Dutch scale ups face €500 billion financing gap ⁠— report

Despite being among Europe's most competitive economies, growth in the Netherlands has stalled in recent decades amid challenges directing sufficient growth funding to Dutch scale ups.
Dutch scale ups face €500 billion financing gap ⁠— report

New data from international VC Lakestar suggests Dutch businesses are being hampered by a significant €500 billion shortfall in growth-stage financing.

The report, which uses data from consultancy McKinsey, forewarns that the Netherlands could see stagnating economic growth as a result of the financing gap. Lakestar also presents a suite of recommendations to reverse the trend based on earlier innovation programmes in the US.

Measures that could help close the innovation gap are said to include better education, asset allocation, regulatory reforms and strategies to improve access to investors.

Lakestar says the Netherlands has traditionally banked on scaling up growth economies to support GDP growth. Currently one of Europe's most competitive economies, the country's Amsterdam Exchange Index largely consists of post-World War II scale ups.

In recent decades, Dutch growth has slowed to around 1% CAGR (from 2000 to 2020,) a sharp fall of around two thirds on the comparable rate from 1990 to 2000. The report concludes the Netherlands will require another 3,000 growth-stage companies to reverse the GDP declines, with this target projected to unlock €2 trillion in economic value through to 2042.

This is the third in a series of European special market analyses from Lakestar, following its in-depth reports on Germany and the UK.

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