DEN BOSCH – Imagine a major fire breaking out in the city center. Where will the smoke and soot travel? How many people and which buildings are in the affected area? On the new 3D map from Den Bosch-based company Argaleo, fire and police services can now assess this with great precision. And then, of course, go on-site to provide assistance.
“We connect data to turn it into better information,” says Argaleo founder Jeroen Steenbakkers from Rosmalen. The technology the company works with is called digital twinning. A digital copy is suitable for testing, simulating, and can also be used in real time. The system delivers insights that, according to Steenbakkers, enable people to “make faster and better-informed decisions.”
The Den Bosch-based company uses a ‘digital twin’ of each city to deliver highly valuable information to safety regions, municipalities, provinces, water boards, event organizers, and businesses.
Companies and governments collect information in all sorts of ways and often place that data side by side to make decisions. Argaleo layers the data on top of each other. Steenbakkers explains: “We create a three-dimensional environment and add not only data that is already known, but also live information. Instead of a spreadsheet here, a weather app there, and somewhere an old-fashioned sheet of paper, we put everything into one system. I sometimes call our product a digital viewing box.”
The company’s name derives from layering information. “My business partner Andre Sluyter and I were looking for a name when we founded the company. While watching a Disney film with my daughter, I got the idea that our work resembles weaving. That’s how I came up with Argaleo, loosely based on the Greek word for loom. The domain name on the internet was still available, and the name also starts with an A, which is good for search results.”
A mature company in six years
Six years ago, Steenbakkers and Sluyter started the company. Argaleo has now outgrown the startup phase. Seven people work there and the company is profitable. “I think we can call ourselves mature. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we started with crowd measurements in cities. That was the catalyst. Since then, we have also become active in the fields of safety, mobility, and economics, and we have connected dozens of cities and other government bodies. In any area, large or small, where there is significant activity and a need for good real-time information, we can work our magic.”
In Tilburg, that includes the annual fair, and in Den Bosch, of course, Carnival as well. “With some technical ingenuity, we can track exactly where the procession is in the city at any moment this year. The city already has a system to monitor crowd levels, but it’s also about the surrounding information. How busy are the access routes? Which trains are still heading to Den Bosch? That gives you actionable information. The city has been closed off several times in recent years due to overcrowding. We want to move toward a situation where we can predict that moment. Then you can respond proactively instead of reacting after the fact.”
Argaleo’s secret is that the company does not need to reinvent the wheel each time. “We simply don’t have the time, money, or people for that,” says Steenbakkers. “When we develop an analysis for Safety Region Zeeland, we do it for the entire country at once. The application for King’s Day in Rotterdam is also usable for King’s Day in Emmen. And when we develop a system for cycling routes of students for the province of Noord-Brabant, we do it for all of the Netherlands right away. Because we have no doubt that Utrecht and Groningen will eventually be able to use it too. We recently started monitoring visits to the Loonse en Drunense Duinen and have noticed that De Hoge Veluwe National Park is watching with interest.”
Cycling in American cities
Steenbakkers expects that Argaleo will also attract attention internationally. A project in Amsterdam involving the European Union may consequently catch the eye of cities like Milan and Athens. And next month, Steenbakkers will give a presentation in the United States for fifty American cities about what Argaleo does in the field of cycling mobility. “Let’s see if they’re ready for it.”
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