Netherlands

Amsterdam-Delta

MEMBERS:
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy TechLeap.nl

In the current crisis, the world is increasingly dependent on digital and technological solutions from startups and scaleups. In the Netherlands, we understand it is more important than ever to empower our leaders in tech to futureproof the world.

Nils Beers
CEO - Techleap.nl
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Highlights

Amsterdam may be a smaller city by population than London or Paris, but its startups have produced outsized value given the size of the ecosystem. According to Dealroom, between 2010 and the first quarter of 2021, the total enterprise value of tech companies created in the Amsterdam region increased from $10 billion to $100 billion, making the ecosystem one of the fastest-growing in Europe.


The Dutch capital is also open, dynamic, and community minded. Rockstart and Startupbootcamp, two of Europe’s best-performing accelerators, were founded in Amsterdam. Holland in the Valley is an initiative to strengthen ties between the Netherlands and the Bay Area at multiple levels. ScaleNL helps Dutch tech entrepreneurs scale to the US via a network, platform, programs, and funding. Techleap is leading the Global Entrepreneur Initiative to connect successful Dutch founders living abroad to founders in the Netherlands who want to expand.


Amsterdam’s Cleantech startups had a particularly strong 2021. In September, Picnic raised €600 million ($650 million) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to further its ambition of building the most sustainable European grocery delivery company. Urban e-bike company VanMoof raised a $128 million Series C the same month.


In July 2021, neobank Bunq announced the largest ever Series A round raised by a European Fintech. The €193 million ($209 million) deal took the company’s value to approximately €1.6 billion ($1.73 billion). Other notable funding news in the ecosystem include online fashion outlet Otrium’s $120 million Series C in March 2021, and mobility Fintech company Moove’s August 2021 $100 million deal.

Ecosystem by the Numbers

ECOSYSTEM VALUE
(H2 2019–2021)
$22 bn
GLOBAL AVG. $28.6 bn
TOTAL EARLY–STAGE FUNDING
(H2 2019–2021)
$960 m
GLOBAL AVG. $687 m
ECOSYSTEM VALUE GROWTH
(H2 2020–H2 2022 VS H2 2018–H2 2020)
-52%
-52% -52 -111 47% 47 100 0
GLOBAL AVG. 47%
NUMBER OF UNICORNS
(H2 2019–2021)
7
GLOBAL AVG. 4
MEDIAN SEED ROUND (H2 2019–2021)
$500 k
GLOBAL AVG. $671 k
MEDIAN SERIES A ROUND (H2 2019–2021)
$2.4 m
GLOBAL AVG. $4.7 m
SOFT. ENGINEER SALARY (2021)
$61 k
GLOBAL AVG. $46 k
EARLY-STAGE FUNDING GROWTH (2018/19 VS. 2020/21)
9
Scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest)
TOTAL VC FUNDING (2017-2021)
$9.2 bn
GLOBAL AVG. $4.5 bn
TIME TO EXIT (2017-2021)
10.7 years
GLOBAL AVG. 9.4 years
EXIT AMOUNT (2017–2021)
22 bn
GLOBAL AVG. 11.3 bn
EXIT COUNT (#)
(2022)
523
GLOBAL AVG. 101
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27
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2018
2019
2020
2021
2022

Sub-Sector Strengths

Agtech & New Food

Amterdam’s food industry continues to grow. Picnic, the online grocery platform, raised a $275 million series C round in 2019. The Vegetarian Butcher, a meat substitute startup with 2,600 sales outlets across13 countries, was acquired by Unilever in 2018. Wageningen University & Research was #1 worldwide in agriculture and forestry in 2019.

Life Sciences

The European Medicines Agency, a leading regulatory authority moved its headquarters to Amsterdam in 2019. Aidence, an AI-based imaging company looking to accelerate the diagnosing of X-Ray, MRI and CT images, raised $11 million in a series A funding round. AM-Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company, secured around $127 million in VC funding in 2019 to further develop their treatment for acute kidney injury (AKI).

Reasons to Move Your Startup to Amsterdam-Delta

COVID-19 Policy

The Dutch government support package includes tax deferrals, a temporary employment bridging scheme, and a credit guarantee program. Together with Techleap.nl, Invest-NL, and the regional development agencies, the government structured a soft loans regime for startups, scale-ups and innovative SMEs, which provides bridge loans of up to €2 million. Invest-NL also launched a €100 million convertible loan scheme, which offers larger loans.

Corporate connections

Startups can gain access to corporations across every sector. Nearly 200 multinationals have their European headquarters in Amsterdam, including Netflix, Uber, Tesla, and Salesforce.

Welcoming international talent

Highly skilled immigrants can qualify for the 30% tax reimbursement ruling, international graduates get one year to find work or start a business post-graduation, and there are entrepreneur visas available.

Selected Startup Organizations

Startup Genome Members

Key Ecosystem Players

Key Ecosystem Player 1

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Key Ecosystem Player 2

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Key Ecosystem Player 3

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Key Ecosystem Player 4

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Key Ecosystem Player 5

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Key Ecosystem Player 6

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