NPEX - Risk and return review
NPEX - Returns and loss rates
Investment maturity
NPEX – Platform statistics 2026
20000
investors
NPEX – Pros & Cons
About NPEX
NPEX is a Dutch small-business stock exchange rather than a typical crowdfunding site. Run from Amsterdam and The Hague since 2009, it holds two licences from the Dutch regulator AFM: one to operate a regulated trading venue (since 2018) and one under EU crowdfunding rules (since 2023) for raising new money.
Dutch SMEs list bonds - mostly paying 5-11% over three to eight years - and occasionally shares on the exchange; investors subscribe to new issues from around EUR 100 (older bonds come in EUR 1,000 units) and can then trade them in NPEX's own order book on weekdays.
About EUR 218 million has been raised across more than 100 financings, with some 20,000 investor accounts. Cash sits with a separate custody foundation at ING and securities at Euroclear Nederland, with the separation audited annually; up to EUR 20,000 of compensation applies if NPEX itself fails - but nothing protects you when a company whose bonds you bought fails, and most NPEX bonds rank behind the banks.
That has happened often: at least eight listed companies have gone bankrupt (including Hirschmann, about six months after raising EUR 1.5 million) and at least four more have imposed write-downs or interest cuts on bondholders - HyGear bonds lost 60% of their face value.
The exchange is also a closed world: no mainstream broker carries NPEX paper, trading is thin, and some distressed bonds have last traded at 1-20% of face value.
Costs are 1% on subscription, 0.6% a year in service fees and 0.5% per trade. An independent bondholder foundation represents investors when things go wrong.
Regulation
License / Regulation: Nederlandsche Participatie Exchange NPEX licensed under European Crowdfunding Service Providers (ECSP) regulation
Functionality
For Investors
Useful Information
Companies apply to list; the stated bar is at least three years of trading history, at least one profitable year, and a financing need of roughly EUR 0.5-10 million. NPEX prepares the offer documents - historically full prospectuses (not approved by the regulator), now an information memorandum plus the EU-standard key investment information sheet - and builds a per-company risk profile, though it publishes no standard risk grades. A separate NPEX Growth segment takes earlier-stage companies on lighter documentation. The screen can be defeated: the De Tocht musical passed despite having been loss-making throughout, and its former director stands accused of misrepresenting the company's finances in the NPEX prospectus itself.
CEO Mark van der Plas, appointed in 2018, previously ran equity trading at the Dutch bank Kempen & Co; chief commercial officer Alan van Griethuysen is a former NYSE Euronext executive director. Named staff cover new business (Kees Snip, Rudmer Hoekstra) and investor relations (Charles Hennen, Marc Bos), and the separate custody foundation has its own two-person board. The exchange was founded in 2008 and opened in February 2009 by the then State Secretary of Finance. Who owns NPEX B.V. is not disclosed on the platform - one secondary source mentions a government body taking a stake in 2018, but that could not be verified, and the accounts sit behind the Dutch registry paywall.
Because NPEX is a regulated trading venue, listed companies must publish inside information promptly under EU market-abuse rules and file half-year and annual reports through the platform - the regulator even ran a compliance session for NPEX issuers in 2024. When a company fails, the independent bondholder foundation (SOB) takes over: it holds any security, files claims with the insolvency trustee, and puts restructuring proposals to a bondholder vote. The structure works, but its outcomes have been painful: HyGear bondholders voted through a 60% write-down, TUBES holders had interest cut to 5% and repayment dates pushed back, and no recovery percentage from any bankruptcy has been published. Trading-halt practice has also been inconsistent.
Account opening, deposits and withdrawals are free, and no interest is paid on idle cash (it is swept to a money-market fund whose fee NPEX absorbs). Investing costs 1% when you subscribe to a new issue, then a service fee of 0.6% a year on the face value of bonds, deducted from your interest - NPEX's own example: a EUR 5.00 monthly interest payment pays out EUR 4.50. Trading on the exchange costs 0.5% per transaction. The unpriced cost is the exit: with no published prices between rare trades, selling a bond in this thin market can cost far more than any fee.
The negative record is the company failures themselves. Confirmed bankruptcies among NPEX-financed businesses: Slim Opgewekt (2022), WAAR Nederland (2023), Hirschmann Multimedia (June 2024 - about six months after raising EUR 1.5 million on the platform), Carver (July 2024), the musical De Tocht (July 2024), Liquidseal (2025) and wagamama's Belgian operator (2024), plus restructurings imposing losses at HyGear (60% write-down), TUBES, Image Building and LCS Group. Press coverage turned critical in 2024: participaties.nl reported that trading in De Tocht bonds continued after the bankruptcy became known, quoted NPEX placing the disclosure duty on the company, and asked openly whether the exchange protects its investors adequately. Trustpilot is effectively empty - a 3.2 score from a single one-star review (August 2026) alleging bond issues to companies that failed shortly after listing and a personal loss of more than half the money invested. No AFM enforcement action against NPEX itself was found.
Sometimes - and rarely at the price you hope. The order book is real and open weekdays 10:00-16:00 with same-day settlement, but NPEX publishes no trading volumes or spreads, the buyer pool is limited to NPEX's own accountholders (no outside broker carries its paper), and the platform's own risk sheet says it plainly: nobody may want to buy your bonds. Observed prices tell the story - bonds of troubled issuers have last traded at 1%, 20% and 50% of face value. Treat NPEX bonds as hold-to-maturity investments with an emergency exit that can cost dearly.
