NETHERLANDS Trends and Developments Contributed by: Marc Habermehl, Roderik Vrolijk and Max de Heer, Stibbe
Stibbe Beethovenplein 10 1077 WM Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel: +31 020 546 0606 Email: Amsterdam@stibbe.com Web: www.stibbe.com
General Observations In 2024, venture capital (VC) investments in the Netherlands amounted to approximately EUR2.0 billion and therefore 2024 currently ranks as the fourth best year ever for VC investment in the country. The number of VC investments declined from 866 in 2023 to 743 in 2024. Additionally, start-ups struggled to secure funding beyond the seed phase. Combined with the absence of mega-investment rounds, this resulted in total investments falling short of the years 2021, 2022 and 2023, which saw EUR4.4 billion, EUR2.7 billion and EUR2.2 billion in VC investments, respectively. Although these figures indicate a downward trend, the difference between 2023 and 2024 is relatively limited. Whether this trend will continue remains to be seen, but Q1 2025 figures (as pub - lished by Golden Egg Check) show a relatively stable continued VC environment with approxi - mately EUR458 million in VC investments. Unless explicitly referring to a later date, the cut-off date for this chapter of the guide was 1 April 2025. Both growth investments and venture capital investments are referred to as VC invest - ments. Unless otherwise indicated, the statistics in this chapter of the guide are from the Dutch Association for Participation Companies ( Ned- erlandse Vereniging voor Participatiemaatschap-
pijen , or NVP), as made available prior to 6 May 2025. Most Noteworthy VC Transactions in 2024 and Q1 2025 Although the number of major investment rounds were scarce in 2024 and Q1 2025, a number of significant investment rounds took place at Dutch start-ups and scale-ups, such as the fol - lowing. • Picnic – online supermarket Picnic raised EUR355 million from its current shareholders. Among the investors was the German super - market chain Edeka and the founder of Micro - soft, Bill Gates. Picnic is using the capital to expand its activities in Germany and France by building new distribution centres, hiring more personnel and acquiring more delivery vans. • Datasnipper – software company Datasnip - per became the first unicorn since 2022, after a USD100 million investment by Index Ventures. The founders of Datasnipper had already sold a minority stake to Insight Ven - tures in 2022. • Mews – cloud-based hospitality management platform Mews received a USD110 million investment from its existing investors, includ - ing Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Kinnevik. At that time, Mews was valued at
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