Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Adyen is a global payments technology company headquartered in Amsterdam that provides a single platform for accepting payments across online, in-store, and mobile channels. Listed on Euronext Amsterdam since 2018, Adyen serves major enterprise customers including Spotify, Uber, eBay, and Microsoft. The company processes hundreds of billions of euros annually and is one of Europe's most valuable public tech companies, with a market capitalization that has exceeded $50 billion. Adyen's end-to-end approach, combining gateway, risk management, processing, and acquiring in one platform, has made it the payments infrastructure of choice for global enterprises.
Startup Late Stage FintechPayments
Eindhoven, Netherlands · Startup Axelera AI is a semiconductor and software company headquartered in Eindhoven, Netherlands, founded in July 2021. It develops AI acceleration hardware and software for inference workloads, spanning edge devices and edge servers. Its flagship Metis AI Processing Unit and next-generation Europa AIPU are paired with the Voyager SDK for model deployment, built on the company's proprietary digital in-memory computing and RISC-V dataflow architecture. The company targets sectors including security, manufacturing, retail, and healthcare, positioning its products as high-performance, power-efficient alternatives to GPUs. In March 2025 it was awarded a EuroHPC grant of up to 61.6 million euro for the DARE project.
Startup Series B AIHardwareDeep Tech
Leiden, Netherlands · Startup Azafaros is a clinical-stage biotech company developing oral therapies for rare genetic metabolic disorders, including lysosomal diseases. Its lead development strategy focuses on compounds designed to cross the blood-brain barrier and address severe neurological progression in underserved pediatric conditions.
Startup Growth BiotechLife SciencesPharma
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Bitvavo is an Amsterdam-based cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2018 that lets retail and institutional users buy, sell and store digital assets, and is one of the largest crypto trading platforms in the Benelux region by volume. It is registered with the Dutch central bank and has expanded across Europe under the EU's MiCA regulatory framework.
Startup Growth CryptoFintechTrading
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup bunq is an Amsterdam-based digital bank founded in 2012 by Ali Niknam, a serial entrepreneur who self-funded the company with EUR 40 million of his own capital. bunq holds a full European banking license from the Dutch Central Bank and offers personal and business accounts with features like multi-currency support, real-time budgeting, automated savings, and fee-free international transfers. The bank has attracted over 12 million users and reached profitability, with a reported valuation of EUR 1.6 billion. bunq differentiates itself through its user-centric philosophy and sustainability focus, planting trees for every EUR 100 spent by users. It is one of the few European neobanks built without initial venture capital backing.
Startup Growth FintechBanking
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup BUX is an Amsterdam-based fintech founded in 2014 that operates a mobile neobroker, letting retail users across Europe invest in shares and ETFs, often commission-free, through an app aimed at first-time investors. It expanded across several European markets and positions itself as a simple, low-cost gateway to investing.
Startup Growth FintechInvestingWealth
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Catawiki is Europe's leading curated online auction marketplace, founded in 2008 in the Netherlands and headquartered in Amsterdam. The platform hosts weekly auctions across more than 80 categories including art, jewellery, classic cars, collectibles, and fashion, with each listing vetted by category experts. Catawiki has served millions of buyers and sellers across Europe and raised €150 million in 2021. In 2026 it opened an additional office in Lisbon, Portugal.
Startup Late Stage MarketplaceE-commerceCollectibles
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Cradle is an Amsterdam-based biotech startup using generative AI to accelerate protein engineering. Founded in 2021 by former Google DeepMind researchers, the platform enables scientists to design and optimize proteins for therapeutics, vaccines, enzymes, and novel materials far faster than traditional methods. Cradle raised over $33 million, including a Series A led by Index Ventures, and works with pharmaceutical and industrial biotech customers globally. The company sits at the intersection of machine learning and life sciences, representing one of Europe's most promising AI-for-biology plays.
