This barometer deep dives into the tech startups ecosystem in the region of Brussels.

1. Brussels Tech Startup Ecosystem
Barometer 2017

2. “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re
passionate about, you don’t have to have a master
plan with how things will play out.” - Mark
Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.

3. Authors of the study:
Michaux Adeline, Facilitating Innovation between Startups & Corporates @Startups.be
Rangoni Philippe, Business Development Director @Startups.be
Perez Agustina, Data Scientist @Startups.be
Frederik, Content Manager @Startups.be
Main contributor:
Cabinet Gosuin - Insights and Financial support

4. Introduction
This barometer deep dives into the tech startups ecosystem in the
region of Brussels. Information about startups keeps coming in the
media. Startups seem to be popping-up everywhere!
What is the impact of those startups on our society? Which are the
stakeholders fostering their success in this thriving environment? How
favorable is the Brussels region, as an ecosystem, for the startups to
emerge and grow?
This barometer focuses on Tech startups across all sectors, drawing
conclusions based on our team’s in depth knowledge of the ecosystem
as well as the insights gained from the analysis of the Startups.be data
base, a survey filled by 10% of the Brussels tech startup founders, and
29 qualitative interviews.
This has been made possible thanks to the collaboration of startup
founders, various stakeholders of the startup ecosystem and the
support of the region of Brussels.
Statistics highlighted in the
Barometer come from 2 sources:
1) Startups.be Data Base - 400
Brussels Tech Startups
2) Survey filled by 10% Brussels
startups founders
Qualitative Interviews with:
• 14 startup founders
• 10 incubators/ Startup
Studio/ public organizations
• 4 investors & 1 Corporate
Innovation manager

5. AGENDA
Tech Startup
Impact
Indicators
Tech Startup
metrics &
strengths
Tech Startup
Challenges &
Stakeholders
Mapping
Entrepreneurs
behind the
Tech Startups

6. Qualitative Interviews - Startupers
Thomas Gobeau, CEO at AproPlan
Sinouhe Monteiro, CEO at Ewala
Anna Balez, CEO at TaleMe
Sophie Flagothier, Co-founder at YouMeal
Jonathan Schockaert, CEO at ListMinute
Arik Azoulay, CEO at 26Lights
Itay Rosenfeld, CEO at Voxbone
William Detry, CEO at Sharemypark
Morgane Vouche, CEO at RisingTrack
Emna Everard, co-founder at Kazidomi
Remy Tasse, CEO at YouMeal
Aurelie Mercx, CEO at ITeachYou
Xavier Corman, CEO at Edebex
Maxime Champoux, head of
Product at IbanFirst

7. Qualitative Interviews - Stakeholders
Thibaud Elziere, Founder at eFounder
Augustin van Rijckevorsel, CEO at
Barefoot
Anis BEDDA, co-founder at
Transforma
Gianluigi Arialdi, CEO at BLSI
Cecile Jabaudon, Operational
director at MIC
Nicolas Vautrin, Team Leader
recherche industrielle et innovation
at Innoviris
Ariane Wautelet, Team leader &
Policy advisor, policy and
monitoring Team at Innoviris
Christian Mugisha, Open Innovation &
Digital Mentor at Axa
Juan Bossicard, manager of the ICT and
creatives industries at Impulse
Olivier Belenger, CEO at Eebic and
Seeder Fund
Jean Zustrassen, CEO at Belcube
Ibrahim Ouassari, CEO at MolenGeek
Olivier Witmeur, managing director
at Solvay entrepreneurs
Lou Hamonic, Software Cluster
Coordinator
Vincent Baille at M-Village
Nicolas Pary at M-Village

8. Data Base & Surveys
Startups.be Data Base
• Startups.be Data Base includes about 2000 Belgian Startups profiles (including about 430 projects un-displayed
to the public users as they don’t have a VAT number yet);
• The data base has been updated continuously by 10 people since 2015;
• Data are input automatically using different crunching sources (Ex: Crossroads Bank for Enterprises,
traditional/social media, other data bases);
• In addition, startups edit their profile themselves to complete it with even more up-to-date or “un-crunchable”
information.
Survey done for the Barometer 2017
• The survey was used to measure elements that aren’t available in the Data base or that founders might not want
to disclose. For that reason, it is anonymous.
• It has been sent to 400 startup founders and filled by 10%.

