Tekkoo makes
the next step real

An orange peel is an awkward place to begin a management consulting story. It is wet, perishable and usually somebody else’s problem. Yet it helps explain Tekkoo, the Dutch innovation company whose founders helped turn discarded citrus skins into a business. Once a peel becomes a useful ingredient, a surprisingly large cast must agree on what happens next.

The chemistry is only the opening act. Someone has to collect the peels, establish a dependable supply, find buyers and finance production. Tekkoo’s particular interest is that stretch between a promising idea and an operation that can keep going. It offers a useful proposition for anyone whose sustainability plan has acquired plenty of supporters but very little momentum.

The peel was the point

Lindy Hensen and Bas van Wieringen founded Tekkoo in 2015. Hensen has described the frustration behind it: companies discussed sustainable innovation without doing enough to make it happen. Then the pair encountered chemist Sytze van Stempvoort and his work on extracting value from citrus waste. They joined him in building PeelPioneers.

That venture gave their argument a physical form. In reporting on its expansion, PeelPioneers described ingredients destined for food, cleaning products and cosmetics. A discarded material could have several customers. The founders were learning how to make an industrial business around it, with the obligations that came attached.

By 2021, Hensen was discussing a €10 million financing package for PeelPioneers’ expanded factory. That figure belongs to the orange-peel venture, rather than Tekkoo’s own balance sheet. It illustrates the scale of the next step. A successful experiment can lead to a production decision whose price is measured in millions.

Put someone in charge of Tuesday

Tekkoo’s present offer has two main service lines. Innovatiekracht helps organizations develop propositions, run pilots and bring partners together. Interimkracht places experienced people inside projects as business developers, project leaders and coordinators of value chains. The distinction matters to a buyer: a team may need a new approach, an accountable operator, or both.

The company describes familiar organizational problems: unclear responsibilities, slow decisions, missing capacity and programs that have stalled. Its interim staff are meant to establish roles, planning and a working rhythm. This makes Tekkoo an option for a public body with a policy to implement, or a business whose technical team needs help reaching a market.

Its customers make that breadth concrete. The project portfolio includes Cosun, the Province of North Holland and the Port of Rotterdam. In North Holland, Tekkoo describes supporting GO!-NH through market-readiness and scaling-readiness programs, linking entrepreneurs with regional partners, experts and alumni. The work involves organizing access to other people’s expertise as well as supplying its own.

“Tekkoo is a DIY agency.”Mathijs Koper, in an interview with BlueCity

Tekkoo operates in the territory shared by innovation consultancies, accelerator organizers and interim managers. Its founders’ venture experience is a reason to consider it; the assignment still has to fit. A customer buys professional work on a particular problem. The interesting question is who will own the decisions and experiments after the introductory meeting.

A factory has several ways to get stuck

With BlueCity, Tekkoo created Circular Factory, a program launched in 2022 for circular businesses preparing to move toward their first factories. The program combines expert sessions, visits and individual support. Its historical curriculum organized the work around five connected concerns: feedstock, customers, plant design, finance and team.

Among the more revealing activities are its failure-sharing events. A November 2024 recap describes founders discussing misunderstandings over plant designs, energy costs and financing structures that could not hold. These are the details a polished pitch can conceal. Hearing them early gives another founder a chance to question an assumption before committing money.

There are practical ideas to borrow. Tekkoo’s account of a feedstock session highlights locating alongside a supplier, where existing permits and energy infrastructure may simplify a project. Its process-design session considers smaller pilot tests and the choice between outsourced production and building in-house. Each decision changes the amount of capital needed and the risks a team accepts.

The money before the proof

Early finance has also been part of Tekkoo’s work. The Dutch enterprise agency RVO lists Tekkoo Investment II with a €500,000 investment budget, including a €250,000 government loan, and an investment period of 2019-2024. Its mandate addressed a circular problem: hardware businesses need money to demonstrate viability, while financiers often want viability demonstrated first.

Tekkoo’s own fund page describes investments made during 2018-2024, including Sunt, De Clique, Nature’s Principles and Pakt Packaging. That history adds an investor’s perspective to the service business. It also requires careful reading: a fund’s published investment budget says nothing by itself about the consultancy’s revenue or the price of an assignment.

Make the connection before the commitment

Factory support has entry conditions. Circular Factory’s published criteria call for successful pilot data, seed funding, a feasible business plan and demonstrable customer interest. An idea without those foundations needs earlier validation. Coaching cannot supply a customer’s commitment or make an untested production process ready for industrial scale.

The coordination problem appears in established industries too. For Building Balance, Tekkoo describes interviewing stakeholders, identifying bottlenecks and aligning strategy around demand, finance and regional connections for biobased construction materials. Its contribution is to help the participants move together. A promising material needs a functioning chain of businesses around it.

The lessons are becoming easier to pass on. BlueCity and Tekkoo announced a six-part English-language Circular Factory podcast in November 2025; a factory-building knowledge base followed in January 2026. For a reader, the useful habit is already available: identify the next assumption, decide how to test it and give somebody responsibility for the result.