No World Cup for the Dutch, but playing major league in tech

While the Netherlands sadly did not qualify for the World Cup in football, it is playing major league in the tech world. Adyen went public last week and with its market valuation of €12 billion ($14 billion) instantly became the 14th most valuable tech company in Europe, in between United Internet and Wirecard.

Europe’s second most valuable tech company is Booking Holdings, with a €85 billion valuation. It’s domiciled in the U.S. but ~90% of its market cap is based on Dutch company Booking.com (which it acquired in 2005 for $135 million). Booking.com is today still based in Amsterdam.

ASML, based in Veldhoven (next to Eindhoven), is the world’s largest supplier of photolithography systems for the semiconductor industry (machines to make chips). It ranks third with a valuation of €73 billion.

After several spin-offs, Philips has transformed into a global health tech leader. The company ranks fourth in European tech with a valuation of €37 billion.

Ranked fifth is NXP Semiconductors, based in Eindhoven, with a €40 billion valuation. Dutch global semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Formerly Philips Semiconductors, the company was sold to KKR, Bain, Silver Lake, and Apax in 2006, at which point the company’s name was changed to NXP. In 2010 the company went public and in 2016 Qualcomm made a bid to acquire NXP for about €43 billion that’s still pending.

With Booking, ASML, NXP, Philips and Adyen that’s an impressive five out of the first 15 of Europe’s most valuable companies of Dutch origin.

To put Adyen’s meteoric rise in perspective, it’s the third most valuable European venture backed company ever. Adyen is also the fifth VC backed company to break the $10 billion valuation mark ever (after Zalando, Supercell, IHS Markit, and Spotify).

View the data: Europe’s most valuable tech companies