In the past few weeks, a lot of different research reports have been published regarding the startup and scaleup ecosystem and fundraising in 2022 in The Netherlands and globally. Below we share an overview and short summaries of each report as well as links to the full reports.
KPMG Global Venture Pulse Report Q4 2022
- Overall, 2022 saw a return to more ‘normal’ levels of investment around the world after a record year in 2021 with global investment dropping for the fourth straight quarter in Q4’22 ($75.6 billion across 7641 deals).
- VC investment in both the Americas and Asia dropped for the fourth straight quarter in Q4’22, while Europe experienced a third quarter of declining investment.
- Late stage VC investment saw the sharpest drop amidst falling valuations and concerns about the profitability and sustainability of business models given worsening global economic conditions. China accounted for the majority of $500 million+ megadeals this quarter.
- VC investors focused on profitability and therefore cost-cutting was a key priority for companies to preserve cash.
- Unicorn companies faced significant pressure as the IPO window remained shut and valuations tumbled.
- Energy was an incredibly hot sector for VC investment, with numerous subsectors attracting large ticket sizes. Broader cleantech and ESG-related solutions also saw strong interest from VC investors.
- Looking ahead to Q1’23, the VC market globally is expected to remain challenged, with consumer-focused businesses expected to see the most strain.
- Link to full report can be found here.
The European Deep Tech Report
- European Deep Tech startups raised $17.7B in 2022, 22% less than 2021 total, but still +60% on 2020.
- Key emerging areas in Deep Tech have changed with four core emerging segments of Novel AI, Future of Computing, Novel Energy and Space Tech raising $4.4B in 2022, their highest total ever and double that of 2020.
- Spinout processes and unrealised potential of European universities can still be unlocked.
- Key enablers to unlock the growth of Deep Tech in Europe include bridging the gap in funding between early-stage dedicated Deep Tech investors and generalist funds, VC investment in European startups and increasing diversity and inclusion.
- Link to full report can be found here.
Dutch Startup Report 2022 (in Dutch)
- In 2022, half the amount of funding was raised compared with 2021 – €2.6B in 2022 compared with €5.3B in 2021.
- Nonetheless, 2022 was still the second-best year on record for investment in the Netherlands (with 2021 in first place), showing a longer-term upward trend (2020 at €1.7B).
- There were less deals in the later stage (Series D+ / >€15M), whilst early stage deals still went on strong despite uncertainty in the economic climate.
- The decline in later stage deals was due to less investments from large foreign parties. The Netherlands has few really large local investment funds, which means that startups are dependent on foreign parties for large rounds of growth capital. If this doesn’t change, it can have serious consequences for the longer term attractiveness of The Netherlands for companies.
- Structural growth in investment is expected to continue, first following the current pattern of more early stage and then the later phases. In addition to a large number of new funds, there is also a lot of uninvested money (‘dry powder’) available from Dutch funds.
- Link to full report can be found here.
Techleap State of Dutch Tech 2023
This report primarily focused on what is holding back the Dutch tech startup ecosystem and what needs to change:
- The Netherlands is lagging far behind neighboring countries when it comes to spin-off value created by universities because of the lack of funding.
- The Dutch tech sector attracts more international talent than most other sectors but lacks gender diversity and tech jobs are very difficult to fill.
- Dutch VC funds need to grow (with funding from pension funds) and should co-invest more, as 35% of >€10m deals don’t include a Dutch investor and only 41% of these are co-investments with international funds.
- Startup policy needs an integrated tech policy, with the needs of entrepreneurs front and center.
- Improving efficiency of tech transfer, business support, and funding for deeptech ventures to deliver more impact at scale.
- Growing and diversifying the talent pool from within and from outside the Netherlands to help our startups succeed and scale faster.
- Increasing the number of startups in the Netherlands by stimulating more diversity in leadership and inclusion in the ecosystem.
- Connecting ecosystems, stimulating regional development, and supporting thematic specialisation by addressing legal and other structural barriers in high-potential
domains like healthtech, biotech, fintech, energy, mobility, and others. - Growing and empowering a thriving community of entrepreneurs at the heart of a successful ecosystem.
- Link to full report can be found here.
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