TomTom CFO: How we became one of the top innovators in the Netherlands

Being ranked fourth for R&D investment in the Netherlands alongside companies like Booking.com, Philips and ASML is an amazing achievement — but it doesn’t surprise me. It reflects what TomTom’s become: an organization built on a bold strategy, bolder ambition and long-term innovation.

Two decades ago, TomTom was a B2C hardware company. Our R&D spend was less than 5% of our revenue. But as we shifted to software, so too did our focus on R&D, which went from a supporting role to a core line function. More recently, we evolved from a customer-led company to one that’s product led — which means inventing and investing in solutions that push the limits of what’s possible with present-day tech.

The numbers tell a more succinct story: today, our R&D spend is around 60% of our revenue.

Each of these transitions was a natural step towards the company’s long-held ambition: to build a unique, truly live map. And by ’live’, I mean an exact reflection of the real world — a map whose near real-time updates capture a level of detail and accuracy never seen before.

To say this is challenging would be an understatement. A few years ago, we overhauled our mapmaking process to pave the way for TomTom Orbis Maps — a platform whose maps provide an unprecedented level of granularity and freshness. Many of its elements are informed by an ever-growing number of data sources; when those sources conflict, we have to determine the ground truth quickly and at scale.

AI has become central to this process. In fact, we’ve focused on building tech that sorts, aggregates and validates data sources so that capturing real-time changes across the globe is faster than ever.

Because of this, the pace of mapmaking is increasing exponentially. Our maps are smarter and fresher, our solutions more widely applicable and advantageous — for automotive, enterprise and new specialized use cases that continue to emerge as the world becomes increasingly software defined.

And this leads me to another important point — knowing where to invest. Listening to customers and partners is central to our R&D strategy. Their pain points and ambitions show us where to focus and accelerate our efforts. By working together, sharing resources and maintaining open dialogues, we ensure that we’re always investing where it matters.

One more factor in TomTom’s success: independence. We’ve been debt free for over a decade. This gives us flexibility — an immunity to the agendas of outside forces — and the freedom to invest where we believe we can have the greatest impact. 

TomTom’s R&D ranking is not an endpoint. It’s a talking point — evidence that focus and persistence pay off. By centering our strategy around world‑class R&D, we’re not at the mercy of change but among those who are driving it — reliably, responsibly and at scale. 

And we’re just getting started.