The Netherlands has a vibrant and growing startup ecosystem, with the amount of startup funding in The Netherlands consistently increasing year on year. The Dutch government has taken effective measures to create an environment that is beneficial for Dutch Startups. In addition to this, fair pay conditions, positive work-life balance, and ease of acquiring a Visa make it an attractive prospect for foreign entrepreneurs to establish new startups. This has led to a reality where now, the average startup in The Netherlands is worth 5.5 Million Euros.
A strong presence of private venture capital in The Netherlands allows Dutch startups at the forefront to experience rapid growth. For instance, there are currently more than 581 Venture Capital Funds operating in country. Additionally, startups at the concept and early-launch stages also need support. Dutch startups can get this support from one of nearly 150 startup incubators and accelerators, which provide a pivotal lifeline in the beginning.
The Dutch government understands its obligations to provide a competitive, yet supporting environment to foster innovation and ensure its startups have the best chance of survival. To this end it has created a range of credits and its Good Growth Fund, targeted to SMEs operating in emerging markets and economies. Furthermore, the Netherlands also has five startup in residence programs.
1. Monumental
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Size: 11-50
Founders: Salar al Khafaji, Sebastiaan Visser
Monumental is a Dutch startup that is revolutionizing the construction industry, through its creation of automated construction robots. Using these robots, bolstered with AI and machine learning capabilities, you'll be able to complete a range of tasks such as laying bricks correctly and running successful pilots with a range of other customers. You could make sure your work gets completed, even if you don't have the human manpower to actually get the work done.
Using advanced robots to complete construction tasks requires significant expense to ensure the machines are firstly capable of doing the tasks, but also of doing them to such a high and safe standard, that they can solve problems to make them pass human inspection. Recently, in February 2024 it raised $25 Million in startup funding to accelerate its product development.
2. LionVolt
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Size: 1-10
Founders: Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Karl McGoldrick
LionVolt is a Dutch startup that was founded in 2020, and is based in Eindhoven. It is currently developing cutting edge solid state battery technology. The benefit to you is that you will be able to make use of batteries that are up to 50% lighter, but are also 200% more performance driven. It has also taken over a Scottish battery manufacturer in January 2024, increasing its production capacity and highlighting its multinational capabilities.
Funding its previous acquisition and creating the industrial base to properly produce LionVolt's batteries requires significant capital injections, especially when taking such a product to market. Its recent raise of 15 Million Euros in February 2024 signifies its intent to accelerate its growth, possibly with a view of aggressive expansion of customer base and headcount.
3. Insify
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Size: 51-100
Founders: Koen Thijssen
Insify is a Dutch startup that makes it easier for you to get insurance for your business, whatever industry you work in. You can handle all of the process online and rapidly get set up on your new policies. You're also able to tweak and change parts of your policy so you only have the cover that you actually need. Not only this, the premiums are also incredibly competitive compared to alternatives in the market. They have already helped more than 10,000 business owners with their insurance.
The InsurTech market displays great funding strength and Insify is an example of this strength. It has raised significant funding since 2022 and its most recent investment round took place in June 2023. During this Series A extension, it raised 10 Million Euros to further accelerate its expansion into Germany and France.
4. Source.ag
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Size: 51-100
Founders: Rien Kamman, Ernst van Bruggen
Source.ag is a startup in the Netherlands that operates in the AgTech market. Its technology allows you to get the most out of your greenhouse by utilising AI, making it easier for you to notice key variables and adjust them for maximum yield. What this means is that you will grow more from the crops in your greenhouse and you make more money as a result of having more produce to sell. Data driven decision making is incredibly important in helping you to efficiently scale and minimise the risks of your greenhouse operations.
Source.ag has pursued expansion into international markets, on the back of strong initial performance in the Netherlands. As a result, it decided to pursue a round of startup funding in order to fund the establishment of a market position in its new desired markets. This round took place in February 2023 and it raised $23 Million.
5. QuantWare
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Delft, Netherlands
Size: 11-50
Founders: Alessandro Bruno, Matthijs Rijlaarsdam
Quantware is a startup in the Netherlands that was founded in 2020 and is currently headquartered in Delft. It aims to open up the future potential of quantum computing and bring it to fruition quicker by creating its own range of quantum processors and other essential parts, which you can purchase to build your quantum machines. You can also get access to the leading edge of the world's fabricator technology.
