Belgium’s technology sector has rapidly evolved into one of Europe’s most innovative industries, with digitalisation leading the charge. In just six months of 2024, Belgian tech companies have surged ahead, securing over €500 million in investments, a significant leap from the previous year’s funding of €424 million, as Syndicate One, Bain & Company, and Sofina reported.
We took a deep dive into the State of Belgian Tech Report 2024, and here’s what we found out.
#1 Top 5 Funding Rounds
In H1 2024, the Belgian Tech ecosystem witnessed fewer but larger deals (49 in total) for high-growth companies, featuring Series B rounds for TechWolf, Gorilla, and Robovision and Series C rounds for Tree Energy Solutions (“TES”).
Credits: State of Belgian Tech Report 2024
Tree Energy Solutions (TES), a green tech startup in the renewable energy sector, led the charge. In April 2024, TES secured €140M in Series C funding to develop its global e-NG (electric natural gas derived from green hydrogen) production portfolio. Azimut Group, Fortescue, E.ON, HSBC, O.G. Energy, Zhero, and other existing investors led the round.
Close behind, Techwolf, an AI-powered workforce planning platform, raised €39.9 million in June. The company’s approach to understanding and mapping employee skills has drawn support from technology giants and venture capital firms. Robovision followed with a €38 million Series A round, showcasing Belgium’s growing computer vision and deep learning expertise from Target Global, Astanor Ventures, and Red River West.
Qover, a leading insurtech specialising in embedded insurance orchestration, closed a €27 M Series C in July 2024 from diverse investors, including Alven, Anthemis, Kreos Capital and Zurich Global Ventures. The company plans to continue orchestrating innovative solutions, launch even more successful partnerships and propel it closer to achieving profitability in its mission to create a global safety net that protects everyone, everywhere.
Sparki, a super-fast charger for electric cars, rounded out the top five with €24M in Growth Equity VC in April 2024 from Ethias Ventures, Wallonie, Entreprendre, and Gridlink. Its mission is to shape the sustainable mobility roadmap for future generations by building the most powerful, reliable network of ultra-fast chargers for electric cars in Belgium.
Although the Belgian Tech ecosystem is growing, it still needs to catch up with its neighbouring countries regarding capital invested per capita in recent years. For instance, the United Kingdom is the leading neighbour nation, with more than double the capital invested per capita compared to the Netherlands, France, and Germany.
#2 AI companies accounted for more than 70% of the capital invested
While Belgium has long been known for its strengths in biotechnology, 2024 marks a shift toward artificial intelligence. According to the State of Belgian Tech Report 2024, AI-focused companies now attract more than 70% of all tech investment in the country, an increase from their minor share in 2022 and earlier. This showcases how Belgian entrepreneurs approach innovation, with TechWolf and Robovision embracing this positive change.
Supporting this trend, a comprehensive survey by Syndicate One in the summer of 2024, gathering insights from over 130 Belgian tech startup founders, revealed that more than 30% of startups now operate in AI. Even more striking, among startups founded in 2024, this figure exceeds 60%. Industry experts note that many tech and SaaS businesses have strategically repositioned themselves as ‘AI’ or ‘AI-powered’ to capture market momentum.
#3 Flanders emerges as an innovation hub
The geography of Belgian tech success tells its own story. According to the Dealroom data, Flanders, which made up about 60% of Belgium’s €550 billion GDP in 2022, received a proportionate share of tech start-up investment, with 52% of the total cumulative capital over the 2018 to 2024 H1 period.
Within Flanders, the cities of Ghent and Antwerp are standouts. Together, they consistently account for more than half of the capital invested in the region and 63% of the total in Flanders in the record year 2022. Major deals for companies like Deliverect ($150M in Series D), Showpad (total funding of €141M), and Intigriti (€21.1M in Series B) drive this concentration.
While accounting for only 17% of GDP, Brussels attracts 31% of cumulative capital over the 2018 to 2024 H1 period, highlighting its role as a startup hub. Wallonia, representing 23% of GDP, currently receives 17% of investments, indicating room for growth. With its strong industrial base and growing tech ecosystem, Wallonia presents a promising tech investment and development opportunity.
#4 The unicorn effect
While the headlines have understandably focused on the rise of a quartet of technology unicorns in Belgium, the underlying trend is that round sizes are generally on the rise.
According to Dealroom, the ecosystem shows increasing maturity, with round sizes growing consistently from 2018 to 2024. Seed stage funding has tripled, while Series A investments have more than doubled.
Credits: State of Belgian Tech Report 2024
The unicorn quartet showcases Belgium’s ability to build world-class companies:
Team.blue, a leading digital enabler for companies and entrepreneurs, closed a €550M investment round from CPP Investments in July 2024, valued at €4.8 billion.Collibra, a cloud-based platform, received €547M in total funding, with a €4.8 billion valuation in November 2021. Odoo, a comprehensive business management software platform, secured €150M from General Atlantic in June 2023 at a €3.9 billion valuation. Deliverect, a comprehensive solution for digital food ordering, raised $150M in Series D funding in January 2022, valued at €1.3 billion.
#5 The diversity challenge is persistent
Belgian tech’s most pressing challenge isn’t technological — it’s human. The ecosystem’s absence of comprehensive diversity data highlights a significant blind spot. In spite of the report’s many key findings, no information was included on diversity, and when asked, they had no data.
While organisations like InspiringFifty Belgium are making strides in promoting inclusion, the absence of diversity metrics in major industry reports is a stark reminder of the broader challenge: you can’t improve what you don’t measure.
As Belgian technology enters the second half of 2024, the foundations for sustained growth are firmly in place. The key will be maintaining this momentum while addressing diversity and regional development challenges. Belgium has already demonstrated that size is no barrier to technology leadership — and the story is still unfolding.
The post Can Belgian tech startups catch up with their European neighbours, and is diversity the missing piece? appeared first on Tech Funding News.