9. Summary75% of Brussels
startup founders
would recommend
to their friends to
create their
startup in Bussels
Choosing Brussels region as the place to launch a startup has its pro’s and con’s. However, pro’s are beating con’s
according to the 75% founders who would recommend their friends to create their startup in Brussels. That being said,
you won’t be surprised to learn that per inhabitant, Brussels is the Belgian region with the highest density.
How is the Brussels high startup density beneficial to its citizens? From improving health services to the way we interact
with our government, startups contribute to build a better society. Next to being a sustainable source of innovation,
Brussels Tech startups also generate employment. More than ¼ of the resources are freelancers in 73% of Brussels Tech Startups. Through their
flexibility and sense of purpose, some startups provide millennials and others with what they’re missing in bigger corporates.
With 60% of the startups created after 2011 and 72% internationalized, Brussels entrepreneurial mindset is booming! Media & Entertainment,
Healthcare, Marketing and Sales, Finance and Creative Industries, are the top 5 sectors in which entrepreneurs build their startups although some
less “crowded” sectors are better at raising funds.
Talent recruitment is by far the biggest challenge of Brussels Startups, followed by internationalization, raising funds to scale and build a strong
network/access corporate decision makers.
The profiles of the entrepreneurs behind the Brussels Tech Startups are very diverse with respectively 12.5% and 19% of the Brussels Tech Startups
lead by woman and foreigners. Last but not least, 82 entrepreneurs enjoyed the experience so much that they created multiple enterprises!

10. Startup Impact Indicators
Startup contribution to a better society
“There’s lots of bad reasons to start a company. But there’s
only one good, legitimate reason, and I think you know what
it is: it’s to change the world.”
Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote.

11. Entrepreneurship
is a must to keep
a nation
competitive,
create
employment and
insure life quality
“There isn’t any sustainable economy without
entrepreneurship and innovation. Indeed, within 10 years,
most jobs will be automated. The only way to stay in the top 20
is to innovate.”
Itay Rosenfeld, CEO at Voxbone

12. Government
Education
Security
Health
Mobility
Environment
Startups contribute to a better world
Fast and customer centric, startups
contribute to improve or revolutionize
the most challenging sectors of our
society, building a better world.
To name a few, Citizenlab, Apprentus,
Strategic Water, BePark, Nviso and
Doctor Anytime are putting technology
at the service of our society.
That’s why Brussels Capital Region
values entrepreneurship so much.

13. Brussels Tech Startups & employment
With ever increasing job automation
and recent mass redundancies from
well established groups such as
caterpillar and ING, it is critical to create
new jobs.
With c.3000 startup employees in
Brussels hired by various startups, they
contribute to the battle!
Furthermore, 100% of the interviewed
startups plan on hiring more people in
the 12 coming months.
c.3000 jobs
& more hiring
planned

14. Free-lancers find jobs thanks to startups
Ø Startups and Free-lancers are a perfect match
“Specialists are often free-lancers. They want to see other clients to learn from
various cases. That way their skill acquisition is accelerated and they can bring
this competences to Edebex, as long as their other clients aren’t competitors.”
Xavier Corman, CEO at Edebex
“Developers have to stay up-to-date and we don’t need one full time. It is better
for all parties if developers work for many customers.”
Emna Everard, co-founder at Kazidomi
Ø A snowball effect on employment
“Startups have recourse to subcontracting which creates a snowball effect on
employment!”
Ariane Wautelet, Team leader & Policy advisor at Innoviris
73% of startups hire
more than ¼ of their employees
with a freelancer status

15. Subsidies granted to startups generate employment
62% of startups allocate
a portion of the grant received
by the government to
employment
In order to scale, Startups need people
with the right competences which is
often difficult to finance when the
startups don’t generate high revenue
yet. Thanks to the region support, 62%
of the startups receiving grants
allocate a portion of this grant to
employment. Almost 25% of startups
even allocate more than half of their
grants to hiring employees.

16. Tech Startups metrics & strengths
What are Brussels Tech Startups good at?
“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas
happen.” – Scott Belsky, co-founder of Behance.

17. 54%
don’t have
entrepreneurship
running in the family
Since 2011,
Brussels
Startups
have been
popping up
like
mushrooms!

