Delft-based SenseGlove has won first place in the 17th KVK Innovation Top 100, awarded by the Dutch chamber of commerce. The company has developed a glove, a ‘robotic hand’, that allows a virtual object to be touched, felt and manipulated as if it were a real object.

SenseGlove measures movements of joints in the hand of the human user, in order to simulate a robot hand in virtual reality. This company can now call itself the most innovative SME firm in the Netherlands for a year. KVK annually publishes this ranking of 100 concrete innovations by small and medium-sized enterprises.

Connect, feel, grasp, hold the virtual like it’s real.

– SenseGlove

By enabling lifelike interactions in Virtual Reality, SenseGlove enables companies to better train their employees and keep work safe for them. Examples include training to handle hazardous materials, performing complex tasks with multiple tools and objects or learning to design and test physical prototypes. SenseGlove now serves more than 150 customers including Volkswagen, European Space Agency and the Dutch military.

Also in the top 3: Seenons and Pieter Pot

Amsterdam-based Seenons took second place in the contest. Seenons helps companies make their waste circular in five steps. Companies can register a waste stream in the Seenons app and choose a time to have it collected. Seenons finds the most suitable carrier and efficient route to collect the waste. The carrier takes it to a local waste processor, which uses it as a raw material for new materials or products. Pieter Pot, the packaging-free online supermarket that delivers groceries in circular jars, came third in the KVK Innovation Top 100.

Successful regions and sectors

Which regions and sectors are doing well? North Holland is best represented with 26 companies, followed by North Brabant with 21 companies and Utrecht and South Holland, both with 14 companies. After the health sector (14 innovations), a large proportion of innovations come from the ICT sector (13) and the creative industry (also 13). More than half of the companies in the list employ up to 10 people. There are 25 startups. All innovations were judged on originality, impact on society and obtainability. There is no cash prize attached to the KVK Innovation Top 100.