Startup Growth BiotechAI
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Creative Fabrica is an Amsterdam-based marketplace for digital design assets founded in 2016, offering fonts, graphics, craft designs, and premium content for designers and crafters worldwide. The platform hosts over 20 million listed products from more than 20,000 active designers, and attracts over 40 million monthly page views. The company has expanded into AI-powered creative tools through its Studio AI suite. Peak Capital led the company's Series A in 2021.
Startup Growth MarketplaceDesignCreative Tools
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup DataSnipper is an Amsterdam-based software company that develops an intelligent automation platform, delivered largely as an Excel add-in, which uses AI to extract, cross-reference and validate data from documents for auditors and finance teams. It became a unicorn in 2024 after a 100 million dollar funding round led by Index Ventures and is used by audit firms and finance departments worldwide.
Startup Growth FintechAuditAI
Houten, Netherlands · Startup Cloud-native time series platform for energy data management and smart grid analytics, automating ingestion, processing and visualization for DSOs and utilities like E-REDES. Acquired by Gridspertise in 2025.
Startup EnergyClimate TechData Science
Nijmegen, Netherlands · Startup A Radboudumc spin-off developing a patented AR projector that overlays anatomical data — blood vessels, muscles, nerves — directly onto a patient's skin during surgery, without screens or headsets. Used in 400+ surgeries.
Startup MedTechHealthTechDeep Tech
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Finom is an Amsterdam-based fintech company offering digital financial services for small and medium-sized enterprises, freelancers, and entrepreneurs across Europe. Its platform combines a business account with local IBANs, invoicing, business debit cards with cashback, payment processing, expense tracking, and accounting software integrations. The company operates in markets including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, and Austria. In 2025 Finom raised a €115 million Series C round led by AVP, in addition to non-dilutive growth capital from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund.
Startup Series C FintechPaymentsB2B SaaSSaaS
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Enterprise content creation platform founded in Amsterdam in 2013, enabling teams to build interactive digital documents and microsites at scale with brand governance and analytics.
Startup SaaSMarTechContent
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Fourthline is an Amsterdam-based regtech founded in 2018 that provides identity verification, know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money-laundering compliance software using proprietary AI. It serves banks, fintechs and regulated financial institutions across Europe, running high-accuracy identity checks to onboard customers and detect fraud.
Startup Growth FintechRegTechIdentity
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Framer is a Dutch no-code platform for designing, building, and publishing professional websites, used widely by designers and teams. Founded in Amsterdam by Koen Bok and Jorn van Dijk, who had previously sold their design studio Sofa to Facebook in 2011, Framer originally launched as an interactive design and prototyping tool before pivoting to full website creation. The product now spans design, CMS, SEO, hosting, and enterprise features. In August 2025, Framer raised a $100 million round at a $2 billion valuation, led by Meritech and Atomico.
Startup Series C SaaSDeveloper ToolsB2B SaaS
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Homerun is an Amsterdam-based recruitment and applicant tracking system (ATS) founded in 2015, purpose-built for small and medium-sized businesses that prioritise employer branding and candidate experience. The platform enables companies to create customised career pages, manage candidate pipelines, and collaborate on hiring decisions. In January 2024 Homerun was acquired by ISH Holding, a B2B SaaS group, while continuing to operate independently under its own brand.
Startup Growth HR TechRecruitmentSaaS
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Just Eat Takeaway.com is an Amsterdam-headquartered online food delivery marketplace formed from the 2020 merger of Dutch Takeaway.com and British Just Eat. The combined company became one of the world's largest food delivery platforms, operating in over 20 countries across Europe, North America, and Australasia. The company briefly owned Grubhub in the US before divesting it. Listed on the London and Amsterdam stock exchanges, Just Eat Takeaway connects millions of consumers with hundreds of thousands of restaurant partners. The company has faced intense competition from Uber Eats and Deliveroo but remains a dominant player in many European markets.
