This is the key takeaway from the State of Dutch Tech Report, presented last week at the Techleap event ‘State of Dutch Tech’ in The Hague.
The State of Dutch Tech 2025 Report provides a data-driven insight into the Dutch tech ecosystem in 2024, highlighting its strengths, challenges and how it compares to other leading tech economies.
The Dutch tech ecosystem is populated by over 8,000 companies, 97% of which are start-ups. In 2024, 30 start-ups secured over 10 million euros of funding to grow into scale-ups, with the total number of scale-ups growing by 12%. Two of the new scale-ups, DataSnipper and Mews, achieved ‘unicorn status’ last year, meaning they are valued at 1 billion USD or more while still being privately owned.
Key insights
Here are the main conclusions from the report:
- Shift in investment activity
Dutch investors are withdrawing from funding rounds totalling 50 million euros or more, with EU and US investors stepping in to fill the gap. - Deeptech growth
Deeptech continues to grow and remains a key driver of scale-up growth. - AI funding challenges
Dutch AI companies lack the capital intensity of more heavily funded markets such as the US and China, limiting their ability to scale. - Scale-ups as employers
Scaleups are established employers, with increasing employee attrition driving higher demand for new hires.
World-class ecosystem
A panel discussion at the Techleap event attended by Fabrizio Del Maffeo, Beau-Anne Chilla and Jo De Boeck, led by Victoria Slivkoff, focused on how the Netherlands could build a ‘world-class Future of Compute ecosystem’.
The discussion highlighted the fact that businesses must clearly formulate and raise their ambitions, say what they need to achieve them, and be able to clearly explain new technology and the value it represents. At the same time, investors must acquire a deep understanding of the impacts of new technology. Established players should give start-ups exposure to investors or potential buyers and, where possible, step up as a launching customer. The Dutch government must provide solid and unambiguous legislation and, where possible, also step in as a launching customer. Lastly, the education sector must ensure that students are equipped with the right technical skills and are able to build on them throughout their lives.
Action Agendas
This was valuable input for the Topsector ICT team’s ongoing work on the Action Agendas for AI/Data and Cybersecurity Technologies as part of the National Technology Strategy (NTS), which has a keen focus on knowledge and innovation and receives significant support from SMEs and the business community.