VU's spin-off Optics11 ranked 7th place in the MKB Innovatie Top 100
VU's spin-off Optics11 has been evaluated as the 7th most innovative company in the MKB Innovatie Top100 ranking. The list was compiled under the patronage of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with De Financiële Telegraaf.
Optics11 was founded in 2011 by Dutch entrepreneur Hans Brouwer and VU physicist Davide Iannuzzi. The business model of the company gravitates around one of Iannuzzi's inventions, which allows scientists to assess the mechanical properties of cells and tissues with an easy, fast, and reproducible approach. Thanks to Optics11's instruments, researchers all over the world have been able to perform unprecedented experiments that have contributed to a better understanding of the role of mechanics in the life sciences. Optics11 currently counts some 15 employees who, under the guidance of CEO Niek Rijnveld, were able to push the company at the 7th place of the small-and-medium enterprise innovation ranking.
Iannuzzi is proud of this result, but does not hide that it was not always easy: "This result shows once more that Optics11 has become a mature company – a company that goes well beyond what I could have dreamt only a few years ago. But it was not a piece of cake. If it were not for the support of the VU, its valorisation office IXA, and three funding agencies (FOM, STW and ERC), my idea would have never moved beyond the first proof-of-concept experiment performed by highly trained hands within the comfortable walls of my research laboratory."