The Netherlands climbs to 13th place of best-performing startup ecosystems worldwide. This puts the Netherlands up one place from last year. This is according to a recent report by Genome.
Why this is important:
Startups play an important role economically, acting as the job engine of the future. Moreover, they offer innovative solutions to challenges in areas such as climate and health care.
Silicon Valley still ranks No. 1 among best-performing startup ecosystems, followed by New York City and London (shared second spot). London is the only European ecosystem to outperform the Netherlands, which is ahead of the ecosystems of Paris (14th place) and Berlin (15th place). This leaves Europe with only one ecosystem in the top 10, which is a worrying sign. Globally, Miami is the most notable riser. By 7 spots, Miami rises to 16th place.
The economic impact of Dutch startups increases
The Dutch ecosystem created $96 billion in value over the measured eighteen-month period (July 2021 – December 2023), according to the report. This is a growth of a whopping 32 percent compared to a year and a half before (July 2019 – December 2021).
In the performance areas of funding, talent, and experience, among others, the Dutch ecosystem scores high and enters the global top 15. In terms of research and patent activities, the Netherlands is among the top 20 ecosystems. Among other things, the Startup Visa and residence permit for startup personnel are mentioned as the main reasons for moving a startup to the Netherlands.
Tech giants and unicorns
International tech giants such as Tesla, Meta, IBM and Google have offices in the Netherlands. In addition, the Netherlands continues to produce outstanding companies, as evidenced by the emergence of two new unicorns in the first quarter of 2024: Datasnipper and Mews.
Life sciences, agrifood, and semiconductors
The report confirms the Netherlands’ high status in life sciences, agrifood and semiconductors. This is based on the talent density, support resources and startup activities in these areas. The 30% percent scheme plays a prominent role in attracting talent from abroad.
“The Netherlands manages to hold on to its strong position as a tech ecosystem. It shows that we are still an attractive country for tech talent and that we are moving in the right direction with the focus on deep tech and encouraging more investments and a strong entrepreneurial community,” said Constantijn van Oranje, special envoy of Techleap. “At the same time, we do not stare blindly at this relative success because we see that we are falling behind in a number of crucial value chains due to lack of money, people, electricity, and focus. To compete on a European and global scale and make a greater social and economic impact, our tech companies will need to grow faster.”
Investment in deep tech and AI rising worldwide
In 2023, there were fewer investments worldwide overall, but a larger share came from the deep-tech industry (knowledge-intensive technology). In addition, there was a huge increase in investments in generative AI. Global investments in generative AI tripled last year to nearly 200 billion.
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