General
Annual Report 2024: National Promotional Institution
23 mei 2025
May 21, 2021
5 minutes
A special partnership with a shared ambition: taking Dutch tech to a global level
The partnership between Techleap and Invest-NL aims to accelerate and increase funding for innovative entrepreneurs in the Netherlands. It involves exchanging and sharing expertise, developing joint programmes and advising the government on matters such as policy and regulation for start-ups and developing companies.
Techleap's mission is to bring the start-up ecosystem to the next level by working on the main bottlenecks. These include availability of growth capital, access to the right talent, and support in internationalising and launching new, promising technologies on the market. Maurice: 'In terms of jobs, tech is already the fastest growing sector in the Netherlands. We need to ensure, as a country, that we are the leaders in multiple technologies. This will make us not only a tech buyer but a tech supplier as well, which will ensure further economic growth, jobs, and prosperity. At Techleap, we focus primarily on scale-ups and supporting them in their growth.
Scale-ups that grow into companies that are relevant on a global scale can then serve as role models, coaches, connectors, and investors for the next generation.
Leo: 'Invest-NL's mission is to make the Netherlands more innovative and sustainable. Techleap and Invest-NL are a perfect match when it comes to financing scale-ups: Techleap broadly encourages the ecosystem, and we lend assistance to funds and scale-ups in arranging new funding.'
The synergy was obvious. Soon after Invest-NL was founded, Techleap and Invest-NL signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding; a document in which the parties set out their joint intentions). Maurice: 'Invest-NL is a logical partner for us. We both focus on addressing funding issues where there is a market failure or where acceleration is required in order to compete on an international level. We exchange data and knowledge, and we collaborate.' Leo adds: 'We do joint research into areas that the market ignores. The risks may be too great, or the lead time too long, for conventional investments. That is where we are able to provide the right support. We take a vigorous approach in that regard with, for example, our Dutch Future Fund (DFF), by which we have already invested in ten venture capital funds – together with the European Investment Fund. These funds in turn invest in dozens of start-ups and scale-ups in technology, life sciences, artificial intelligence, agtech and IT.'
The objectives of the partnership between Techleap and Invest-NL are to quadruple the amount of venture capital for the energy transition over the next five years and to double the number of start-ups that grow into successfully funded scale-ups. This should enable the Netherlands to become one of the top three in Europe in the field of tech investments.
Invest-NL occupies a unique position in the financing of the technological and innovative ecosystem.
There is a great deal of interaction within the partnership. Maurice: 'Techleap collaborates with many people at Invest-NL. We discuss new developments with Wilco Schoonderbeek and Frits de Vries, actual investments with Leo Holwerda and Ruud Zandvliet, and specific matters such as sustainability with Yvonne Neef.'
Invest-NL's energetic, pragmatic attitude has been especially positive for Maurice: 'Invest-NL really follows through. The activities in the field of sustainability and energy transition and the fact that the organisation was able to support a large number of medical technology companies during the COVID-19 crisis is impressive.' Leo: 'The COVID-19 crisis was a positive challenge for our partnership. We collaborated closely in introducing the Coronavirus Bridging Loan (Corona-Overbruggingslening, or COL) and the Temporary Bridging Loan Programme for Innovative Start-ups and Scale-ups (Tijdelijke Overbruggingskrediet Programma innovatieve Start-ups en Scale-ups, or TOPSS). Together with the regional development authorities and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, hundreds of early-stage companies were helped by these programmes during the COVID-19 crisis. We also explored the challenges together, such as how to help those companies that have real potential but were struggling due to COVID-19. In such a situation, it is important to know how to deal with disappointment when companies and individuals do not agree with you. Setting up a new Deeptech Fund, which we are working on together, is also unique. It will help companies that have wonderful innovations, but that require a long research trajectory, to get more funding.'
Maurice: 'We look to the future with confidence, as we anticipate the establishment of more new funds such as the Deeptech Fund. We are also confident that the sector-focused strategy will involve a lot of collaboration on data, connecting the right investors and deploying capital through funds and co-investments.'
We are both personally driven to make an impact through our work.
Maurice and Leo have experienced a meeting of the minds in helping innovative companies achieve faster growth. Maurice started his career at the AMC (Academic Medical Centre), working as a developer of an experimental cancer treatment. The product worked and the team won a European award, but a funding crunch ensued. 'It was such a shame. When I see innovative companies struggling with problems like this, I feel driven to lend a helping hand. In my previous position as CEO of the Amsterdam stock exchange (Euronext Amsterdam), I saw the supply of new IPOs stagnate, even though a lot of technology was being developed in the Netherlands. It's nice to be very directly involved in working on these kinds of challenges.'
Leo joined Invest-NL with the conviction that impact and economic growth can be combined through smart investments in the technologies of the future. 'Since the risks of investing in new technology are very high, it is good that the government and private parties such as Invest-NL take this risk in the initial phase and are able to benefit when these new technologies become successful. They can then invest in the next innovations. That's when we really make a sustainable impact.'
