2022 at a glance
In 2022, we built our 100th venture aiming to impact people’s lives, unburden the workforce and reduce the environmental footprint of healthcare. Read more
NLC ACTIVITIES
In 2022 we considered over 2500 inventions that originated in Europe (87%), Israël (7.5%) and the United States (5.2%). All had struggled to move beyond the research phase. Read more
VENTURE SOLUTIONS
NLC’s activities lead to the creation of portfolio companies with the potential to solve the world’s healthcare challenges. Read more
IMPACT IN 2023
Looking ahead, our current portfolio companies have the potential to reach over 500 million patients in 2030. Read moreDear healthcare partner,
With increasing demands placed on healthcare, surging costs and a growing shortage of health workers, the world’s healthcare systems have reached a pivotal juncture.
In every challenge, however, lies an opportunity. This is where NLC comes in. Our conviction is that many of the problems facing the healthcare sector today can be solved through innovation.
While we are optimistic, we are not naive. We know how hard it is to bring innovation to society. Issues include a lack of entrepreneurship, a shortage of available risk capital and suboptimal cooperation in a fragmented market.
At NLC, we embrace the Next-Level Challenges of the healthcare sector. We are creating a more fertile ground to enable inventors, entrepreneurs and the investors who believe in progress as strongly as we do—fortunately, a fast-growing group—to bring their innovations to the people who need them most.
I am proud to present this first Impact Report, in which we share what we have achieved so far. But we have to be humble: we’re just getting started. As our ecosystem grows, our impact is set to increase rapidly. Will you join our efforts?
On behalf of the patients and health workers, our society, and the planet,
Bert-Arjan (CEO), Sylvia (COO) and Ruben (CFO)
At a glance
Our activities
NLC aims to achieve this sustainable investment objective through the following activities:
BRINGING SCIENCE TO LIFE WITH INNOVATION
Most healthcare innovations never make it to the patient. We bring science to life by transforming dormant or abandoned innovative projects into market-ready healthcare solutions.
ATTRACTING AND DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURIAL TALENT
We believe diversity drives innovation. 16% of our ventures have a female CEO, compared to 9% industry average.
FACILITATING EARLY-STAGE INVESTMENT
Our mission is to bring back the focus on early-stage investment. Since NLC’s launch in 2015, our portfolio companies have secured €86.1 million in funding.
MOBILISING NETWORKS AND PARTNERS
NLC collaborates with top research institutes in Europe—we have created no fewer than six ventures with the leading medical research institutes in Amsterdam —and large corporations. To provide our portfolio companies with the right expertise, we have developed a network of over 1500 experts in different fields.VENTURE SOLUTIONS
NLC’s activities lead to the creation of portfolio companies with the potential to solve the world’s healthcare challenges, leading to measurable impact in four categories:
Happy Patient 
Patients are at the core of not just our ventures, but also our values and mission as a company. They are what drives and motivates us in our work. All our ventures have a positive impact on patients. Till date already more than 120,000 patients have been reached by our ventures. One of our other ventures with a highly positive impact on patients is Concord Neonatal. Thanks to the Concord birth trolley, premature infants have a higher chance of surviving delivery and a lower chance of being severely disabled. In the video on the right prof. Arjan te Pas (chairman at Concord Neonatal) and Rianne Rotink (CEO of Concord Neonatal) tell us more about the impact Concord Neonatal has on patients.
CONCORD NEONATAL provides a shock-free birth for every baby, by enabling lifesaving care with the umbilical cord intact, improving the lives of many babies and their families.
“As a physician, I lack the knowledge and expertise to start a business and don’t have the time to learn how to. NLC has this expertise, and can cover the business aspects for me so I can still focus on my clinical work.”
Happy Workforce 
The continued effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers exacerbate the pressure on an already strained workforce. Healthcare professionals of all stripes, along with carers and volunteers, have been working tirelessly to help those in need. The effects of working under this sustained pressure—including anxiety, stress, exhaustion and burnout—are a leading cause of workers leaving the healthcare sector. To improve the work environment, we investigated the impact our ventures make on the safety, workload and satisfaction of healthcare professionals. Most of our ventures scored positively in terms of safety and workload. The remainder received neutral scores, suggesting that the product or technology does not affect the work environment.
In the video on the left side, Dr. David explains what the impact of Haermonics is on the care professionals.
ARNE‘s augmented reality (AR) application uses tailored data to guide teams of healthcare professionals who work in stressful situations in neonatal care.
“Nobody expected how well I would do in this role, given that I had no experience in entrepreneurship, nor in the role of CEO. My experience in the medical-devices sector helped tremendously, and I like to stretch myself, to put myself in uncharted territory, because these situations provide for steep learning curves.”
Happy society 
Our ventures make a positive impact on society not only by contributing to an affordable and accessible healthcare sector, but also by ensuring the continued participation of patients and caregivers in society. Many of our ventures reduce the costs per patient by offering cheaper treatments, decreasing the number of readmissions and reducing the risk of complications. Others promote rehabilitation and thus accelerate the patient’s return to work or reduce the amount of care needed from parents or other informal caregivers.
Wouter Markus, CEO of Haermonics, tells in the video on the right what the effect of the venture is on the costs for society.
NICOLAB connecting human and artificial intelligence to revolutionise emergency care.
“I have always wanted to lead a company. To do this alone would have been very difficult and almost impossible. However, NLC with its operating model and ecosystem made it possible for me to work on a topic that I specialized in and hopefully help patients in the long run. The amount of knowledge and experience in NLC's ecosystem is amazing and you rarely feel alone in your journey.”
Happy Planet 
Although climate change is reaching alarming levels globally, the contribution of the healthcare sector is often overlooked. Healthcare systems account for over 4% of global CO2 emissions —more than the aviation industry.
NLC aspires to help healthcare transition to a lower-carbon future. To this end, we aim to build ventures that are conscious of the environmental footprint of their company as a whole and of their products. In line with this ambition, we launched the Green Health Challenge, which fosters the establishment of ventures with ‘happy planet’ as a primary focus.
In the video below is explained what is done at Haermonics to prevent waste and to reduce their environmental impact.
“We set up a collaboration to ensure that we can also make a success out of initiatives that are too premature to invest in or beyond Medtronic’s immediate scope”
Impact in 2023
While impact lies at the core of all our activities and ventures, this first report also shows that we are just getting started. Our portfolio companies are still in their early stages, with an innovation roadmap of five to eight years to market. This means our present impact measurement is based primarily on promise rather than measurable impact.
By 2030, our current portfolio of 82 ventures will improve the lives of some 500 million patients per year, at the same time making healthcare more affordable, accessible and sustainable.
These steps, along with our growing and maturing portfolio and ecosystem, will rapidly enhance our impact on the healthcare system. Will you join our efforts?
- In 2023 we will elaborate further on our impact ambitions, building on the lessons we have learnt so far.
- Develop more impactful ventures across more healthcare domains and locales, and our Green Health Challenge will yield its first ventures.
- Release more early-stage funding through our Health Impact Fund.
- Strive for an even more diverse pool of entrepreneurs leading our ventures, based on our conviction that diversity drives entrepreneurship.
- Help our ventures achieve and demonstrate their impact by improving and expanding our services across the ‘happys’ through the provision of tools and collaboration with service providers and experts.