For start-ups and innovative SMEs and other businesses in the field of digitalisation, opportunities are not only found online, but also at trade fairs. International, strategic tech fairs are the places where deals are closed, investors are found and ideas become reality. There was therefore a lot of networking in the past month at fairs such as Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona (3-6 March), Hannover Messe (31 March-4 April) in Hanover, Germany, and InCyber Forum (1-3 April in Lille).
Relevant strategic trade fairs outside Europe have also been and will be on the agenda in the near future, including the RSA cybersecurity conference in San Francisco (28 April to 1 May) and the Hightech and Digitalisation mission to World Expo in Tokyo and Osaka (18-28 May).
Topsector ICT is again this year co-organising several international trade missions and interesting activities at strategic tech fairs, in line with the priorities of the National Technology Strategy (NTS). The topsector is also funding Dutch pavilions at the aforementioned trade fairs and conferences. "This ensures that companies with international growth ambitions and innovation plans can access new markets, gain and exchange knowledge and expertise, expand their network and create new business opportunities," says Tijs Koops, Programme Manager Internationalisation and innovative SMEs at Topsector ICT.
The experience of Axelera AI
Alexis Crowell, Chief Marketing Officer at Axelera AI, which had a stand in the Dutch pavilion for startups at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, sees significant benefits from having a presence at strategic trade fairs for startups and innovative SMEs and other businesses with international growth ambitions. "All the bright minds and decision-makers at C-level are in the same place at the same time. That saves a lot of time, money and hassle. Everyone knows where to find each other quickly there, which accelerates innovation and business opportunities," says Crowell.
Axelera AI was founded in 2021 and is located at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven. It now employs over 220 professionals across the globe. Crowell, for example, is stationed in Portland, Oregon. The company develops advanced hardware and software solutions for artificial intelligence (AI) and aims to make AI more accessible by providing efficient and cost-effective solutions for both edge and data centre applications. In March 2025, Axelera AI announced the development of the Titania AI inference chiplet. A chiplet is a small, modular integrated circuit (IC) that performs a specific part of a larger function. Instead of manufacturing an entire processor on a single silicon disk, chiplets are developed as separate, specialised components that together form a complex system-on-a-chip (SoC).
The company received a €61.6 million grant through the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), a public-private partnership aimed at positioning Europe as a leader in supercomputing. The investment is part of the DARE project (DARE stands for Digital Autonomy with RISC-V in Europe), with a budget of €240 million. This funding brings Axelera AI's total amount raised to almost €200 million since its inception.
Funding opportunities
The company also came into contact with interesting potential investors and funding opportunities at MWC, Crowell says. "Strategic trade fairs also always attract investors and venture capitalists looking for innovative startups. For example, companies like Samsung and LG have significant investment arms that are always looking for promising, innovative products, services and businesses. In addition, many tech fairs organise side events, such as pitch competitions or matchmaking sessions. Moreover, it is a great opportunity to attract new good people for your board, as part of a new round of investment. Finally, having a presence at a reputable trade fair contributes to the image and credibility of young companies, which increases the willingness to invest."
The added value of the NL pavilion
Crowell stresses that she is very happy with the Dutch pavilion at MWC. "The Dutch pavilion had a great, central location at the fair, which ensured high visibility. The pavilion was located right between the two main halls for Axelera AI, which meant a lot of interesting people walked past our stand. And there were many other, appealing, innovative Dutch startups around us, which had a magnetic effect."
Next year, she would like another spot in the Dutch pavilion, hopefully then on the stand for 'mature' companies, as the startup pavilion didn't offer enough square metres for extensive demos for her liking. "Our core business is difficult to explain. We prefer to show many concrete things - following the 'show don't tell' principle. Then it sticks much better. But showing and demonstrating things just needs a lot of space…"
The role of Topsector ICT
The Chief Marketing Officer of Axelera AI is very appreciative of the role of Topsector ICT and the other partners who helped make the Dutch pavilion possible. "Topsector ICT has built a good reputation and is making its extensive and interesting network available to us. They also offer support in many areas. There is no marketing budget in the world that can match that!" The presence in the NL pavilion at MWC has not only brought Axelera AI new leads and funding opportunities, but also much more brand awareness among a wide audience. In addition, seeds have been planted for new partnerships. "Our industry benefits from collaborative agreements to innovate faster. You need software and hardware experts and experts who provide the 'enclosure'. All of which are present at the important strategic tech fairs. The whole ecosystem comes together there."
The experience of LiveDrop
Just like Acelera AI, LiveDrop was founded in 2021, and also in Eindhoven. Co-founder and CEO Patrick Moreu and his team have developed an innovative and patented protocol for secure offline data transfer. He has been an entrepreneur since 2003 and has always chosen topics that people care about, whether negative or positive. "I'm a firm believer in the word-of-mouth principle. For LiveDrop, we believe that sovereignty in transferring data should lie with the individual. So we stay away from the cloud, nothing is stored and we do not do profiling. So basically we are an anti-technology or disconnect company."
The protocol developed by LiveDrop enables communication without the use of radio frequencies, making it invisible in the spectrum and unable to be intercepted or influenced. "The protocol uses each display as a 'transmitter' and each camera as a 'receiver', which functions as a virtual data diode. LiveDrop's solutions work cross-platform on Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. With this technology, we offer a secure and efficient solution for data transfer in environments where traditional means of communication are not available or allowed," Moreu explains.
Go out and get business
After years of technological development, the first version of LiveDrop was launched at CES Las Vegas in January 2024. LiveDrop was also represented at the Dutch pavilion for startups at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in early March, but that was certainly not their only trade fair this year. "We have created an event calendar for 2025 that includes some 40 trade fairs, from one-day to multi-day and from Dutch to international. In our business, you have to go out and get business, especially since people are not yet familiar with our product or the technology behind it. The most important thing in that case is going out a lot, to as many locations as possible," Moreu says.
