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2014 Dutch private equity and venture capital numbers confirm economic recovery
Originele publicatiedatum: 05/05/2014
2014 PRIVATE EQUITY AND VENTURE CAPITAL NUMBERS CONFIRM ECONOMIC RECOVERY
MORE PRIVATE EQUITY AND VENTURE INVESTMENTS THAN EVER IN DUTCH COMPANIES
Read the report Enterprising Capital 2014
- PRIVATE EQUITY AND VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENTS TOTALLED €3.1 BILLION IN 2014. THIS WAS INVESTED IN A RECORD NUMBER OF 386 DUTCH COMPANIES WHEREAS IN 2013 THIS WAS €2.4 BILLION IN 331 COMPANIES.
- DUTCH PRIVATE EQUITY AND VENTURE CAPITAL FIRMS IN PARTICULAR WERE MORE ACTIVE
- €169 MILLION WAS INVESTED AS VENTURE CAPITAL IN 226 PROMISING DUTCH STARTUPS, HIGHEST NUMBER EVER.
- A TOTAL OF €1.4 BILLION OF NEW FUNDS WERE RAISED BY DUTCH FIRMS, OF WHICH €533 MILLION WAS VENTURE CAPITAL
- FURTHER GROWTH FOR 2015 TO BE EXPECTED
The 2014 market report by the NVP, made in close cooperation with her European affiliated organisations and PwC, shows that investments in Dutch companies by private equity and venture capital firms rose considerably. From €2.4 billion in 2013 to €3.1 billion in 2014. The number of companies invested in was historically high with 386 Dutch companies. Renewed confidence in the economy clearly reflected the rise in both supply and demand for capital.
More Dutch start-ups than ever profited from venture capital
Venture capitalists invested €169 million in 226 Dutch start-ups in 2014. The share of the Regional Development Funds was €48 million in 120 companies. Most start-ups acquired capital from a domestic venture capitalist, but several remarkable Dutch companies like Mytomorows, Catawiki, Encare Biotech and The Cloackroom attracted the interest of foreign venture capitalists.
More growth capital for successful and innovative Dutch companies
A total of 65 Dutch companies together received €€353 million worth of growth capital from a private equity firm in 2014. In 2013 this was €194 million for 66 companies. These capital injections enabled many innovative Dutch (tech)companies to grow, for instance Adyen, Airborne, Elastic Search but also the Bergman Clinics. With a growth investment the founder usually keeps his majority share and the new capital is for instance used to expand the production capacity or to expand to foreign markets.
Growth in buyouts
Private equity firms financed 70 buyouts at Dutch companies in 2014 worth a total of €2.5 billion. A significant rise from 2013 when this was €1.9 billion for 53 companies. Both SMEs as larger companies saw an increase in investments. NVP chair Houben welcomes the optimism: ‘’the fact that both foreign and domestics private equity firms again see good investment possibilities in the Netherlands is very positive. In a buyout management, together with private equity, takes ownership of a company. The buyout is often used in business succession, carve-out situations or more in general to add new energy to a company enduring disruptive change. It pleases me that more and more entrepreneurs seek out private equity for that purpose. That signals growing confidence in the economy.’’
Investors interested in Dutch private equity and venture capital funds
In 2014 a total of €1.4 billion of new funds were raised by Dutch private equity and venture capital firms, somewhat higher than in previous years. Very remarkable is the amount raised for venture capital, €533 million, a historic high.
Houben: ‘’through private equity and venture capital an investor gets access to non-listed companies. A private equity or venture capital firm provides the necessary sector or geographical expertise and spread. In the past few year we saw more and more institutional investors like pension funds shy away from investing in start-ups through venture capital funds. That is why I am delighted the Dutch Venture Initiative (DVI), instigated by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the European Investment Fund (EIF), had such a clear flywheel effect on the venture capital fundraising. That is why I hope that for the future initiatives like the DVI keep the momentum afloat and permanently interest institutional investors for venture capital funds. Recent successful IPOs of Dutch life sciences companies have shown that this surely is a sector where money is made and is therefore worth investing in.’’
Forecast 2015
Philip Houben: ‘’our members are busy, both with investing and divesting. For this to continue in 2015 is a safe bet. Just look at recent successful IPOs like Refresco and Grand Vision, or the forthcoming carve-out of Philips Lightning and parts of DSM’’.
Joris van de Kerkhof; partner at PwC Corporate Finance and co-author of the market report: ‘’something I see more often in my practice is the important role private equity plays in business succession. Private equity is eager to invest together with the founder in a company. The private equity firm adds to the company its knowledge, skills and capital to facilitate growth and professionalise the organisation.’’
Read the report Enterprising Capital 2014
Detailed data
Trend report (starting in 2007)
Definitions and questionnaire
Extra tables
- Investment size
- Regional Development Funds
- Regional Spread of Investments
- Initial or follow-on investments
- Corporate Venture Capital
- Foreign and domestic investments
Market (MK) versus Industry (IND) Statistics
In all publications and the detailed data a distinction is made between investments in Dutch companies (Market statistics, MK) and investments made by Dutch private equity and venture capital firms (Industry statistics, IND). Unless specifically noted, all text refers to the Market Statistics.
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Note to the editor
The NVP is the Dutch private equity and venture capital association. For more information please contact NVP head of research Felix Zwart (+31 20 571 22 70) or www.nvp.nl.
About ‘’Enterprising Capital: the Dutch private equity and venture capital market in 2014’’
The NVP, together with the Corporate Finance team of PwC Advisory, surveys all private equity and venture capital activity in the Netherlands. Results are processed through a pan-European cooperative called PEREP_Analytics. This platform is supported by the European Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (EVCA), NVP and all other European private equity and venture capital associations.
Data are collected through a survey and reliable public sources and cover about 95% of the industry and market activity.
