Besides Berlin and London, the Dutch startup ecosystem is considered one of the prominent markets in Europe. The startup scene in the country is in excellent health and has received over €500 million in 2018 in more than 130 financing deals. The reasons that the Netherlands is becoming a home to flourishing startups are the open culture, a strong focus on innovation and entrepreneurship and more.
In the Netherlands, many cities including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht have set up their own ecosystems to encourage entrepreneurs. As there are many investors in the country, the investments soared high and many startups have gradually progressed to become unicorns with over $1 billion valuation.
Today, we have come up with a list of unicorns that have their roots in Amsterdam as sourced from Dealroom. These companies continue to grow at a steady pace.
Booking.com
Founders: Geert-Jan Bruinsma
Valuation: $90 billion
Founded year: 1996
Why its hot: As per the list, Booking.com, the booking site owned by Booking Holdings tops the list and is the most valuable tech company in Amsterdam. In fact, Booking.com is one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world. It is the prime destination to book any type of accommodation. The mission of this company is to encourage people across the world. The company has a team of over 17,000 employees across 198 global offices.
Adyen
Founders: Pieter van der Does, Arnout Schuijff
Valuation: €7.1 billion
Total Funding: €293 million
Founded year: 2006
Why its hot: Adyen aims to help businesses grow with its payments technology, which is a patchwork of systems based on the dated infrastructure. The platform is capable of meeting the evolving needs of fast-growing global businesses. The company focuses on building a modern infrastructure that is connected directly to the card networks and local payment techniques across the world. Adyen’s platform enables merchants accept payments in a single system and this increases their online revenue.
Gemalto
Founders: Philippe Vallée
Valuation: $5.4 billion
Founded year: 2006
Why its hot: Gemalto is a global leader in digital security and brings trust to an increasingly connected world. The company designs and delivers a wide range of products, services and software based on data protection and digital identification. These technologies come to play in several aspects including payments, enterprise security and IoT. With Gemalto’s products and services, clients can deliver secure digital services to their end users.
Elastic
Founders: Shay Banon
Total Funding: €147 million
Valuation: $4.9 billion
Founded year: 2012
Why its hot: Elastic is a search company with the objective to solve the world’s data problems with its products. Elastic is used by organisations such as Goldman Sachs, eBay, Cisco, NASA, Mayo Clinic, Microsoft, Wikipedia, Verizon and The New York Times. Their portfolio of this company includes stock quotes, Apache logs, WordPress blogs, Twitter streams, etc.
Tornier
CEO: Douglas W. Kohrs
Valuation: $3.3 billion
Why its hot: Tornier designs, manufactures and markets devices and equipment meant to handle joint replacement and soft tissue repair. These equipment enable surgical specialists to improve the lives of patients. Back in 2015, Wright Medical Group announced the successful competition of the merger with Tornier. Eventually, Tornier was renamed Wright Medical Group NV.
Flow traders
CEO: Dennis Dijkstra
Valuation: €1.7 billion
Founded year: 2004
Why its hot: Flow Traders is a principal trading company and one of the largest liquidity providers in the world with a specialisation in Exchange Traded Products (ETPs). Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has offices in New York, Singapore, Cluj and Hong Kong. Since its debut, Flow Traders has received a great recognition in the industry and has won numerous awards.
TomTom
Founders: Corinne Vigreux, Peter Frans Pauwels
Valuation: €1.5 billion
Founded year: 1991
Why its hot: TomTom has grown from a startup into a leading global brand. It has over 800 million people across the world using its services every day. TomTom has one of the most extensive digital map databases. The company processes billions of data points on a daily basis on a global scale to create and maintain numerous products and services.
TomTom Telematics
Valuation: $1.0 billion
Founded year: 2004
Why its hot: TomTom Telematics is one of the leading telematics solution providers in the world dedicated to fleet management, connected car services and vehicle telematics. The main SaaS solution offered by the Dutch unicorn is WEBFLEET, which is used by businesses of all sizes to enhance vehicle performance, save fuel, increase overall fleet efficiency and support drivers. It provides services to rental and leasing industries, companies addressing the needs of businesses and users and car importers.
Takeaway
Founders: Jitse Groen
Total Funding: €86 million
Valuation: €964 million
Founded year: 2000
Why its hot: Takeaway.com is a leading online food delivery marketplace that focuses on connecting restaurants and consumers via its platform. It operates across 10 countries in Europe and Israel. The online marketplace matches both supply and demand. The restaurant partners deliver the food themselves via Takeaway.com’s platform and applications and service as a source of orders. The platform also facilitates online payment process as well.
Bitfury
Founders: Valery Vavilov
Total Funding: €155 million
Valuation: $1.0 billion
Founded year: 2011
Why its hot: Bitfury is a full-service bitcoin and blockchain company. It is a leading security and infrastructure provider for Bitcoin Blockchain. The company designs and produces innovative hardware that keeps blockchains and cryptocurrencies secure. Bitfury is the brain behind blockchain projects including Crystal Blockchain, LightningPeach and Exonum.
Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.
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