Sustainable entrepreneurs must have an official end-of-waste status to sell circular products. This demonstrates that their recycling process converts waste into safe products for people and nature. The intention of these rules is excellent, but partly because legislation is not up-to-date, it often results in unfavorable outcomes for green entrepreneurs. The End-of-Waste project by Invest-NL and the Green Chemistry, New Economy platform assist entrepreneurs in navigating complex regulations. This paves the way for a circular economy.
Innatera, the Dutch pioneer in ultra-low power neuromorphic processors, has successfully completed a €15 million Series-A funding round, co-financed by the EIC Fund as well as existing investors MIG Capital, Matterwave Ventures, and Delft Enterprises. The Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund is investing €4.8 million in this Series A round. This capital injection enables the company to accelerate scaling to mass production, expand its application offerings, and invest in its network of relationships.
The Netherlands has the potential to become a world leader in the development of Lab-on-Chip (LoC) technologies, according to the latest report from Invest-NL’s Deep Tech Fund. These technologies enable the miniaturisation and automation of complex laboratory processes, which could lead to breakthroughs in areas such as personalised healthcare and real-time environmental analyses. However, the report highlights a critical funding gap and regulatory obstacles hindering the scale-up of this technology. Invest-NL advocates for a dedicated MedTech fund and European standardisation to pave the way for economic and social impact.
Invest-NL is committed to a CO2-neutral and circular economy, with the energy transition and biodiversity as key pillars. Making business parks more sustainable is an important step in this process. In addition to reducing CO2 emissions, the greening of business parks also presents opportunities to enhance local biodiversity. In collaboration with PVB Nederland, Rebel, and the South Holland Nature and Environment Federation, Invest-NL has developed a brochure to help business park operators combine smart solutions. By approaching sustainability across different areas (energy, biodiversity, and climate adaptation) as a single integrated business case, broad sustainability becomes financially viable and can even be accelerated.
Increasing circularity requires improved recycling rates. Recycling reduces demand for new fossil resources and the amount of waste incinerated and dumped on landfill sites. However, waste can be contaminated and pose safety risks to both humans and the environment. Recycling companies therefore have to demonstrate that their recycling process converts waste into safe products.
Invest-NL, through its portfolio investment fund Infinity Recycling, is set to invest in Pryme, an innovative clean tech company based in Rotterdam. Together with a group of other investors, a total of €13 million is being invested in the commercialisation of Pryme's pyrolysis process. This process is capable of converting used plastics into valuable products on an industrial scale.
Start-up Rival Foods is working hard on the next generation of meat substitutes. No alternatives to processed and unhealthy meat products such as burgers and chicken nuggets, but alternatives to whole cuts such as salmon fillets and roulades. 'We want to offer the meat eating experience without the disadvantages of meat,' he says.<br />
The protein transition is essential for building a sustainable and carbon-neutral food system. Fermentation technology plays a pivotal role by delivering innovative protein solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and resource consumption. However, investments remain limited due to high development costs, complex scaling processes, and strict regulatory frameworks. To overcome these barriers, Invest-NL and Wageningen University & Research have developed an assessment framework to help investors make well-informed decisions and drive growth in this sector.
Water is essential for the agrifood sector, but due to climate change, regulations, and societal expectations, water use is under increasing pressure. Invest-NL has conducted an exploration into challenges and solutions for water management in the agrifood sector. The whitepaper, developed in collaboration with Royal HaskoningDHV, provides insights into the key challenges and opportunities related to water use in the sector.
As of 1 October, Invest-NL has stopped accepting new applications for the Temporary Bridging Loan Programme for Innovative Start-ups and Scale-ups (TOPSS). Through the TOPSS programme, Invest-NL is providing innovative companies with funding so that they can continue to invest during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Invest-NL has allocated €100 million of its own capital for this purpose.
Two weeks after the opening of the Corona-OververbruggingsLening (COL) and the Tijdelijk Overbruggingskrediet Programma Innovative Start- en Scaleups (TOPSS) almost 1,300 startups, scale-ups and innovative SMEs have applied. The companies have applied for a total of €630 million via one of the two facilities.
Today, Invest-NL announced it is investing € 10 million in Nearfield Instruments through the Deep Tech Fund, as part of a € 135 million Series C financing round. As an early investor, Invest-NL has played a significant role in the rapid growth of TNO spin-off Nearfield Instruments, a metrology and inspection scale-up in the semiconductor industry. This new investment round will enable Nearfield Instruments to further scale up. In addition to lead investors Walden Catalyst and Temasek, M&G, Innovation Industries, the Strategic Partners Fund and ING are also investing in this round.
The Netherlands is full of grass, but apart from feeding cows we do little else with it. Start-up Grassa is going to change all that. By refining grass, the Netherlands will need to import less soya from cut-down virgin rainforests, nitrogen and CO2 emissions from farms are reduced, manure surpluses are eliminated and cows get easier-to-digest fodder. With the new pilot plant, the dairy industry saves 9.5 megatons of CO2.
The Dutch energy transition faces a significant challenge: millions of tons of materials are required to enable the infrastructure for sustainable energy. This comes with high costs, negative environmental impact, and growing uncertainty about material availability. The solution lies in a transition to circular material use. The new report, Towards a Circular Energy Infrastructure, offers seven concrete recommendations for making the shift to a circular energy infrastructure. The results show that you can work faster and more cost-effectively when you apply circular strategies in the core activities of grid management.
At the KIEMfeest, the official kick-off of the open test and innovation programme on Tuesday 1 June, Invest-NL signed a long-term collaboration agreement with Fascinating. The collaboration aims to accelerate the transition towards a climate-neutral, circular food system by setting up and improving collaborations, scaling up innovative solutions and developing profitable business cases.
