Annual Report 2024: National Promotional Institution

That is what Invest-NL has been doing for five years to make the Netherlands more innovative and sustainable. We help the market move in the right direction by removing financing bottlenecks and mobilising funding. Through market development, new financial instruments, and by providing patient capital, we attract public and private capital for the transitions that advance the Netherlands. We utilise public capital to mobilise additional investments from private and institutional parties and from Europe. We leverage our knowledge and networks to support the growth of innovative companies and sectors and to reduce risks. We do this together with innovative entrepreneurs, investors, knowledge institutions, and Dutch and European governments. As a National Promotional Institution, we have a unique mandate and patient capital to address the challenges of our time. We are positioned to step in where the market has yet to act. Where markets hesitate, we take action. In this way, we contribute to the future earning capacity of the Netherlands.

With our public mandate, strengthening our position, and a budget of approximately € 3 billion, we are well equipped to fully embrace this role with even greater enthusiasm in the coming years.

In 2024, Invest-NL committed € 236 million in investments. By mid-2024, we surpassed € 1 billion in gross commitments. A remarkable achievement in less than five years. By the end of the year, Invest-NL had a total of € 1.145 billion gross committed to 89 investments. This has mobilised € 3.2 billion in private investments. There is no high-risk investor in the Netherlands making as many investments in large-scale transitions aimed at scaling up. The number of investments last year was slightly higher than expected. However, due to the ongoing challenging investment climate, many companies and funds found it difficult to secure substantial (follow-up) investments, resulting in the average investment size falling slightly short of expectations.

With these financings, we aim to create impact. Our investments involve € 389 million in R&D, and 14,292 people will gain a future-oriented workplace. These investments in people, research, and development show a very significant potential for CO2 savings, which we will report on precisely in this report and in the coming years. We also expect strong impact on other impact indicators, such as avoided healthcare costs, healthy life years, raw material use, and reductions in water and land use. Additionally, several of our portfolio companies and funds play a key role in supporting the ambitions of the National Technology Strategy, including in the fields of photonics, quantum technology, and cybersecurity.

The consolidated net result of Invest-NL for the 2024 financial year is a negative € 23.3 million after taxes. Significantly better than in previous years. It is expected that Invest-NL will generate a negative result for several years before the investment portfolio can realise substantial positive benefits. Due to the challenging investment climate, we had to make additional provisions or revaluations on some investments in 2024. Since we value our investments at fair value, effects of economic developments and the difficult climate are quickly reflected in their value. In 2024, impairments were lower than in 2023, and for the first time, some substantial revaluations were also recognised in our portfolio.

The world is undergoing significant change. Inspired in part by the Draghi report, it is widely recognised that Europe faces a major challenge in strengthening its competitiveness and closing the substantial innovation gap with the US and China. The importance of accelerating large societal transitions, such as energy, circular economy, and healthcare, remains paramount. Moreover, geopolitical developments have made other challenges more prominent in recent years, including safeguarding our (economic) security, reducing strategic dependencies, and strengthening industrial policy. All these developments have a substantial impact on Invest-NL’s activities. A more sustainable, more innovative, and resilient Netherlands requires significant investments in the economy of tomorrow.

However, money alone is not always the answer. Insufficient knowledge, long payback periods, high (technological) risks, an immature ecosystem, lack of demand, or laws and regulations that do not align with the new reality make many business cases uncertain. Consequently, markets may be unable or unwilling to fully finance businesses and projects that contribute to societal transitions. Invest-NL not only acts as a provider of patient capital but also as an organisation that helps address and resolve financing bottlenecks.

Invest-NL itself is also undergoing significant change. We are working on further deepening and broadening our mandate as a National Promotional Institution. Besides equity investments in innovative, capital-intensive startups and scale-ups, we increasingly focus on providing debt financing such as project finance. We are also developing new financial instruments aimed at tackling market failures and mobilising third-party capital. An important example is the announcement of the initiative to jointly explore with pension funds the possibilities for establishing the Dutch Impact Growth Fund, which aims to give a significant boost to scaling impact investing, making these companies less dependent on American and Asian capital as they grow. As part of the capital reinforcement by the government, we will also have a specific blended finance mandate to provide funding under softer terms than market-rate capital. This allows us to finance socially relevant companies and projects and thus mobilise more private funding. Besides our specific mandate on economic security, we are exploring our role in areas such as dual use and defence-related investments.

The government has also announced in its coalition agreement that it will explore the potential integration of Invest-NL and Invest International. This exploration began last year, and the outcome is expected by the summer of 2025.

Invest-NL remains a relatively young organisation, working daily to grow and professionalise further. Last year, we took an important step by appointing a director for IT, Data, and Operations, strengthening our processes and systems. We also further embedded our cultural values (courage, professionalism, future orientation, passion, and collaboration), and took initial steps to clarify roles, improve secondary and tertiary employment conditions, and develop a new governance and organisational model. Additionally, we invested heavily in talent and leadership development last year.

After all, our most valuable asset is our human capital: the highly ambitious and high-quality team that dedicates itself daily to investing in the economy of tomorrow.

Rinke Zonneveld, Jan Pieter Postma, and Jellie Banga
Board of Directors, Invest-NL