Noaber Foundation

Noaber Foundation

Founded in 2000 by IT entrepreneur Paul Baan, Noaber Foundation channels a family fortune into Dutch health-system reform. The foundation operates from the Netherlands with additional offices in Menlo Park, Scottsdale, and Sioux Falls. Its mandate is deliberately narrow: drive breakthroughs that improve health outcomes, lower costs, and enhance experiences for patients and professionals alike. Noaber deploys across two lanes. The first is a venture portfolio of early-stage health startups, where the foundation takes direct equity positions. The second consists of proprietary programs — Join Us combats youth loneliness, Nieuw pleidooi voor gezondheid advocates for a shift from care systems to a healthy society, Meela improves patient-therapist matching, De Gezondheidstransitie pushes for longer healthy lifespans nationally, and GelijkGezond fights health inequality. The foundation's website confirms partnerships with these named initiatives, and a theory-of-change framework governs all activity. Baan's original IT fortune provides permanent capital, freeing Noaber from LP-cycle constraints. The foundation's geographic footprint spans Dutch program delivery and US-based venture activity, guided by four operating values: noaberschap (neighborliness), entrepreneurship, innovation, and courage. In September 2023, the foundation closed a direct startup participation alongside an undisclosed health-tech co-investor, consistent with its dual strategy. Noaber's architecture separates it from a typical venture firm: program grants and startup equity sit inside one vehicle, and the foundation measures success by systemic health improvements rather than fund-level IRRs. That blended model — venture capital plus field-building programs — makes it a rare hybrid in European health philanthropy.