Startup Public Food DeliveryMarketplaceConsumer
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup MessageBird is an Amsterdam-based cloud communications platform (CPaaS) that provides APIs for SMS, voice, chat, and email, enabling businesses to communicate with customers across any channel from a single platform. The company rebranded parts of its offering under Bird and has served over 25,000 enterprise clients including Uber, SAP, and HelloFresh. MessageBird competes with Twilio and has raised over $1 billion in funding, making it one of the Netherlands' most valuable tech companies.
Startup Late Stage CommunicationsSaaSEnterprise Software
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Payments infrastructure provider helping EU businesses accept local and global methods. Mollie is a startup based in Amsterdam, Netherlands at the growth stage. The company operates in the Payments, Fintech space. Learn more at their website.
Startup Growth FintechPaymentsE-commerce
Eindhoven, Netherlands · Startup Monumental is an Eindhoven-based construction robotics startup developing autonomous bricklaying robots designed to address chronic labor shortages in the European building industry. The company's robots use computer vision and AI to lay bricks with high precision on active urban construction sites, automating one of the most physically demanding trades. Backed by leading European deep-tech investors, Monumental is scaling deployments across the Netherlands and targeting broader European expansion.
Startup Growth RoboticsConstruction Tech
Maastricht, Netherlands · Startup Mosa Meat is a Maastricht-based food-technology company founded in 2016 by the team behind the world's first cultured hamburger, presented in 2013. It develops cultivated (lab-grown) beef produced from animal cells rather than slaughtered livestock, aiming to make real meat with a far smaller environmental footprint as it works toward regulatory approval and scale-up.
Startup Growth FoodTechBiotechCleanTech
Wageningen, Netherlands · Startup Grows wood from tree stem cells in bioreactors without logging, producing material far faster than conventional forestry. Founded in 2023 on Wageningen Campus, it raised an oversubscribed €2.1M pre-seed to advance cultured-wood technology.
Startup Pre-seed BiotechCleanTechDeep TechGreenTech
Amersfoort, Netherlands · Startup Extends the life of lithium-ion batteries through repair, remanufacturing, diagnostics and maintenance using original parts. Founded 2019; operates hubs in the Netherlands and France with capacity for 120,000+ batteries per year.
Startup CleanTechCircular EconomyEnergy
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Otrium is an Amsterdam-based e-commerce company founded in 2016 that runs an online fashion outlet marketplace, giving premium and designer brands a dedicated channel to sell past-season and surplus stock to consumers instead of destroying or heavily discounting it in stores. It combines a curated shopping experience with data tools that help brands manage end-of-season inventory more sustainably.
Startup Growth E-commerceFashionMarketplace
Hoofddorp, Netherlands · Startup Fintech payments provider founded in 2002 and headquartered in Hoofddorp, Netherlands, owned by Prosus/Naspers. Processes online payments for merchants across CEE, LatAm and Africa.
Startup FintechPayments
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Picnic is a Dutch online supermarket that rebuilt grocery delivery around planned logistics instead of adapting the economics of traditional retail stores. Customers order through an app, while Picnic fulfills from dedicated infrastructure and delivers on optimized neighborhood routes using tightly managed electric vehicles. That routing-first model makes the company structurally different from on-demand marketplaces because it reduces waste, increases drop density, and improves unit economics over time. As a result, Picnic is often discussed less as a consumer app and more as a logistics and software company disguised as a supermarket. It is a useful addition to the directory because it represents a European scale-up that won by controlling operations, data, and delivery cadence rather than by pursuing convenience at any cost. The company also broadens the dataset's coverage of e-commerce and supply-chain innovation, showing how category-defining startups can emerge from dense urban operations and disciplined software-led execution. For founders and investors studying European tech, Picnic is a strong reference case for how operational complexity can become a defensible moat rather than a burden.
