Introduction to the Devence team

Authors: Noortje Plooij , Pepijn Janssen , Raphael Chinwuko, CIPP/E , Rob de Leeuw , Ron Felix RE and myself!

Context

The Dutch economy has generally shown resilience and steady growth over the past few years, experiencing robust economic expansion despite external disruptions. The Netherlands continues to be a hub of innovation and technology, particularly in sectors like fintech, agriculture, renewable energy, and high-tech manufacturing, driving growth and attracting investment. Sustainability and green initiatives have been actively promoted, with investments in renewable energy and efforts to create a more circular economy. Overall, these innovative companies play a significant role in the economy, with regulatory changes and technological advancements shaping its landscape.

The Netherlands is recognized for hosting a multitude of promising companies, and is currently home to more than 11,000 start-ups and scale-ups, increasing in number and expertise every year. This includes the development of more than 10 Dutch Unicorns, representing a private business with a valuation over €1 billion, such as Adyen, within Fintech, and MessageBird, within SaaS venture. Despite the fact that the Dutch tech landscape reflects a resilient industry, it also shows evident challenges. While it demonstrates strengths, including a robust ecosystem including companies such as Datasnipper and Mews, as well as the attention its gaining on DeepTech, there are still concerns regarding its growth rate compared to other European counterparts in Europe.

These companies contribute to economic growth and elevate the Dutch economy by creating jobs and offering solutions for business and societal challenges, which is currently on hold due to a tight labor market and a reliance on foreign VC funding. However, in order to consolidate the Netherlands' position as a global hub, a shift in mindset and concerted efforts to support local innovation are crucial, according to the report, as outlined in the State of Dutch Tech Report 2024 recently published.

As such, we want to play a bigger role in this wave of transformative change and align with these scale-ups in challenging the status quo, recognizing their potential for improving our economy and society, tackling critical problems, and redesigning our future. We believe that helping them unlock their growth in a responsible and sustainable manner is not only beneficial, but also imperative. Start-ups and scale-up are mostly driven by one crucial factor: Growth. They allocate their resources and focus their development towards achieving their desired growth rate. Yet, they are still exposed to other uncertainties and complexities associated with further expanding their operations, managing compliance, talent acquisition and finance related matters, among others. This is especially reinforced by the shift in regulations, coupled with stringent demands from investors and corporates.

This is where we step in.

Our team, Devence by Deloitte, was founded to guide these companies through the hurdles on their growth path. We want to support these entrepreneurs who are innovating in the Dutch (and international) market. We leverage our expertise in risk, data governance, cyber security, compliance in the ever-changing regulatory landscape, and sustainability to help these organizations stay focused on their core business objectives. Our goal is to ensure that they are prepared to meet all regulatory requirements and other expectations from their stakeholders. We want to support start-up and scale-up ecosystem as much as possible, offering what we can do best.

Curious about what we can do for you as a start-up or scale-up? Follow our content as we will share more information on market trends, challenges based on our experience and more.

And if you have a specific challenge or if you would like to know something, let us know. And let's connect!