Startup financing in the Northern Netherlands 2025
This is how Northern Dutch startups raised capital in 2025.
In the following, we dive into how ventures from the Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe regions performed from a funding perspective this past year.
We’ll also provide details on each venture, who they raised funds from and how this capital can help them reach their next milestone.
Let’s dive in!
Performance of Northern Dutch startups & scale-ups
Northern Dutch startups and scale-ups demonstrated broad and resilient funding activity in 2025, with at least €50 million in disclosed capital raised across over twenty companies.
This total is conservative: over half of the tracked rounds did not publicly disclose amounts, meaning the actual investment volume is likely significantly higher.
The largest disclosed rounds included Portal Biotech (€30M Series A), QT Sense (€6M), Econowind (€5M blended development/equity), Sencure (€3.9M), HULO.ai (€2.3M), and multiple smaller seed and proof-of-concept financings between €200K–€1M.
Funding activity spanned a diverse deep-tech and impact-oriented ecosystem, as shown in the table below.
The investor landscape was anchored by regional development and early-stage capital, with NOM (Noordelijke Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij) and Future Tech Ventures appearing most frequently across both seed and growth rounds.
They were complemented by Rabobank Innovation Loans, FOM, European Innovation Council (EIC) funding, and Interreg grants, alongside international VCs such as QDNL, NextGen Ventures and LUMO Labs.
This combination of public-private and international capital indicates a maturing ecosystem capable of supporting companies from proof-of-concept through scale-up.
Beyond local startups, the region also attracted international scale-up investment: GDI, a US-headquartered battery technology company, established its European headquarters and pilot production in Groningen. The company raised a $11.5M (€10.7M) follow-on Series A to scale its 100% silicon anode technology for next-generation lithium-ion batteries, led by VCs and a convertible loan co-financing from the Province of Groningen via NOM/SIA.
Overall, 2025 shows healthy deal flow, strong deep-tech orientation, and growing international visibility for Northern ventures. That said, the reported totals understate the ecosystem’s real capital intake due to the high number of undisclosed rounds and strategic investments.
Performance of Northern Dutch startups on a national level
Dutch startups secured close to €2.5 billion in total disclosed funding in 2025, led by massive rounds like Picnic's €430M and Azafaros' €132M.
While key national deals skewed toward biotech, fintech/SaaS, and hospitality tech, Northern funding stemmed from deep tech and impact: biotech/medtech (strongest at ~€35M+ via Portal), climate/energy (Econowind, Avoxt, REDstack, Circolide), quantum/semis (QT Sense, QDI, IMChip), and AI/SaaS (e.g. HULO.ai).
Nationally, biotech dominated (~30% of top 20 deals).
Summary of funds raised by startups and scale-ups in the North
Are you a Northern startup and also got funded in 2025? Contact us so we can share your story too!
Scroll through the slider below for a complete overview per startup. ⬇️