Quantum Computing is the next huge frontier of computing technology and due to this, huge amounts of money are being invested by both the public and private sector in the hope of a commercially applicable breakthrough. An example of this is Quantware's award of a 7.5 Million Euro grant from the European Innovation Council in June 2022. The funding has allowed Quantware to reduce the commercial operating costs of creating quantum computers by 90%.
6. Levenue
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Breda, Netherlands
Size: 11-50
Founders: Benjamin Rieder, Zahra Alubudi, Anthony De Meulenmeester
Levenue is a Dutch startup that is taking the FinTech market for businesses by storm in the Netherlands. It allows you to unlock the potential of your unrealised outstanding payments from your customers. By leveraging these future payments as collateral, you will get access to funding from Levenue, which you can get immediate access to, instead of having to wait. It has already funded hundreds of companies and has facilitated trades to these customers worth more than 300 Million Euros in total.
Levenue is primed for huge expansion and it highlighted this when it completed the acquisition of Belgian startup, Cake in November 2023. At the same time as this deal was completed, Levenue also raised a further 8 Million Euros in funding. Both of these moves have been in an effort to facilitate Europe-wide expansion of Levenue and its products.
7. GO Sharing
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Nieuwegein, Netherlands
Size: 51-100
Founders: Raymon Pouwels, Doeke Boersma, Donny van den Oever
Go Sharing is a startup in the Netherlands that was founded in 2019 and is currently headquartered in Nieuwegein. It aims to be the eco-friendly option for travel across multiple vehicles, from cars, e-scooters- bikes and mopeds across the world. It currently already operates in its home country, Turkey, Italy and Belgium. All you need to do is download the app, find your location and you'll be able to find reasonably priced and conveniently placed vehicles at your pleasure.\
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GoSharing, like many mobility startups, requires startup capital in order to deal with the logistical and regulatory hurdles of dealing in foreign markets, in addition to purchasing the desired mobility assets such as scooters and cars. This funding round took place in April 2021 and Go Sharing raised $60 Million to facilitate the aforementioned international expansion.
8.QphoX
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Delft, Netherlands
Size: 11-50
Founders: Jorgen Sandig, Ido Niesen, Chris Cane, Prof. Harry Buhrman
Qphox is a Dutch startup that is aiming to revolutionize the market for quantum computing. It aims to achieve this by providing you with the latest in modern quantum technology, that will allow you to connect multiple quantum computers across its own network. This tech will allow you to create the backbone for your future quantum computing infrastructure, increasing its potential use cases and bringing the technology closer to widespread commercial adoption.
Qphox has successfully navigated the concept and early-stage of its life cycle and it is now seeking to further scale its operations so that it can pursue aggressive growth and begin to maximise its revenue potential. To this end, Qphox has raised 8 Million Euros in a January 2024 Series A round. This funding will be used to support its growth goals, by increasing the size of the team and pushing its solutions to new users.
9. Finom
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Size: 101-250
Founders: Andrey Petrov, Oleg Laguta, Konstantin Stiskin, Yakov Novikov
Finom is one of the most exciting FinTech startups in the Netherlands and it has scaled rapidly in the past five years. Whether you're a freelancer or a business, you need a full payment solution to ensure you can unlock the most from your cash flow. Within 24-hours you can get set up on its platform, allowing you near instant access to an IBAN bank account. You also get better personal support, meaning you can get help within a minute. It currently operates across the EU, in the Netherlands, Germany, France and more.
Building up a huge banking platform and then expanding it across an entire continent takes some serious funding and Finom has seen great success in securing funding to pursue its ambitious growth goals. The most recent of these investments took place in February 2024 and Finom raised 50 Million Euros. The stated goal of this funding round was to build on and create a more diverse line of products for its customers.
10. Solvimon
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Utrecht, Netherlands
Size: 11-50
Founders: Kim Verkooij
Solvimon is a newer Dutch startup that was founded in 2022 and is currently headquartered in Utrecht. Using Solvimon, you'll be able to free up the precious time of your developers, by eliminating the need for them to code and implement a range of pricing models for your SaaS product. By using the platform you'll be able to effortlessly introduce a variety of pricing models into your business and execute them at the product level. You can also effectively localise your pricing for different markets and have automatic, bespoke bills and quotes sent out to your customers.
