Program accelerator

Itude is one of the selected expanding enterprises that shall start with the Growth Accelerator program. The program is an initiative of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and has officially been started by the Minister of Economic Affairs, Maria van der Hoeven. The Growth Accelerator Program helps ambitious entrepreneurs with a current turnover of a couple of millions to grow their business to over €20 million within 5 years. The program starts with two groups, each consisting of over 20 ‘growth entrepreneurs’.

About the Growth Accelerator Program

In January 2009 two groups, each consisting of over 20 entrepreneurs, have started with the program. Every six months two new groups will start with the program. The management of the program is in the hands of a collaboration consisting of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the platform for expanding companies Port4Growth, the Baak Management Centrum VNO-NCW, Philips Applied Technologies and AKD Prinsen Van Wijmen.

Minister Maria van der Hoeven

‘As a minister, with my budgets and resources, I could achieve a lot for entrepreneurs. But quite often they learn most from their colleagues or competitors that already have gone through the same phase or that are in the same developmental situation. If in this way entrepreneurs could be brought together in a platform, in which they can learn from each other, then I see great potential in this approach’.

Radboud de Groot

Radboud de Groot, spokesperson of the Growth Accelerator Program and partner Private Company Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory NV: ‘Research by the Ministry of Economical Affairs shows that the Netherlands have much less expanding companies than other parts of Western Europe, while at the same time the number of small and starting companies is the same. The entrepreneurs have to break through glass ceilings and growth barriers. These expanding companies are essential for the Dutch economy’.