The Erasmus Center for Entrepreneurship in collaboration with nlgroeit has published this year’s annual Top 250 Scaleups in the Netherlands.
While growing into a scaleup is never an easy task, it’s even more challenging in times like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many fast-growing companies are vulnerable to crises, but they can be the quickest to recover from economic shocks and act as an engine of economic recovery.
“The 250 companies represented in the report are the perfect examples of this. These scale-ups have seen an opportunity to innovate and grow even further,” says the report.
Active within six sectors
According to the report, about half of the top 250 Scaleups are active within six sectors – Enterprise Software, Business and Information Services, Marketing and Media, Finance, Health, Pharma and Biotech, and Mobility. Compared to last year, more scale-ups are also active in the energy, finance, and manufacturing sectors, adds the report.
Approximately three-quarters of the Top 250 Growth Companies are located in North Holland, North Brabant, and South Holland.
The majority of fast-growing companies are located in
- Noord-Holland – 90
- Noord-Brabant – 51
- Zuid-Holland – 42
Drenthe, Friesland, and Limburg each have one growth company. At the municipal level, Amsterdam is home to the most growth companies with 76 of them, says the report.
Criteria
To be included in the Top 250 Scaleups, companies must employ at least ten employees (FTE) and/or have a turnover of at least €5M at the start of the three-year measurement period.
In addition, in the measurement period from December 2017 to December 2020, they should have achieved an average annual growth of at least 20 per cent in FTE and/or turnover.
You can check out the full report here.
Globally recognised as a hot investment sector, Fintech is one of the fastest-growing areas disrupting the conventional market. According to the report, Finance is the fourth active sector in the Netherlands with a score of 6.8 per cent.
In the Netherlands, to date, numerous fintech companies have erupted and have grown reaching billions in terms of value. With huge technological advancements, there are various types of fintech firms each with its own way of operations.
We have listed the 17 Dutch fintech scaleups that made the list. Check them out.
Adyen
HQ: Amsterdam
Founder/s: Pieter van der Does
Adyen is a payments platform that provides a modern end-to-end infrastructure connecting directly to Visa, Mastercard, and other preferred payment methods. The Dutch fintech unicorn delivers frictionless payments across online, mobile, and in-store channels.
Agium
HQ: Delft
Founder/s:
Agium provides expertise and solutions in finance, control, project management, recruitment, selection, ERP, and more.
Mi-Pay (Alphacomm)
HQ: Rotterdam
Based out of Rotterdam and London, Mi-Pay offers payment solutions and consultancy services trusted by market leaders. The company’s services include payment reminders, fraud protection tools for online transactions, and custom prepaid top-up platforms. Mi-Pay serves Arvato Financial Solutions in multiple countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Austria, and Switzerland.
Mi-Pay was acquired by Dutch profit specialist Alphacomm in early 2020. Later that year, Mi-Pay joined forces with Alphacomm’s longtime reseller Alphacomm Solutions, creating a Mi-Pay brand.
Beequip
HQ: Rotterdam
Beequip helps Dutch, European, and North American SMEs grow with the help of equipment leasing solutions. Founded in 2015, the company has financed more than €1B of equipment for over 2,500 SMEs. Currently, Beequip is the largest independent equipment leasing company in the Netherlands.
Brand New Day
HQ: Amsterdam
Brand New Day is an online pension bank that provides asset management, wealth management, and insurance brokerage services. The company received its banking license to start a savings bank for consumers. In April, UK-based Chesnara, a Life and Pensions Consolidator, acquired Brand New Day for an undisclosed amount.
Bunq
HQ: Amsterdam
Founder/s: Ali Niknam
Amsterdam’s Bunq is all about free banking. The challenger bank offers mobile banking with no branch visits, no queues and no paperwork. At present, the company operates in 30 European markets. Recently, Bunq reached €1B in user deposits based on May 2021 data.
DEGIRO
HQ: Amsterdam
Founder/s: Niels Klok, Gijs Nagel, Jasper Anderluh
DEGIRO launched its online brokerage services in the Netherlands initially and then expanded to nearly 18 European countries. The service has enabled retail investors to benefit from a highly competitive commission structure. It is one of the largest brokers in Europe in terms of stock trading. In 2019, DEGIRO was acquired by a German fintech company flatex AG for $250K.