Startup Growth E-commerceSupply ChainLogistics
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Recruitee is an Amsterdam-based applicant tracking and recruitment collaboration platform, founded in 2015 and serving talent acquisition teams globally. The platform offers structured hiring workflows, branded career sites, and candidate pipeline management. In 2021 Recruitee and Finnish HR software firm Sympa joined forces under the Tellent group backed by PSG, with both products continuing to operate independently. The combined group serves over 4,000 customers across Europe and the USA.
Startup Growth HR TechRecruitmentSaaS
Rijswijk, Netherlands · Startup Rijswijk-based robotics startup that automates EV charging for commercial fleets with a soft robotic arm guided by AI computer vision. Its M1 system serves up to ten robotaxi bays from a single overhead unit, eliminating the need for human cable connection in depot and industrial port operations. Raised $56M total, latest $13M from Capricorn Partners.
Startup Deep TechElectric VehiclesIoT
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Silverflow is an Amsterdam-based fintech that provides a cloud-native card payment processing platform. It offers a direct connection to the card networks via easy-to-use APIs, with features including 3D-Secure, network tokenisation, direct-to-card payouts, and dispute management based on enriched data. The company positions itself as a modern alternative to legacy payment infrastructure, serving payment service providers, payment facilitators, acquirers, and merchants. It was founded by former Adyen executives Anne Willem de Vries, Robert Kraal, and Paul Buying. Customers cited in press coverage include Deutsche Bank, Bolt, Payabl, and Buckaroo.
Startup Series B FintechPaymentsB2B SaaSEnterprise Software
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup StuDocu is an Amsterdam-based platform where students share and access study materials such as lecture notes, summaries and practice exams. Operating under the legal entity StudeerSnel B.V., it launched as StudeerSnel.nl before expanding internationally under the StuDocu brand, serving students across many countries and disciplines. In recent years it has added AI-based study tools for generating quizzes, summaries and structured notes. The company raised a $50 million Series B round in 2021 led by Partech.
Startup Series B EdTechConsumerSaaSMarketplace
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Swapfiets is a Dutch mobility company founded in 2014 in Delft that pioneered the bicycle-as-a-subscription model: for a fixed monthly fee members get a bike, recognisable by its blue front tyre, with maintenance and repairs included and a replacement swapped in within days if anything breaks. It operates in cities across the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Denmark and beyond, with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
Startup Growth MobilitySubscriptionMicromobility
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Skills-based pre-employment assessment platform offering 350+ tests, AI video interviews and resume scoring to help companies hire on real skills. Founded 2019 in Amsterdam.
Startup Series A HR TechSaaSAI
Utrecht, Netherlands · Startup Trengo is a customer engagement platform headquartered in Utrecht, Netherlands, founded in 2017. It consolidates customer communications across email, WhatsApp, live chat, social media, and voice into a single shared inbox, enabling teams to collaborate on customer requests. The company raised a $36 million Series A in 2021 and serves over 3,000 customers globally across industries including finance and e-commerce. Trengo is backed by Insight Partners and Peak Capital.
Startup Series A Customer ServiceSaaSCommunication
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup WeTransfer is an Amsterdam-based file-transfer and creative-tools company founded in 2009, best known for its simple service for sending large files, alongside products for creative professionals. It grew into one of the Netherlands' most recognised consumer internet brands and was acquired by the Italian software group Bending Spoons in 2024.
Startup Mature SoftwareSaaSCreative Tools
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup WorkFlex is a travel compliance automation platform that helps companies manage international employee mobility, including workations, business trips, and work-from-abroad arrangements. Its software assesses cross-border compliance risks such as tax, labour law, and social security, and automates the related paperwork, handling A1 certificates, visas, posted-worker declarations, and tax requirements. Employers use it to track and approve temporary remote work from abroad while staying compliant. The company was founded in 2022 by Patrick Koch and Pieter Manden, the latter a tax lawyer who previously led PwC's remote work compliance function. WorkFlex is headquartered in Amsterdam.
Startup Series B HR TechSaaSB2B SaaSEnterprise Software