Solvimon is at a pivotal stage of its development, where it has created a brilliant product and has captured a good number of customers. Now, it has notably accelerated its plans to expand internationally and build new products into the platform for customers. Both of these ambitions require capital funding, and as a result Solvimon raised 9 Million Euros from Northzone and a number of angel investors in November 2023.
11. Fero
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Size: 11-50
Founders: Craig Savage, Maximilian van Boxel
Fero is another example of the Netherland's strength in the FinTech market. It allows you to take advantage of the rather bland and faceless payment gateway experience that most businesses offer. Instead, you can offer personalized and unique payment gateway experiences for each one of your customers. This will allow you to generate more customer loyalty and brand recognition, which will ultimately strengthen your market position and generate more profit for your business.
Fero has identified the need for it to grow its internal team in order to cope with current demands and facilitate future growth within the FinTech market. To this end, in November 2023 it pursued a funding round and raised $3 Million to build a bigger team within the United States and Europe. This funding round was led by Coatue, an American-based investor.
12. Leyden Labs
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Size: 51-100
Founders: Jaap Goudsmit, Koenraad Wiedhaup
Leyden Labs is a Dutch startup that was founded in 2020 and has rapidly managed to capture market share and expand since then. The medical startup is helping those of you that suffer from a host of current and newly emerging respiratory illnesses. This is being achieved through the development of new nasal sprays that will be able to kill bacteria and harmful viruses right as soon as they enter the body, preventing initial infection from occurring at all. This provides a vital lifeline for those that have compromised immune systems.
Medical research is incredibly funding-dependent, as the process of trialling medicines, hiring industry experts and then navigating legal and regulatory hurdles can be very lengthy. As a result, Medical technology startups are always ripe for funding and Leyden Labs is no different. To accelerate product development and route to market, it raised $140 Million in a January 2022 Series B round.
13. Sprinque
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Size: 1-10
Founders: Manoj Tutika, Mark Hollema, and Juan Espinosa
Sprinque is another top FinTech startup coming from the Netherlands. It takes the pain and difficulty out of making cross-border B2B payments. This makes it so much easier for your business to expand into new markets as you can easily conduct business in new territories. You can also offer your international customers a range of different flexible payment options to ensure that you can stand out and win new business.
Sprinque is currently at the stage of its development where it is pursuing expansion across the entirety of Europe for its FinTech solution. As a result of this, it has been actively pursuing startup funding throughout 2023, with 6 Million Euros and 1.7 Million Euros being raised across two rounds in the year.
14. Accel Club
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Size: 51-100
Founders: Max Firsov, Nick Tuzenko
Accel Club is a startup in the Netherlands that aims to provide a platform for your e-commerce business to either be bought out or supported and mentored so that you can grow to the next level. You can also get a range of support to launch your products, meaning you can get off to the greatest possible start. E-commerce can be daunting if you're doing it alone, but as a part of Accel Club, it becomes a lot easier.
Buying high-potential e-commerce businesses and putting the infrastructure in place to grow them requires significant funding, particularly in the early stages of the entire project. It's for this reason that Accel Club completed two funding rounds in 2021, with the investment from the rounds totalling more than $170 Million.
15. Perpetual Next
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Size: 101-250
Founders: Erik Huis, Martijn van Rheenen
Perpetual Next is a Dutch startup that provides more eco-friendly solutions to common high polluting industries, such as steel, cement, chemicals and more. You can make use of its products, such as Bio Gas and Bio Coal along with its carbonisation technologies to minimise your impact on the environment, whilst enabling you to complete your essential work. One of the best parts about it from a commercial level is that you don't have to invest significant capital in new infrastructure.
Perpetual Next has the enviable achievement of having secured 320 Million Euros during a funding round in June 2022. This huge amount of funding is vital to ensure that Perpetual Next can implement the required manufacturing infrastructure and hire the appropriate talent to properly scale its operations to meet the huge needs of its target market.
16. Eye Security
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: The Hague, Netherlands
Size: 51-100
Founders: ob Kuijpers, Vincent Van de Ven, Piet Kerkhofs
Eye Security is a Dutch startup in the cybersecurity market that was founded in 2020. It supports your business with around the clock threat monitoring, and opens up the opportunity for you to get enterprise-level support, without the associated price tag. Getting started is easy, with integration taking as little as two hours and the response time to an attack taking as little as 4-minutes, winning you valuable time to respond and deal with any attacks before serious damage can be done.