18. Brussels – Highest Belgian Tech Startups density
With c.400 startups and over
1.150.000 inhabitants, the
region of Brussels has the
highest Tech startups density
per inhabitant. Across Belgian
regions.
Highest Startups Density
1,5 per 10.000
inhabitants
3,4 per 10.000
inhabitants
1,2 per 10.000
inhabitants

19. Brussels – Coaching up on other startup Hubs
With about a third of
Amsterdam startup density,
Brussels is catching up on
other startup hubs, slowly but
surely!
It even exceeds the number of
startups per inhabitant in
Lisbon!
Brussels a startups hub?
Brussels
3,4 startups per
10.000
inhabitants
Amsterdam
10,7 startups
per 10.000
inhabitants
Lisbon
2,2 startups
per 10.000
inhabitants

20. Some super stars stand out!
While Brussels ecosystem is catching up with
more and more startups emerging, some super
stars have already shined with international
awards!
2015: shortlist of the Ashden Sustainable Travel
Awards
Ø Tapazz
2016: Most popular initiative among all 78
companies funded by CreatiFI
Ø sCool
2017: winners of the Digital Pitching Forum run
by the UK Department for International Trade
Ø AproPLAN
Ø IOT Factory
Ø Cloudalize

21. Brussels remains a young startup ecosystem
Growth
11%
Mature
11%
Formation
5%
*Maturity determined based on: founded date; funds raised; revenue; #employees
Brussels is a young
startup ecosystem
with only 11% of scale-
ups. It is waiting for its
first unicorn!
Validation
73%

22. Brussels’ share
of B2C startup is
higher than
national average
(41% vs. 33%),
but B2B startup
remain
predominant

23. For B2C startups, success is all about customers
acquisition and retention
14% of interviewed
startups have more than
10.000 users
For B2C startups, success is all about building a
strong user community. Most Brussels Tech
Startups active in B2C agree to say that Brussels is
a great place to test a B2C solution, even if only
14% managed to reach more than 10.000 users.
“With a dense and diverse population, Brussels
customers are particularly nice, understanding the
« first trial imperfections » which is not the case in
Paris.”
Anna Balez, CEO at TaleMe
Test your B2C solution in Brussels,
scale abroad!

24. Media &
Entertainment,
Healthcare,
Marketing & Sales,
FinTech and
Creative Industries
represent together
+45% of all Brussels
Tech startups
+45%

25. Zoom on sub-categories of the top 3 industries
Media & Entertainment Healthcare
Marketing & Sales

26. Sectors booming since 2015
Ø Mobility
Ranked number 8th city with worst traffic in Europe, Brussels
citizens are craving for mobility solutions. That explains why so
many startups are emerging in this sector. Hopefully those
startups will make Brussels citizens life easier!
Ø Commerce & Shopping
Brussels inhabitants are keen to leverage opportunities arising
with trends such as click and collect, enhanced shopping
experiences in brick and mortars and collaborative economy to
name a few.
Ø Creative Industries
In 2015, 6 new startups were launched in creative industry. In
particular, FashionTech and Gaming are motivating Brussels
entrepreneurs!
Mobility
Creative
Industries
Commerce
&
Shopping
Commerce &
Shopping

27. Brussels region’s investment choices
FinTech
RegTech
eHealth
Media &
Entertainement
Ø Media & entertainment
Most represented sector by startups in Brussels, Media and entertainment is meant to grow
with Brussels investing dedicated funds to audio visual.
Ø Focus on Fin Tech
With a dynamic ecosystem stimulated by initiatives such as B-Hive, FinTech Startups are
already numerous in Brussels. The arrival of companies like Luid will most probably strengthen
the position of Brussels as a financial hub.
Ø Focus on RegTech
Simplifying the regulatory landscape is a huge challenge that some successful Brussels
startups are tackling. As an example, Collibra helps multinational corporates adapt to different
rules within 50 countries.
Ø Focus on eHealth
E-health is definitely a strong focus of Brussels with a dedicated incubator called BLSI.

