Media and entertainment in the Dutch startup scene of 2026

The Dutch media and entertainment sector counts around 35 startups in 2026, and the majority place AI at the core of their product. That is no coincidence: in a sector where content production is labour-intensive and translations are costly, automation demonstrably saves time and money. The companies operate from cities such as Amsterdam, Utrecht, Groningen and Eindhoven, but also from smaller towns including Hilversum, Mijdrecht and Roermond.

Fundraising varies considerably. At the top end, Framer has raised a Series D of 150 million euros; at the lower end, several companies are in the seed stage with two to four million euros. That difference reflects the breadth of the sector: from mature SaaS platforms to young niche tools that still need to prove they can scale.

Framer and Medal.tv as financial frontrunners

Framer, founded in Amsterdam in 2014, is by far the most heavily funded company in this segment. The website builder raised a Series D of 150 million euros and targets professionals who want to build a fully functional website without writing code. This makes the company one of the larger Dutch software exporters in the consumer sector.

Medal.tv, based in Naarden, follows at a distance with a Series C of just over 82 million euros. The platform enables gamers to record, edit and share gameplay moments. The combination of a large and active user community and AI-powered video processing features makes Medal.tv one of the internationally most visible Dutch names in gaming media.

Both companies operate at a scale that most of their Dutch peers have yet to reach, demonstrating that media-related platforms can attract large investment rounds when the user base is sufficiently large.

AI automation as a sector-wide theme

The common thread running through the sector is the use of AI to accelerate repetitive, time-consuming processes. That pattern emerges across a range of sub-segments.

• Dubbing and transcription: Dubformer (Amsterdam, founded 2023, 3.3 million euros seed) offers end-to-end AI dubbing from script to broadcast-ready audio. AmberScript (Amsterdam, founded 2017, 8.7 million euros Series A) converts audio and video to text through transcription and subtitling. Both companies serve media organisations that want to produce content for multiple language markets without proportionally expanding their headcount.
• Content repurposing and distribution: XS2Content from Hilversum, with a Series A2 of 18.4 million euros, automates the repurposing and distribution of existing content through AI-driven workflows. This addresses a broader need among broadcasters and publishers to monetise archive material.
• Content creation with a human layer: CopyRobin (Mijdrecht, founded 2015, 15.6 million euros Series B) combines AI-generated text with editorial oversight by humans. The company positions itself at the intersection of automation and brand quality.
• Fashion visualisation: Resleeve (Eindhoven, founded 2021, 3 million euros seed) uses AI to visualise fashion designs, reducing the design process from weeks to minutes. The company serves both the fashion and retail sectors.

Sports, heritage and gaming as niche segments

Alongside the broad content tools, there are companies serving a specific sector within media and entertainment.

Smart11 from Groningen (founded 2020, 3.6 million euros Series B in 2021) offers video scouting and AI analysis for footballers, coaches and analysts. The sports analytics market is growing, partly because professional clubs as well as amateur associations are increasingly normalising data-driven working practices. The fact that Smart11 had already secured a Series B by 2021 is notably early for a company in that segment.

Podego (Utrecht, founded 2024) develops multilingual audio guides for museums and heritage institutions. The funding information in the database lists a 92 million euros Series E dated 2021, which is inconsistent with the 2024 founding date; this appears to be an error in the source data, and this figure should be read with reservation.

THE REAL MAG. from Roermond (founded 2019) focuses on 3D solutions and AI for product presentations. The database lists an acquisition amount of 362 million euros in 2023, which would suggest a takeover, although further context about the acquirer or transaction structure is absent.

Challenges for the sector

Despite the breadth of the offering, many of these companies face similar questions. The AI tools market for content production is international and competitive: American and British providers with larger capital reserves serve the same customers. Dutch players must differentiate on quality, language expertise or sector-specific depth.

Scaling up is a second challenge. Many companies are still in the seed or early growth stage. Moving from a working product to international growth requires not only capital, but also a sales infrastructure and partnerships in target markets outside the Netherlands.

Wonderkind (Amsterdam, founded 2016, 9.1 million euros Series A) illustrates how media technology and other sectors are converging: the company converts job vacancies into social media advertisements targeting young talent, combining HR with media distribution. Volareo (Amsterdam, founded 2018, 3.1 million euros seed) sells board game accessories through e-commerce platforms and stands out in this segment through its Web3 component, although its positioning within media and entertainment is less direct than that of the other players.

For investors and policymakers tracking the Dutch AI sector, this sector overview shows that media and entertainment is not a homogeneous whole. The companies share the application of AI, but serve markedly different markets, customer groups and business models. This makes targeted sector support, for example through talent development or export programmes, more complex, but also more relevant than a generic approach.