Dutch funding sources for scale-ups are at risk of drying up. Fundraising for growth capital totaled 32 million euros last year, far below the ten-year average of 289 million euros, according to figures from the Dutch Association of Private Equity Firms (NVP). Fast-growing companies are therefore increasingly dependent on foreign investors.
According to NVP chairman Martijn van Dam, this development makes the Netherlands “vulnerable.” Without strong domestic growth funds, promising technology companies risk becoming dependent on foreign financiers. At the same time, the exit market is slowing down. In 2025, there were only six IPOs or public-market exits, compared with a ten-year average of fourteen. This could create a vicious circle: Without exits, fewer new funds are raised and without new funds, the next generation of scale-ups lacks access to capital.
The NVP is calling on pension funds, governments and large companies to invest more in Dutch growth funds. Public schemes such as seed capital, proof-of-concept funding (VFF) and Innovation Credit also remain essential for creating new scale-ups, according to the organization.
