
Pan Cancer T, an Erasmus MC spin-out, is preparing the first human trial of its TCR-T cell therapy for triple-negative breast cancer after raising EUR 10 million in December 2025. It is an experimental therapy, not an approved treatment.
Which Rotterdam startups work on logistics and shipping?
Shypple is a digital freight forwarder for sea, air and rail, and Captain AI builds collision warning and autonomous sailing software in the Port of Rotterdam. PortXL is the maritime accelerator to know.
Where can startups get support in Rotterdam?
Cambridge Innovation Center Rotterdam (offices, Startup Visa facilitation, Venture Café), Erasmus Enterprise (university programmes), PortXL (maritime), BlueCity (circular startups), InnovationQuarter (regional funding) and Rotterdam Partners (help with setting up).
Is YES!Delft in Rotterdam?
No. YES!Delft is a tech incubator in neighbouring Delft, but it is part of the Erasmus Enterprise community on Erasmus University's campus.
What can founders learn from Rotterdam startups?
Sell to an industry you can reach in person, bring large customers in as partners or investors early, combine equity with public money, and price your product around the result the customer wants.
Where can I get a backlink by writing about my startup?
You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools. Get a quality backlink.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
