The US start-up collective Cambridge Innovation Center is to open its first overseas offices in Rotterdam, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Tuesday.

The company will prepare 13,000 square metres of space in the Groothandelsgebouw on the Weena for young entrepreneurs.

CIC hopes to have 550 start-ups in the building within five years, the FD says.

The centre already operates in the US city of Cambridge, close to the prestigious universities of Harvard and MIT. It is here that Google Android began its growth.

CIC not only offers office space to start-ups but also to support companies, the paper says. It also developed the US company programme which brings together entrepreneurs, scientists and investors.

In Rotterdam, it will work with the Erasmus centre for entrepreneurship, the RDM Campus and the Delft start-up initiative Yes.

‘This is a good addition to the innovation landscape of the region,’ alderman Maarten Struijvenberg told the paper. He is looking at ways to support the project and wants to reserve a budget of €2.7m.