The cybersecurity market is incredibly expensive to operate in as creating a platform that can provide significant monitoring and continuous research to stay ahead of new threats requires bright minds and a lot of resources. Eye Security is leveraging its expertise and innovative platform to secure funding and achieve its growth goals. In March 2024, it raised 36 Million Euros in Series B round led by JP Morgan Growth Equity Partners.
17. Tibo Energy
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Size: 11-50
Founders: Remco Eikhout, Jeroen Althusius
Tibo Energy is a Dutch startup that was founded in 2022 and maintains its headquarters in Eindhoven. It provides you with a tech solution that allows you to map out your existing energy management efficiency and gather consistent data flows which unlock critical insights about the performance of your energy assets. It also supports your load management within your energy network, ensuring you don't go over the levels that you set- which also enables you to benefit from dynamic pricing.
Energy efficiency and net-zero goals are huge driving points for investors in the current market, due to the huge forecasted growth in the market. Tibo Energy has taken advantage of this, along with a great product offering in order to raise 3 Million Euros in January 2024. This funding is to be used to grow the team at Tibo Energy and facilitate expansion into international markets outside of the Netherlands.
18. Axelera AI
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Size: 51-100
Founders: Fabrizio Del Maffeo
Axelera AI is a startup in the Netherlands that develops the next generation of AI chips in order to allow you to accelerate the learning rate and development of your own artificial intelligence applications. This reduces overall development time for your team, which also drives down the associated costs. Specifically, you can significantly enhance the quality of your computer vision AI, which is essential for monitoring tools such as CCTV cameras and home security systems.
Axelera AI's business model of a system that allows other companies to leverage and enhance their own AI platforms provides a lot of confidence and enthusiasm from investors. This is evidenced by its oversubscribed Series A round in May 2023, when it raised $50 Million to support the global expansion of Axelera AI and to support the mass production of its first AI platform.
19. OpenUp
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Size: 101-250
Founders: Gijs Coppens, Floris Rost van Tonningen
OpenUp is a Dutch startup that operates within the mental health space and aims to make it easier for you to get the mental health support that you need, in a more comfortable and rapid way. By working with a range of licensed mental health professionals, you can get in-app support via online chat to talk through your issues. You can also join group master classes and even do your own guided self-help, which is great if you want to do things at your own pace.
OpenUp has made significant strides in the rapidly growing private mental health market and it made strategic use of startup funding in order to rapidly develop its platform and establish relationships with more licensed medical professionals to prime international expansion. To this end, in October 2022, it raised 15 Million Euros.
20. Send AI
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Size: 1-10
Founders: Thom Trentelman, Philip Weijschede
Send AI is an exciting Dutch startup that was founded three years ago. Any business knows the pain of manual document handling, its slow, expensive and loss is common. Using Send AI, you can train your AI model to do the job at a lower cost. Simply scan any documents that need to be analysed, grab the key information that is required and have that information sent, all in the same easy process. Currently, if you're in the insurance market, you'll be able to benefit from this when receiving customer documents, or sending out necessary information to suppliers.
Send AI has had to use significant capital and time in order to develop its AI platform and build in the functionality for users to train their own models using its platform. Now this has been achieved, rapid growth and expansion is on the horizon. To facilitate this, Send AI has secured a 2.2 Million Euro pre-Seed round, led by Google's Granite Ventures.
21. Neople
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: 's-hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Size: 11-50
Founders: Bas Ploeg, Hans de Penning, Job Nijenhuis, Menno Zevenbergen, Sander Kok.
Neople is a Dutch startup that is making use of generative AI technology to provide you with the ability to employ digital coworkers. You can ask questions to these AI coworkers and by analysing data patterns, resources internally and workflows, it can provide answers to these questions. This allows you to get an expert team of workers, without needing to worry about HR and having to make large allowances for hiring budgets.
It wasn't too long ago that the idea of creating a digital workforce was still science fiction, now Neople is employing industry leaders and developing this fiction into reality. To achieve this and facilitate the route to market, Neople has secured startup funding worth 1.5 Million Euros.
FAQs
What Are The Strongest Startup Industries In The Netherlands?
The strongest startup industries in The Netherlands are HealthTech, FinTech and E-Commerce.
How Much Funding Do Dutch Startups Raise?
VC funding in the Netherlands reached high levels of $234 Million during 2023.
How Many Tech Startups Are There In The Netherlands?
Currently there are around 4000 startups operating in the Netherlands.
