Dutch deep-tech scales well

The Dutch deep-tech scene stood its ground last year amid concerns about the Dutch tech sector at large. About one in three deep-tech startups moves on to scale-up status, significantly more than the ecosystem as a whole, according to the State of Dutch Tech report. The consistent growth of scale-up venture capital also supports the notion that Dutch deep-tech companies are successfully scaling their business. The performance aligns with European averages but lags behind the US.

Dutch tech VC investment totaled 3.1 billion euros in 2024, 47 percent higher than the year before. Underneath this increase hides a 20 percent decline in the number of deals, however, and – notably – a 40 percent drop in the number of newly founded startups that successfully raised over 100,000 euros. Another concern flagged by startup accelerator Techleap, which published the report, is the low participation of domestic investors: only 15 percent of the total number of investments was raised domestically.