28. Hidden potential
Although not yet part of the sectors that Brussels has chosen to
focus on, Brussels has the potential to become a hub for
collaborative economy and CIVIC Tech.
Ø Collaborative Economy
Belgium became pioneer in collaborative economy when allowing peer-to-peer
services to be remunerated with only 10% of tax and a maximum of 5100€ a year
before having to change status. We have the potential to attract more startups for
which this law is crucial!
Ø CIVIC Tech
“Brussels should invest in CIVIC Tech. We have the commission, the parliament and 3
regions that need to be modernized.” Lou Hamonic, Software Cluster Coordinator

29. Proportion of Brussels startups using each below technology
Most frequently used technology: Data Analytics!
More than 60% of Brussels
Tech Startups use Data
analytics, followed by 50%
developing SaaS and more
than 30% busy with AI and
Mobile Tech. More than
20% also uses IoT and social
network to build tomorrow’s
solutions.
Popular Technologies

30. Brussels invests in IoT, Blockchain, AI and VR
Ø Fab labs
Brussels has launched 4 fab labs across the city. In those fab
labs anyone can come and work on high tech project using the
shared machines.
Ø Digityser
Brussels invests heavily in Blockchain, AI, IoT and VR. Amongst
other, talents can learn those skills at Digityser.
Ø Media Center
Brussels is considering to create a media center in order to
encourage entrepreneurship in audio visual. That way, we can
attract post production activities in Belgium and leverage the
tax shelter. The perfect place to develop VR.

31. 31
72% of the
Brussels Tech
Startups are
active in
foreign
countries
72%
Internationalized

32. Brussels Tech startups are making business all over the world
39%
14%
11%
17%
14%
Expansion Plan
While 39% of the Brussels Tech Startups
are already active in some EU countries,
89% would like to expand there!
Half of the Brussels Tech Startups
interviewed have chosen to expand their
business in France. The Netherlands
comes second with ¼ .
After the EU countries, the second most
desired expansion destination is North
America with 31%, followed by Asia 17%.
*Out of the 72% startups active abroad, here is a proportion of startups active in the
different continents

33. International business generates revenue
Revenue generated
Shall we dare saying that Brussels Tech Startups are born
global?
Well, here comes the facts: 65% of them generate revenue
abroad! This include 27% making more than ¼ of their total
revenue abroad, 19% making more than ½ and 11% making
even more than ¾ !
“Competition is tougher in The UK or France for example. To
stimulate the Belgian Startups growth abroad, we have to
cultivate the revenue culture to make them fight harder
against foreign competition.”
Olivier Belenger, CEO at Seeder Fund
27% generate more
than ¼ revenue
abroad!

34. 21% of Brussels
Tech startups
raised funds, the
rest never raise
funds at all
21%

35. Proportion of startups raising funds at seed level and further
Early-seed funds are the
easiest funds to raise
Brussels startups are quite good at raising
early-seed funding but struggle to raise
funds to scale.
Amongst startups that raised funds, 22%
have manage to raise late-seed funds
which is quite a good achievement!
Even better, 10% have managed to raise
more than 5M! A promise to scale?
17%
39%
22%
10%
Pre-seed: < 100k
Early-seed : 100k to 500k
Late-seed : 500k to 1M
14%Serie A,B,C : 1 - 5M
Serie A,B,C : 5M +

36. Early stage startups receive great support in Brussels
The difficulty level of raising funds to validate the market fit and/or
develop a minimum viable product is rated less than 2,5/5 by the
Brussels Tech Startups.
Ø 29% startups received more than 100k subsidies
“We hired an expert who took all the application steps to get us 500k of subsidies. This
way, we focused on our core business and avoided to raise seed money at a very early
stage at which investors asked a lot of shares.” Remy Tasse, CEO at YouMeal
Ø 39% of startups raising funds, raised between 100k and 500k
The flexibility, speed and methodology required to evaluate startups VS SMEs are
different. In France, Xavier Niels’ fund invests in 2 startups a week, 150K each. We miss
that in Belgium. Christian Mughisha, Open Innovation Manager at Axa
Seeder Fund was born from the need to analyze startups cases faster. We invested in
more than 1 startups/month since we started. Belgium needs 15 additional millions in
new or existing seed funds to kick-off all the early stage startups with potential.
Olivier Belenger, CEO at Seeder Fund
Difficulty level

37. Although, Supply Chain, Real
Estate and Mobility are not in the
top 5 industries with the largest
numbers of Brussels Tech startups,
they represent together close to
30% of the total funding raised
across all industry.
While Financial Services is the 4th
biggest startups sector in Brussels,
it counts for close to ¼ of the total
money raised by Brussels Tech
startups.
The Most popular industry for entrepreneurs aren’t
always the industry attracting investors
Attractive Industries for Investors

