ABN Amro Unit Gets Fined for Paying Finfluencers to Lure Clients
ABN Amro Bank NV -owned online broker Bux BV was fined €1.6 million ($1.7 million) for paying finfluencers, comparison websites and existing customers a fee to refer potential new clients.
BUX engaged finfluencers — influencers who give financial recommendations on social media — and paid them a fee per follower who had taken steps in the registration process for opening an investment account, Dutch financial markets regulator AFM said on Wednesday.
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Business Wire
an hour ago
- Business Wire
Amsterdam-based Tebi Announces €30 Million Investment Led by Alphabet growth fund CapitalG to transform hospitality operations
AMSTERDAM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tebi, the Amsterdam-based startup developing an all-in-one financial operating system for hospitality, today announced a €30 million investment led by Alphabet independent growth fund CapitalG, with participation from existing investor Index Ventures. This follows Tebi's €20 million Series A announced just six months ago and brings the company's total funding to €56 million. The financing reflects the company's momentum across product innovation, hiring and expansion into new markets. The investment will support Tebi's continued growth in these key areas of focus. The company was founded in 2021 by technical alumni from Adyen, a €45B Dutch company, including serial entrepreneur Arnout Schuijff as CEO and Rob Vonk as CTO. Tebi is the third company co-founded by Schuijff, who previously served as Adyen's longtime CTO and co-founder. Aki Tas, former head of business strategy and operations at Notion, joined last fall as COO to lead the product, marketing, and foundation teams, and Patrick Studener, former COO at Wolt (now part of Doordash) and previous head of European expansion at Uber, joined at the beginning of the year as CCO to lead operational teams. The investment will fuel Tebi's mission to transform operations for hospitality businesses worldwide. Until now, businesses have had to cobble together difficult-to-use solutions that lack key features, handle back-office tasks slowly and manually, and make it difficult to assess business performance. Tebi is rethinking hospitality technology from the ground-up, unifying the point of sale, payments, inventory management, a kitchen display system, reservations, and QR ordering functionality through an intuitive, mobile-first platform built on an accounting backbone. By being built around the point of sale, Tebi can coordinate both operations and finances for complex hospitality businesses. AI-enabled onboarding enables businesses to get started quickly, while the comprehensive platform simplifies and unifies workflows and makes key business metrics easily viewable. Merchants across the Netherlands are already processing nine figures of payments annually on the platform. With this new investment, Tebi plans to accelerate product development, expand its reach globally, and grow its team. Beginning today, Tebi will also begin serving the UK market, marking the beginning of a broader global expansion strategy (UK customers can find Tebi at "Hospitality businesses are the lifeblood of our communities, yet they've been underserved by technology, especially here in Europe," said Arnout Schuijff, co-founder and CEO of Tebi. "No one opens a restaurant or store because they love paperwork and integrating tools; they do it for the passion of serving people. It's a privilege to build a world-class team devoted to empowering European business owners to free up time to focus on the craft and customers they cherish.' 'We are thrilled to partner with Tebi as they build the operating system for hospitality businesses,' said Alex Nichols, Partner at CapitalG. 'Even though most small business front and back office workflows revolve around payments, three-quarters of Europe's SMB payments are disconnected from software. By unifying these disjointed systems, Tebi is bringing greater efficiency and visibility to small business owners' daily work. Arnout and his team combine focused customer centricity, speed, and unique founder-market fit. We couldn't imagine a better team to pursue this massive opportunity.' "Moving from disconnected systems – our previous POS software, a separate reservations platform, paper kitchen tickets, and a standalone payments provider – to Tebi's single integrated platform led us to embrace a new mindset at Zoldering. We approached it as if we were starting fresh, letting go of old habits to realize a seamless workflow from reservation to service to kitchen. Tebi has not just replaced our old systems; it has enabled a new way of working by unifying our data, streamlining communication between front and back of house, and offering the flexibility to adapt workflows to our specific needs – exactly what's required to maintain the standards expected of a Michelin-starred restaurant,' said Tomas and Job from Zoldering. Tebi currently employs 35 people and is planning to double its headcount by the end of the year with roles open in Amsterdam and London. About Tebi Tebi is an all-in-one financial operating system for independent hospitality businesses. Founded in 2021, Tebi provides a comprehensive, mobile-first solution that includes point of sale, integrated payments, a kitchen display system, reservations, inventory management, QR ordering, and bookkeeping. With its unique pricing model and commitment to merchant success, Tebi is dedicated to empowering hospitality businesses everywhere. To learn more about adopting Tebi for your business, visit Tebi is currently hiring across all functions, including engineering, product management and operations in both Amsterdam and London. Visit Tebi's careers page to see all open positions.
Wall Street Journal
an hour ago
- Wall Street Journal
IKEA Store Owner Ingka Group Buys Dutch Solar Farms
STOCKHOLM–Ingka Group, which owns most IKEA stores globally, bought a portfolio of solar parks in the Netherlands from Swiss-based infrastructure investment manager Susi Partners. The acquisition was made by the company's Ingka Investments investment arm and adds three solar parks with a capacity of 76.3 megawatts to its portfolio of renewable assets. Together, the solar parks generate enough energy for more than 24,000 Dutch households.
