Founder, Ron Bloemers

Ron Bloemers has over 25 years of full circle experience and network in the global renewables/cleantech industry within the broader context of global energy markets. His expertise spans from the level of early stage cleantech startups to the top management level of large international corporations on a global playing field. Ron has proven examples of early stage cleantech startups that he coached and mentored to global success in a bilateral coaching/mentoring relationship.

Ron is the founder and managing partner of Start-U-up, a boutique, private, MBA-quality, cleantech business accelerator based in Amsterdam. He has designed and implemented the curriculum for advanced cleantech startups/scaleups in Stage 3 of the EIT Climate-KIC Accelerator Program, now Europe’s largest cleantech business accelerator, with 1,000+ startups incubated and accelerated throughout Europe, with Euro 500+ million raised in external finance by these startups. Ron is also a driving force in ClimateLaunchpad as of its foundation in 2014 as the world’s largest green business idea competition, running in 73 locations in 55 countries on 5 continents as of 2019. He frequently trains, mentors and advises top executives, startup coaches as well as startups all over Europe and beyond. Between the 2012 and 2015, cleantech startups in the Dutch Climate-KIC Accelerator Program alone closed €35 million in external finance, further growing to €100 million by January 2019.

For 12 years, Ron served as a (renewable) energy & climate change expert at McKinsey & Company. His responsibilities included serving existing clients and developing new clients on a European and global scale. Ron led, trained and coached McKinsey client service teams on a European and global scale, with a worldwide responsibility for knowledge development in renewables under McKinsey’s Practice Leadership.

Ron holds a Bsc. in Physical Education and an Msc. from the University of Amsterdam in Business Economics with specializations in Corporate Finance and Environmental Management.

Partner, Pieter Verberne

Pieter Verberne has over 20 years of experience in energy and cleantech. He has worked as a consultant and manager with the oldest Dutch consultancy and worked as Chief Operating Officer at APX Group, responsible for ICT, operations and marketing. At the very early stages of EU energy market liberalization, starting with a trading platform for Dutch power contracts, he built APX Group into a very profitable business with a reputation as Europe’s leading energy exchange.

In 2007, Pieter moved to AkzoNobel, a multinational in coatings and chemicals, to become General Manager of Energy. He put the company on a long-term sustainable track with a wide range of projects in energy efficiency, the introduction of renewables and CO2-reduction. This helped AkzoNobel to secure its position as one of the industry leaders on sustainability in the sector. While serving AkzoNobel, he held numerous positions in national and international bodies for the chemical and energy-intensive industries.

After six years with AkzoNobel, Pieter turned into a cleantech entrepreneur. He started his own consultancy, assigned as project manager for a regional program in circular economy and as energy expert for the Dutch Energy Delta Institute. In parallel, he co-founded a company in carbon capture and gas upgrading.

Pieter has invested in a range of cleantech startups in the Netherlands as well as abroad. With Start-U-up, Pieter has found a partnership with the same dedication and skilled background needed to train and coach cleantech startups for success and excellence.

Pieter holds a MSc. in Applied Physics from Delft University of Technology.