Roundtable Dinner at HSD Campus Explores Building a Dutch–EU Cybersecurity Champion

Last night, a roundtable dinner was hosted at the HSD Campus by Security Delta (HSD) in collaboration with HSD premium partner IMAP, the international M&A advisory firm. The session brought together a select group of investors, policymakers and cybersecurity entrepreneurs to discuss one central question: How can we build a Dutch and European cybersecurity champion?

The dinner gathered representatives from MAIN Capital, TIN Capital, Concordia Capital, Value Creation Capital, InvestNL, InnovationQuarter, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, as well as several founders from the cybersecurity sector. The discussion focused on advancing strategic autonomy under a “Made in Europe” vision, and on strengthening Europe’s cybersecurity capabilities in a globally competitive landscape. Key themes included the growth of the Dutch cybersecurity ecosystem and the increasing importance of ‘secure by design’ approaches in IoT and OT solutions.

Key takeaways:

• The door to the US is still open. Investors require returns which drives exits towards non-EU buyers (TechoneNL, Solvinity).
• Cybersecurity is not about having impenetrable defenses but is about SOC, incident response, containment and recovery. M&A activity is confirming this (Dionach by Nomios, Eye Security, DataExpert).
• EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is driving demand for consulting and implementation services. The MSSP and consulting firms are the first to benefit from this.
• Cybersecurity firms are expanding capabilities through strategic M&A (Nomios Nederland).
• NL hardware cybersecurity firms are scarce. Semicon investors are ‘looking’ at this space (Fortaegis Technologies and TEL Venture Capital).

The session produced valuable insights on what is needed for scale, cooperation and long-term competitiveness. Participants emphasised that public–private collaboration will be essential to accelerate innovation and create the conditions for European cybersecurity champions to emerge. The atmosphere was open and constructive, with strong engagement from all attendees. The evening was excellently catered by DISH, helping to create a setting conducive to meaningful dialogue and new connections.

“Through strong public–private cooperation, we can make a real difference; thinking big and acting boldly.”

 

The roundtable underscored a shared commitment to joining forces across the public and private sectors to drive Europe’s cybersecurity capabilities forward.