Amsterdam, 27 November 2023 — Invest-NL and the European Investment Fund (EIF) have announced the launch of Dutch Future Fund II (DFF II). This investment agreement, building on the success of its predecessor, Dutch Future Fund I, allocates a minimum of €200 million in capital to Dutch venture capital funds. DFF II specifically aims to enhance the investment environment for Dutch startups and scaleups in sectors such as the energy transition, deep tech, the circular economy and agrifood. We aim to assist ten to 12 funds through this support, which will, in turn, provide essential growth financing to over a hundred Dutch startups. We ultimately expect to mobilise at least €400 million in investment capital through these efforts.

Dutch Future Fund I — a resounding success
In October 2020, Invest-NL and the EIF launched Dutch Future Fund I. Together with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, Invest-NL committed €150 million to this joint fund mandate. To date, DFF I has committed a whopping €848 million to approximately 20 (mainly Dutch) investment funds, thus yielding a European multiplier of nearly five for every euro invested by Invest-NL.

The funds in which Dutch Future Fund I has invested are expected to invest at least €1.1 billion in Dutch startups and scaleups. So far, these funds have invested in 66 Dutch ventures, including prominent names such as Crisp, QuantWare, Fourthline and E-magy.

With the introduction of DFF II, Invest-NL and the EIF continue their successful collaboration to enhance the investment climate for innovative and sustainable businesses in the Netherlands.

Attracting European capital — a core task for Invest-NL
Since its inception in 2020, one of Invest-NL’s primary tasks has been to attract European funds to support the challenges of Dutch social transition. In collaboration with the EIF, Invest-NL has developed several financial products for the Dutch market, including the InnovFin Guarantee Facility (€66 million), Dutch Future Fund I, and the Dutch Alternative Credit Initiative (DACI) (€200 million). Moreover, since this summer, Invest-NL has been an implementation partner for the European Commission‘s InvestEU programme, with a guarantee scheme covering up to €350 million of Invest-NL‘s investment capital for investments in sustainable and innovative ventures.

Rinke Zonneveld, chief executive officer of Invest-NL, expressed his satisfaction with the announcement: “Since its establishment, Invest-NL has effectively fulfilled its role as the national promotional institution. Europe offers abundant opportunities to enhance the financeability of startups and scaleups. I am delighted that we can continue the success of the first Dutch Future Fund and attract additional private capital for the funds.”

Roger Havenith, deputy chief executive of the EIF, added: “Similar to its predecessor, DFF II will focus on new teams in strategic sectors such as deep tech, sustainability and the energy transition. This marks our fourth collaboration with Invest-NL, a sign of a very fruitful partnership with clear impacts on the Dutch venture capital ecosystem.”

Editor‘s note:

Invest-NL: Wander van der Kolk, wander.vander.kolk@invest.nl, +316 41880440

European Investment Fund: Tim Smit, t.smit@eib.org, +352 691 286423

Invest-NL is the national promotional institution of the Netherlands. As a leading impact investor, our mission is to provide financing to enterprises and innovations that currently have insufficient access to existing funding opportunities. We collaborate with a variety of stakeholders, including entrepreneurs, other financiers and investors and development specialists from both the public and private sectors. Together, we aim to accelerate the significant social transitions that the Netherlands is facing, thereby contributing to a sustainable and innovative country. Our focus is on transitioning to a sustainable and circular economy, promoting affordable and accessible healthcare, and fostering technological innovation through the Deep Tech Fund.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its main objective is to support microenterprises and small businesses by helping them to access finance. The EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments that specifically target this market segment. In this role, the EIF contributes to achieving key EU policy goals such as competitiveness and growth, innovation and digitalisation, social impact, skills and human capital, and climate action and environmental sustainability.

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with critical long-term financing by deploying large amounts of private and public funds to support a sustainable economic recovery. It also helps to attract private investments for EU policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. InvestEU consolidates the various EU financial instruments that have been available to support investments in the European Union, making the financing of investment projects simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme is comprised of three main components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is implemented through financial partners who invest in projects with a €26.2 billion guarantee from the EU budget. The entire budgetary guarantee will be used to support the investment projects of the implementing partners, enhancing their risk-bearing capacity and attracting at least €372 billion in additional investments.