Fast and fearless
This list first ran in December 2021. We have updated it in July 2026, because a list of young, fast growing startups ages badly. Four and a half years on, the useful question is not only who was hiring back then, but who is still standing, who got absorbed by someone bigger, and who is actually hiring today.
In our earlier blogs you could read why startup jobs in the Netherlands are booming and which 10 cool scaleups in Amsterdam to work for. Being part of a relatively young startup provides huge career opportunities, because when the company grows, your responsibilities and learning opportunities grow with it. Next to the learning opportunities, there can also be other benefits. Just look at Taner Halicioglu, Facebook's first full-time hire back in October 2004, who was so kind to donate 75 million dollars to UC San Diego for its data science institute.
Where the 2021 cohort actually ended up
All ten companies on the original list are still operating in 2026, and none of them went under. Seven are still independent. Three are not: SwipeGuide was acquired by L2L, Goboony merged into Yescapa, and Formitable was absorbed into Zenchef and no longer exists as a brand.
Read that as the normal outcome rather than a scandal. For early employees a merger is usually the exit, not the failure. But it does change what you are joining, so each entry below states plainly where the company stands today, and every careers link has been re-checked and repointed. The original 2021 links are mostly dead, which is itself the lesson: verify a company's current state before you write the cover letter, including when a list like this one tells you it is hiring.
Trengo (independent)
Trengo is customer engagement software which bundles different communication channels like WhatsApp, email, Messenger and voice into one inbox. Founded in Utrecht in 2017, it raised a 36 million dollar Series A from Insight Partners and Peak in September 2021, almost exactly when this list first went out, having grown from twelve to seventy people in the year before that round. Today the product leans hard on AI agents that handle repetitive conversations before a human sees them, so the roles have shifted with it. It takes two to tango, but it seems it still takes many more to Trengo.
Convious (independent)
Convious is an all-in-one booking and e-commerce platform for the leisure industry: theme parks, zoos, museums and waterparks. It extended its Series A in October 2023 and is still Amsterdam-based, still independent, and still hiring across data, commercial and customer-facing roles. Be clear-eyed about the trade: this is a deliberately narrow vertical. If the experience economy is what you want to work on, the focus is the whole appeal. If it is not, the same focus is the reason to skip it.
SwipeGuide (acquired by L2L in 2024)
SwipeGuide delivers an intuitive way to standardize work in manufacturing. Its digital instruction manuals reach more than 300,000 factory employees across 93 countries, which is rather more than the "tons of workers" we credited it with in 2021. In September 2024 it was acquired by L2L, an American connected-workforce software company, so the Amsterdam team now sits inside a larger US-owned platform. If you came for startup-stage chaos and equity, that is a real change. If you came for the problem, it is the same problem with more money behind it. Still one to swipe right.
Wundermart (independent)
Wundermart is the 24/7 unmanned, data-driven (but physical) grocery shop, dropped straight into offices and hotels. It is the quiet compounder of this list: still independent, now operating across the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the UK, with shops inside NH, Marriott, Radisson, Hilton and Accor properties. Hiring clusters in commercial, product and customer success. Still hungry for more.
Goboony (merged into Yescapa in 2023)
Goboony was the marketplace for Recreational Vehicles (RV's), where customers book an RV for their next romantic trip or a weekend with friends. In 2023 it merged with French competitor Yescapa, raising 7 million euros alongside the deal to create what the pair call Europe's largest campervan sharing platform: roughly 30,000 vehicles across ten countries. The Goboony brand has since moved over to Yescapa, so what you would join now is a French-Dutch group, not a Dutch startup. So if you ain't a loony, you better Yescapa.
Formitable (now Zenchef)
Formitable was the app for restaurants to manage online reservations and takeaways, and yes, in 2021 we praised its Covid proof restaurant experiences, which tells you how old this entry is. It merged with French platform Zenchef in 2023, the group then bought Belgian-Dutch player Resengo, and since January 2024 everything runs under the Zenchef name. Formitable as a brand is retired. Zenchef says it now serves more than 23,000 European restaurants. The Amsterdam office survived; the startup did not, in the sense that matters for your title and your equity. This company still has a big appetite for working with talented people, just under someone else's logo.
Orderchamp (independent)
Orderchamp is reimagining wholesale by bringing independent retailers and brands together in a digital wholesale marketplace. Founded in 2019, it raised a 20 million dollar Series A led by Prime Ventures in May 2021 and is still independent and hiring out of Amsterdam. Worth knowing what you are signing up for: two-sided marketplaces have to solve supply and demand at the same time, which is brutal, and it is why commercial hires here carry unusually real weight. The beautiful thing is that you can still be the next champion to join the team.
Trunkrs (independent)
Trunkrs took care of same day and next day deliveries for Dutch webshops, backed in 2022 by a 15 million euro Series B from the Colruyt and Van Puijenbroek family offices together with SET Ventures, and it moved into a much bigger sorting centre in Woerden in 2024. The thing worth noticing as a job seeker is the pivot: Trunkrs now sells itself as the market leader in fresh and frozen delivery rather than parcels in general. That is a narrower and far more defensible niche than the one it was chasing when we first wrote this. Good things come in small (refrigerated) packages.
Shypple (independent)
Shypple aims to reduce overall freight spend by managing and improving the supply chain. Founded in Rotterdam in 2016 by Jarell Habets, it raised 18.5 million euros just four months after a 7.14 million euro Series A, then used it to acquire Milestone and push into perishable logistics, picking up offices in China along the way. One honest caveat: freight is deeply cyclical, so this is the entry on the list whose fortunes ride on the shipping market as much as on its own execution. Get ready to set sail with Shypple.
Dyme (independent)
Dyme is a smart money management app that enables users to learn about their spending, cancel unnecessary subscriptions and save money. Founded in 2018, it is still independent and still Amsterdam-based, and it is the company here that took the least outside money, having turned down an investment offer early on. Temper your expectations before you get attached: it currently advertises no open vacancies, so this is a speculative-application company rather than an actively hiring one. Most certainly not a dime a dozen.
What this cohort teaches you about picking a startup
Every funding number above is what the company raised at the time it raised it, not what it is worth now. Funding announcements are the fastest-ageing fact in tech, and a 2021 round was raised into an unusually generous market. Treat any "fastest growing startup" list, this one included, as a starting point for your own checks rather than as a verdict.
The more durable signal in this cohort is focus. The ones that are still independent mostly got narrower rather than broader: Trunkrs to fresh and frozen, Convious to attractions, Shypple to perishables, Wundermart to hotels and offices. If you are joining a young company for the learning curve, join one that can tell you exactly which small thing it intends to win, and why it will win it.
