Annual Report 2023: The National Financing and Development Institution

Invest-NL, the national financing and development institution, has today published its annual report and financial statements for 2023. Since its inception in 2020, Invest-NL has focused on financing and accelerating major societal transitions in the Netherlands.

Foreword Annual Report 2023

Impact is our goal

The Netherlands faces major societal challenges. By 2050, our economy will run on completely different technologies, raw materials, energy sources, and business models than today. This can only be achieved with innovative entrepreneurs, the development of new ecosystems, and scalable innovations.

We are Invest-NL, the national financing and development agency. We make the Dutch economy more sustainable and innovative by mobilizing capital: from Invest-NL itself, market parties, governments, and Europe. Through the deployment of our knowledge, expertise, and networks. By developing new markets, improving investment propositions, and designing new financial instruments and models. And by investing ourselves where the market cannot, not yet, or not fully provide the financing. In this way, we enable financing for what seems unfinancable. This also makes it more attractive for other parties to invest. Impact is our primary aim, profit is the means.

With our solid mandate and a budget of approximately € 2 billion, we can make an important contribution to accelerating major societal transitions. But we cannot do this alone. Collaboration is crucial given the large challenges. And we aim to be a connecting link between entrepreneurs, investors, financiers, and public parties. In the Netherlands and across Europe.

Driven by our cultural values - courage, future-oriented, passionate, professional, and collaborative - we dare to set high standards for ourselves. In spring 2023, we further refined our strategy, shaping our role as a broad national financing and development agency, partly by mobilizing additional capital. 2023 marked the first year the Deep Tech Fund was fully operational, the Cabinet announced a €100 million allocation for the Economic Security Shield, and we established a subsidiary to provide blended finance products in partnership with the National Growth Fund and others. We also received an additional mandate from the Ministry of OCW for the development of a sustainability program for educational housing.

Regarding our role in mobilizing European and institutional capital, 2023 featured several highlights. After years of preparation, we became the implementing partner of InvestEU and agreed with the European Commission on three guarantee products concerning first-of-a-kind plants, energy, and deep tech. We also became the implementing partner for the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility (AFIF) and launched, together with the European Investment Fund (EIF), the Dutch Future Fund II (DFF II). Our relationships with institutional investors have been strengthened to further shape the financing of transitions and the enhancement of venture capital.

We had the privilege of working with wonderful companies. Whether it’s the solar foil producer HyET Solar from Arnhem, the scaling up of foundation production for wind energy by Sif in Rotterdam, Seenons, the ‘waste manager’ for the circular transition, or the deep tech scale-up Nearfield Instruments. Each of these companies has relied significantly on Invest-NL to secure the necessary financing. Investing in risk also means we sometimes have to face setbacks, such as the bankruptcy of Lightyear early last year.

In 2023, Invest-NL facilitated € 288 million in new investments. By the end of 2023, we had committed over € 910 million gross across 82 investments since our start. This mobilized € 2.7 billion in private investments. No other high-risk investor in the Netherlands makes so many deals in large transitions with a focus on scaling up. The ratio of indirect fund investments to direct investments in companies and projects will shift in the coming years toward approximately 30/70%. Through these financings, we ultimately aim to create impact. In the companies we invest in, € 249 million is invested in R&D, and 6,780 people find future-proof jobs. These investments in people and research & development show a potentially significant CO2e reduction, of which we will report on regularly over the next years.

The consolidated net result of Invest-NL for the financial year 2023 is a negative € 49.5 million after taxes. We expect Invest-NL to generate a negative result for several years until the investment portfolio can deliver substantial positive benefits. Due to the challenging investment climate, we have had to set aside additional provisions or revalue some investments in 2023. Since we value our investments at fair value, effects of economic developments and the difficult investment climate quickly become visible in the value of these investments.

The appointment of Jellie Banga as a member of the Executive Board and Jan Pieter Postma as CFO led in 2023 to an expansion of the Board from 1 to 3 members. This creates a stable governance foundation for the ongoing continuity and development of the organization. The core of Invest-NL is formed by all our employees—an exceptionally ambitious and high-quality group committed to making an impact. In line with our ambition to contribute maximally to societal transitions, Invest-NL is open to broader use of its mandate and additional roles that fit with a national financing and development agency. The need for strengthened coordination of the public financing offer for transition challenges and innovation is also emphasized in broader societal and political debates. Ultimately, this will require a political decision from the new government.

Rinke Zonneveld
CEO

Looking Back

Earlier, a retrospective video was published. Four colleagues from Invest-NL give you a quick overview of some highlights from 2023.