Greentom wins SME Innovation Top 100
Greentom from Maastricht, designer and supplier of the world’s first “green” stroller, is the winner of the 12th edition of the SME Innovation Top 100. Led by Ruud Koornstra, innovator and first energy commissioner of the Netherlands, the independent jury announced this on 21 September. The Chamber of Commerce (CoC) publicizes this yearly ranking with 100 concrete innovations in the Dutch SME. The winner gets to call itself the most innovative SME of the Netherlands for an entire year.
Sustainable
Greentom is the first designer and supplier of green strollers in the world. All materials are sustainable; from natural fabrics to recycled drinking bottles. The strollers can be assembled within 5 minutes and all parts can be re-used or recycled after use. Because Greentom produces across the world, the stroller is made of local resources, limiting the environmental impact of shipping. The stroller is already being sold in more than 20 countries.
Dutch design
The jury praised Greentom for, among other things, the clever design, the significant revenue increase, the solid market position in China, and the laudable principle that a stroller needs to be circular ahead of starting to design. “Dutch design, amazing!”, jury president Ruud Koornstra says.
Creative Industry in the list
In addition to Greentom, which officially falls under “other,” as much as 14 of the 100 innovations come directly from the creative industry. Officially ranked highest is “Housing Anywhere”– an online platform for student residence abroad. Others include the Braingineers about conscious about unconscious, Joined Work Center BV with safe and green grocery shopping, and Travis BV with the world’s first voice-translation device with artificial intelligence.
North-Holland best represented
North-Holland is best represented in the SME Innovation Top 100 with 23 companies, followed by North-Brabant with 21 and South-Holland with 15 companies. After the industry sector, the most innovations come from the sectors health and creative industry. Remarkable is this year’s strong representation of North-Brabant in the sector Food&Agro: 9 of the 12 nominated companies come from this province. View the map and discover where all the innovative companies are located.
Successful innovations
All the Top 100’s companies have implemented successful innovations in terms of a product, service, process or organization. The SME Innovation Top 100 is not tied to a monetary prize. The ranking gives an accurate picture of the current innovative power of the SME. The announcement of the 12th SME Innovation Top 100 took place at NBC in Nieuwegein.