The martech has offices across nine timezones, and yet 2018 was its last year of record growth. In terms of 2020, Covid-19 hit the company as it did across the industry, but it did bounce back to pre-pandemic levels in July. Will it see a significant surge in 2021?

The fintech, which lends up to €2m in loans to SMEs, raised €9m in May 2020 in a round led by Endeit Capital. It intends to use the funds to product development with a majority going to domestic and international expansion. But as Floryn's team says, to get ahead in the saturated Dutch market, they'll need to stand out in terms of compliance and customer due diligence. That's its focus now.

Founded in 2013, Fairphone anticipated the increasing backlash against phone companies who reportedly use planned obsolescence to increase purchases. Their phones don't use what are called 'conflict minerals', like gold and tungsten; they claim to ensure fair labour conditions; and the phones are made to be easy to repair and long-lasting. With the launch of their fourth version, the Fairphone 3+, they're hoping uptake increases.

After participating in an ING accelerator program, Cobase was incorporated into the company in 2017. The company allows customers to use its singular platform for multiple bank accounts, as well as their ERP system. In June 2020 it raised €10m in a Series A round that included Nordea and Crédit Agricole CIB — which it intends to use in the expansion of their bank network. And in December 2020 it formed a partnership with fintech Ebury (backed by Santander) which specialises in cross-border services and risk management.

The agtech has just gained a new chief exec in Min Zhu, formerly exec at WeTransfer — who joins after a €7.8m raise in its Series B round of July 2020 led by Pymwymic and ADM Capital. Its main product is called an intelligent dairy assistant, which helps farmers detect their cattle's health issues and fertility.

The fintech, founded by previous founders of Russian bank Modulbank, had a pretty good 2020. After raising €6.5m in a seed round led by Target Global in May 2020, it raised another €10.3m in September — remember, this is all before its Series A has even happened. Targeted at SMEs, freelancers and the self-employed, the startup launched in France and Germany in October. And in many areas of Europe, including Poland, Spain, Austria and Switzerland, the SME market is still all to play for.

Castor's USP is its electronic data capture system which helps medical researchers integrate data from any source on one platform. Anticipating the global impacts of Covid-19, it made the platform free for all non-profit research — so now over 200 projects across 33 countries use their system to facilitate the rapid deployment of trials to test vaccines and treatments. Its latest Series A round raised €10m from firms including Two Sigma Ventures, which will help the company focus on making trials more patient-centred and better address the needs of underserved communities.

The medical AI startup was granted a CE mark for its lung nodule management software, Veye Chest, under the EU Medical Device Regulation in November 2020. The software analyses thousands of scans a week to track the growth of pulmonary nodules in the prevention of lung cancer — so the CE mark means the device is clinical grade. In February 2019, Aidence landed €10m in a funding round led by INKEF Capital and Rabo Ventures, and at the time its systems were installed in more than 10 hospitals in the Netherlands, UK and across Scandinavia.

What’s cooking in Europe’s lab-grown meat startups?

HousingAnywhere has raised 24m — and its goal is to become Europe's largest rental platform for young people.

To go meta — you can check out Dealroom's finder for startups in the Netherlands developed with Techleap.nl.