When European tech last faced a crisis in 2000 and 2008, it structurally weakened, but today, the ecosystem is much more resilient and established. Important structural green shoots are appearing already: Europe is closing the early-stage funding gap with the US; Europe is increasing its investment in AI companies and focusing more on climate and other purpose-driven companies (State of European Tech, 2023).
The European Union (EU) is gearing up to allocate €180 million towards pioneering digital technologies. The move is part of the ongoing Horizon Europe Programme, which fosters collaborative research and development throughout the Union. Key technologies driving Europe’s shift towards a digital, sustainable, and inclusive future include Artificial Intelligence, robotics, and advanced materials (European Commission, 2023). Additionally, in the first half of 2023, total investment in Europe is projected to approach $50 billion for the entire year (State of European Tech, 2023).
Deep Tech in Europe has grown enormously and has shown resilience in recent market turmoil. Deep Tech companies apply a novel scientific or engineering breakthrough in the form of a product for the first time. European Deep Tech startups raised $17.7B in 2022, 22% less than the 2021 total but still +60% in 2020. Looking at Q3 & Q4 2022, Deep Tech was the 2nd best-performing segment behind only Energy year on year. By its nature, Deep Tech is constantly evolving. Some segments mature to the scaling and mainstream phases, while new ones emerge to push the boundaries of what is possible. Four core emerging segments of Novel AI, Future of Computing, Novel Energy and Space Tech raised $4.4B in 2022, their highest total ever and double that of 2020 (Dealroom, Lake Star & Walden Catalyst, 2023).
(TechLeap, 2023; TecBridge, 2022; Chambers & Partners, 2022; State of the European Tech, 2023)
(TechLeap, 2023; State of the European Tech, 2023; Maxima Consulting, 2023)
$18B VC investment in Europe and increasing diversity and inclusion. Deep Tech startups (Dealroom, Lake Star & Walden Catalyst, 2023)
North Holland is home to over 3.4K startups and 51.6K startup jobs (TechLeap, 2023)
South Holland accommodates 2K startups while having combined a value of €50B (TechLeap, 2023)
7 in 10 business leaders focus on a new “M&A triarchy” to deliver future business success: talent, tech and trade. (Chambers & Partners, 2022)
The combined value of private and public European tech companies has bounced back to its 2021year end high at $3T (State of European Tech, 2023)
The global and European demand for technology comes up with the Netherlands’ expertise in the sector. There is the benefit of fundamental technological knowledge, a multilingual workforce, generally, digital infrastructure and a great business climate, with a stable economy and low taxes, which are central to an innovative and open culture. The Netherlands often refers to the “Silicon Valley” of embedded systems and forms one of the most wired European countries (Invest In Holland, 2015:2023).
The currently trending segments of the fintech industry are the ecosystem of embedded finance, alternative finance, SaaS solutions platforms, AI technologies and regTech (Five Degrees, 2022). There is also the capability of developing new digital applications (Invest In Holland, 2015:2023).
When examining the Dutch tech sector from an internal perspective, it stands out by attracting more international talents than many other industries. However, concerning gender diversity, the Netherlands lags behind its counterparts in the European Union. In order to tackle this disparity, it is crucial for tech companies to enhance their data collection efforts and for investors to implement effective diversity and inclusion policies. Expanding the talent pool is especially pressing since the percentage of challenging-to-fill tech job vacancies in the Netherlands is rising, reaching 59% in 2023, up from 57% in 2020 and 58% in 2021 (Tech Leap, 2023).