38. 106M
Top stars of investment raising!
Focus on business results
before raising money, is key!
“We lost a lot of time trying to raise
funds too early. It takes 6 months for a
person full time to raise funds. It would
be more efficient to use this time to
generate revenue with which raising
funds becomes way easier.”
Jonathan Schockaert, CEO at ListMinut
8M
12M7M
5M

39. Improvement of Innovoris Subsidy process
Subsidy Paradise
Ø A long process with limited possibilities
Many startups claim that it is very time consuming to generate the requested
documents to obtain subsidies. It takes the focus of key resources away from the
core business. In addition, no matter how good is a project, it might not fit with
the restricted criteria.
“Writing a detailed business plan when you’re early stage is bullshit. We all
know that we might pivot.” Maxime, Product chief at IbanFirst
Ø Broaden the possibilities to support innovation
By adopting 2 new prescriptions, Innoviris gets 2 major improvements: (1) they
can finance a larger variety of projects from “feasibility study” to “product
research”. (2) their intervention are better tailored to specific needs of different
project development phases.
“Help to early stage startups is now specific with amount limited to 100k.”
Ariane Wautelet, Team leader & Policy advisor at Innoviris
Support a wider
variety of projects and
development phases

40. Startups Challenges &
Stakeholders Mapping
"When everything seems to be going against
you, remember that the airplane takes off
against the wind, not with it." Henry Ford,
founder of Ford Motor Company.

41. Recruitment
is by far the
biggest
challenge of
Brussels
Tech
Startups 5. Build a strong network & access corporate
decision makers
4. Develop International Expertise
3. Raise Funds to scale
2. Recruit Sales Profile
and acquire Sales skills
1. Recruit Tech Profile
and acquire Tech skills
4.19/5
4.17/5
3.84/5
3.62/5
3.43/5
* Startups have rated the difficulty level of various challenges on a scale of 5, resulting in
the top 5 challenges above

42. Challenge 1: Although Belgium has Tech talents, we need more!
Ø Tech talents are too expensive for startups
Ø Becoming a tech co-founders isn’t perceived as a
cool status by Belgian Tech Talents
“Belgian developers want either to work in a big corporates with
an interesting package or as free-lancers to keep their freedom
and work on various projects. Plus, it looks cool to be a free-
lancer! Becoming a co-founder and earning nothing for a year isn’t
yet perceived as cool… » Thibaud Elziere, CEO at eFounders
“We need tech profiles with about 2 years of experience. These
profiles are way too expensive in Belgium. It isn’t easy to convince
them to let go of the company car and receive a lower salary.
Consequently, out of 3 candidates, I meet 2 foreigners and many
startups even outsource IT development.” Jonathan, CEO at
ListMinut

43. Challenge 1: Many Stakeholders are training new tech talents
Ø Emergence of various tech trainings
More and more public and private stakeholders provide trainings
to develop local Tech talents. The focus is on web and back-end
development as well as revolutionary technologies such as IoT,
Blockchain, Data analytics and AI.
Ø Need for experienced profiles
Most startups highlight the short term need for experienced tech
profiles. Although trainings are the way to go and will pay off in
the future, startups are urging the government to attract foreign
tech profiles in the meanwhile as an alternative to outsourcing.
“We need experienced profiles. It isn’t only about coding
knowledge but other working skills which you only learn on the
field.” Xavier Corman, CEO at Edebex

44. Challenge 2: Belgian modesty doesn’t make us good sellers!
Developing products isn’t the only key to success, selling is crucial
too. While we keep hearing that we miss tech talents, we
discovered that sales talents were almost as rare as the tech ones!
Ø Belgian need to be more hungry
“I’ve given the same sales training to Belgian and other nationalities. I can
tell that Belgian aren’t good sellers. It isn’t about the training, it is about
the mindset. We need to develop a spirit of ambition and competition!
Immerse Belgian in hungrier culture should help!"
Arik Azoulay, CEO at 26Lights
Ø Need to cultivate the culture of revenue
“Belgian entrepreneurs spend too much time trying to raise money while
they didn’t sell anything yet. To let Brussels startups succeed, we need to
teach and cultivate the culture of revenue, in particular recurrent
revenue!” Olivier Belenger, CEO at Eebic and BelCube

