While large tech companies are laying off thousands of employees, ‘green’ start-ups are creating jobs

While large tech companies are currently laying off thousands of employees, the number of jobs at Dutch start-ups that focus on innovation in sustainability and energy is increasing. As a result, the number of jobs at Dutch start-ups (young technology companies) has grown by 7.6 percent to 135,000 jobs in the past year.

That is the striking conclusion from the Dutch Startup Employment Report 2022 which comes out on Tuesday. The investigation comes at a time when one major tech company after another is announcing rounds of layoffs. Meta, Stripe, MessageBird and Twitter, among others, let employees leave to save costs. Due to inflation and rising interest rates, consumers have less to spend and capital has become expensive.

Despite a looming economic crisis, venture capitalists have already invested 1 billion euros in Dutch ‘green’ start-ups this year, according to the study. That is slightly less than record year 2021 and more than twice as much as in 2020. It shows that investors are not deterred from making risky deals with sustainable companies, despite the negative economic climate. Of every 3 euros of investment money spent on tech companies in the Netherlands, 1 euro now goes to a green start-up.

These companies are also valued higher than companies that are not involved in climate solutions. “One of the trends we see is that investors now really want to go green,” says Techleap director Maurice van Tilburg, whose organization participated in the research. “And due to the gas crisis, we see that companies that focus on energy saving are also becoming very attractive economically.”

Also read this report about Lightyear, one of the Dutch ‘green’ startups which creates a lot of employment

New law

In the Netherlands, one in ten start-up employees currently work for a company that focuses on the energy transition. These companies are mainly active in South Holland, Gelderland and North Brabant.

Important employers are companies active in electric mobility, such as solar car maker Lightyear (more than 500 employees), bicycle maker Van Moof (400) or the Amsterdam charging station maker EVBox (300). But Avantium (bio-plastics) and Otrium (organic clothing) are also among the top ten largest green start-ups. What is also striking is the large number of green companies in food supply, such as PlantLab (indoors farms from ‘s-Hertogenbosch) and cultured meat makers Mosa Meat from Maastricht and Meatable from Delft.

The researchers conclude that amending Dutch tax rules for start-ups will eventually create tens of thousands of additional jobs. In June, the House of Representatives passed a new law that makes it easier for start-ups to pay their staff in shares. In this way, employees can participate financially in the future success of a company and employers are able to attract top talent without immediately paying very high salaries. The law will be discussed in the Senate next week.