Seventy Dutch companies headed to CES tech fair in Las Vegas next week

Seventy Dutch companies will leave next week for Las Vegas, where the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will kick off on January 9. The three-day fair is known as the most important international stage for tech companies wanting to present their latest products.

The annual convention brings together more than 170,000 companies and investors from approximately 160 countries. The Netherlands is participating with a delegation for the eighth time. Seventy companies also participated last year, and 55 the year before.

The CES was a breakthrough for many Dutch companies. Among them is Sendcloud, which presented a shipping service for online stores in Las Vegas in 2017. The Dutch company is now active worldwide and is now worth 750 million dollars.

Most of the Dutch companies that will participate in the fair this year have not been active on the market for particularly long. Among them is Axelera AI, which was also part of the Dutch delegation last year. Axelera AI is developing a microchip for processing data for artificial intelligence which can be applied to video, explained marketing manager Merlijn Linschooten.

"Last year we just celebrated our one and a half year anniversary. The fair was very interesting for brand awareness and for making contacts," Linschooten said.

This year, the company will have its own meeting space next to the Dutch pavilion for appointments with future customers. Axelera AI's agenda was completely booked from Tuesday to Thursday.

Kaylee Hakkel, a manager at MantiSpectra, is also traveling to the fair for the second time. Her company developed a chip that can accurately determine material properties using sensors. The company won the CES Innovation Award. She doesn't know whether there will be a proper ceremony, “but we can collect the prize,” she said.

Hakkel is still keeping a portion of her agenda free. "We also want to have time to just walk around. The most interesting things often come from unexpected places."