50 million euro for the international ambitions of start-ups and innovative SME’s

The International Trade Facility is set up for startups, scaleups and innovative SMEs in the Netherlands that through their international growth ambitions want to contribute to realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Invest International and the RDAs intend to finance these (Dutch) companies together and/or support them in getting access to appropriate (financial) instruments from for instance de RDAs, Invest International, commercial banks, RVO and Atradius.

Martijn van Gruijthuijsen, chairman of the committee ‘Regionale Economie van het Interprovinciaal Overleg’, calls this new initiative “good news for our innovative SMEs and the regional earning capacity. This facility provides a highly needed boost for those companies that are working on solutions for the key challenges of today and tomorrow.”

“The market share of the RDAs in the Dutch VC market is almost 60% and a substantial part of our portfolio companies has international growth ambitions. This collaboration offers our startups direct access to support and capital which can boost the success of Dutch startups all over the world”, says Brigit van Dijk – Van de Reijt on behalf of RDA-Netherlands.

Invest International’s CEO Joost Oorthuizen: “The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer the internationally operating (Dutch) business community enormous business opportunities. As Invest International, we want to invest in the frontrunners who want to help achieve the SDGs with innovative solutions. This new Facility is therefore spot on.”

The reason for the International Trade Facility is an inventory by the RDAs, which shows that twenty percent of Dutch start-ups have international aspirations, but that this target group of start-ups, scaleups and SMEs has only limited success in making the move to foreign markets. In the early phase, their propositions are often perceived by other investors as too risky or too complex. If one does get financing, it is often at a high cost for relatively small tickets. In addition, there is often a lack of substantive guidance.

The collaboration between Invest International and the RDAs brings together capital, international networks, access to regional companies and the experience of different forms of venture capital.