Dynamic Credit
HQ: Amsterdam
Dynamic Credit provides financial and advisory solutions. The company offers asset management, funds, and direct lending services. The Dutch company has over €10B committed assets under management and has originated over 70,000 loans. It serves customers in the Netherlands, United States, and Indonesia. In September BNP Paribas Asset Management acquired the Dutch company for an undisclosed amount.
Floryn
HQ: s-Hertogenbosch
Founder/s: Sven van der Biezen, Marijn van Aerle, Gion van den Bogaert
Floryn is a Dutch fintech company that offers entrepreneurs from small and medium-sized businesses with business loans of up to €2M. The company’s lending platform powered by machine learning performs fast risk assessments based on recent banking transactions and other data points rather than potentially out-of-date financial statements.
Flow Traders
HQ: Amsterdam
Founder/s: Roger Hodenius, Jan van Kuijk
Flow Traders is a global tech-enabled liquidity provider that specialises in Exchange Traded Products. The fintech company focuses on providing liquidity in financial products both on- and off-exchange across the world. It designs strategies publicly using available information and non-controversial, simple, and transparent order types.
iBanFirst
HQ: Rotterdam
Founder/s: Pierre Antoine Dusoulier
iBanFirst is a fintech platform that facilitates B2B payments across numerous currencies. The company provides businesses with an optimised financial services platform, combining technological, financial, and regulatory expertise.
Since its creation, iBanFirst has convinced 3,000 customers for whom the company has processed 100,000 transactions, for a total volume of more than €6B in payments in 2019.
The company has offices in Paris (HQ), Amsterdam, Antwerp, Berlin, Brussels, and Dijon and has 150 employees.
Ikbenfrits
HQ: Amsterdam
Founder/s: Michiel Lensink
The online mortgage broker, operating from its offices in Amsterdam, was founded in 2015 to provide a more efficient service and focus on the Dutch residential mortgage market.
The company offers customers a combination of personalised service with automation for mundane tasks such as document submission and checking, finding, and getting the deal accepted instantly.
Mollie
HQ: Amsterdam
Founder/s: Adrian Mol
Mollie is a payments platform that offers an easy-to-implement process for integrating payments into a site or app. The company is on a mission to make online payment simple for merchants by taking away the complexity. With a simple and clear payments-API, Mollie offers multiple payment methods uniformly.
TerraPay
HQ: Amsterdam
Ambar Sur, Ani Sane, Ram Sundaram, Akbar Hussain & Ganpathy Subramaniam
TerraPay provides Payment Infrastructure Services that help more people around the world to transfer money quickly, safely, and affordably.
The company does this by interconnecting financial services providers like mobile wallet service providers, money transfer operators, banks, and payment platforms, to create a “one network” for secure and seamless transnational movement of funds.
TerraPay has registered and regulated across 15 global markets.
Vanberkel Professionals
HQ: Zoetermeer
Vanberkel Professionals offers solutions with expertise in the areas of audit, controlling, consulting, and financial accounting. The company was founded with the aspiration to offer the broad public sector a proven tailor-made solution with financial services.
Verstegen Accountants
HQ: Dordrecht
Verstegen Accountants provides auditing and consultancy services. The company offers accounting, business consultancy, payroll, estate planning, and legal advice services.
Viisi NV
HQ: Amsterdam
Founder/s: Frank Tukker, Hergen Dutrieux, Hendrik Schakel, Tom van der Lubbe
Viisi NV is a financial service company that offers customised mortgage solutions for highly educated customers. The company provides the best deal for a mortgage by analysing the offerings of more than 30 Dutch mortgage suppliers.
Fintech Files Powered by AWS
In the new section Fintech Files, in collaboration with AWS, we are keeping tabs (pun intended) on the thriving fintech industry in the Benelux. Want to learn more about the benefits of the cloud, or talk to one of their experts? Visit AWS Startup Loft to register for the latest events, get free 1:1 support from AWS experts and discover more resources. Build and scale your (fintech) startup with $1,000 in AWS Activate credits, free tools, technical support and training to quickly get started with AWS. Learn more about AWS Startup Loft.
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