Ingo Uytdehaage (Adyen): ‘Developing the Amsterdam tech ecosystem’

Adyen is a Dutch fintech company offering payment solutions worldwide. With some 4,500 employees, more than half of whom work outside the Netherlands, the global fintech platform annually processes transactions worth trillions of dollars. In the past 16 years, Adyen has become one of the absolute heavyweights at the Amsterdam Exchange AEX.

The AEX Index turns blood red as we speak to Adyen’s co-CEO Ingo Uytdehaage. President Trump has just unrolled his (now ‘paused’) tariff plans. Stock markets worldwide are taking a nose dive. It highlights once again the importance of a strong European technology sector, and thus the value of Amsterdam’s tech ecosystem, with Adyen as its biggest success story.

Ingo Uytdehaage (Adyen)

So a perfect moment for Adyen to become a partner of the Amsterdam Economic Board. “Amsterdam and the surrounding region provide an excellent base to start and grow as a technology company,” Uytdehaage says. “That certainly played an important role in how we were able to grow our company over the past 16 years into a global player. We would therefore like to contribute to the further development of the Amsterdam tech ecosystem. The partnership with the Amsterdam Economic Board is a perfect way to give substance to that ambition.”

Autonomous strategy

A key factor in Adyen’s success story is investing in the development of proprietary technology. “We have built that strategy over the years with a group of international talents who have high expectations for their living environment,” Uytdehaage says. “Among this group, Amsterdam is very highly regarded as a place to live. The presence of companies like Booking, Just Eat, Uber and Netflix makes the region even more attractive. That creates a positive catalyst for the concentration of high-quality tech companies.”

The autonomous way Adyen built out its complex tech stack now serves as an example for other companies looking to reduce their dependence on U.S. tech players. “We have developed all our key technology in-house. We run in our own co-locations with our own data connections. You sometimes hear criticism of big ‘regulatory push,’ but we have built a very healthy business within that European context. We like to share the resulting insights with other companies. Amsterdam Economic Board can be important in bringing together companies engaged in technological innovation.”

Epicenter for innovative technology

According to Uytdehaage, who is also joining as a Board member, the Amsterdam Economic Board plays an important role in further magnifying the many positive attributes of the 2.5 million-strong Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. “If you look at other successful regions, you see that they excel in putting their specific expertise on the map. In Eindhoven, for example, Brainport focuses on hardware. Amsterdam could present itself more strongly as an epicenter for Internet and application technology. We can and certainly want to make our contribution to that.”

Another important function of the Amsterdam Economic Board, according to Adyen’s co-CEO, is to further strengthen the network between the numerous tech companies in the region. “Although informal networks already exist, there are gains to be made in creating more coherence and cooperation,” he states. “Of course, this also applies to other local parties. For example, we work closely with the University of Amsterdam, where we fund a PhD programme and conduct research on our datasets. As part of the knowledge economy, investing in high-quality education is absolutely essential.”

Clear vision of impact technology

As a Board member, Adyen wants to contribute to high-quality education. “The complexity of technologies like AI requires well-educated people,” Uytdehaage observes. “Right now, a lot of it is about AI literacy. It cannot be captured in one sentence exactly what we as a society mean by that. It is very important that we as a technology sector develop a clear vision on this. As well as in a broader sense about our impact on society. The Amsterdam Economic Board offers a very suitable platform for this with a broad range of partners.”

This topic is close to Uytdehaage and Adyen’s heart, as is also evidenced by the series of lectures the fintech company organises with De Balie. The impact of technology on society has been an important theme there for several years. So it also seems logical that Adyen can play an important role within the Innovative Region theme? “Absolutely,” laughs Uytdehaage. “As far as I am concerned, we will first listen very carefully to the input of the other participants, and connect to that.”

Text: Arnoud Groot