Q3 2025: Dutch venture funding dips 37% QoQ as deal count hits five-year low

Dutch startups raised €449M in Q3 2025, up 3.5 per cent YoY but 37 per cent below Q2. Early-stage deals hit a five-year low, says Quarterly Startup Report.

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In Q3, 2025, around €449M was invested in Dutch startups. This marks a 3.5 per cent increase compared to the same quarter in the previous year (Q3 2024: €434M).

However, it also represents a 37 per cent decrease compared to the second quarter of this year (Q2 2025: €716M), says Quarterly Startup Report.

The Quarterly Startup Report is a collaborative effort by Golden Egg Check, Dealroom, KPMG NL Emerging Giants, the Regionale Ontwikkelingsmaatschappijen (ROMs), NVP, Techleap, Invest-NL, and the Dutch Startup Association.

Number of deals at the lowest level in five years

A total of 79 investments were recorded in Q3, according to the report. That is 22 per cent less than in Q2 (101 deals) and 1 per cent less than in Q3 last year (80 deals).

This is the lowest number of deals since Q3 2020, as was the case in Q1 this year.

After a rise in the previous quarter, the number of pre-seed investments (under €1M) has dropped from 20 to 12. The total amount for these investments fell from €5.3M last year to €4.2M now.

Seed investments (between €1 and €4M) are still the most common, making up 42 per cent of all deals, but they account for just 9.7 per cent of the total money invested.

“Since the peaks of 2021 and 2022, the Dutch venture capital market has been in a state of status quo for a number of years. Approximately €500M is invested each quarter, and the number of deals is gradually declining. Underlying this, it is interesting to see what is changing, such as a decrease in rounds to €1M. For a summer quarter, it was not a bad quarter, but it is far from a silver lining at the end of the tunnel,” says Thomas Mensink of Golden Egg Check.

Late stage remains the dominant factor in volume

Series B+ investments, which include funding rounds of €15M or more, dropped from 12 in Q2 to 10 in Q3.

However, these investments now account for 68.5 per cent of the total capital invested this quarter.

The share of late-stage deals has been increasing this year, rising from 12.7 per cent in Q1 to 15.2 per cent in Q2 and now 16.1 per cent in Q3.

In Q3, there was also a major investment: Framer raised $100M in a Series D round from Meritech and Atomico.

This funding values the Amsterdam-based company at $2B, making it the newest Dutch unicorn.

“Growth in later stages and certain technologies is not only a success factor, but has also become a cause for concern. The Netherlands and Europe do not have the strong and broad early-stage foundation that the US has built up in recent years and are falling further and further behind. Investments in critical technology and the growth phase are important, but if we ignore the foundation, we will undermine our ecosystem. Government incentives should therefore be broadened to cover all phases and be technology-agnostic, moving beyond the focus on deep tech and scale-ups alone,” says Lucien Burm, chair of the Dutch Startup Association

Top 10 largest investments in Q3, 2025

Strong growth in food and cleantech

The foodtech sector experienced a significant surge, with seven deals totalling about €60M, a notable increase compared to the typical two to three deals per quarter.

Similarly, the cleantech and high-tech sectors continued to perform well, with high-tech investments reaching approximately €70M, says the report.

Investments in an AI product

Of all investments, nearly a third went to startups where AI is at the core of the product.

No investments in fundamental AI were reported. As expected, the vast majority, two-thirds, apply AI.

Major role for government funds

The prominent role of public funds such as Invest-NL, which was involved in more than half of the 10 largest deals in Q3, including Vicentra (Kaleido), The Protein Brewery, Revyve, LeydenJar and QuiX Quantum, is striking, says the report.

“Although I am proud that Invest-NL was involved in six of the ten most important investment rounds last quarter, the overall picture is not positive. The limited number of early-stage deals is particularly worrying. After all, tomorrow’s scale-ups are today’s early-stage start-ups. We must all ensure that this pipeline remains well stocked with promising ventures. This requires continued attention from policymakers, including the continuation of the successful Seed Capital scheme,” says Rinke Zonneveld, CEO of Invest NL.

“Within the ROMs, we saw more and larger transactions take place last year, including this quarter. There is also enormous investment potential for public funds, particularly in early-stage financing. However, we see that – despite our existing investment infrastructure – we are encountering limitations at the national level. It is important to fine-tune regulations for early-stage investments, seed capital and innovation credit, for example,” adds Marc Jansen, managing director of BOM Investments, on behalf of ROM Nederland

“But investments must be actually made; otherwise, foreign investors will walk away with our innovations. The investment scope that can be made available through a national investment institution to supplement our regional infrastructure is therefore very welcome,” concludes Jansen.