The week at IO+: malaise in startup country

The Dutch startup sector is under pressure: investments have decreased significantly in the first quarter of 2025. This happened despite the large financing rounds of biotech companies such as Leyden Labs and Alesta Therapeutics, which managed to raise €70 million and €65 million respectively. Dutch startups raised an estimated €460 million, which is a significant drop of 59% compared to the first quarter of 2024, when more than one billion euros were invested. According to the authors of the Quarterly Startup Report, this decline questions the vitality of the Dutch start-up climate and the country's international competitiveness.

The new figures were announced, as they are every quarter, during a presentation organized by the Dutch Startup Association together with IO+. Read our report here.

Startups in the Netherlands saw a decline of no less than 59% in investments in the first quarter of 2025, totaling approximately €460 million, compared to more than €1 billion in the same period last year. This marks a fifth consecutive quarter in which the number of deals fell, from 89 to 79. Only before the last quarter of 2020 was that number even lower.

Large investment rounds (more than €15 million) have declined significantly. Compared to the past three quarters, the decline is less severe, which, according to Thomas Mensinck (Golden Egg Check), may indicate that the foundation of the Dutch startup world is still relatively stable. “It is interesting to see that in times when the world seems to look different every day, startups in the Netherlands have been raising about the same amount of capital for four quarters in a row.”

By comparison, here is another lesson in humility: American startups managed to raise a record amount of 100 billion dollars in the first quarter of this year – their strongest quarter since 2021. How this will develop after the introduction of the trade tariffs is, of course, the big question for now.

Aaron Saunders (Boston Dynamics) pitching

Fun Fact

Last week, most visitors to IO+ came from the United States. Unfortunately, they were not there to learn more about the European response to the trade war unleashed by Trump, but because of an article about Boston Dynamics' strategy and ambitions in the field of 'Humanoids', or robots that resemble humans. You can read it here.

The power of colors

KLM blue, Milka purple, T-Mobile magenta... if you own a color, you can say you own a strong brand. Marco Coolen explains the ins and outs of patenting a color marking.

Newsletters

Because every week people seem to be clicking on the sign-up for our newsletters, here are the options we offer once again:

• IO+ Daily (1200 members)
• Mauro's Green Corner (13,800 members)
• Elcke's Saturday Data Dive (20,550 members)
• Elcke and Mauro's BIO+ Bites (29,300 members)
• Aafke's Saturday CHIPS (16,300 members)

And then there was this:

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• Productivity under pressure: regions must look for their own growth strategy
• A shed and a mission: Dirk Bont's UV delivery boxes
• AI-AI Captain! Autonomous sailing conquers new sectors
• Next leap from Boston Dynamics: humanoids for every day
• Next phase for floating wind turbine with one rotor blade
• European Union excluded from Llama 4 multimodal models
• Green energy will supply 40% of the world's electricity in 2024
• Clusters as engines of innovation: Leuven model leads the way
• Tech changes lives: 3 promising healthcare innovations
• New strategy for innovation and upscaling of the defense industry
• Harvesting tomatoes with robots: big step towards autonomous agriculture

Want to make sure you don't miss a thing? You can find an overview of all our articles here. Have a great Sunday!