45. Ø Entrepreneurs need to go on the field
“At BeStarter, we get entrepreneurs to focus on the most
important: the market. Getting in touch with customers will
help the entrepreneurs to adjust their offering till they find the
problem/solution fit as well as tuning their sales pitch till it
resonates. They have to get out of their comfort zone!”
Baudoin de Troostembergh, CEO at Startup Factory and board
member at beStarter
Ø Sales management is key
“To reach excellence, young talents need a good training and
good sales managers. They need coaching in real situation. At
BrightBiz, we focus on 3 pillars: Sales culture (build a hungry
mindset), Sales Monitoring (measure the success of customers
calls, visits, etc) and Commercial strategy (iterate to improve
the pitch and time to sign).” Philippe Szombat, CEO at BrightBiz
Challenge 2: To become a good seller, it is all about practice

46. Ø Determine properly the profile searched is key
“It isn’t easy to recruit a commercial profile. It starts with being aware of what
you really need. Entrepreneurs tend to look for “too high level” profiles for the
task. They get bored quickly in the job and leave the company.” Vincent, CEO
at M-Village
Ø Talent hunting requires a method, just like selling
Different profiles are required and different tools should be used when
searching talent for a startup or for a scale-up. At an early stage, recruitment
platforms are very helpful and getting less expensive, with emerging solutions
dedicated to startups.
“When scaling, our recruitment method had to change. Experienced profiles
can’t be found on recruitment platforms. They have to be prospected just like
clients. In addition, it is key to assess the future employee’s values as much as
their records.” Thomas Gobeau, CEO at Aproplan
Challenge 1&2: A lack of experience in recruiting

47. Challenge 3: Find Funds to scale
The difficulty level of raising funds to scale the business is
rated close to 4/5 (VS raising seed funds rated at 2,28/5)
Ø Total Amount invested in Belgium is too weak
“To level up the Belgian Tech Startups Ecosystem, we would need 5 to
10 Milliards. Each time a Belgian startup raises 1M, competitors in The
USAs, UK or Israel raise 8M. We cannot become leader that way! That’s
why Belgian startups look for funds from foreign VCs.” Itay Rosenfeld,
CEO at Voxbone
Ø Belgium misses investors able to invest 50M
“To compete against startups from London & The USA, we need to
attract more VCs able to invest 50Millions in a high potential scale-up.
That means VCs with skilled people and money from corporates and
investment funds.”
Itay Rosenfeld, CEO at Voxbone

48. Serie B,C
5M+
Pre-seed:
1 to 100k
Early-seed :
100k to 500k
Late-seed :
500k to 1M
Serie A :
1M to 3M
Serie B,C :
3 to 5M
Public Equity
Funds
Private Funds & CorporateCrowd FundingSubsidies
& Grants
Guaranty & Credit
Most Belgian Contributors don’t invest more than 5M+
* This list is not exhaustive. However provides a good overview.

49. To scale, raising funds abroad is a must
Although there is money in Belgium, it is particularly fragmented. It is
therefore very difficult for a scale-up to raise dozens of millions in Belgium. In
that context, high potential scale-ups usually knock the doors of US, UK or
other foreign investors with more capacity.
On the bright side, Brussels scale-ups are competitive enough to catch the
attention of powerful investors.
On the down side, foreign investors often ask the startups in which they invest
to relocate their head quarter, moving the decision power away from Belgian…
« We make sure that each of the startups born in eFounder has a foot in the
USA. We keep the product development here and move the business decisions
there, just like Showpad, Sparkcentral and Engager did to name a few. »
Thibaud Elziere, Founder at eFounder
30 % funded startups
that we interviewed raised
funds from foreign
investors
Startups Find Funds to scale from Foreign Investors

50. Serie B,C
5M+
Late-seed :
500k to 1M
Serie A :
1M to 3M
Serie B,C :
3 to 5M
Public Funds Private FundsSubsidies/Grants
Serie B,C
10M+
IPO
Most Foreign Investors invest more than 5M
* This list is not exhaustive. However provides a good overview.

51. Brussels is on track to get necessary funds to scale Unicorns
Scaleup.eu
500M+ will be
gathered in a fund of funds
by Scalups.eu
Scaleups.eu is tackling the shortage of scaling funds
Building on top of the impactful Belgian Level-up initiative,
Scaleups.eu aims to bring it at a European level. It is the first
Belgian initiative to bring many of the biggest Belgian funds
together as a fund of funds.
It consists in investing massive amount of money in a few
potential unicorns instead of spreading small amounts of money
on various scale-ups which individually don’t raise enough to
become worldwide leader.

