Hardware and IoT in the Dutch startup scene in 2026

The Dutch hardware and IoT sector counts at least 35 startups in 2026 that combine physical products with software, sensors or AI. The range is broad: from energy-efficient chips in Eindhoven and Rijswijk to construction robots in Amsterdam and sensor platforms for greenhouses in Rotterdam. The sector is growing, but it also faces structural constraints that software companies do not encounter.

Hardware costs more to develop, updates take longer and production requires supply chains that pure software companies never have to deal with. Nevertheless, the funding rounds of recent years show that investors are willing to commit capital, provided the technology is sufficiently differentiated. The companies in this overview illustrate what that differentiation looks like in practice.

Chip design as a distinct segment

Two companies stand out for their focus on custom chip architectures. Axelera AI (Eindhoven, founded 2021) develops energy-efficient AI chips for computer vision at the edge of the network. The company received an EU grant of €61.6 million in 2025, the largest single funding item in this overview. Innatera (Rijswijk, founded 2018) focuses on neuromorphic chips for smart sensors that consume less than one milliwatt; its Series A stood at €19 million.

Both companies are rooted in the region around Eindhoven and The Hague, where ASML, NXP and technical knowledge institutions have spent decades building an ecosystem of semiconductor technology and embedded systems. Chip design requires years-long development cycles and high capital costs before any product reaches the market. That partly explains why both companies rely on public funding alongside private investment to fuel their growth.

Industrial sensing and predictive maintenance

A second cluster focuses on monitoring and predicting the behaviour of machines and installations. Sensorfy (Eindhoven, founded 2009) offers IoT solutions for predictive maintenance in industry and raised a Series C of €45 million in 2019. Jungle AI (Baarn, founded 2017) uses machine learning to detect underperformance and failures in industrial assets; its Series A in 2022 raised €10 million. 30MHz (Rotterdam, founded 2014) targets the agricultural sector specifically, with a sensor platform that enables growers to continuously optimise growth processes. Its Series B in 2021 amounted to €12.8 million.

A common characteristic is that these companies use their hardware as a data-collection point, after which software models carry out the actual analysis. The business model therefore relies on recurring licence or subscription revenues alongside the initial hardware sale, which partly offsets the capital intensity.

Robotics for logistics and construction

A third group focuses on autonomous physical tasks in logistics and the construction sector. Smart Robotics (Best, founded 2015) builds systems for palletising and order picking. The company closed a Series A of €8.7 million at the start of 2024. Monumental (Amsterdam, founded 2021) deploys robots for bricklaying on facades at construction sites and raised a Series A of €25 million in 2024. Fizyr (Delft, founded 2014) supplies vision software that enables industrial robots to handle complex logistics tasks; its Seed round in 2022 raised €4.5 million.

The combination of labour shortages in logistics and construction and rising wage costs gives this category a clear economic rationale. At the same time, robots operating on site or in a warehouse require extensive safety certification and integration with existing systems, which lengthens sales cycles.

IoT for buildings and specialised applications

Crownstone (Rotterdam, founded 2016) is working on battery-free indoor positioning for people and objects in buildings and received a Seed investment of €120 million in 2016, a notably high amount for that stage. Splendo (Wassenaar, founded 2001) develops IoT and machine learning solutions for custom digital products and received €5 million via a growth financing round in 2021. ScenTronix (Breda, founded 2018) combines hardware with algorithmic technology for personalised fragrances and raised €5 million.

Spectro-AI (Enschede, founded 2018) falls into a separate category with autonomous AI for drone inspections and field monitoring. Its Series B in 2022 raised €19.3 million. The company combines airborne hardware with AI analysis, an approach that is gaining increasing traction in the agriculture and energy sectors.

Structural challenges for the sector

Despite the breadth of the offering, the sector faces recurring constraints. Hardware products are more capital-intensive than software: every iteration cycle costs more time and money, and once production scales up, inventory management and supplier risks are added to the equation. The chip and component shortages of 2021–2023 exposed that vulnerability clearly.

In addition, selling to industrial customers often requires lengthy certification processes and pilots, which extends the time to revenue. Investors assess those trajectories differently from SaaS growth profiles, which affects the availability of funding. The rounds in this overview range from €4.5 million (Fizyr, Seed) to €61.6 million (Axelera AI, EU grant), reflecting the wide spread in maturity and funding needs.

For the Dutch and European AI scene as a whole, the presence of multiple chip companies and hardware-AI combinations is significant. Europe is pursuing greater sovereignty in semiconductor technology, and companies such as Axelera and Innatera operate precisely at that intersection. Investors and policymakers focused on European AI infrastructure will find concrete examples in the Dutch hardware scene of what is achievable with targeted funding and academic collaboration.