Are you ready to enter the cybermarket of the American east-coast? With the soft landing programme, Dutch cybersecurity businesses have the opportunity to explore the American east coast in a low-threshold setting. The soft landing programme is designed to assist companies to carry out international business development in a new foreign market through support and incubation facilities for a trial period. This allows companies to establish customers and partnerships, leading to the possibility of establishing a permanent presence in the foreign market of either greater Washington DC or West Holland (Province of Zuid-Holland).

By participating in the programme, each firm will be provided with access to key resources and support to build a strong regional network in the markets and make strategic connections. Ultimately, the programme is conceived to provide participants a low risk entry trial entering a new international market, accessing the resources they need to more readily tap into commercial opportunities by connecting with new partners, closing new deals, and possibly setting up a permanent presence in the market.

The programme entails of a business trip of a few working days, access to free office space at BWtech Baltimore, 5-10 matchmaking introductions in the regional network, and more information on doing business in America. Interested? Register for the programme. 

Why Maryland?

Maryland is an American state with a strategic position between New York and Washington DC. This makes Maryland an important, economic hub for the American east-coast. The economy is strong, with strongly developed IT, electronics, telecom and security sectors. Washington DC offers Maryland amongst others: 21 military facilities and locations, over 30 incubators and accelerators, more than 60 federal agencies, 74 federal laboratories, over 110,000 IT professionals, and more than 10,000 IT and cyber businesses. Visit www.open.maryland.gov for more information.

As part of the programme, cyber & security companies from the USA will temporarily establish their business in The Netherlands. During this trial period these companies get support from HSD, SME Connect and InnovationQuarter to investigate the Netherlands and European market potential. More information (in Dutch)

Participants 2017

Dutch companies Compumatica, Cybersprint, Robin Radar Systems, Guard From Above and the European Cyber Resilience Research Network participated in Soft Landing Programme USA between January and March 2017. As part of the programme, USA companies FedCMS, System1, Ausley and CMDSP temporarily established their businesses in the Netherlands, to explore the Dutch market. Read the news article for more information.