Don Ritzen

Founder & CEO Shift: kickstarting the greatest comeback in the history of our planet.

📍 Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands🔄 Updated September 2026💼 6 investments📅 14 years investing🗓 Last invested Dec 2020𝕏 @upgrade_to_unlock
VC🌍 Netherlands
6
Total investments
5
Early stage
0
Mid stage
1
Late stage
14y
Years active

Portfolio

6 investments · sorted by recency
All investments
Early stage
Mid stage
Late stage
Shareholder & Advisor
Dec 2020
KokeRoo is a Technology company offering 4 hour, on-demand ground transport delivery service to businesses. We use Software built with Patent Protected, Artificial Intelligence techniques to significantly reduce cost and transit time of deliveries.
Shareholder and Advisor
Jan 2019
Rockstart is an early stage investor that empowers purpose-driven founders across three domains: Energy, AgriFood, and Emerging Technologies. Rockstart invests in early-stage startups from each of the three funds and provides access to capital, market, and expertise by connecting founders with co-investors, mentors, partners, corporates, and the wider Rockstart network. Rockstart has invested in more than 350 startups and its alumni value to date is more than €1.3bn. Rockstart is an international team of 45+ professionals dedicated to empowering purpose-driven founders to become scalable and drive positive change on a global scale. Rockstart has notable exits such asWercker, Dan.com, Hubs.Com, Bouw7, iClinic, and s and Brincr. The company has offices in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Bogota.
Early Stage Investor
Mar 2013
Hubs, a Protolabs company, is an online manufacturing platform that connects engineers to a global network of manufacturing services. From CNC machining to 3D printing, injection molding to sheet metal fabrication, Hubs makes custom part manufacturing accessible. Founded in Amsterdam in 2013, Hubs (formerly 3D Hubs) was acquired by Protolabs in January 2021.
Early Stage Investor
Mar 2013
Software médico online para clínicas e consultórios, o iClinic tem como objetivo facilitar o dia-a-dia da prática médica organizando informações, aumentando a produtividade e maximizando receitas. Acessível de qualquer lugar, de qualquer dispositivo e sistema operacional e com o melhor custo-benefício.
Early Stage investor
Mar 2012
PastBook is on a mission to help people preserve and relive their photos, which are nowadays scattered between social networks and smartphones. We offer the most frictionless experience to create a beautiful photo products, in just one-click. PastBook’s Intelligent Instant Photo Book platform automatically and intelligently selects the best photos from the designated source and it instantly arranges them into a beautiful photo product, like a photo book, cards, posters, calendars - printed and shipped worldwide thanks to PastBook global printing network. Founded in 2012 in Amsterdam, as part of RockStart Accelerator, PastBook has been named one of the ‘Hottest startup’s in Europe” by Wired, awarded as “Top 5 Fastest Growing Tech Companies” by TheNextWeb (Tech5) and nominated as “Rising Star” by Deloitte in 2016 and then listed in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 in 2019 and 2020. It has also been featured by Facebook as a Success Story multiple times.
Early Stage Investor
Mar 2012
Owlin, recognized as a category leader in Adverse Media Monitoring Solutions Quadrant 2024 by Chartis Research, provides frictionless access to timely external risk signals. Our customers leverage our platform to screen and monitor vendors, suppliers, and counterparties using traditional and alternative data sources. By visualizing complex data in a simple and customizable interface (dashboard, API, newsletter), we make sure that you don’t get lost in the wealth of information. We apply Natural Language Processing and AI to provide valuable insights that are hidden in the data. This enables you and your business to work faster, be better informed, reduce risks and stay on top of the game. Trusted by industry leaders such as Adyen, KPMG, and KKR, Owlin is also proud to partner with innovative companies like Venminder, Trust Alliance, and Stravito, catering to the unique needs of various sectors and roles. Interested to find out how Owlin can add value to your organization? Contact us! We are excited to get to know you. https://owlin.com/contact-owlin/ #ThirdPartyRisk #Monitoring #Screening #NaturalLanguageProcessing #RiskManagement
Experience · 14 entries
All (14)
Investments (6)
Founder (5)
2021
Founder & CEO
Jan 2021
Shift is a social enterprise specifically created to address the most significant crisis of our times: climate change. Our mission is to ignite massive climate action by transforming the general perspective of despair into one of hope. Because the fact is, there are already solutions that address the urgency of the climate crisis – solutions within the reach of all of us. By providing resources, knowledge, inspiration and connections, Shift aims to inspire others to make the big and small changes needed to contribute to the greatest comeback in the history of the planet. Interested? Join our community today!
2020
Shareholder & Advisor
Dec 2020
KokeRoo is a Technology company offering 4 hour, on-demand ground transport delivery service to businesses. We use Software built with Patent Protected, Artificial Intelligence techniques to significantly reduce cost and transit time of deliveries.
2019
Managing Director (a.i.)
Oct 2019
State of the Art University for Technology, Entrepreneurship and Design. Harbour.Space is an innovative private university that combines science and design taught by industry leaders from around the world. Harbour.Space offers distinct progressive university programmes: - Maths as a Second Language (Foundation) - Computer Science - Data Science - Cyber Security - Interaction Design - High-tech Entrepreneurship - Digital Marketing - Financial Technology (FinTech) - Product Management - Front-end Development All Harbour.Space degree awarding programmes are designed for full-time, almost year-round intensive study so that the programme can be completed in less than three years for Bachelor and two years for Master degree. Both Bachelor and Master programmes - taught in English. As an innovative private university we collaborate with the most relevant professionals today to be an active incubator for talented young people. Our approach sets out to pave the way to meaningful and creative careers for our technologically gifted children. Our teachers are the people who make technology and design move today. We believe the best way to learn is by immersion in the field of study and learning directly from the source. That’s why we invite today’s experts, the cream of the crop, to share invaluable hands-on knowledge in intensive 3 week courses. The most innovative technology lives hand-in-hand with great design. Harbour.Space University is the first university in Europe to offer the best of both, so we can help our students become the most excellent professionals in the world.
Stealth mode
Founder
Jan 2019
Shareholder and Advisor
Jan 2019
Rockstart is an early stage investor that empowers purpose-driven founders across three domains: Energy, AgriFood, and Emerging Technologies. Rockstart invests in early-stage startups from each of the three funds and provides access to capital, market, and expertise by connecting founders with co-investors, mentors, partners, corporates, and the wider Rockstart network. Rockstart has invested in more than 350 startups and its alumni value to date is more than €1.3bn. Rockstart is an international team of 45+ professionals dedicated to empowering purpose-driven founders to become scalable and drive positive change on a global scale. Rockstart has notable exits such asWercker, Dan.com, Hubs.Com, Bouw7, iClinic, and s and Brincr. The company has offices in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Bogota.
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Investment activity
2012–2020 · 6 investments
20122201322019120201
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