/ Insights / Dutch startups off to a slow start in 2016 – raising €69 million in Q1

Dutch startups off to a slow start in 2016 – raising €69 million in Q1

Dutch startups have raised 69 million euro in the first quarter of 2016. The funding activity is slightly higher compared to the previous quarter, when 59 million euro was raised in Q4 2015 – but is off to a slow start compared to the same period last year, when nearly 86 million euro was raised.

In total, we saw 36 deals in the first quarter of this year. The average deal size in Q1 2016 was €1.9M and the median deal size was €1.0M. Compared to Q4 2015, where we saw 34 deals, an average deal size of €1.7M and the same median deal size – these numbers show a small quarter-on-quarter improvement.

Dutch startups aren’t the only ones prone to this almost flat growth. Recent numbers from Tech.eu show nearly the same trend (Q4 2015 to Q1 2016) through all of Europe + Israël, when compared to statistics in the Netherlands.

Although both in Europe and The Netherlands the number of deals grew, the average Dutch startup deal size in Q1 didn’t go down. If we look at the deal size in absolutes, Dutch startups of course are behind.

Biggest deals are for medtech

We didn’t see a lot of big deals this quarter; just five deals of €5M or more. Two medtech companies took the lead at the start of 2016. DNA analytics startup BlueBee tops the list with a €10M series A investment and immunotherapy startup Gadeta received €7M and takes second place. Fintech startup BUX is third with €6.1M. Community engagement platform Insided (€6M) and Robot Robotics Company (€5M) complete the top 5.

There isn’t a sector dominating in this quarter’s funding. However, e-commerce and software startups – as always – are well represented.

Here’s the full list of Dutch startup funding in Q1 2016, ranked highest to lowest.

Name Amount (€) Type By Who Link Investment from country:
Bluebee 10,000,000 series A VC Capricorn ICT Arkiv, Korys and Biover II StartupJuncture BE
Gadeta 7,000,000 series A VC Medicxi Ventures, Baxalta Ventures, Utrecht Holdings Gadeta (pdf) US + UK + NL
Bux 6,100,000 venture/series B VC Holtzbrinck Ventures StartupJuncture DE
Insided 6,000,000 series A VC Ventech, Fortino Capital, HenQ Invest StartupJuncture FR + BE + NL
Robot Robots Company 5,000,000 venture gov + VC’s InnovationQuarter + Rabobank, others StartupJuncture NL
Wercker 4,100,000 series A VC’s Inkef, Notion StartupJuncture NL + EN
Crowdynews 3,700,000 series A VC Inkef StartupJuncture NL
Tiqets 3,650,000 series A VC Capital Mills StartupJuncture NL
GetSocial 2,300,000 venture VC’s Astor Participaties, Enabling Technology Fund, Slingshot Capital, Novamedia StartupJuncture NL
iWelcome undisclosed series B gov + VC’s PPM Oost, Newion Investments, Filsa Capital StartupJuncture NL
Vandebron 2,000,000   gov Akef StartupJuncture NL
Sendcloud 2,000,000 series A VC + gov TIIN Capital + BOM StartupJuncture NL
Peerby 2,000,000 equity crowdfunding crowdfunders OnePlanetCrowd StartupJuncture  
Simplicate “more than 1 million”   gov NOM StartupJuncture NL
Mall-Connect 1,000,000 series A VC Newion Investments StartupJuncture NL
Newest Industry undisclosed equity corporate Aegon StartupJuncture NL
WePrevent undisclosed venture VC VOC Capital Partners StartupJuncture NL
TheNextCloset 1,000,000 seed publisher Wayne Parker Kent StartupJuncture NL
KimKim 910,000 seed VC’s NFX Guild + others StartupJuncture US
Crunchr undisclosed seed corporate Randstad Innovation Fund StartupJuncture NL
OPNT 500,000 seed VC Cottonwood StartupJuncture US
Toxys undisclosed series A VC Zeeuws Investment Fund, InnovationQuarter StartupJuncture NL
RISKID undisclosed venture VC’s InvestinFuture, InnovationQuarter StartupJuncture NL
PolarSteps 500,000 seed VC + corporate Silver Point Ventures + TMG StartupJuncture NL
Eccentrade 500,000 seed   undisclosed Index.co  
WeCity 500,000 seed   undisclosed Index.co  
OpenClaims 500,000 seed   undisclosed Dealroom  
ProctorExam “500 minus 85k” seed angels + crowdfunding Leapfunder StartupJuncture NL
Goboony 350,000 seed angels Ronald Zwartkruis e.a. StartupJuncture NL
SolarMonkey 200,000 seed gov + angel InnovationQuarter StartupJuncture NL
Flex-Appeal 185,000 seed angels undisclosed StartupJuncture  
Leapfunder 160,000 equity crowdfunding crowdfunders Leapfunder Index.co NL
Watermelon 150,000 seed   undisclosed StartupJuncture  
Confocal undisclosed seed   UvA Holdings BV StartupJuncture NL
Cabture 50,000 equity crowdfunding crowdfunders Symbid StartupJuncture NL

