Digital creative production agency Media.Monks has been awarded with the Gouden Groeier for the second year in a row, making it the fastest-growing company in the Netherlands in 2022. The media company was crowned at the Top 250 Scaleups Event, an initiative of Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship and nlgroeit, at the AFAS Theater in Leusden. Victor Knaap (CEO Media.Monks) digitally received the prestigious award in a room full of fellow scaleup entrepreneurs. Media.Monks grew by an average of 80 percent over the last three years and by more than 4,000 new jobs (in FTE).    

Minister Micky Adriaansens (Economic Affairs and Climate) addressed the scaleup entrepreneurs and underlined the great importance of scaleups as frontrunners and job engines of the Dutch economy. Minister Adriaansens: “The Netherlands is really a great country for entrepreneurship: We are at the top of all major rankings, but our leading position is under pressure. The key challenge is to maintain this position in a bending world. In doing so, it is very important to build ecosystems and invest in the overall business climate in the Netherlands.”

Gouden Groeier Media.Monks once again climbs top step of podium 

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, Media.Monks managed to maintain lightning-fast growth and now employs more than 9,000 people worldwide. Originally from Hilversum, the media production company has offices in Amsterdam, London, Stockholm, Dubai, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore and works with national and international brands on digital projects. The media company managed to hold off payment pioneer Mollie and tutoring specialist StudyWorks.  Knaap was pleasantly surprised with this win: “Last year was really the toughest year so far for us – it was really intense for us. We had never been through this before. […] But contrary to what the stock market prices suggest, our growth is going well and we hired a lot of people again this year.” 

Special awards for Mosa Meat, Typeqast and Fourthline

In addition to laureating the Gouden Groeier, three other leading fast-growing companies received awards. The Dutch pioneer in cultured meat, Mosa Meat, received the Impact Scaler award from Ilknur Dönmez (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate).  The professional jury – consisting of Pieter Waasdorp (EZK), Ed Brinksma (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Greet Prins (KvK) and Suzanne Ekel (Goldschmeding Foundation) – judged fast-growing companies on (social) impact, innovativeness and growth. Amsterdam-based software company Typeqast won the Female Scaler for companies with strong female leadership. The award for the Young Scaler went to Fourthline, founded in 2017, which is creating a furor with “digital identity technology.

Fast-growing companies recover after crisis

Dutch fast-growing companies are on the way back after very difficult years, according to the Top 250 Growth Companies Report. Already in 2019, fast-growing companies were in heavy weather, negatively reinforced by the entry of the pandemic, but the most innovative companies managed to find their way up in 2021. It is mainly business service providers that are thriving, although the advance of FinTech has stalled. By far, most of the fast-growing companies are located in North Holland, with Amsterdam as the absolute scaleup capital of the Netherlands. South Holland takes over from North Brabant as runner-up, the latter having lost ground. The province of Utrecht is close on the heels of the growth champions, but the rest of the Dutch provinces follow very close behind.

Prof. Dr. Justin Jansen is senior fellow at Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship and professor at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Jansen: “It is of great importance to bring together the fastest-growing companies in the Netherlands. Scaleup entrepreneurs set an important example of leadership for all of us. By sharing their ambitions and experiences, they can learn a lot from each other and increase their impact even further.” 

About Top 250 Growth Companies 

The Top 250 Growth Companies is an annual research project by Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship on the fastest-growing companies in the Netherlands. Scaleups play an important role in the Dutch economy as job engines and drivers of innovation. During the annual event, growth entrepreneurs discuss growth opportunities and sustainable entrepreneurship. This year, this was led by hosts Kees de Jong (nlgroeit), Prof. Justin Jansen (Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship) and Monique Ansink (Jumbo Straps). CEOs Wouter Klinkhamer (Zivver) and Sonja Meijerink (Typeqast) presented the entrepreneurs present with concrete growth issues.

Would you like to know more about our research into scaleups? Our Research Team would be happy to answer your Qs via research@ece.nl