Techleap: development of the Dutch tech sector is lagging behind

The Netherlands is not paying enough attention to tech companies, and is starting to lag behind other countries, said sector representative Techleap.nl. According to the organization, there is no eye for the long term. Formerly known as StartupDelta, the organization released a report on the state of the sector on Thursday.

Investors put 5.6 billion euros into young companies last year, over three times more than in 2020, according to the report. The Netherlands has approximately 11,000 new companies that are worth more than 300 billion euros in total, yet only one in five start-up companies manage to grow. That rate is lower than in other countries.

According to Techleap.nl, this is due to "the availability of talent and access to capital in the earliest phase." It is also partly because "entrepreneurs often seem to lack ambition and focus more on starting a company and achieving autonomy, rather than letting it grow successfully."

The organization, led by Prince Constantijn, also examined the politics affecting the situation. The new Cabinet is allocating billions for climate and care, but the plans "lack the role of the innovative business community in their development, as well as the resources and ideas to allow companies from the new innovative economy to drive it."