Coolblue

An honorable mention goes out to webshop Coolblue. The scale-up, founded in 1999, allegedly got 140 million euro in a series D round from HAL Investments for 20 percent of the company.

Important notes

As always: a little disclaimer for the creation of this funding report.

The goal of the list is to give an overview of investments into startups. We do not include pre-sales crowdfunding (like on Kickstarter), only convertible note or equity crowdfunding. We typically also don’t count grants and subsidies. We don’t mention funding below 50.000 euro. Majority stakes or takeovers don’t count for our list. When an investment size was undisclosed, our team made an educated guess. A startup should also have a Dutch connection: either the company must be based in The Netherlands or have Dutch founders.

For the definition of a startup: this is always arbitrary. The complete table should be helpful though for anyone who defines the term ‘startup’ differently. In the past we included big fish scale-ups like Adyen and Catawiki because they’re still growing fast (and are max ten years old).

We tried to use all available public data sources. We relied on communication directly to the StartupJuncture team, information from incubators and accelerators, other media, information from crowdfunding platforms (Symbid, Leapfunder and OnePlanetCrowd) and from Index.co, Angellist, Crunchbase and Dealroom.

Of course, we are aware we might have missed something. This funding report however gives you a good impression of the state of startup funding in The Netherlands. If there’s something missing, just give us a heads up in the comments or via team(at)startupjuncture.com.

Image by Wikimedia Commons

Lorenz van Gool
Lorenz is co-editor-in-chief of StartupJuncture. As a freelance editor and journalist, he writes about startups, innovation and (e)-business. Loves to report from conferences. Really likes cleantech and journalism startups. You can ask him anything about dinosaurs. Twitter: @lorenzroman
  1. Jonathan Marks says:

    The problem with all these lists is the definition of start-ups and the tendency just to look at those companies building software. I think you missed this investment story out of Oss in Brabant. In December 2015 we witnessed one of the largest acquisitions so far in the history of the Dutch biotech sector. The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical concern AstraZeneca reportedly paid US$3.5 billion for a 55% share in a young Dutch scale-up company Acerta Pharma. It was founded just four years ago on the Pivot Park, they are developing drugs to cure haematological cancers.

    https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2015/AstraZeneca-enhances-long-term-growth-through-Oncology-investment-in-Acerta-Pharma.html

  2. Jonathan Marks says:

    The problem with all these lists is the definition of start-ups and the tendency just to look at those companies building software. I think you missed this investment story out of Oss in Brabant. In December 2015 we witnessed one of the largest acquisitions so far in the history of the Dutch biotech sector. The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical concern AstraZeneca reportedly paid US$3.5 billion for a 55% share in a young Dutch scale-up company Acerta Pharma. It was founded just four years ago on the Pivot Park, they are developing drugs to cure haematological cancers.
    https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2015/AstraZeneca-enhances-long-term-growth-through-Oncology-investment-in-Acerta-Pharma.html

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