The Dutch government has mobilized a first 100 million euro to grant soft-loans to startups, scale-ups and innovative SMEs in the Netherlands that suffer deeply from the Corona crisis. Companies can apply for a bridging loan up to two million euros. can The loans will be provided via regional development companies in The Netherlands. The scheme is expected to be opened for applications from April 24th.

Emergency fund for acute financial aid

The bridging loans are specifically “intended as an emergency instrument to ensure a temporary bridging to “break-even” or a “follow-up financing round”. The exact criteria, interest rate, term of the loans and the application procedure will become available soon. The following criteria are already known.

The company

  • is registered at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce
  • is in acute financial distress
  • needs between 50,000 up to 2.000.000 euro to survive
  • has no access to other additional financial means

Broader support package

The 100 million euro is part of a broader package aimed at supporting non-bank financed companies. Other parts of the package include opening a of a corona module BMKB to non-bank financiers and granting bridging loans of up to 250,000 euros by Qredits to companies that cannot go to the bank.

The support package is the result of close cooperation between from various organizations that support startups and scale-ups, among which Regional Development Companies (a.o. OostNL), InvestNL, VC and StartLife.

Corona startup support portal

Yesterday TechLeap launched the Corona Startup Support Portal. The portal provides an overview of all Dutch resources and initiatives that are offered from the startup ecosystem, including:

  • Startup Guide: overview of important sources of information
  • Expert Sessions: tailored services from consultancy agencies, investors and experienced entrepreneurs
  • Online events
  • International support hours: access to local experts in different places around the world.
  • COVID-19 VC index: overview of Dutch VC that are open for investments
  • Offers & support services: offers from corporates to startups, free of charge or at greatly reduced tariffs