State of Dutch Tech 2026: ready for scaling up to a global level

For Invest-NL, the report confirms that market failure occurs precisely during the scale-up phase: capital becomes available later, risks are shifted, and strategic technologies are at risk of leaving prematurely. As a public investor, Invest-NL therefore collaborates with private parties on solutions to close this gap and enable scaling in the Netherlands.

The State of Dutch Tech event this year is especially significant. It is not a traditional conference with a schedule full of presentations, but a large-scale working session.

In the interactive sessions, participants propose themes themselves, explore them together, and at the end of the day decide which initiatives to continue. With contributions from, among others, Rob Jetten, Peter Wennink, and Vincent Karremans, the event directly works on solutions to accelerate the scaling of Dutch technology companies.

From startup to scale-up

The figures from the report show why this joint approach is necessary. Although the absolute number of scale-ups is increasing, the report indicates that the conversion from startup to scale-up has hardly improved in recent years and that the inflow of new startups is decreasing. In 2025, 21.6% of startups progressed to scale-ups. This is a clear increase compared to 2019, when it was 13%. The comparison with other countries shows a different picture: in Europe, the average is 24.1%, while in the United States, more than half of the startups progress to scale-up. 

This emphasizes that the ecosystem is maturing, but that targeted interventions are especially needed in the early and growth phases to bring more companies to an international scale.  

The role of Invest-NL

For Invest-NL, this approach directly aligns with its role as a system player in the Dutch tech ecosystem. Especially in the growth phase, where markets are often cautious, collaboration is necessary to help companies further. State of Dutch Tech 2026 brings together entrepreneurs, investors, knowledge institutions, and governments and provides access to suitable capital. In this way, Invest-NL helps technologies with social and strategic value to, where the market is hesitant, take the step from development to scaling up.