Brainport Eindhoven

The latest data and trends in Brainport Eindhoven's startups, venture capital, deep tech and innovation.

Raised in Q3 2026
$343M
VC funding · closed quarter
Raised in 2026 Q1-3
$805M
VC funding · year to date
Combined enterprise value
$11.5B
VC-backed Brainport Eindhoven startups · founded 1990+
Unicorns
2
$1B+ valuation or exit

Brainport Eindhoven on the map

Where Brainport Eindhoven startups are based, each region shaded by its number of VC-backed startups. Darker means denser; hover a region for its count.

Annual venture capital

Funding into Brainport Eindhoven startups has grown nearly tenfold over the past five years, reaching $234M in 2025. With $805M raised in the first 9 months of 2026, the full year is on track to land at $1.1B, a +360% change versus 2025. The chart below shows annual funding totals; the latest year is annualised from observed-to-date data and represents the renderer's projection, not a closed quarter.

Quarterly venture capital

Yearly totals mask the quarter-by-quarter rhythm. The chart below shows Brainport Eindhoven startups funding raised in each of the last 21 complete quarters through Q3 2026. All bars are actual closed-quarter sums, no projections, no in-progress quarters.

Brainport Eindhoven's share of Dutch venture capital

Brainport Eindhoven's share of Dutch venture capital tracks how much of the Netherlands's startup capital lands in this market. In 2016, Brainport Eindhoven startups accounted for 5.5% of Dutch VC funding; by 2026 the share had reached 23.8%. The chart below splits each year's total Dutch VC funding into Brainport Eindhoven on the bottom and the rest of the market on top.

Brainport Eindhoven venture capital raised by stage

How capital deployed into Brainport Eindhoven startups is split across round sizes. In the trailing four quarters, 57% of capital landed in scaleup ($100M+) rounds, 35% in breakout ($15–100M), and 8% across startups (under $15M). Each panel below stacks the canonical sub-bands across Q3 2022 → Q3 2026.

Brainport Eindhoven venture capital raised by stage, quarterly

Startup

Breakout

Scaleup

Most active investors in Brainport Eindhoven

The most active investors in Brainport Eindhoven startups ranked by the number of disclosed VC rounds they've participated in. BOM - Brabant Regional Development Agency leads with 115 rounds, followed by Brabant Startup Fund at 57. The table shows the top ten with their firm type, the rounds they've joined and the companies they've backed here (follow-on rounds make the first larger), and headquarters.

Most active Brainport Eindhoven investors

#InvestorTypeBrainport Eindhoven roundsBrainport Eindhoven companiesHQ
1
BOM - Brabant Regional Development Agency
Venture capital 115 68 Tilburg, Netherlands
2
Brabant Startup Fund
Other 57 52 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
3
Innovation Industries
Venture capital 43 21 Amsterdam, Netherlands
4
Invest-NL
Other 35 21 Amsterdam, Netherlands
5
EIC Fund
Venture capital 18 8 Luxembourg, Luxembourg
6
NLC Health Ventures
Accelerator 14 4 Amsterdam, Netherlands
7
DeeptechXL Fund
Venture capital 14 8 Eindhoven, Netherlands
8
LUMO Labs
Venture capital 14 8 Eindhoven, Netherlands
9
imec.xpand
Venture capital 11 6 Leuven, Belgium
10
EQT Life Sciences
Venture capital 11 3 Amsterdam, Netherlands

Source: Dealroom.co

Top companies

Two views of leadership in Brainport Eindhoven startups: the most-funded companies all-time on the left, and the hottest companies right now by Dealroom Signal on the right. Total-funding figures include all capital sources tracked by Dealroom (VC plus grants, project finance, and other instruments). Signal is Dealroom's live growth ranking, these are the firms with the strongest recent momentum across team, timing, growth, and completeness.

Top funded

All-time total funding (includes non-VC sources)

  1. 1Axelera AIEindhoven, Netherlands$448M
  2. 2EuclydEindhoven, Netherlands$242M
  3. 3XeltisEindhoven, Netherlands$203M
  4. 4SMART PhotonicsEindhoven, Netherlands$202M
  5. 5SendcloudEindhoven, Netherlands$199M
  6. 6ShapewaysEindhoven, Netherlands$179M
  7. 7EFFECT PhotonicsEindhoven, Netherlands$154M
  8. 8RIFTEindhoven, Netherlands$121M
  9. 9Ambagon TherapeuticsEindhoven, Netherlands$97M
  10. 10Salvia BioElectronicsEindhoven, Netherlands$88M

Hottest (Dealroom Signal)

Ranked by Dealroom's growth indicator

  1. 1ShanX MedtechEindhoven, Netherlands93
  2. 2eyeoEindhoven, Netherlands93
  3. 3Axelera AIEindhoven, Netherlands92
  4. 4Salvia BioElectronicsEindhoven, Netherlands91
  5. 5EuclydEindhoven, Netherlands91
  6. 6RIFTEindhoven, Netherlands90
  7. 7AvularEindhoven, Netherlands89
  8. 8FononTechEindhoven, Netherlands89
  9. 9KeironEindhoven, Netherlands88
  10. 10XyallEindhoven, Netherlands88

Source: Dealroom.co

Iconic companies

Brainport's startup scene sits on top of a dense base of established tech giants. These companies are not venture-backed, so they never appear in the funding charts above, but they anchor the region: ASML alone is Europe's most valuable tech company, and Philips seeded a lineage of spinouts (NXP, Signify) and suppliers that still defines the cluster today.