Nearfield Instruments (NFI), the leading semiconductor scanning probe metrology equipment scale-up, today announced that it has additional funding from Invest-NL, Innovation Industries and TNO. This investment supports Nearfield Instruments to advance series production capabilities to cater the market needs and to further strengthen the company’s product portfolio. Invest-NL commits € 11M from it’s Deep Tech Fund.
Invest-NL and the Rotterdam Energy Transition Fund are jointly investing €15 million in Umincorp for the construction of a new rPET factory in Rotterdam. In this way, Umincorp (“Urban Mining Corp”) is taking the next step in the recycling of plastics from household waste streams. As fund manager of the Rotterdam Energy Transition Fund, InnovationQuarter is involved in the investment.
Just 15 years ago, Europe was the undisputed leader in the development and production of photovoltaic products, such as solar cells and solar panels. However, China has now acquired a market share of as much as 75% of solar panels and 85-97% of the upstream materials (ingots, wafers, and cells) in the PV solar energy value chain.
How does your company map its social and ecological impact? And do you know what opportunities there are to improve the circularity of your company? To engage in sustainable entrepreneurship, we must make the social and ecological impact of businesses on people and the environment transparent.
Rienk Landstra and Joris Hiddema are not new to the world of agricultural vehicles. Their self-driving tractors are. With this they want to relieve the farmer and the soil.<br />
Invest-NL takes part in a € 328 million investment in Sif, a Dutch company in offshore foundations, in order to strengthen Sif’s position as the leading supplier of foundations for the energy transition. The investment is done to construct the world’s largest monopile foundation manufacturing plant in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The Netherlands faces a significant and urgent challenge in housing construction, with sustained high pressure on the housing market across many Dutch municipalities. This pressure underscores the necessity to accelerate housing construction, highlighting the need for a structurally deployable, flexible housing stock to absorb fluctuations in supply and demand. However, financing for modular homes, designed for temporary locations, often presents difficulties due to their transitory nature. Research commissioned by Invest-NL indicates that including the circular residual value improves the business case for modular homes.
Despite globally recognized expertise in agriculture and biotechnology, startups and scale-ups in the Netherlands face obstacles in scaling up. Foodvalley NL and Invest-NL have identified the challenges and made recommendations for developing a Dutch ecosystem for alternative proteins. The report 'Enhancing the ecosystem for alternative protein innovation: Strategies for scaling success' highlights that limited access to facilities, high operational costs, complex regulations, and funding shortages hinder scaling efforts.
The energy transition is a major challenge for our society. The national and European targets demand significant growth in energy derived from renewable sources. An increase in offshore wind energy is essential in this context. Fred van Beers (CEO of Sif), Jeroen Junge, and Remco Westerbeek (both investment managers at Invest-NL) discuss a collaboration in the offshore wind industry with a remarkable outcome: Invest-NL's first exit.
Today it was announced that ING Corporate Investments is coming onboard as a new investor in a funding round for Nearfield Instruments, bringing the total investment to €27 million. Invest-NL has committed €2.5 million to this initiative through their Deep Tech Fund. Previous backers of Nearfield Instruments include Innovation Industries and TNO, the organization from which Nearfield Instruments initially emerged as a spin-off.
Green hydrogen plays a crucial role in the energy transition, but its development is struggling due to a lack of investment. The high production costs of green hydrogen compared to grey, non-sustainable hydrogen make it financially unattractive for investors. Invest-NL presents in a new report how blended finance can help facilitate the financing of electrolysis projects – which produce green hydrogen – and thus accelerate the transition to sustainable energy.
The Deep Tech Fund of Invest-NL announces a strategic investment of € 15 million in Axelera AI, a leading provider of custom-designed edge AI chips. This funding is part of a Series B financing round of over € 63 million, bringing the total amount raised by Axelera AI to more than € 111 million. The investment aims to commercially scale the development of Axelera AI and aligns with strategic European initiatives, including the EU Chips Act and the AI strategy.
Invest-NL co-leads the € 16.9 million investment in BYBORRE, the Dutch textile innovation company that has a strong focus to increase sustainability and circularity in the textile industry. The series B round was co-led by VP Capital and included existing investors SHIFT Invest and Amsterdams Klimaat en Energiefonds (AKEF). A group of angel investors also contributed and Rabobank’s scale-up banking team provided a long term loan and a machine lease facility.
Making the transition to a carbon-neutral economy fundable has the highest priority for Invest-NL. Energy systems using green hydrogen play an important role here. This requires innovation, entrepreneurship and the active involvement of many different parties from every part of the energy chain. In order to accelerate this transition, Invest-NL has provided various companies and projects with financing and/or made them fundable.
Invest-NL…impact investors. This is how we portray ourselves. It is also how we motivate many of the people who work for us, as well as those who are keen to join us. But what, precisely, are we aiming to convey? <br />
The Netherlands is home to all kinds of pioneers who are committed to accelerating the energy transition by launching fully developed technological innovations. But these innovators often face a wide variety of challenges in setting up their first commercial projects. Challenges that in many cases fall outside an innovative company’s core expertise. With these companies in mind, Invest-NL has developed the First Time Right (FTR) programme. <br />
The Dutch impact investor Invest-NL is investing in Extantia Capital, a climate-focused venture capital firm based in Berlin with a local presence throughout Europe.
Just before the end of 2022, the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy informed the House of Representatives of the main insights and conclusions following Invest-NL's interim assessment. Invest-NL's performance in its first three years of existence was generally assessed as positive. At the same time, the assessment report identifies a number of improvement opportunities that Invest-NL can implement in order to contribute to the key social transitions in the Netherlands.
