From innovation to scale: how Delft helps startups become scalable businesses
There is often a long road between a successful test and a product that can enter the market at scale. This is especially true for hardware technology in sectors such as offshore, maritime and energy. Long development cycles, testing, certification, building a supply chain and setting up a production process are all part of the journey. As a result, significant investment is often unavoidable. At the same time, entrepreneurs need to keep developing their technology, find customers, raise funding and build an organization capable of handling rapid growth.
How do you bring all of this together and scale a promising technology into a company that can successfully bring this technology to market? These challenges were a key focus of Scale-up Connect, held at Buccaneer Delft on 10 September 2026. The event brought together startups, scale-ups, industry partners, investors and other experts to share experiences and explore the next step: turning technical innovation into a commercially successful business with real-world impact.
From working technology to scalable business
Tree Composites, a Delft-based startup and Buccaneer alumni, shows just how complex that step can be. The company, winner of the 2025 KVK Innovation Award, is developing a technology that uses composite joints instead of traditional welded connections for steel structures, including offshore wind turbine structures. The company aims to reduce material use and the carbon footprint while increasing the production capacity of European yards.
But there is a long road between a good idea and commercial application at scale. Founded in 2020, Tree Composites has since worked on dozens to hundreds of tests, commercial studies, full-scale validation and increasingly advanced industrialization. Its roadmap includes component certification, dedicated production lines and scaling up to industrial production.
You are constantly balancing the development of the technology with bringing in the right partners and investors, and finding the right people to build the company with”
Maxim Segeren, CEO and co-founder of Tree Composites
For CEO and co-founder Maxim Segeren, this is the daily reality of building an innovative company. A new technology has to work technically and demonstrate that it is safe and reliable. “It requires a lot, because you are constantly balancing the development of the technology with bringing in the right partners and investors, and finding the right people to build the company with.”
“With sufficient investment, Tree Composites can stay focused on what is needed to scale the technology.” Maxim points to several major R&D projects and is moving step by step towards industrial production with partners. At the same time, every next step towards commercial application requires greater investment, more capacity and further organizational growth. Technology, funding and the organization therefore need to move forward together.
Scale-up Connect: from individual challenges to shared questions
Scale-up Connect was built around one central question: what do technology companies need in order to start, grow and scale? Funding, market access and growth were key themes throughout the event. Experts from Roodhals Capital and LION Finance shared their insights, while Tree Composites offered a practical perspective on what such a growth journey looks like. The program also included Founder Match Circles, where startup entrepreneurs, industry partners, investors and knowledge experts came together for direct conversations.
The discussions focused on practical questions: how do you know whether a pilot is actually leading towards a market? Who is the right first customer? And what sets you apart from existing solutions?
These questions are closely connected. A technology may be technically excellent, but without a customer there is no market. A customer may be interested, but lose confidence if certification or production is not yet in place. And raising funding does not automatically mean that a company is ready to scale production.
Bringing perspectives together
This is where the value of connection becomes clear. The Founder Match Circles brought many of the common challenges faced by startups and scale-ups to the surface. By discussing these challenges with people from different disciplines and perspectives, new insights emerged. A startup founder may be facing a problem that a scale-up has already encountered. An expert can offer technical insights or potential solutions. An industry partner can help determine whether a technology meets market needs and fits into existing practice. These conversations also created new connections: participants met founders who had already taken similar steps, as well as investors who understand why technology companies may need years of development before reaching commercial scale.
Buccaneer’s role in the innovation ecosystem
This also highlights Buccaneer’s role in Delft’s innovation ecosystem. As an innovation hub for the offshore, energy and maritime industries, Buccaneer brings different groups together to help move innovation forward. Its focus is on supporting new technologies as they move from concept to commercial application.
That matters because the biggest challenges in scaling rarely belong to a single discipline. A certification question can affect the design, while a customer requirement can influence production and planning. An investment decision is often linked to commercial timing, technical milestones and the industrial partners needed to apply the technology at scale.
This is where Buccaneer’s strength lies: in its network and in its ability to bring the right people together. As the development of Tree Composites shows, it helps when technical knowledge is combined with strong partnerships, visibility and access to a relevant ecosystem. The company also points to learning from peers within an innovation hub as a valuable factor in its development.
Delft helps innovation grow
The story of Tree Composites shows how challenging the journey from innovation to application can be. From initial development and numerous tests to full-scale validation, certification and preparation for industrial production, many processes run in parallel. The company has to keep developing its technology while also building production capacity, partnerships, funding and organizational capabilities.
Scale-up Connect showed what this looks like in practice. Entrepreneurs facing similar challenges were connected with investors, industry partners, knowledge institutions and fellow entrepreneurs who could help them take the next step.
That is where Delft’s strength lies. The combination of talent, knowledge, industry, capital and entrepreneurship creates the conditions for new technologies not only to emerge, but also to grow into applications with real societal and economic impact.
Buccaneer Delft organized Scale-up Connect in collaboration with Tree Composites, Roodhals Capital, LION Finance, and Ondernemersfonds Delft. The event brought together startups, scale-ups, investors, industry partners, and organizations from the Delft innovation ecosystem, including TU Delft Campus, InnovationQuarter, Port of Rotterdam, and Gemeente Delft.