January 18, 2024

€620 million invested in Dutch startups in Q4 2023

Amsterdam – January 17, 2024. The startup investments in 2023 ended at a peak by writing down the best quarter of the year in both the number of deals and the total amount invested. Apart from 2021 and 2022, in which a lot was invested in startups, partly due to low interest rates, 2023 is the best year so far, even though it saw a significant decrease of 27% as compared to last year. There is a clear, structurally noticeable growth trend seen both in the number of deals over the years and the total volume of investments. This is evident from the ‘Quarterly Startup Report’, a quarterly data analysis of Techleap, Dealroom.co, Golden Egg Check, KPMG, the Regional Development Companies, Dutch Association of Participation Companies (NVP) and Dutch Startup Association (DSA).

Increase in the fourth quarter

In addition to the structural growth in the number of deals, it is striking that, on average, they are smaller. Investments in the growth phase are still lagging behind. In total, at least 576 million euro was invested in the fourth quarter, compared to 604 million euro in Q4 2022, resulting in a decrease of 5%. Compared to the third quarter, this is a growth of 36% in terms of amount, based on 33% more deals. The number of deals is growing both compared to a year earlier (from 88 to 114) and compared to the third quarter (which was 86). Investments in the early phase, less than 1 million euro, have increased relatively, from 27% in all 2022 to 33% in Q4 2023. Large investments, of 15 million euro or more, have again decreased relatively, from 14% in whole 2022 to 10% in Q4 2023.

Deal volumes and amounts in Dutch startups and scaleups per quarter, quearterly startup report 2022 Q4 techleap, dsa, dealroom

The 10 largest deals of the past quarter were, in millions:

VectorY Therapeutics €129
Kynexis €57
Protix €55
Microsure €38
Crisp €35
Cradle $24
Rentman $22
Silverflow €15
SolarDuck €15
Overstory $14

As happens more often, there are several biotech companies in the top 10, such as VectorY Therapeutics that raised 129 million euro at a Life Sciences Investors consortium, also the only deal of 2023 of more than 100 million euro. It is also worth mentioning that compared to previous quarters, more is being invested in Fintech companies. Silverflow, Solvimon, Levenue and Carbon Equity, among others, raised amounts of more than 5 million euro. Although much is expected from startups that focus on artificial intelligence, the investments in this are still relatively small and limited in number.

Decrease compared to 2022, but strong end

In the past year, a total of at least €1.9 billion euro was invested in Dutch startups and scale-ups. This was 2.6 billion euro in 2022; A decrease of approximately 27%. This is a less strong fall than worldwide, where analysts calculated a decrease of 35%. Not all deals are publicly known, so in reality, the number for 2023 is probably around 2.1 billion euro, compared to 2.9 billion euro in 2022. The year 2023 was therefore better than all years pre-corona. There were also more deals than in 2022; 417 instead of 393, an increase of 6%. The number of smaller deals, lower than 1 million euro, grew from 27% in 2022 to 33% in 2023. The number of large deals in more adult companies remained about the same. Public investments such as Invest-NL and the Regional Development Companies (ROMS) again formed a stable factor for investments in Dutch startups in the early phase.

Deal volumes and amounts in Dutch startups and scaleups per year, Quarterly Startup Report Q4 2022, Techleap, DSA, Dealroom

Good prospects for 2024

In the past year, a number of large, new Venture Capital Funds have been set up, particularly in the life sciences, with Forbion Ventures Fund VI and Gilde Healthcare Venture & Growth VI, both with a size of around 750 million euros. In the rest of the market, depending on the specific sector, it was more challenging in 2023 to pick up new VC funds. We saw, for example, more commitment from Dutch pension funds such as Gilde Healthcare, Forbion and Innovation Industries, among others. For example, PME and PMT from the metal sector, together with a British pension fund, put around 110 million euro in the Gilde Healthcare Fund, and was involved in the ‘first close’ of 200 million euro of the new fund (with a ‘target’ of 475 million euro) from DeepTech investor Innovation Industries.

Many funds that were previously established also have room to invest. For example, Venture Capital Funds 2023 started with a record amount of “Dry Powder”, which, given the lower investments in 2023, was not fully deployed. Finally, the interest of wealthy persons (High Net Worth Individuals, HNWIS) to invest in funds has increased, as can be seen in the increase of so-called “umbrella funds” that make it possible to invest in, among other things, venture capital. Combined with the expectation that the interest rate will not rise further, 2024 offers a good prospect to structurally grow investments in startups and scaleups. In any case, the year is beginning on an upward trend, starting with the investment of 355 million euros in Picnic.

“We saw only a few big surprises in the last quarter. After a difficult period, the market has appeared to stabilize and we are seeing signs of growth. A positive development that one has not yet seen anywhere else in the world,” said Lucien Burm, president of the Dutch Startup Association. “We are therefore optimistic as we dive into 2024. The interest rates seem to have reached their highest point and there may be more ‘limited partners’ in venture capital funds. We expect Dutch startups to reap the benefits. “

“In the Netherlands, we see that private investor venture capitalists were less active in 2023, but this was partly compensated by the activities of InvestNL,” said Maaren Cleeren, managing director of Techleap. “InvestNL is therefore increasingly emerging as the backbone of Dutch start-up investments in Deeptech. Other local investments such as those from regional development companies have also remained relatively consistent. If investments follow from venture capitalists, then the coming year will look promising for Dutch startups. ”

Check all 2023 investments here.

More information about each Q4 investment, check Dealroom.

Media Contact:

Techleap: Mark van Gemeren, mark@lubbersdejong.nl 0654921042

DSA: Lucien Burm, lucien@dutchstartupassociation.nl 0615077510

Golden Egg Check: Thomas Mensink thomas@goldeneggcheck.com 0652108818 (data)

About Quarterly Startup Report – to ensure that the structural view of Dutch startup investments is consistent, complete and transparent, dealroom.co, the Dutch Startup Association (DSA), Golden Egg Check, KPMG, NVP, the Regional Development companies (ROMs) and Techleap.nl has collected all investment data, synchronized it, and made it available in an insightful quarterly report. The full startup quarterly report, which contains the most important trends and data on all reported deals, is available here.

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Techleap is a non-profit organisation, funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, helping to quantify and accelerate the tech-ecosystem of the Netherlands. Constantijn van Oranje is Special Envoy of Techleap.