Meet Robin Slakhorst and Korstiaan Zandvliet, the founders of Symbid. These two highly ambitious entrepreneurs used their academic knowledge and personal insight to develop an all new way for startups and SMEs to get the funding they need to grow and develop. 

Symbid

Founded in 2008, Symbid is an online crowdfunding platform that helps private investors, SME-entrepreneurs and startups come together in a safe and secure online ecosystem. Investors have the opportunity to safely invest in new, promising, fast-growing businesses. Before a company is traded on the stock market, anyone can acquire an equity interest and profit by having the foresight to anticipate the company’s growth. Simultaneously, the platform provides entrepreneurs with an alternative way to generate the capital they need to start and grow their businesses.

Symbid is growing rapidly both nationally and internationally. While a majority of company operations still take place at their Rotterdam office, which is located at the ECE Campus in the Rotterdam Science Tower, Symbid recently moved their head office to New York and is in the process of expanding internationally. Robin notes that the current expansion will soon include offices in Milan, Berlin, and Dusseldorf.

ECE Community

As one of the longest-standing members of the ECE Community, Symbid has served to be an invaluable asset to positively impacting other startups and the ECE Community as a whole. They have managed to overcome many obstacles, scale up, and grow rapidly. As a result, the company actively works with and coaches other, less experience, entrepreneurs within the community. Robin explains that because they have managed to overcome various obstacles associated with developing and growing startups, they have acquired a great amount of experience and knowledge that they are happy to pass along to other community members. Additionally, Symbid has also assisted other startups within the ECE Community in generating the funding they needed to develop, grow, and succeed.