This was FUSE Enschede 2026
The first edition of FUSE Enschede brought together the people, ideas and energy that make Twente's entrepreneurial ecosystem what it is. You brought the spark, and together, we lit the FUSE. Thank you to everyone who showed up, shared ideas, made connections and added their own spark. Now keep the fire going! 🔥
POV: You're attending FUSE
If someone asks you what FUSE was like, show them this. It's the closest you could get to the real thing.
Speakers at FUSE 2026
Meet the minds driving tomorrow
Andy Mosmans
Founder
From leading global brands to helping startups stand out, Andy Mosmans has spent his career answering one question: How do you build a brand people can’t ignore? As founder of VENGEAN, Andy brings decades of experience in branding, marketing and scaling businesses, insights he also shares in his books BRANDING and Startup Branding. At FUSE Enschede, Andy will unpack the world of going viral, what triggers it, how to handle it, and what entrepreneurs need to know when attention suddenly comes their way.
Mary Anne de Haan
Founder
In 2017, Mary Anne De Haan left a successful corporate career behind to build a sustainable food company in the UAE. With no agricultural background and no external funding, she founded Mary Anne's Fresh Produce and created the country's first commercial edible flower farm. Today, her team grows edible flowers, microgreens and specialty crops in the desert, proving that innovation can flourish in the most unexpected places.
Vincent Hoogsteder
Co-founder and investor
When the temperature rises, so should your output, and UT alumnus Vincent knows exactly how. As co-founder of Mozaik, he builds AI solutions that transform how teams work. Less sweat, more scale. From scaling Distimo into a global player to shaping analytics with Objectiv, Vincent’s been heating up tech for 20+ years. He also mentors startups at JADS and invests as an active angel.
Simon Brakhage
CEO
Founder, builder, and ecosystem connector. Simon Brakhage helped grow Hinterland of Things into a leading German startup platform linking deeptech founders with industry. Now, as co-founder of R-Factory, he’s building a cross-border innovation hub in the EUREGIO. R-Factory supports startups across Twente, Münster, and Osnabrück, helping them scale and connecting talent with corporates, aiming to make the region a leading European deeptech ecosystem. Turning innovation into impact across borders.
Pleuni Hooijman
Investment Manager
Meet Pleuni Hooijman, PhD: Investment Manager at Innovation Industries, one of the Netherlands’ leading deeptech VCs, focusing on industrial deeptech, medtech, and agrifood innovation. She works across sourcing, executing, and managing investments at all stages, accelerating the growth of some of the most promising deeptech ventures. Her background spans a genetic testing startup, healthcare consulting, and 5+ years as an entrepreneur. Her superpower is translating hardcore science and startup experience.
Sido Schoustra
Entrepreneur
Sido is Chief Operating Officer at Kramer Food Family, one of Europe’s largest fresh convenience producers, with sites across the Benelux, Scandinavia, and Germany. With experience from FrieslandCampina to CSM Bakery Solutions, he now runs nine production sites serving retailers like Ahold Delhaize while building the factory of the future. He recently signed a new 35,000 m² facility in Warmenhuizen, opening in 2027, and will share what applied AI looks like in real factory operations.
Anke Huiskes
Investor
From the University of Twente to San Francisco, where she helped scale one of the world’s first smartwatches, and now back again investing in founders shaping what’s next. She scaled Pebble across Europe, built her operating track record in San Francisco, co-founded NP-Hard Ventures, and now invests from a €25M Fund II in European founders building core technology infrastructure, including robotics.
Organization
FUSE Enschede is the startup event of the Twente region where startups come into direct contact with the investors and decision-makers who matter to them. The event is curated: not broad, but focused. The right people in the right place so that ideas not only emerge but are also given the space to grow bigger. FUSE is an initiative of Novel-T, REACH and R-Factory (Münster) and builds on three successful editions of Enschede Slush’D.
Side-events
