BOM concludes its multi-year strategy with an impressive annual report 2024: 14 development projects, 64 (follow-up) investments, 38 international branches, and strategic initiatives on themes like AI, supercomputing, defense innovation, and plant-based scaling. With this, BOM underscores its role as an accelerator of the Brabant economy and as a driving force behind necessary transitions in energy, health, food, and key technologies.
The sense of urgency to work on transition challenges and thereby save Europe's competitive position is now widely felt, partly in response to the report on European competitiveness published by Draghi.
Brigit van Dijk – Van de Reijt
Performance
With the launch of the AI Supercomputing initiative, BOM, along with the province of North Brabant, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), and Tilburg University, began an exploration to make large-scale computing and the use of supercomputers for AI and Big Data applications accessible to Brabant companies and institutions. BOM was also involved in 16 awarded National Growth Fund (NGF) projects and innovation coalitions on Solar, Medtech, and Process Technology, hydrogen, and labor productivity in the manufacturing industry. BOM also developed the VC Readiness Program for startups in their preparation for a seed or series A investment round. Through the collaboration with Defense, in addition to the innovation hub BITS (Brainport Innovation & Technology Security) and the NATO acceleration programs, the SecFund was established, a national early-stage fund with a targeted capital of €100 million. BOM manages this fund to promote technological innovation for defense. International success was achieved in the product-market combination high-tech Southeast Asia with the very first, and only European, Dutch Pavilion during Semicon SEA 2024 in Malaysia.
Collaboration
In strengthening the economic structure, BOM works intensively with regional and national partners in a busy and complex landscape. The nationally leading startup event LEVEL UP 2024, part of the Brabant Agenda with the Brabant Regional Development Companies, is a prime example. The startup event, opened by Prince Constantijn of Orange, attracted more than 1,000 visitors, mainly startups and investors. There was also a lot of interest in the MedTech side event and the subsequent pension fund dinner. Together with the province of North Brabant and REWIN, BOM launched 'Brabant, the Scale-Up Plant of Europe' to become the scale-up hotspot for plant-based startup entrepreneurship by focusing on locations and facilities where ideas can be scaled up and thereby brought to market faster.
New multi-year strategy
Our strategy 2021-2024 already distanced itself from the linear economy. The corona crisis and geopolitical tensions reinforced the need for strategic autonomy and chain control. The chosen transition themes (energy, health, food, and key technology) proved to be the right choice. Our new strategy 2025-2028 maintains this course.
Annual report 2024
Read the full annual report on the online reporting portal of BOM.