Megadeals propel Dutch startups to about €981 million in Q1 2026, but early-stage funding wanes
A surge of megadeals lifted Dutch startup funding to about €981 million in the first quarter of 2026, a 129% jump compared with a year earlier. But beneath the headline growth, the pipeline at the earliest stages is thinning, according to the latest Quarterly Startup Report.
Including estimates, the quarter’s total neared €1 billion, making Q1 2026 the fourth-strongest quarter since 2018. Only the exceptional boom periods of 2021 and early 2024 saw more capital flow into Dutch innovation. The upswing was driven largely by a small number of very large late-stage rounds.
Three companies stood out with deals above 100 million dollars/euros: hotel software firm Mews, chip developer Axelera AI and sustainable energy innovator RIFT. The shift toward bigger tickets is clear in the data: while Series B+ rounds (from €15 million) accounted for just 20% of transactions, they captured 83% of total capital.
At the same time, overall deal activity cooled. The report counts 72 deals in the quarter, the lowest tally since 2020. The pre-seed segment was hit hardest, with the share of deals under €1 million nearly halved from last year.
Thomas Mensink of Golden Egg Check described it as “a quarter with two faces”: there is something to celebrate in this “unicorn quarter,” he said, but the structural decline in the number of investments is a reason to stay critical. Public money and institutional investors were unusually prominent.
Public bodies such as Invest-NL and the Regional Development Agencies (ROMs) were involved in about a quarter of all deals. Pension funds also stepped in directly: giants PGGM and ABP co-invested in rounds including those of RIFT and Vitestro. Amid the momentum, sector leaders flagged warning signs.
Lucien Burm, chair of the Dutch Startup Association (dSa), noted that many large rounds are legally completed outside the Netherlands, saying competition for the country’s business climate is increasing. He cited fiscal uncertainty around Box 3 as a real risk to retaining future Dutch unicorns.
Freek Welling of ROM-Nederland voiced concern about funding at the base, warning that pressure on instruments such as the Innovation Credit and the Seed scheme could endanger the pipeline of the next generation of innovative companies. The message: the top of the market is shining, but the foundation is showing cracks.