Belgium startup ecosystem
Belgium's central position in Europe and role as EU capital make Brussels a natural hub for govtech, regulatory technology, and policy-adjacent startups. Ghent and Leuven add strong university-linked innovation in biotech and AI. The multilingual talent pool and access to EU institutions offer unique advantages for startups navigating cross-border markets. The directory currently lists 74 organisations across 10 cities.
Showing 1–20 of 74 Belgium
Cities in Belgium
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Belgium results
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Aerospacelab
Aerospacelab designs, builds and operates satellites end-to-end, offering versatile platforms (150 kg–1 t), payloads spanning earth observation and telecom, and full mission operations. Founded in 2018 by ex-NASA and ESA engineer Benoît Deper, the company is 90% vertically integrated and ITAR-free. It raised a €94 M Series B in August 2025 (including €37.5 M from the EIB) and is completing a Megafactory in Charleroi — Europe's largest satellite plant, targeting 500 units per year by 2026. Aerospacelab is one of two finalists competing to build the LEO layer of the EU's IRIS² secure-comms constellation.
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AI Barometer Release 2026
FinTech Belgium, Sailpeak and Vlerick Business School unveil the third edition of the AI Barometer at SilverSquare North, tracking how Belgian financial institutions are moving from AI experimentation to enterprise-scale deployment, with keynotes, use cases, panel and networking.
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Aikido Security
Aikido Security is a unified developer-first application security platform covering code scanning, cloud posture, runtime monitoring and AI-driven penetration testing — all from one console. Founded in 2022 in Ghent by serial entrepreneurs Willem Delbare, Roeland Delrue, Felix Garriau and Madeline Lawrence, it became Europe's fastest cybersecurity unicorn after closing a $60 M Series B led by DST Global and PSG Equity in 2025 at a $1 B+ valuation. Annual recurring revenue hit $20 M in 2025 with a target of $60 M. Aikido serves developers and security teams at mid-market and enterprise companies from offices in Ghent, San Francisco, London and Chicago.
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Ann Mettler
Ann Mettler is Vice President for Europe at Breakthrough Energy, the climate-focused investment and advocacy organization founded by Bill Gates to accelerate clean energy innovation globally. She previously led the European Political Strategy Centre, the in-house think tank of the European Commission, and served as Executive Director of The Lisbon Council from 2003 to 2014. She is a prominent voice on European clean energy technology and innovation policy, and a confirmed speaker at the ONS 2026 Strategic Conference.
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Aphea.Bio
Aphea.Bio develops microbial-based biological crop solutions that replace synthetic pesticides and fertilisers — biostimulants, biofungicides, bioherbicides and bioinsecticides — using its proprietary APEXbio™ platform. The technology was spun out of research at Ghent University, KU Leuven and VIB. Co-founded in 2017 by Isabel Vercauteren (CEO) and Steven Vandenabeele, the company raised a €70 M Series C in July 2023 backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, SFPIM, BNP Paribas Fortis and Innovation Industries. In 2025 it secured a VLAIO grant to launch its TRANSCEND platform screening 5,000 proprietary microorganism candidates. Aphea.Bio holds B Corp certification and is a Ghent biotech hub anchor.
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Audrey Scozzaro Ferrazzini
Audrey Scozzaro Ferrazzini serves as Vice President of Government Affairs at Qualcomm, one of the world's leading semiconductor and wireless technology corporations. Based in Europe, she represents Qualcomm before EU institutions and national governments on matters including the European Chips Act, 5G spectrum policy, mobile connectivity standards, and digital competitiveness strategy. She is a prominent industry voice in European technology and semiconductor policy discussions, regularly engaging with senior EU officials and member state governments.
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Azumuta
Azumuta provides a connected-worker platform for manufacturing that combines digital work instructions, quality assurance checklists, skills & training tracking and AI-assisted audits in a single shop-floor system. It replaces paper, spreadsheets and fragmented tools with operator-centric workflows that cut quality incidents and improve productivity. Founded in 2016 by Batis Leman in Ghent, the company raised an €8 M Series A in November 2025 led by Keen Venture Partners and Capricorn Partners. Customers include Atlas Copco, Toyota and Cummins across aerospace, pharma, food & beverage and electronics. Azumuta operates in Ghent and targets European and North American mid-market manufacturers.
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Bart Groothuis
Bart Groothuis is a Dutch Member of the European Parliament (MEP) who played a central role in shaping European cybersecurity legislation, including the NIS2 Directive. Prior to his parliamentary career, he held positions at the Dutch Ministry of Defence with a focus on cyber operations and digital security. He is widely regarded as one of Europe's leading political voices on cybersecurity, digital sovereignty, and cyber defense policy.