52. Challenge 4: Build International Expertise
Ø Competition Level & legal challenges
“We tried to expand ListMinut in Paris. It seemed as an easier
way to grow than Flanders for languages and administrative
reasons. However, we met a lot more competition in Paris and
had to back-up.”
Jonathan Schockaert, CEO at ListMinut
Ø Manage employees remotely is challenging
“To grow international, you need to have commercial
representatives in many countries which comes with
management and communication challenges such as “time
difference”, multi-languages, no face to face meeting, legal
complications, etc”
Maxime Champoux, Head of Product at IbanFrist

53. Carefully selecting in which countries to expand as well as getting a
local presence are critical to a succeful internationalization
Ø Identify a match with the local culture
“People who join TaleMe do not seek to own things. That is why
Amsterdam is an excellent destination for us. Lending stuffs is in their
culture. It isn’t the case everywhere.”
Anna Balez, CEO at TaleMe
Ø Hire a local
“To fit with the culture in Paris, you need to be local. It isn’t as easy to
build a network in Paris as it is in Brussels. Indeed, the size of Brussels
is more human and people are more willing to share their contacts
here. Paris is a world with codes, you cannot become a good sales
representative over there that easily.”
Anna Balez, CEO at TaleMe

54. Challenge 5: Build strong network/Access corporate decision makers
Access corporate decision makers
Startups are spending a lot of time on corporates prospection.
Before catching the attention of a decision maker, they usually
have to meet many people at different hierarchical level which is
very time consuming but necessary to build trust. However,
startups have a different time perception than corporates.
“It is still really difficult in Belgium to have a good understanding
between Startups and Corporates. Corporates are too slow to
work with startups. They are the Startup cemetery! However,
relationship with corporates are better in some countries like in
the USAs and UK.” Jean Zustrassen, CEO at Belcube

55. Once the decision maker is reached, the road is still long
Strong engagement is required to build successful relations
between startups and corporates
Although many corporates have set-up their own venture labs or accelerators
in order to prepare startups for potential exit, not a lot already buy solutions
from startups or consider them as long term co-development partners.
Some of the main reasons are (1) the difference of time perspective, a day for
a startup is a month for a corporates (2) the lack of sponsorship from decision
makers (3) a lack of long term involvement from corporates approaching
startups with a too short time collaboration in mind.
“They have shifted their mindsets and are open to testing, knowing that
mistakes are likely to follow, yet admitting that there is no moving forward
without mistakes. To lower some of the risks they are using separate entities
to test the innovation solutions and products.”
Open Innovation – Fact or Fiction?; MatchMaker Ventures; May 2017

56. Some stakeholders are working to bridge both worlds
Programs to bridge both world
Ø Better definition of corporates challenges
Ø Better understanding of respective time
constrains
Ø Get strong internal sponsorship before
engaging
“We should greatly encourage programs to develop
entrepreneurial mindset within companies, quality
matchmaking sessions with startups and free time
allocated to employees to work on startup projects.”
Arik Azoulay, CEO at 26Lights
Get strong
internal
sponsorship
before engaging
Better
understanding of
respective time
constraints
Better definition
of the corporate
challenges

57. “Nowadays, we
have every kind of
support that we
need! To feel
lonely, you have
to want it!” Jean
Zustrassen, CEO at
BelCube
Brussels counts 100+ structures to accompany startups
such as Incubators, Accelerators, Startups Studios, etc
100+

58. The favorite public organisation of the Brussels startups
“Impulse helped me a lot to build my business plan in order
to raise money. I saved time thanks to their knowledge for
lots of questions that aren’t core to my business but need to
be fixed asap.”
Emna Everard, CEO at Kazidomi

59. “There is enough structures and events helping to find
the product/market fit. However, there is a lack of
coordination between them. Startups lose time
looking for the right organizatio as it isn’t clear which
one does what.”
Thomas Gobeau, CEO at Aproplan
beDigital – All Stakeholders coordinated
“There are a lot of structures to help startups but we
lose time going from one to another” Sinouhé
Monteria, CEO at Ewala
“The Brussels Startup ecosystem misses a catalyst between
all private and public actors. This will change with the plan
Next Tech Brussels.
ü Simplify the support structures by merging Atrium,
Impulse and BIE
ü Create an umbrella brand “beDigital” and an internet
website gathering all Brussels stakeholders, events, etc”
Juan Bossicard, manager of the ICT and creatives industries
at Impulse

60. Entrepreneurs behind the startups
Are entrepreneurs profiles as diverse as Brussels population?
“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the
successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure
perseverance.” - Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple.

