Looking to start or scale a climate company in Amsterdam?
From Rockstart, Impact Hub Amsterdam, and AMS Startup Booster (AMS Institute), here is the accelerator and incubator ecosystem that can back your startup with capital, space, and hands-on support.
Rockstart
Rockstart is one of Europe's oldest accelerators and it is headquartered in Amsterdam, running domain programs in energy, agrifood, and emerging technology in which the accelerator and the fund are a single decision. Selected companies take investment and then work through a structured program on commercial traction and follow-on readiness, with continued capital available into later rounds and a network built across Dutch and Nordic energy and food industry.
Impact Hub Amsterdam
Impact Hub Amsterdam runs the city's longest-standing accelerator programming for impact ventures, with recurring cohorts in food systems and regenerative business alongside a co-working community and a route into the global Impact Hub network. Programs combine masterclasses, one-to-one mentoring, and a demo day, and it delivers several of the City of Amsterdam's own impact programs, which makes it the practical front door to municipal support.
Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions Startup Booster
Cross-listed because it is the strongest incubator in the city for climate and urban ventures. Roughly five months of coaching, validation, and living-lab access at Marineterrein, at no cost and with no equity taken, ending in a demo day in front of the local ecosystem. Entry is by open call.
Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam
The Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam occupies a former oil company research center on the north bank of the IJ, reopened as an open campus for energy transition work, with laboratories, offices, and a membership community of startups, corporates, and research groups. Its founder-facing program, LeapSprong, runs with the City of Amsterdam and Rockstart and accelerates sustainable industry solutions, with recent cohorts covering industrial heat pumps, hydrogen platforms, energy optimization, and ocean carbon removal. Selected companies can earn campus membership and laboratory access.
Antler Amsterdam
Antler runs a residency in Amsterdam for founders at day zero, including people who do not yet have a company or a co-founder, and it invests a first cheque at the end for a fixed early stake. It is sector-agnostic rather than climate-specific, so climate founders sit alongside software and artificial intelligence teams, and what it offers is co-founder matching, structure, and a first cheque very early.
AMS Startup Booster
The AMS Startup Booster is the incubator run by AMS Institute at Marineterrein, and it costs nothing and takes no equity, which is rare for a program of its quality. Over roughly five months, teams working on urban sustainability problems get coaching, validation support, access to the institute's living labs across the city, and a demo day in front of the Amsterdam ecosystem, with the research bench of TU Delft, Wageningen, and MIT behind it. Cohorts are selected through an open call.
Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions: Amsterdam Circular
Amsterdam Circular is the investor-readiness program AMS Institute runs with the City of Amsterdam and Rockstart for circular-economy ventures. It is aimed at companies with traction that are not yet fundable, and it works on the specific difficulty of financing circular business models where value sits in materials, reuse, and long asset lives rather than in software margins.
Amsterdam Center for Entrepreneurship Incubator
ACE Incubator is the shared incubator of Amsterdam's knowledge institutions, sitting inside Startup Village at Amsterdam Science Park and working with spinouts from the University of Amsterdam, VU Amsterdam, the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, and Amsterdam UMC. Programming runs from early exploration through a structured incubation cohort and into growth support, with workspace at the park, a mentor and investor network, and a route to first capital through the university holding company and its academic angel fund. Energy, climate, and sustainability ventures sit alongside life sciences and computing rather than in a dedicated climate track.
Demonstrator Lab
Demonstrator Lab is the pre-incubation and prototyping facility on the VU Amsterdam campus, with a second location at Amsterdam Science Park, built for the stage before a company exists. Students, researchers, and staff get free or low-cost bench space, a makerspace for rapid prototyping, coaching, and help with patents, which suits sustainability and energy hardware ideas that have to be physically demonstrated before anyone will fund them.
Startup Village
Startup Village is the deep-tech startup community at Amsterdam Science Park, and it is a place rather than a program, offering workspace and proximity to the University of Amsterdam's science faculty, national research institutes, and ACE Incubator. For a climate hardware or data founder that adjacency is the point, because it puts research groups, technical hires, and the incubator within the same short walk.
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences Venture Centre
The Venture Centre is the entrepreneurship home of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, and its main program takes teams through roughly twenty weeks of coaching and masterclasses aimed at ventures addressing sustainable development goals, ending in a pitch to a panel. Places are for students and recent graduates rather than the open founder community.