Startup investments in the Benelux - statistics & facts
Start-up investments and unicorn companies, privately owned companies that reached a market value of over one billion U.S. dollars through either private or public investment, are widely seen as an interesting topic for corporate finance in many countries worldwide. For the small countries of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, however, this is a topic with varying data quality. Ranking behind seven others in an overview of Europe's biggest startup cities, the number of investments in Amsterdam-based start-ups grew by over 80 percent in 2019, but was behind figures set in the record year 2017. Brussels and Luxembourg City did not feature at all on this list. Indeed, figures in the three countries can vary wildly per year. Total startup rounds in Belgium grew by nearly 40 percent year-on-year in 2018, before decreasing again by 25 percent y-o-y in 2019. Luxembourg's startup investment volume grew by an even higher percentage: 575 percent in 2019, when compared to 2018.