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
Veterinary Telehealth Company Dutch Is Transforming Pet Care Access
With tools powered by OpenAI and Google Gemini, Dutch cuts admin time by 75%, doubling daily patient volume while giving vets their time—and sanity—back. Dutch Founder & CEO Joe Spector with his dog Eddie, a 5-year-old corgi Joe Spector co-founded Hims, helped take it public, and built a billion-dollar telehealth brand. His second act? Turning pet care on its head. Dutch is a veterinary telehealth platform built to modernize how care is delivered and accessed across the U.S. With Dutch, the nationwide veterinary telehealth platform he launched in 2021, Spector is building a tech-first challenger to a stubbornly analog industry—one defined by burnout, access gaps, and high costs. His mission is personal: After a $4,000 urgent care bill when his dog ate a few chocolate M&Ms, Spector, who grew up in a low-income Russian immigrant household living on welfare, realized most families wouldn't be able to afford a single $200 vet visit. "In modest households like the one I grew up in, spending hundreds on a pet's care just isn't an option," he says. "Dutch exists to democratize access—and make it radically more affordable." This week, Dutch unveiled a suite of AI tools designed to combat one of veterinary medicine's biggest problems: administrative overload. Integrated into Dutch's proprietary EMR and powered by OpenAI and Google Gemini, the system reduces documentation time from 20 minutes to five—enabling vets to see twice as many pets per day. The AI features span the full care journey: pre-visit summaries, live transcription, treatment plan generation, and personalized product recommendations. It's not just smarter—it's designed to be scalable. "It's transforming our consults and our teams," says Spector. "And it's just the beginning." Dutch is now operational in all 50 states, with prescribing capabilities in 34. Since launch, the company has logged over 700,000 virtual visits, expanded into Rx delivery, and treats more than 150 conditions. Memberships start at $15/month and provide unlimited access to licensed vets. Dutch also recently partnered with Ancestry to launch a DNA-based personalized dog health product, and with PetMeds to help the 50% of pet parents without a primary vet get timely access to prescriptions. Dutch-PetMeds partnership helps the 50% of pet parents without a primary vet get timely access to ... More prescriptions. Joe's connection to pet care runs deep—and personal. 'When I was young, our family had a Rottweiler,' he recalls. 'It was a very anxious dog. That was my first experience seeing how much behavioral issues can affect a pet's—and a family's—well-being.' That early exposure shaped Spector's conviction that understanding a dog's temperament and behavioral predispositions is as essential as treating physical ailments. It's part of why Dutch emphasizes behavioral health, and why its latest tools—like AI-powered care plans and DNA-based trait analysis—aim to give pet parents a fuller picture of their animal's needs. The pet health space is attracting venture capital, with players like: These companies primarily assist existing clinics. Dutch, by contrast, has raised $43 million from Forerunner Ventures, Eclipse Ventures, and Bling Capital to build a full-stack, AI-first telehealth platform—including its own EMR, prescription infrastructure, and direct-to-consumer membership model. "Everyone else is building tools for the old model," says Spector. "We're building the new one." Dutch's 2025 State of Online Veterinary Care report reveals that: Veterinarians earn around $120,000 annually, yet most clinics rely heavily on product sales—up to one-third of their revenue. Spector sees Dutch as a more consumer-aligned alternative to the legacy, clinic-first model. "The vet industry's a cash business built for clinic owners, not for scale," he says. States like California, Arizona, and Florida have expanded telemedicine access. And in a landmark decision, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of veterinary telemedicine, quipping: 'If it's good for Uncle Bernard, shouldn't it be good for your St. Bernard?' "Telemedicine doesn't replace in-person care—it expands it," says Spector. "We bring people into the system who otherwise wouldn't go at all." Veterinary telemedicine revenue is projected to exceed $10 billion by 2030. Dutch's roadmap includes agentic task automation, image-based triage, and exploration of longevity drugs like rapamycin. The platform also aims to alleviate workforce stress, with tools built to reduce—not increase—provider burnout. Meanwhile, rising care costs are becoming a barrier to pet ownership. A recent Epoch Times article, citing the American Pet Products Association, noted that in 2025, U.S. pet spending will reach $157 billion—with $41.4 billion spent on veterinary care alone. For retirees and low-income families, the financial burden could discourage pet adoption altogether. Pet care is also a mental health issue. Half of U.S. adults report feeling lonely, and studies show that those who are chronically lonely are 40% more likely to die within four years. The risk rises to 75% for people who are socially isolated. Owning a dog has been shown to significantly reduce loneliness and social isolation, offering emotional connection, structure, and purpose. Dutch's mission is rooted in making that bond possible—for more people—by providing affordable, ongoing access to care. Joe Spector has already helped build one unicorn. With Dutch, he's chasing something bigger: a category-defining veterinary telehealth platform using AI to deliver smarter, more affordable care. "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rebuild pet care from the ground up," he says. "We want to go public—and rule the world."
