Home Base: A Journey Through Time
“It is a great honour to present to you a decade worth of impact.”
— Joyce Kornet-Vreugdenhil, General Manager, CIC Rotterdam
When CIC opened its first European innovation hub in Rotterdam in 2016, we could only dream of where we would be today: a thriving community of innovators, entrepreneurs and changemakers focused on solving the world’s most pressing challenges.
This report is not simply a summary of metrics gathered throughout the years. It is an homage to a city that was bold enough to take a chance on innovation, to the founders who chose Rotterdam as their destination and never left, and to an ecosystem that believed in itself before anyone else did.
Over the past decade, nearly 1,100 businesses have called CIC home. Member companies have collectively created more than 2,650 fulltime jobs and raised €578+ million in capital. But the number I find most meaningful is this: 74% of the startups that have ever been based at CIC are confirmed to still be operating today, compared with the industry norm that nine out of ten startups fail. And among those that left our campus, 66% stayed in our region. They did not use CIC as a stepping stone to somewhere else. They built here, and they stayed here.
Reflecting on our journey, it has been so rewarding to see our community develop deeper and more intentionally with every passing year. The founder who sends me a message after her first funding round. The talent who finds a new role through our network. The company that landed in Rotterdam by serendipity and now also has offices in our Berlin and Warsaw campuses. We connect the dots. Intentionally and with people at the centre.
I am also proud of our progress in having better gender balance in our hub. Since signing the SER Diversity Charter in 2020, we have consistently met our target of housing at least 20% woman-led startups. Today, 22% of our active startup community is woman-led, and these startups exhibit higher retention rates than the average. While gaps remain in sectors like CleanTech, AI, and the investment community, our commitment to closing them is firm.
Like many scaleups, CIC’s growth in Rotterdam was far from linear. We had good years, great years and challenging ones. The pandemic solidified our conviction that CIC is about the community and not the brick walls. We adapted, expanded and welcomed even more members who saw the benefit in flexibility. Global challenges strengthened our view that innovation should be for everyone, always. And the AI wave now reshaping our society will require deeper adaptation than anything we have faced before. Now more than ever, the human connection is what makes us different.
Rotterdam is our home base for innovation. A node from which companies launch, connect globally, and return to as they grow. Ten years in, that is still the truest thing we can say about what we do and why we do it. To our clients, partners, ecosystem and team: thank you. The people in and around CIC are the soul of this place. Without you, none of this would have been possible and considerably less fun.
We’d also like to extend a special thank you to our current and former members for their contributions to our community and this report.