In the beginning, LiveDrop focused mainly on generic tech fairs, but now that the 'problem solution-fit' has been found, the company has found its specific markets and focuses mainly on fairs around the themes of Defence and Cybersecurity. "Think of it as an inverted funnel or pyramid. We are becoming more niche." For instance, the startup is going to RSA in San Francisco and to a major international defence fair in Florida. "But through partners, we are also targeting Asia, South America, the Middle East and even Africa, because these are often remote areas, and data bundles are too expensive for most people."
Taking care of everything
According to Moreu, the main advantage of having a presence at a Dutch pavilion at a tech fair is that everything is taken care of. "Everything is arranged for you, you hardly have to think about anything yourself. And that's great for startups that already have enough on their plates. The agencies organising such a pavilion or mission trip are very proactive in helping you and supporting you where necessary. It has positively influenced my perception of those organisations as an SME owner." He sees the commercial spirit of the Netherlands very much seeping into it: "It's all about winning customers, finding partners and resellers, getting investors interested and recruiting talent. They arrange for a minister to come to open the pavilion and visit the stands, for delegations from other countries to visit, you name it. All that creates a lot of visibility, and it is a massive privilege that you can hitch a ride on that as a startup."
He thinks Dutch startups and SMEs should be proud of what the Netherlands is doing for the sector at international, strategic trade fairs. "By no means every country arranges something like this. The actual effect is often only visible after a few years, but that it is there and that it is positive is obvious. It can give startups a huge kickstart, and we should cherish that."
The experience of investor Andy Lürling
Andy Lürling founded an emerging tech company almost 20 years ago in high-performance location tracking with high-speed and real-time visualisation. He received a €100,000 investment from the European Space Agency, bringing Sven Bakkes on board, who is still his business partner. After several rounds of investment, they made an exit, which provided them with the capital to start their first fund.
Since 2016, Lürling has been investing through his company Lumo Labs VC in startups that harness emerging technologies to improve people's quality of life. Lumo's portfolio now consists of 27 startups focusing on innovative solutions in areas including sustainability and climate, healthcare and education. "Soon we will be adding number 28 to our portfolio, and I expect that to reach 30 before the summer," Lürling explains.
Easy to contact
Lürling regularly attends major tech fairs in Europe. In early March, he also visited the Dutch pavilion of 4YFN, the fair for startups within MWC. "As a Venture Capitalist, we wouldn't benefit from manning a stand ourselves, but it is very nice to easily get in touch with innovative companies that are interesting to us and are looking for investment capital. Several times the first contact with companies from LUMO's portfolio has come about at such a fair.
For startups, Lürling says it is interesting that the Dutch pavilion is financially supported by parties such as Topsector ICT. "As a startup, you can never pay for this yourself, but because this is co-funded, they can hitch a ride with others and get plenty of networking and potential leads, and get in touch with partners and financiers." This is how he himself came into contact with an interesting Eindhoven startup 1.5 years ago at Slush, one of the largest technology and startup conferences in the world, which takes place annually in Helsinki, Finland. "And we are based in Eindhoven ourselves! So it's funny that we then bump into each other for the first time in Scandinavia," he laughs.
Central location
This year, Lürling also attended the Hello Tomorrow Global Summit 2025, a leading technology fair in Paris focused on deep tech innovation, on 13 and 14 March. Here, too, he made very valuable contacts. Later this year, he will also visit the Smart City Expo World Congress, which this year will take place from 4 to 6 November in Barcelona. He hopes to see the Dutch pavilion take centre stage again there. "The location of your pavilion, especially at big fairs, is incredibly important. Preferably at the front or at the very centre. Too often, the Netherlands still settles for a spot somewhere at the back. In that respect, it is better to pay a bit more for a good spot, otherwise nobody knows where to find you or they simply run out of time before they get to the last halls. So try to avoid skimping on cost."
And while it is nice to have everyone involved so close together, he does often try to take a look in other halls and at pavilions of other European countries. "In my eyes, it is sometimes just a bit too much of a Dutch party. Such a pavilion is a safe haven, but to really make a fist against the big global powers, we will have to act more in a European context. I would like to see more cross-fertilisation between European frontrunners in each digital and information technology, but preferably also beyond these, because there is often still too much working in silos and too much sitting on islands. Today's social problems simply cannot be captured in silos. This is why I don't usually attend side events. I do see the Dutch parties in the morning at breakfast in the hotel."
Conclusion
In short: presence at strategic (international) trade fairs offers significant added value for innovative SMEs and startups in the field of digitalisation. This value lies at multiple levels, from networking opportunities to new leads and business opportunities, and from knowledge exchange to increasing visibility and credibility. A stand in a Dutch pavilion also ensures collective visibility, which creates a stronger image and better positioning of the Netherlands as an innovation country. Because the costs are lower, due to efficiency benefits in stand construction and promotion, and because parties such as Topsector ICT co-finance the Dutch pavilion (via the Strategic Exhibitions Programme), the threshold for participation by companies is lower. On-site substantive and practical support is also offered, and participation in international trade fairs often results in media attention and PR opportunities, increasing visibility and attracting talent, partners and customers.
According to Lürling, though, we could be looking even more for connections, between parties, technologies and within EU member states. He sees an important role for an umbrella body like Topsector ICT there. "Try organising an event with multiple countries on a particular topic. Or create a combined pavilion of two or three countries at the forefront of a particular key digital technology."
More information on Topsector ICT's international efforts can be found here