The Netherlands’ startup engine hits scale in 2025
The Dutch startup ecosystem is entering 2026 with fresh momentum after a year that showcased its ability to produce both deep research-led innovation and fast-scaling digital platforms. Across the largest disclosed rounds highlighted in a new tally of the top 10 Dutch funding deals of 2025, companies collectively raised about €1.3 billion in just 10 transactions—an indicator of growing investor confidence in the Netherlands as one of Europe’s most reliable innovation hubs.
What stands out is balance. The country’s funding leaders span everything from last-mile grocery logistics and cloud hospitality software to rare-disease therapeutics, SME finance tooling, medical devices, and the data infrastructure needed to train modern AI systems. Many of these businesses are headquartered in Amsterdam, but the list also underscores the strength of university-linked life sciences in Leiden and medical technology in Utrecht.
Largest rounds: from grocery logistics to rare-disease biotech
Picnic lands €430M to scale automation and European expansion
Amsterdam-based online supermarket Picnic secured the year’s largest Dutch round with €430 million raised in November 2025. Founded by Michiel Muller, Frederik Nieuwenhuys, Joris Beckers, and Bas Verheijen, the company has built a mobile-first, app-only grocery model centered on electric delivery vans and a “milk-run” distribution approach aimed at reducing delivery costs and food waste.
The round was led by existing investors including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and German supermarket group Edeka, with participation from NPM Capital and Hoyberg. The company said the capital will accelerate “robotisation” across its operations and support deeper expansion into Germany and France. Picnic’s thesis is that building proprietary supply chain infrastructure—rather than relying on physical stores—enables lower prices and more predictable delivery windows for mass-market consumers.
Azafaros raises €132M Series B for lysosomal storage disorders
Leiden-based clinical-stage biotech Azafaros closed an oversubscribed €132 million Series B in May 2025. The company, founded by Leiden University and Amsterdam UMC, is developing disease-modifying therapies for rare genetic disorders, with a focus on lysosomal storage disorders—severe metabolic diseases where treatment options remain limited.
Its lead program, nizubaglustat, is an orally available small molecule designed for conditions including GM1 and GM2 gangliosidoses and Niemann-Pick disease Type C. Stefano Portolano, the company’s CEO, is advancing a dual-mechanism approach intended to reduce toxic lipid accumulation in the brain and other organs. The round was led by Jeito Capital and Forbion Growth, with participation from Seroba, Pictet Group, and existing investors including BioGeneration Ventures and Schroders Capital.
Fintech, web creation, and cloud software draw major checks
Finom secures €115M to build an SME “financial operating system”
Amsterdam fintech Finom raised €115 million in a June 2025 Series C led by AVP (formerly AXA Venture Partners) and Headline Growth. Founded by Andrey Petrov, Kos Stiskin, Oleg Laguta, and Yakov Novikov, Finom positions itself as a unified platform for European SMEs and freelancers, combining banking, accounting, and expense management.
By embedding banking features directly into workflows such as invoicing and reconciliation, Finom aims to reduce manual admin and improve real-time cash-flow visibility across multiple European jurisdictions. Existing backers General Catalyst, Northzone, and Cogito Capital also participated.
Framer raises €85.6M and crosses €1.7B valuation
Design and publishing platform Framer closed an €85.6 million Series D in August 2025, led by Meritech Capital Partners and Atomico, with participation from Accel. Founded by Koen Bok and Jorn van Dijk, Framer has evolved from a prototyping tool into a no-code website builder that blends a design-canvas workflow with content management and hosting.
The round valued the company at more than €1.7 billion, cementing its status as a Dutch unicorn. The company’s pitch is that designers can ship responsive, SEO-optimized websites without writing code, while the platform handles hosting, scaling, and performance optimization.
Mews raises €70.6M to expand hospitality cloud in the US
Hospitality software firm Mews raised €70.6 million in March 2025 in a round led by Tiger Global Management. Led by CEO Matt Welle, the Amsterdam company provides a cloud-native property management system that replaces legacy on-premise hotel software, covering booking operations, check-in, payments, and housekeeping.
The API-first platform supports more than 1,000 third-party integrations, enabling hotels to tailor their tech stack. The company said the funding would support expansion into the US and further development of AI capabilities, including automation across the guest journey.
Healthtech and AI data infrastructure round out the leaders
ViCentra raises €72.4M for diabetes patch pump systems
Utrecht-based medical technology company ViCentra raised €72.4 million in a September 2025 Series D led by Novo Holdings, with participation from Forbion, OrbiMed, Partners in Equity, Invest-NL, and EQT Life Sciences. CEO Tom Arnold is steering development of the Kaleido insulin patch pump system, designed to be discreet and flexible for people living with Type 1 diabetes.
The system includes two rechargeable pumps and a handset, and can integrate with automated insulin delivery algorithms such as Diabeloop, supporting closed-loop dosing based on glucose readings.
Toloka raises €64M as demand for LLM training data grows
Amsterdam-based AI data partner Toloka, founded by Olga Megorskaya, raised €64 million in 2025 as the market for high-quality human-labelled data expands alongside the rapid deployment of large language models (LLMs). Originally developed within Yandex and later spun out, Toloka operates a platform that combines automated quality controls with a distributed crowd of more than 200,000 annotators and domain experts.
The company positions its service as critical for techniques such as RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback), which many AI developers use to fine-tune model behavior and safety. Toloka counts major technology companies among its customers, including Amazon and Microsoft.
Why this matters for 2026
Together, these funding rounds highlight a Dutch market where investors are backing both infrastructure-heavy businesses—such as automated fulfillment and medical devices—and software platforms that can expand internationally with speed. With mega-rounds concentrated in Amsterdam but meaningful breakthroughs emerging from university and healthcare clusters, the Netherlands is increasingly positioned as a durable European pipeline for scalable innovation heading into 2026.
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