Hospitality software firm Mews raised Dutch tech’s biggest funding round in the first quarter of 2025, in what was a tough start to the year for the sector.
Dutch startups raised around €460mn in the quarter, with a 59% decline in growth-stage funding raising alarm bells, according to the Quarterly Startup Report.
Together, the top 10 deals accounted for over €320mn — more than 75% of all funding raised last quarter.
Here are the biggest Dutch deals of Q1 2025:
1. Mews — €68mn ($75mn)
Mews, based at TNW City in Amsterdam, has built a cloud-based system that helps hotels and other hospitality businesses streamline tasks like booking rooms, checking guests in and out, and processing payments.
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This round follows a raise of $100mn in credit financing in September and a $110mn equity round in March 2024 — when the scaleup became a unicorn.
2. Alesta Therapeutics — €65mn
Alesta Therapeutics, based in Leiden, Netherlands, is a biotechnology company focused on developing novel oral small-molecule therapies for rare diseases.
3. Leyden Labs — €63mn ($70mn)
Leyden Labs is another biotech startup from Leiden — home to one of Europe’s leading life science hubs. The company is developing intranasal medicines to protect against respiratory viruses.
4. Vivici — €32.5mn
Vivici is a Dutch foodtech startup using precision fermentation to produce animal-free dairy proteins. Its proteins are designed to replace traditional dairy ingredients like whey and casein.
5. QuantWare — €20mn
Quantware designs and manufactures superconducting quantum processors. The startup claims to have created a 3D chip architecture that offers the fastest route to a 1-million qubit quantum computer — and plans to sell it to Big Tech companies.
6. Thorizon – €16mn
Deep tech startup Thorizon is developing modular molten salt reactors (MSRs) that utilise long-lived nuclear waste as fuel.
7. Varmx — €15mn
Varmx is a biotech startup developing a treatment to reverse bleeding in patients taking blood thinners.
8. Workwize — €12mn ($13mn)
Workwize provides cloud-based software for managing IT hardware in remote and hybrid workplaces.
9. Sirius Medical — €10mn
Another biotech startup, Sirius Medical has developed a tumour localisation technology that helps surgeons to precisely locate and remove breast tumours.
10. Stacks — €9mn ($10mn)
Amsterdam-based Stacks provides an AI-driven platform that streamlines financial closing processes for businesses.
Despite several eye-catching deals, a significant drop in growth-stage funding and fewer deals overall are raising concerns about the long-term health of the Dutch tech ecosystem.
Fewer deals, fewer growth rounds for Dutch tech
In total, just 79 deals were recorded in Q1 2025 — an 11% drop compared to the same period last year. It marked the fifth consecutive quarter in which deal count has fallen.
Most striking is the sharp decline in later-stage funding. Series B+ rounds halved from 14 in Q1 2024 to just seven this year. In total, late-stage startups raised €287mn — down an eye-watering €609mn from the previous year.
Equally telling, for the second quarter in a row, there were no Dutch mega-deals above €100mn — a stark contrast to previous years when such rounds were relatively common, the report found.
Early-stage startups, on the other hand, were a rare bright spot in an otherwise poor outlook. Seed deals (typically €1mn-€4mn) accounted for nearly half of all investments in Q1 2025, with total funding in this category growing over 15% year-on-year to €58.4mn.
That’s a healthy sign for future innovation, but without sufficient late-stage capital, there’s a risk that promising Dutch startups will be forced to look abroad for growth funding.
What’s next?
The outlook for the rest of 2025 is mixed.
On the one hand, the resilience of seed investment and a growing interest in deep tech and hardware — areas where Dutch startups like QuantWare and Thorizon excel — provide reasons for optimism.
“We can be proud of the Dutch entrepreneurs who, together with investors, realise world-class deep tech innovations,” said Myrthe Hooijman, director of ecosystem change and governmental affairs at Techleap.
On the other hand, several issues are causing concern. Global trade tensions, a sluggish exit market, and the increasing caution of international investors could slow down growth-stage funding even further, according to the report.
“We are not yet sounding the alarm, but standing still means going backwards,” said Lucien Burm, chairman of the Dutch Startup Association. “Not only did Europe lose its position internationally, but within Europe, the Netherlands is now losing importance.”
“With the geopolitical and economic unrest of the moment, instead of reactive measures, broad and deep investment in the business and investment climate is the recipe.”
The Quarterly Startup Report was put together by Dealroom.co, Golden Egg Check, KPMG, the Regional Development Companies (ROMs), the Dutch Association of Private Equity Companies (NVP), the Dutch Startup Association (dSa), and Techleap.
The future of Dutch tech is a key theme at TNW Conference, which takes place on June 19-20 in Amsterdam. Tickets for the event are now on sale. Use the code TNWXMEDIA2025 at the check-out to get 30% off the price tag.
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