Dutch startups raised €500 million last year: report

There were a total of 75 startup investment deals in the Netherlands in 2014, with a total investment of slightly more than 500 million euro. This is according to Startup Juncture, a site that keeps track of all Dutch startup news. According to the site, it is relatively easy for startups to raise smaller amounts of funding of less than 200 thousand euro, but very difficult to raise more than a million euro at an early stage. Despite this several startups in the Netherlands raised large amounts of funding in 2014. Ten companies raised more than 8 million euro. Crowdfunding remained a popular method of raising funding for a startup. Popular crowdfunding sites in the Netherlands include Symbid, Oneplanetcrowd and Geldvoorelkaar. Convertible notes have also become more popular in 2014. Convertible notes make it more attractive for investors to make an early high risk investment in a startup. According to Startup Juncture, this is "because there is no haggling over company valuation in the beginning".