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Belgium Startup Awards — Startup Day 2026
A full-day national startup gathering at The Egg Brussels with stages for founders, investors, service providers, and corporates, plus a live pitch competition for a €100,000 convertible loan. The flagship convening point for the Belgian startup ecosystem.
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Breakbulk Summit 2026 (October 2026)
The inaugural, biennial Breakbulk Summit draws on Antwerp’s breakbulk heritage to convene the international breakbulk community to share insights, discuss trends and strategise on the opportunities and challenges shaping modern breakbulk logistics. The programme spans two days at venues including the Kinepolis Business Center, with an evening networking reception.
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Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl is the Director General of DIGITALEUROPE, Europe's leading digital industry trade association, a position she has held since 2019. A Danish national based in Brussels, she is one of the most influential voices in European technology policy, regularly engaging with EU institutions on legislation covering artificial intelligence, data governance, cybersecurity, and the digital single market. She serves as the primary spokesperson for the digital industry in European legislative processes and oversees major industry events including the DIGITALEUROPE Summer Summit.
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Christine Leurquin
Christine Leurquin is CEO Belgium and Senior Director of European and Public Affairs at Aldoria, a French space safety and sustainability startup specializing in space debris tracking and collision avoidance services. Aldoria operates a ground-based radar network dedicated to monitoring objects in low Earth orbit, providing commercial and institutional clients with conjunction analysis and space traffic alerting services. Her dual role combines executive leadership for Belgian operations with EU-level public affairs activities, making her a key interface between the space sustainability startup ecosystem and European policymakers.
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Clean Aviation Networking Event 2026
Focused networking for the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking. Price: free with application/registration. Targets SMEs and startups collaborating on hydrogen and electric flight tech proposals.
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ClimateCamp
Antwerp-based platform for Scope 3 supply-chain emissions management that helps companies measure, report, and reduce indirect carbon emissions through collaborative supplier engagement. Focuses on the Food & Beverages sector. 800+ companies share sustainability data through the platform. Raised €3.5M seed led by Expon Capital.
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Collibra
Collibra is a Brussels-founded data intelligence company that became one of Europe's most important enterprise software success stories by focusing on data governance, cataloging, lineage, and trust. Its software helps large organizations understand what data they have, where it came from, who owns it, and whether it can be safely used for analytics, compliance, and AI systems. That function has become significantly more important as companies face growing regulatory pressure around privacy, AI accountability, and internal data quality. Collibra operates in the layer beneath many other modern software workflows: before a company can run serious analytics or train advanced models, it needs confidence in the underlying data estate. That makes the business strategically important to data-heavy industries such as finance, healthcare, and industrial technology. In the European ecosystem, Collibra stands out because it turned a difficult, top-down enterprise problem into a large software platform category. It is a useful addition to the directory because it represents the governance backbone that increasingly underpins other ambitious AI and data companies.
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Deliverect
Deliverect provides omnichannel digital ordering infrastructure for restaurants and food retail, integrating 1,000+ third-party platforms — Uber Eats, DoorDash, Deliveroo — directly into point-of-sale systems, with tools for menu management, fleet dispatch, loyalty and in-store kiosks. Founded in 2018 in Ghent by Zhong Xu, Jan Hollez, Jelte Vrijhoef and Jerome Laredo, the company reached unicorn status in January 2022 after a $208 M Series D at a $1.4 B valuation. Total funding exceeds $332 M from Coatue, DST Global and Redpoint. Deliverect now serves 96,000+ locations across 52 countries including KFC, Burger King and Chipotle.
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Dennis Lenard
Chief executive of Creative Navy, a UX design agency, and a confirmed speaker at SmashingConf Antwerp 2026. He focuses on evidence-based user experience design, usability and the design of complex interfaces for digital products.
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Devoxx Belgium 2026
Europe's largest community-driven developer conference at Kinepolis Antwerp, themed 'From Developer to Builder'. Five days covering Java, architecture, GenAI agents, Model Context Protocol, security and modern development practices for thousands of developers worldwide.
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DIGITALEUROPE
DIGITALEUROPE is the leading trade association representing digitally transforming industries across Europe, headquartered in Brussels at Rue de la Science 37. It represents over 56,000 businesses through 134 global corporate members and 45 national trade associations spanning 35 EU countries plus Ukraine, Moldova, the UK, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey. The organization engages EU institutions across 15 policy priority areas including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, connectivity, data governance, and digital skills. It organises the annual Summer Summit as its flagship policy convening event, bringing together senior representatives from member states, the European Commission, and leading global technology companies.
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DIGITALEUROPE Summer Summit 2026
DIGITALEUROPE's annual policy summit convening EU Member State representatives, the European Commission and global tech industry leaders on Europe's digital sovereignty, AI regulation, data governance and sustainability under the theme 'Scaling the Digital Frontier'.
