According to StartupJuncture’s 2016 funding report, Dutch startups altogether raised at least 263.9 million euro in funding – 166 million euro less than in 2015. What can we do to increase these stats in 2017 and secure more capital available for Dutch startups? Here are our New Year wishes for the Dutch Startup Community.

Dutch Startup Community wishes for 2017

1. More collaboration between different financial parties

In 2017 we’re looking forward to seeing angel investors teaming up with VCs, regional development agencies, and banks.

2. More early stage venture capital coming into the Netherlands

We have investment agencies, VCs, that usually come in when a startup has a track record of 3-5 years. With Leapfunder, we’ve increased the angel investment for very early stage startups from 0 – 3 years, and we’ll keep on working hard on it this year. However, when startups need larger tickets, when they need their first million to grow then there’s not a lot of early stage VCs in the Netherlands to fill in that gap.

There is a trend of foreign money flowing into the system from Germany, the UK and the States. This year, altogether we should do more to keep this an upward trend and ensure more early stage capital available for Dutch startups.

3. Closer connection between startups & corporates

There are a lot of different initiatives to help bring corporates and startups together in a mutually beneficial relationship where corporates learn to change their mindset and become more flexible, while startups get their first, launching customers. Accelerators play a great role here, and we wish for all stakeholders to see this relationship pay off greatly in 2017.

4. Investors, don’t sit back and enjoy the ride, get involved

Leapfunder investors started investing almost 3 years ago. A lot of our startups have now come close to conversion or have converted, so interesting times are ahead of us. We will see which startups will do really great, which ones will achieve mild success and which ones are struggling. Now is the time for investors not to sit back and enjoy the ride, but to get involved. When startups are doing really well, know that you need to have some capital reserved for a follow-up investment. When startups are struggling, try to help them by mentoring as much as you can.

5. Do more for the Dutch Startup Ecosystem

In the past years, we’ve been training startups on the financial side, organizing round table sessions with investors, but we know that as Leapfunder we can do way more for the ecosystem. Probably you can too. There’s a lot of early stage startups who could use help and guidance when it comes to legal and finance, introductions to investors and corporates, or with growth hacking. Do more for the ecosystem, and let’s break all funding records in 2017!