61. A region of serial entrepreneurs from all over the world!
64%
2 startups
3-5 startups
5-10 startups
10-15 startups
31%
2.5%
2.5%
82 Serial
startups
founders
9%
Serial startups
founders are
women

62. Brussels entrepreneurs start early!
86% of
entrepreneurs created
their first startup
before 34
year old
Launching a startup just after graduation is a good time but not the
only ideal moment!
There are three ideal moment to launch a startup according to
Olivier Witmeur, managing director at Solvay entrepreneurs:
1. Ideal moment N°1: 1 year experience, an identified team and
identified corporate issue to solve
2. Ideal moment N°2: just graduated, neither house loan, no
children
3. Ideal moment N°3: around 40 or 50 years old, when the house
is paid and children are getting more independent
The 3 ideal moments to launch a startup

63. Students are encouraged to undertake!
Ø It isn’t necessary to have work in a bigger company before
launching a startup
“Today, youths have to create their job themselves because the employee
status is disappearing little by little.
They aren’t enough entrepreneurs with good projects in Brussels. We have to
encourage university students to build their company. They have to try while
they still have time to think about projects.”
Jean Zustrasse, CEO at BelCube
Ø The student/independent status helps a lot
“The student/entrepreneur status did not exist yet when I started Kazidomi. It
was not easy to manage mandatory classes and business meeting as the
teachers did not recognize the importance of those meetings.”
Emna Everard, co-founder at Kazidomi
Since January 2017,
under a revenue of 13.296,25 €,
students benefit from
fiscal advantages
which encourage them to give it
a try!

64. Although more and more women are launching their startups, the culture
still has to evolve…
Ø More difficult to be taken seriously by customers
“Once a potential client kept talking to my colleage, not looking at me once during the whole
meeting like if I was not there, although I am the CEO…. ». Morgane Vouche, CEO at RisingTrack
“Investors looked at me like at an Alien – Is that a girl at the head of a company asking for funds to
hire people?”Anna Balez, CEO at TaleMe
Ø Lack of inspiring woman in Tech
“Although Woman in Tech hold conferences about successful woman, I think that it misses inspiring
woman in typical man sectors. Most woman that I met in those conferences were active in sectors
such as clothes, make-up or food.” Aurélie Mercks, CTO at ITeahcYou
Women are also taking the lead!
12.3%
startups founders
are women

65. Entrepreneurs from all over the world choose Brussels!
30%
Brussels startups founders were
raised in Flanders or Wallonia
19%
Brussels startups founders were
raised in a foreign country

66. Conclusion
Tech Startup Impact Indicators
• Brussels Tech Startups contribute to social improvements by bringing innovative solutions in health, government, security, education, mobility
and environment
• They also contribute to employment with about 3000 employees including free-lancers
Tech Startup metrics & strengths
• Brussels has the highest startup density across Belgian regions and catches up famous startup hubs such as Amsterdam, slowly but surely
• Brussels region remains a young ecosystem with lots of starters but few scaleups
• The region’s share of B2C startups is higher than national average (41% vs. 33%), but B2B startups remain predominant
• Media & Entertainment, Healthcare, Marketing & Sales, FinTech and Creative Industries represent together +45% of all Brussels Tech startups`
• 72% of the Brussels Tech Startups are active in foreign countries, from France to other continents
• 21% of Brussels Tech startups raised funds. 10% of those successful fund raisers have even managed to raise more than 5M
Tech Startup Challenges & Stakeholders Mapping
• Tech talents recruitment is by far the biggest challenge of Brussels Tech Startups, followed by (2) Sales talents recruitment (3) Raising Funds to
scale (4) Develop International Expertise and (5) Build a strong network & access corporate decision makers
• Many initiatives and stakeholders have arised to tackle these challenges, promising a bright future
Entrepreneurs behind the Tech Startups
• Diverse entrepreneurs profiles hide behind the Brussels Tech Startups, although males under 34 are a majority