The Netherlands

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Introduction

Over the past decades, the Netherlands has emerged as a prominent player in the startup ecosystem, showcasing remarkable growth and offering a conducive environment for innovative ventures to flourish.

On a European scale, The Netherlands is considered a leader in the tech startup space, with it’s capital, Amsterdam, being one of the top continental hubs for startups and venture capital.

On a global scale, The Netherlands ranks within the top 20 countries globally for VC investment. Further to this, the Netherlands is home to over 25+ unicorn and 5k+ funded startups, all of which can be explored on the Dealroom platform.

The future of startups lies in Europe. All ingredients are in place to establish its dominant position. The Netherlands is claiming a central role to make that happen

Arjen Strijker, Capital Lead at Techleap

Learn more about TechLeap here

Venture Capital

VC investment into The Netherlands has seen significant growth across all categories over the years, reaching a peak in 2021 of over $7B raised with a slowdown observed in 2022.

However, despite this slowdown, 2022 levels of investment still outpaced the next best year of investment in 2020 by 180%.

By stage

Early stage
Access early-stage funding rounds into Dutch startups here on the platform.


Breakout stage
Access breakout-stage funding rounds into Dutch startups here on the platform.


Scaleup stage
Access scaleup-stage funding rounds into Dutch startups here on the platform.

By industry

The top three industries in The Netherlands for venture capital investment in terms of total investment raised in 2022 were Energy, Fintech, and Health, which combined account for over half of total VC investment across the country for 2022.

Fintech giants, MessageBird and Mollie raised two of the largest megarounds in 2021, which accounted $1.4B in VC investment combined making for a record breaking year for The Netherlands in terms of VC investment raised.

Dutch vs European VC investment trends
When comparing industry investment for The Netherlands and Europe, we see a much higher degree of investment into Energy and Fintech startups within The Netherlands.

Meanwhile Transportation and Enterprise Software related startups receive a higher proportion of investment in Europe, as can be seen below.

By region

Since 2018, Amsterdam startups have raised between 40-60% of the total VC investment into the Netherlands.

Over 75% of VC investment goes into startup located in hubs in the West which includes the likes of such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Leiden.

The second largest region for VC investment in the country is the South, home to Brainport Eindhoven. The remaining proportion of VC investment would go into emerging startup ecosystems located in the North and East of The Netherlands including the likes of Groningen and Zwolle.


For 2022, the provinces of North Holland, Utrecht and North Brabant raise the highest VC investment on a per capita basis as can be seen below

Leading early stage investment hubs

While Amsterdam attracts the largest amount of early stage VC investment, startup ecosystem hubs such as Utrecht, Rotterdam and Groningen are experiencing rapid relative growth in early stage VC investment.

Sources of capital

Like many European ecosystems, most VC capital originates from Dutch investors and other European investors however 2021 buckled the trend due to US based megaround investments into MessageBird and Mollie.

Investors

Explore the data for the most active investors into Dutch startups as well as the most active Dutch investors here on the Dealroom platform.

Growing role of accelerators and incubators

The importance of accelerators and incubators in the Netherlands is growing, as the country's startup scene continues to mature.

In recent years, there has been a surge in the number of startups being founded in the Netherlands, and this has led to an increased demand for their support services.

In North Brabant, accelerators such as The Gate, HighTechXL and AI Innovation Center are part of the Brainport Eindhoven ecosystem. Together with partners such as Eindhoven University of Technology they have greatly supported tech startups in the ecosystem over the past few years.

Learn more about the 150+ accelerators and incubators that operate within the Netherlands here on the Techleap ecosystem platform.

International comparisons

Country benchmarking

Within Europe, the Netherlands ranks consistently within the top 10 national startup ecosystems for VC investment and ranks within the top 20 countries globally for annual VC investment over the past few years.

City benchmarking

Amsterdam falls within the top 10 within Europe in terms of VC investment. Furthermore, other Dutch hubs such as Rotterdam and Utrecht rank within the top 50 in Europe.

Per capita benchmarking

Against its European counterparts, the Netherlands ranks 7th, with over $200 in VC funding raised for each inhabitant of the country.

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