Sittard-Geleen, January 23, 2017

Brightlands Innovation Factory and Sport Innovator Center Limburg will support startups together

The Sport Innovator Center (part of Topsport Limburg) and Brightlands Innovation Factory are planning to develop and support startups with sport innovations. This concerns startups with innovations in the areas of materials, nutrition, health and smart services, with which (top) athletes can improve their performance. Both organizations have signed a letter of intent in this regard.

Both Brightlands Innovation Factory and Sport Innovator Center see many opportunities in the cooperation, which will concentrate on four areas: attracting, scouting and selecting promising startups worldwide; marketing & communication and events; and the development of an investment fund for the startups.  

Startup ecosystem

The Sport Innovation Centre hopes to become a global hub for sport incubators, while Brightlands Innovation Factory hopes to be among the top ten international startup ecosystems in five years’ time, aiming to attract 40 new startups every year from across the Brightlands campuses’ four areas of focus. This is expected to deliver around 1,000 extra jobs by 2023. In order to realize these ambitions, Brightlands Innovation Factory is seeking to cooperate with other parties. The Sport Innovation Centre Limburg is already working with Le Tremplin in Paris and the Sport Chance initiative in Scotland. Similar cooperation agreements with a sport incubator in Italy and the Microsoft Global Sports Innovation Center in Madrid are under preparation.

Léon Klinkers, CEO Brightlands Innovation Factory: “Limburg will become the place to be with regard to innovations in the areas of materials, smart services, nutrition and health. Innovation usually comes about in the crossovers between the various disciplines. Brightlands Innovation Factory is distinguished by the cooperation between the four Limburg campuses. The agreement between Brightlands Innovation Factory and Sport Innovator Center is a great addition to this and will enable us to locate new sport initiatives faster and more effectively in a way that benefits both the athlete and the entrepreneur.”

Geert Ruigrok, director Topsport Limburg: “The presence of talents and top athletes and the central location between the Brightlands campuses (Health in Maastricht; Materials in Sittard-Geleen; Smart Services in Heerlen; Food in Venlo), make the Sport Innovator Center a unique test center for both the companies on the campuses and the SME companies in Limburg. The cooperation between Sport Innovator Center Limburg and Brightlands Innovation Factory will ensure that we can be of even better service to top athletes and businesses.”

About Brightlands Innovation Factory

Brightlands Innovation Factory is the entrepreneurial backbone of the Brightlands ecosystem. They get inspired by daring ideas for a better and a more sustainable world and empower today’s pioneers in advanced materials, health, nutrition, and smart services on their journey from a bold idea to a legendary company. At Brightlands Innovation Factory, all the bases are covered. World-class industry knowledge and expertise are coupled with expert-supported programs, value-added services and facilities, and access to funding.

"Incubate. Accelerate. Validate. Scale. That’s what we do.", Brightlands Innovation Factory

About Topsport Limburg and the Sport Innovator Center

Topsport Limburg is a dynamic network of partners from education, government, healthcare, sport and business, which creates peak infrastructure that athletes can use in their training to become top athletes. It offers young people in Limburg the opportunity to realize their sporting ideal in an environment with Olympic ambition. The Sport Innovation Centre is part of Topsport Limburg. It has a clear mission: knowledge development that results in sport innovations for top sport with an economic spin-off. The Sport Innovation Centre is distinguished by its specific knowledge in the area of materials development in the widest sense. The Centre is included in the national Sport Innovator program of VWS and established in the Topsport Expertise & Innovation Centre (TEIC) of Topsport Limburg.