The AI wrapper epidemic
Most AI claims in pitchdecks don't hold up. After 100+ tech DDs and 1000+ decks reviewed, the patterns are always the same.
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News & blog
Updates on portfolio and partners, blogs and other news. Featured first, then draft previews and the latest posts — older items stay in the archive until you open it (fewer images load upfront). Follow on LinkedIn.
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Reimagining the Role of AI: A Potential Savior for Earth?
How redirecting AI toward environmental root causes can turn efficiency gains into durable planetary impact—climate, disasters, oceans, and energy.
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Why don't we have a tech & AI hub like this in the Netherlands? Well — now we do.
Less than a year after asking why the Netherlands had no AI hub, it's happening. The AI Hub Amsterdam is live — and Why Commit Capital is part of it.
Latest
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Data & AI in smart charging — panel takeaways (Enjins)
Enjins recaps Amsterdam ClimateTech × AI: Fastned, Milence, and Chargetrip on uptime, “power anxiety,” grid intelligence, and how data, ML, and GenAI shape Europe’s charging stack.
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NOS highlights Nextkidney’s portable artificial kidney breakthrough
NOS covers the Dutch push behind Nextkidney’s portable dialysis system, focused on giving kidney patients more freedom and reducing dependence on hospital-based treatment.
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Orq.ai closes €5M seed to scale enterprise AI agents (Curiosity VC)
Orq.ai raised €5 million in an oversubscribed seed round—led by seed + speed Ventures and Galion.exe—with Curiosity and other existing investors doubling down. Total funding is now €7.3M.
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Volve Capital closes Fund I at €9 million (EU-Startups)
Amsterdam-based Volve Capital announced the final close of its first fund at €9 million — backing pre-Seed founders across Benelux and DACH, with ~30 Dutch entrepreneurs as LPs and support from the RVO Seed Capital programme.
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EWOR Top 100 Founder Mentors — grateful to be included
Thank you to EWOR for a truly international founder-to-founder community — and to every founder who keeps pushing when others would quit.
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Deeploy in MT Sprout Challenger 50 — 2025
Deeploy is listed among the Netherlands’ fastest-growing challenger companies in MT/Sprout’s Challenger 50 ranking for 2025.
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Open-source vs closed-source AI: governance (Deeploy)
Deeploy compares open-weight vs closed API models — transparency, vendor lock-in, hybrid stacks, and how EU AI Act roles (provider vs deployer) shift with each choice.
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AI Governance & Control Framework — launch with Deeploy and partners
Proud to launch Deeploy’s AI Governance & Control Framework — built with leading partners to make responsible AI governance practical across the lifecycle.
Archive
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Human-in-the-loop: the underrated control in AI (Deeploy)
Deeploy on HITL as real governance: explainability for reviewers, shadow mode, EU AI Act & GDPR human oversight, and closing the loop from override to model improvement.
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Mistral AI models: governance without friction (Deeploy)
Deeploy on onboarding Mistral via API with centralized visibility, monitoring, logging, and audit-ready documentation — governance around external deployments without rehosting models.
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Iconicworks introduces its AI platform for complex infrastructure delivery
Iconicworks positions itself as an AI software layer for complex projects, focused on turning planning and execution complexity into practical decision support.
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EWOR commits €60M to back top founders with a fellowship-first model
EWOR positions itself as a highly selective founder fellowship, combining up to €500K per founder with hands-on support from operators who built unicorn-scale companies.
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Carbon Equity: €105M for Climate Tech Portfolio Fund III, >€300M AUM
ESG News covers Carbon Equity’s third climate tech portfolio fund at €105M raised — total AUM past €300M, 1,260+ LPs, and diversified exposure across 25+ specialist climate funds.
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Operating Partner at Volve Capital
Volve Capital welcomes Bastiaan van de Rakt as Operating Partner — deepening hands-on AI and product support for portfolio founders.
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Deeploy secures up to €7.5M EIC funding (Silicon Canals)
Utrecht-based Deeploy secured up to €7.5M from the European Innovation Council (EIC) to scale responsible AI and MLOps — a €2.5M grant plus €5M reserved in equity for its next round.
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OpenAI models: governance & transparency (Deeploy)
Deeploy on onboarding, monitoring, and governing OpenAI APIs — audit trails, documentation in one place, and alignment with EU AI Act–style expectations without changing how models are hosted.
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Planblue awarded EIC grant
Ocean mapping and climate resilience — Planblue secures European Innovation Council support to scale deep-tech sensing.
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Nox Energy raises $1M to connect home assets to energy markets
Belgian startup Nox Energy secures $1M to scale software that connects household energy assets such as heat pumps and inverters to energy market signals.
