Dutch government and Invest-NL unveil joint investment plan: half a billion for growth companies

The government’s commitment of € 250 million has already been announced by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate as part of its August support and recovery package. At the time, the plan was to invest € 150 million in a national scale-up facility.

In the case of the Dutch Future Fund, the European Investment Fund (EIF) has agreed to co-invest € 150 million. The government and Invest-NL are also in talks with the EIF regarding the two other fund initiatives.

State Secretary for Economic Affairs Mona Keijzer explains, “Investing in start-ups and scale-ups is investing in the future of the country. In addition to supporting struggling entrepreneurs, it is also our duty to enable our growth companies to look to the future and to support them in their development. Their growth will provide us all with jobs and income, bring new products and technologies to the market, and keep our economy strong. That’s why we are determined to keep them here on Dutch soil. I am happy that we are working with Invest-NL to make as much capital as possible available to our start-ups and scale-ups, both in a national and a European context.”

Wouter Bos, CEO of Invest-NL shares her enthusiasm: “With these three initiatives, Invest-NL and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate have underlined their commitment to innovative growth companies. Each fund initiative has a specific focus and therefore responds to the specific context in which the entrepreneurs and their companies operate. The cooperation with the European Investment Fund shows that Invest-NL is delivering on an essential aspect of what it was founded to do: making European investment funds more accessible to Dutch entrepreneurs.”

Dutch Future Fund

The Dutch Future Fund (DFF) invests in other venture capital funds to increase the amount of capital available to Dutch innovative growth companies. An investment by the DFF (and therefore by the Dutch government and Invest-NL) can give other investors the confidence to participate as well. The DFF can draw on the following contributions: € 125 million from Invest-NL, € 25 million from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and € 150 million from the EIF. The EIF estimates that a total of over € 1.5 billion could be mobilised through the DFF.

Deep tech

For innovations that are knowledge-intensive and therefore require a lot of capital (referred to here as deep tech), the search for funding is often beset with difficulties. This sector often champions new technologies that have yet to prove themselves and involve relatively high risks for investors. The planned fund for this sector is an initiative of various regional players, such as Brainport Eindhoven, Top Sectors and Techleap.nl, and is being jointly developed by the Ministry, Invest-NL and the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs). Knowledge-intensive companies currently supported by RDAs or other market parties and keen to achieve further growth, should be able to make use of this fund, which is still under development.

Alternative financing

Banks are not the only source of capital for today’s entrepreneurs. There are also alternative financing options, such as fund investment or crowdfunding. Alternative financiers have greater difficulty attracting funding, while some entrepreneurs are unable to persuade a bank to provide credit. That’s why the government is currently working with Invest-NL to examine ways of supporting alternative financiers so that more capital becomes available for growth companies.