Benelux amasses more than $988 mln in VC investments in 2019

The venture capital community in Benelux is headed in the right direction to potentially break records this year.

More than €894 million ($988 million) has already been invested into the three-country region through July of this year, according to a recent report from PitchBook. The activity is already close to surpassing the €1 billion median that the last three years have hovered around.

The report predicts that this year may progress beyond the record set in 2015, when €1.4 billion was invested across more than 350 deals.

The median deal size for angel, seed and late stage has grown in 2019. Angel and seed deals grew by 10 percent from €900,000 as the median to €1 million. Late stage deals grew by 22 percent from €3.9 million to €5 million. The median deal size for early-stage investments remained the same at €2.3 million.

However, the early-stage market has been the most active for the region this year, recording 82 deals through July. This amount more than doubles angel and seed, who saw 31 deals, and nearly doubles late-stage deals, 43.

The software sector saw roughly half of the deals so far in 2019, despite only collecting about a third of invested capital. Pharmaceuticals and biotech collected the highest amount of invested capital and saw two out of the three largest deals during the first half of the year.

AM-Pharma recorded the biggest ticket in the first half of year. The startup that focuses on Acute Kidney Injury collected more than €114 million. Promethera Biosciences, a cell-based therapy company, gathered €39.7 million.

Showpad, a software company, raked in €60.1 million.

The sector is expected to continue to grow, especially in the Netherlands, as the country recently proposed a relaxation on certain visa requirements aimed to help startups employ more employees born outside the European Union.