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Emilia Capital joins Patchstack’s $5M Series A in open-source security
Patchstack raises $5M Series A with participation from Emilia Capital, the fund founded by Joost de Valk and Marieke van de Rakt after Yoast.
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NATO DIANA advances 10 dual-use startups to Phase II
NATO DIANA selects ten companies for Phase II of its accelerator, with focus areas including sensing, secure information sharing, and energy resilience.
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BASH closes financing round
Climate and capital — BASH advances its roadmap with new funding for product and partnerships.
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Eddy Grid — home battery rollout update
Energy flexibility at the edge: Eddy Grid expands installations and software for residential storage.
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EU AI Act: drie pijlers voor verantwoordelijke AI (Emerce)
Emerce best practice met Joost de Valk (Emilia Capital) en Bastiaan van de Rakt (Deeploy): reproduceerbaarheid, uitlegbaarheid (XAI) en menselijk toezicht — de kern voor high-risk AI onder de Europese AI-wet.
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Taktile × Deeploy: high-risk AI decision-making (2024)
Deeploy and Taktile partner to help banks and fintechs combine decision-engine automation with transparency, oversight, and compliance for AI-driven risk decisions.
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5Q’s with Maarten Stolk, CEO of Deeploy
Deeploy — Jan 2024. Five questions on runtime AI governance, production ML, and why “human in the loop” still matters.
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Eddy Grid and Skoon launch energy hubs to ease Dutch grid congestion
Eddy Grid and Skoon Energy team up to deploy mobile batteries at energy hubs, turning idle capacity into grid support and new revenue for owners.
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UK Government publishes Deeploy × Bunq as AI governance case study
The UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology published Deeploy and neobank Bunq as a reference case for transparent AI governance in anti-money laundering applications.
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Yescapa and Goboony join forces
Mobility and marketplace scale-up — two camper rental leaders merge to strengthen European outdoor travel.
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Nextkidney raises €11.9M in Series B round
Portfolio company Nextkidney closes €11.9M Series B to accelerate development of the NeoKidney — the world's first truly portable home hemodialysis device.
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How do we keep control of generative AI? (Deeploy)
Deeploy on ChatGPT-era generative AI: ethical risk, RLHF context, and practical levers — traceability, human-in-the-loop, explainability, and governance for high-impact use cases.
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First steps — Enjins office in Berlin
Enjins takes first steps at its Berlin presence — with thanks to the ecosystem around Merantix, peers and partners. #mlops #ai #scaleups
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Carbon Equity Decarbonization Fund I — first close (€15M)
First close of the Carbon Equity Decarbonization Fund I at €15M toward a €25M target — a portfolio of curated private climate funds, with EIP Deep Decarbonization Frontier Fund as the first approved sleeve.
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#OG91: Deeploy moves to Utrecht Oudegracht (Feb 2022)
Deeploy announced a new home at Oudegracht 91 in Utrecht — shared with Enjins from 1 March — with more space to grow, meet customers, and host the team by the canal.
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Deeploy raises €1M seed round led by Curiosity (2022)
Deeploy closed its first €1M investment round, led by Curiosity, to grow the team, expand explainable AI product, and build toward enterprise customers and a broader SaaS offering.
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Integrating explainability in Angular applications (Deeploy)
Deeploy on bringing model explanations into Angular front-ends — closing the gap between MLOps and the UI so users see transparent, accountable AI where decisions actually happen.
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Explainability: control vs complexity (Deeploy, 2021)
Deeploy on explainable AI: why accountability and transparency matter as ML grows more complex — from public-sector oversight and SyRI to insurers’ ethical-AI frameworks and the need for practical tooling.
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Nextkidney and Debiotech join forces — new CEO appointed to bring NeoKidney to market
Nextkidney BV and Swiss medtech company Debiotech join forces in NextKidney SA, appointing Jérôme Augustin as CEO to lead commercialisation of the NeoKidney — the world's first truly portable home hemodialysis device.
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Goboony raises €579K crowdfunding — 300% growth and 15,000 holidays
Goboony raises €579K via crowdfunding — well above its €200K target — backed by its own campervan community. The platform reports 300% growth with over 1,600 vehicles shared and 15,000 people sent on motorhome holidays.
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VODW acquired by EY — one of the largest consulting deals in the Netherlands
EY Advisory acquires VODW in one of the largest management consulting deals in Dutch history — bringing together 100+ professionals including a fast-growing data science practice.
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Enjins founded — ML engineering for the companies that matter
Bastiaan van de Rakt, Maarten Stolk and Nick Jetten co-found Enjins in Utrecht — an ML engineering company focused on getting AI from proof-of-concept into production at scale-ups in climate, mobility and marketplaces.