Notable rounds

In 2026 Q1-3 (year to date), the largest VC rounds in Brainport Eindhoven startups reveal where capital is consolidating. The table below lists the 12 biggest rounds by amount, with date, company, round type, and lead investors; rounds without a public amount sit at the bottom with the amount left blank. Exits sit in the Unicorns & Exits section.

Biggest Brainport Eindhoven rounds · Last 12 months to end of Q3 2026 (Top 12 rounds)

DateCompanyAmountRoundLead investors
Feb 2026Axelera AI$250MSERIES CInnovation Industries
Sep 2026Euclyd$231MSERIES AEQT Group, Innovation Industries
Mar 2026RIFT$73MSERIES BPGGM Investments
Sep 2026Morphotonics$44MEARLY VC3M Ventures, BOM - Brabant Regional Development Agency
May 2026eyeo$44MSERIES AInnovation Industries
Jun 2026XIVER$28MGROWTH EQUITY VCCees Meeuwis
Jul 2026Keiron$23MSERIES ADeeptechXL Fund, Invest-NL
Jul 2026Xeltis$23MLATE VCHorizon 3 Healthcare
Jun 2026Invisix Measuring Systems$22MSEEDDoosan Investment, Hitachi Ventures
Aug 2026VitalFluid$19MSERIES AInvest-NL
Jan 2026ShanX Medtech$16MSEEDBOM - Brabant Regional Development Agency, Borski Fund
Dec 2025SandGrain$15MSERIES AInnovation Industries

Biggest Brainport Eindhoven rounds · 2026 Q1-3 (year to date) (Top 12 rounds)

DateCompanyAmountRoundLead investors
Feb 2026Axelera AI$250MSERIES CInnovation Industries
Sep 2026Euclyd$231MSERIES AEQT Group, Innovation Industries
Mar 2026RIFT$73MSERIES BPGGM Investments
Sep 2026Morphotonics$44MEARLY VC3M Ventures, BOM - Brabant Regional Development Agency
May 2026eyeo$44MSERIES AInnovation Industries
Jun 2026XIVER$28MGROWTH EQUITY VCCees Meeuwis
Jul 2026Keiron$23MSERIES ADeeptechXL Fund, Invest-NL
Jul 2026Xeltis$23MLATE VCHorizon 3 Healthcare
Jun 2026Invisix Measuring Systems$22MSEEDDoosan Investment, Hitachi Ventures
Aug 2026VitalFluid$19MSERIES AInvest-NL
Jan 2026ShanX Medtech$16MSEEDBOM - Brabant Regional Development Agency, Borski Fund
Apr 2026Smart Robotics$11MSERIES AInnovation Industries, Rotterdamse Havendraken

Biggest Brainport Eindhoven rounds · Q3 2026 (Top 9 rounds)

DateCompanyAmountRoundLead investors
Sep 2026Euclyd$231MSERIES AEQT Group, Innovation Industries
Sep 2026Morphotonics$44MEARLY VC3M Ventures, BOM - Brabant Regional Development Agency
Jul 2026Keiron$23MSERIES ADeeptechXL Fund, Invest-NL
Jul 2026Xeltis$23MLATE VCHorizon 3 Healthcare
Aug 2026VitalFluid$19MSERIES AInvest-NL
Sep 2026OWOW$3MSEED
Sep 2026TracXon$1MSEED819 Capital Partners
Jul 2026HallTechSEEDOctopus Ventures
Aug 2026ButlarooANGELJitse Groen

Source: Dealroom.co · Updated 12 Oct 2026

Leading industries

Which industries pull in the most venture capital across Brainport Eindhoven startups, and where does the Brainport Eindhoven punch above its weight versus the rest of the world? Use the toggle to switch between absolute VC funding and each industry's over/under-index, and to change the time window. In 2026 Q1-3 (year to date), Semiconductors leads at $642M, and the Brainport Eindhoven over-indexes only in Semiconductors (80% of Brainport Eindhoven venture capital versus 5% across the rest of the world, 15.81×), and under-indexes most in Security, Marketing, Health relative to the rest of the world. Industries are tracked through Dealroom's industry tags, which overlap, a company spanning, say, AI and fintech is counted in both, so these show where capital concentrates, not a mutually exclusive split of the total.

Unicorns & exits

Brainport Eindhoven startups have minted 2 unicorns to date. Dealroom defines a unicorn as a company that has reached a $1B+ valuation or exit (verified and manually reviewed; other lists use different criteria, this is ours). Of those, 0 are decacorns, companies at a $10B+ valuation. The ecosystem also counts 2 thoroughbreds (companies generating $100M+ in revenue, a separate lens with some overlap): Sendcloud and Prodrive Technologies. The chart below shows the cumulative count climbing each year, with the line tracking new unicorns minted in that year, peaking at 1 in 2021. On exits, the sector has produced 20 tracked exits since 2019 representing $3.3B in disclosed value. Notable exits in the data include Ebusco ($1.5B, 2021), followed by Tembo E-LV ($904M, 2024), ONWARD Medical ($462M, 2021).

The Brainport Eindhoven startup funnel

Entrepreneurship is a power law. Of every Brainport Eindhoven startup founded, only a fraction attract venture capital, and far fewer climb each successive funding level. This funnel traces VC-backed Brainport Eindhoven startups from first cheque through to the rarest valuation outcomes. Mouth figures are annual means (2010–2024); pool stages count VC-backed companies founded since 1990 by total funding.

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… Pool of VC-Backed Startups
Any total funding
Nina Chaloum
Curated byNina ChaloumEcosystems Research Lead, Dealroom

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