Strong year despite weak fourth quarter 2024 was the third best funding year ever for Dutch startups, following the peak years 2021 and 2022! Dutch startups and scale-ups raised a total estimated amount of ca. €2.5 billion in 2024, an increase of 19% compared to 2023, when €2.1 billion was invested. In peak year 2021 [...] The post Investments in Dutch startups increase with 23% in 2024 appeared first on Golden Egg Check.
Strong year despite weak fourth quarter
2024 was the third best funding year ever for Dutch startups, following the peak years 2021 and 2022!
Dutch startups and scale-ups raised a total estimated amount of ca. €2.5 billion in 2024, an increase of 19% compared to 2023, when €2.1 billion was invested. In peak year 2021 this was €5.4 billion and in 2022 €2.9 billion.*
These are the main insights from the Quarterly Startup Report, a quarterly data analysis by Golden Egg Check together with Dealroom, KPMG NL Emerging Giants, the Regionale Ontwikkelingsmaatschappijen (ROM’s), NVP, Techleap, Invest-NL and Dutch Startup Association.
The top 3 biggest investments in Q4 of 2024 went to:
- Citryll – €85 million
- Cradle – $73 million
- Meatable – €30 million
At first glance, things might look promising, but don’t be fooled! Despite these strong figures, there was a decline in the fourth quarter:
- In Q4, €460 million was invested, 26% less than in Q4 2023 (€620 million) and 2% less than in Q3 2024 (€470 million)
- The number of deals decreased by 25% compared to Q4 2023, from 114 to 85
We identify some key challenges:
1) 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙪𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨
In 2021, 2022 and 2023 there were ~415 investments per year (or ~105 per quarter). In 2024, we only saw 342 published rounds, so an 18% decrease.
2) 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙥𝙧𝙚-𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙙
In 2024, both the *number* and the *percentage* of deals below €1M went down. While in 2023 still 1/3 of investments was below €1M, in 2024 (remember, with less deals to begin with) that share decreased to only 25%.
3) 𝙛𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧
This is more anecdotal than I can show proof with our funding numbers, but both for startups and investors the fundraising landscape has become more challenging. Startups have a harder time to raise a follow-on rounds (there were less Seed and Series A rounds), so they need extension/bridge/top-up rounds in order to survive. Also VCs need more time to raise their funds, and more often then not settle for a lower fund size than their initial target. Some funds even decide to quit or stop raising a next round (did you see Prime Ventures in FD this morning?).
All in all, 2024 was still a top 3 year for venture capital in the Netherlands. Q1 was a very strong quarter, the rest was… mwah.
Thomas Mensink comments:
“After a good start in the first quarter, I had expected and hoped that after almost two years of relative status quo, investment growth would pick up. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Many startups are having a harder time attracting follow-on funding, investors often have to step in with additional capital and they themselves need more time to raise new funds. So there are still many challenges. A better exit market in 2025 can ensure that investments also come on stronger.”
We’ll dive a bit deeper with our funding analysis in the next weeks, because we think there are some more interesting insights to gain from this! Have a look at all investments in Q4 2024 here.
* Golden Egg Check makes educated guesses for the undisclosed amounts, so we are able to make a good and consistent estimation about the state of venture capital in NL. The known/disclosed amount in Q4 was €416M and in 2024 €2.3B
The post Investments in Dutch startups increase with 23% in 2024 appeared first on Golden Egg Check.
