Brabant funding boom has a blind spot: tomorrow’s tech champions

The investment figures suggest a region gathering speed. In the first nine months of 2026, the Brabant Development Agency (BOM) and its co-investors mobilised €561 million across 47 funding rounds. That already dwarfs the €238 million raised through 43 rounds in the whole of 2025. But look more closely, and a question emerges: how much room does this investment boom leave for companies still trying to prove themselves?

In their latest Van inzicht naar impact paper, Rabobank chief economist Otto Raspe and BOM CEO Brigit van Dijk–van de Reijt describe an economy with plenty to celebrate and urgent reasons to act. Capital is increasingly concentrating in larger, later funding rounds. Meanwhile, weak productivity growth, labour shortages and international uncertainty threaten the foundations beneath the headline numbers.

“At first glance, the Dutch economy is doing well,” says Raspe. “But this is only the tip of the iceberg.”

Growth needs a stronger engine

RaboResearch forecasts economic growth of 2.6% in Southeast Brabant in 2026, twice the national forecast of 1.3%. Only Greater Amsterdam, at 3.1%, is expected to grow faster.

That performance reflects a concentration of economic strength. Brainport Eindhoven, the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Utrecht region together accounted for half of Dutch economic growth over the past decade, according to the paper. In Southeast Brabant, industry generated around 60% of growth between 2013 and 2023.

For IO+ readers, the underlying story is familiar: specialised technology companies, manufacturers and knowledge institutions reinforce one another. But that success raises the stakes. When so much growth depends on a few regional engines, keeping those engines productive becomes a national concern.

Raspe identifies productivity as a central weakness, describing its growth as having stalled for fourteen years. With little scope to keep expanding the labour supply over the long term, future prosperity increasingly depends on producing more value with the people available.

AI, advanced machinery and better production processes could help. Turning those possibilities into working businesses requires sustained investment.

Record funding, uneven access

The Dutch startup and scale-up market attracted more than €3.1 billion in the first nine months of 2026, already exceeding the total for 2025, according to the Quarterly Startup Report cited in the paper.

BOM’s €561 million, mobilised together with co-investors, represented more than 18% of that national investment volume. Companies including Euclyd, Morphotonics, Keiron, VitalFluid and Tracxon secured growth capital to pursue international ambitions.

The concern is where the money goes next. Larger rounds help established scale-ups move forward, but the paper warns that continued attention to early-stage companies is essential. Today’s funding successes depend on businesses having previously found their first investors, technical talent and commercial guidance.

Brabant’s startup population grew by almost 20% between 2021 and 2025. A growing pipeline makes access to early support all the more consequential. BOM also points to its ability to attract other investors: according to Van Dijk–van de Reijt, for every euro it invests, it attracts €12 in co-financing. That makes regional investment capacity a way to bring substantially more money to the table.

National plans meet an immediate deadline

The paper welcomes government plans for a National Investment Institution, an expansion of the National Green Fund and a National Agency for Disruptive Innovation. Van Dijk–van de Reijt’s concern is timing. She expects initiatives such as the investment institution to take years to become operational. Companies raising money now face a much shorter deadline. “We need capital in the region now, on top of the government’s plans,” she says.

BOM is therefore talking to banks and pension funds about additional financing. At a banking dinner organised around LEVEL UP 2026, those institutions again expressed support for more risk capital and innovation financing, she reports. The practical challenge is making that money deployable quickly.

A supercomputer makes the argument tangible

One example of investment translating into access is Supercomputing Brabant, an initiative involving Tilburg University, Eindhoven University of Technology, BOM and the province. The partners jointly invested €14 million in a supercomputer. According to Van Dijk–van de Reijt, it is being made available free of charge to regional startups developing advanced AI technology, including innovations involving 6G and MRI.

Such infrastructure gives the productivity debate a concrete form: young companies gain access to computing power with which to develop and test technology. The paper also argues for a broader regional base. West Brabant’s food and biotechnology sector offers another route to growth. The Protein Brewery, for example, raised €18 million to bring its fermentation-based protein, fermotein, to the European market at scale.

Brainport’s next benchmark lies beyond the border

Raspe’s European comparison adds a final challenge. Leading regions comparable to Brainport invest considerably more in research, development and capital goods, he says. They also have stronger connections to national policy.

The implication is that regional success needs continuity: sustained investment over time, a clear place in national strategy, and connections to complementary expertise elsewhere. That could mean closer collaboration between West Brabant and Wageningen in food technology, or stronger European links in deeptech.

Brabant’s growth figures provide a basis for confidence. The harder task is ensuring that today’s investment records create the next generation of productive companies, and that promising founders can find support before they are large enough to feature in those records.