BACK

Belgian Tech Ecosystem Overview:
- Belgium has about 3,000 startups spread throughout the country; the whole nation acts as a startup hub.
- The startup scene is growing rapidly but remains somewhat under the radar in Europe.
- Ghent ranks in the top 10 most dense startup ecosystems in Europe and 19th globally.
- Belgium is known for strong R&D, multilingual skilled labor, and competitive costs compared to cities like London and Paris.
- Major sectors: biotech, digital health, fintech, manufacturing tech.
- The EU is headquartered in Brussels, making Belgium a top lobbying capital.
- IMEC, located in Leuven, is the world’s largest nano-electronics center, partnered with major global players; the Leuven-Eindhoven area is critical for semiconductor development.
- Belgium and the Netherlands are consistently ranked among Europe’s top innovation leaders.
- Startup composition: 43% young startups, 38% scale-ups.
- Business focus is mainly B2B rather than B2C.
- Leading tech sectors: health tech, manufacturing, fintech.
- Ghent and Brussels are key startup cities; Ghent is ascending fast.
- Top accelerator: IMEC iStart.
- 2024 was a record funding year with €1.4 billion raised by Belgian tech companies, outperforming neighboring countries.
- Belgium currently has five unicorns, including Odoo (ERP software) and Lighthouse (hotel management software).

Company Pitches and Key Highlights:

1. Manual2 (Presenter: Joorim Rademaker)
- Problem: Traditional manuals are outdated, unused, and cause productivity loss (~30% among blue collar workers).
- Solution: A user-friendly digital manual platform that allows quick creation, sharing, and multilingual access to instructional content via QR or URL.
- Usage: 100,000 users across 100 countries; clients include Procter & Gamble, Microsoft.
- Business model: Subscription (per user per month); profitable and largely bootstrapped with ~€2M recurring revenue.
- Actionable: Seeking partnerships with Polish companies with large technical workforces; hiring for sales and product development; accelerating global scaling.

2. Phish (Presenter: Manon)
- Problem: Despite investments, phishing attacks rise; spam filters inadequately block malicious AI phishing emails.
- Challenges: Human fallibility under stress/unpredictability; high-risk groups like new hires remain vulnerable.
- Solution: "Zero Incident Mail" product isolates emails in a digital silo, allowing safe browsing without IT infrastructure risks; email self-destructs after use.
- Customers: 5,000+; 1.5M users; ARR €10M.
- Actionable: Open to discussions with companies of all sizes interested in enhancing cybersecurity training and email security.

3. Polysense (Presenter: Jan Boehaert)
- Problem: 60 million tons of food waste annually due to static production processes that do not adapt to natural product variance.
- Solution: AI-powered inline quality control with computer vision to dynamically adjust manufacturing parameters (demonstrated improvement in potato peeling with up to 40% efficiency gain for client Roger and Roger).
- Benefits: Reduced waste (sustainability), decreased operator bias, and improved profit margins.
- Expansion: Interested in entering the Polish market food industry.
- Actionable: Seeking contacts in Polish food manufacturing for partnerships and pilot projects.

4. T-Mining (Presenter: Christian)
- Problem: Security risks in container handovers at ports, vulnerable to organized crime and infiltration.
- Solution: Blockchain-based secure container release platform securing the exchange of container handover data; compatible with existing systems.
- Clients include top ocean carriers (MSC, CMA, Hapag-Lloyd) with 6,000 companies onboard.
- Current focus: Expanding into the Polish market; aim to improve port efficiency and scale.
- Actionable: Looking to connect with ocean carriers, freight forwarders, transport companies, and software providers in Poland.

5. Threat Exposure (Presenter: Dieter)
- Problem: Major cybersecurity breaches due to unpatched and unknown internet-exposed systems; example: Antwerp ransomware attack costing €100M.
- Solution: Platform that discovers all internet-exposed corporate assets, tracks threat actors, and sends timely warnings on vulnerabilities and new hacking techniques.
- Proven prevention of attacks in Belgium and Slovakia.
- Actionable: Encourages organizations to audit their internet-exposed assets; open for discussions on cybersecurity enhancement.

Closing Notes & Call to Action:
- All five companies are actively seeking opportunities and partnerships in the Polish market.
- Interested parties are encouraged to connect with the companies at Booth C13 during the event.
- Belgian startups showcase resilience and innovation in various sectors including cybersecurity, manufacturing, and digital solutions.

Actionable Items:
- Polish companies with large technical workforces should explore collaboration with Manual2 for digital manual usage.
- Organizations interested in phishing protection can engage with Phish for Zero Incident Mail product.
- Food manufacturers in Poland should consider Polysense technology for waste reduction and efficiency.
- Port, logistics, and transport stakeholders are invited to discuss secure container handling with T-Mining.
- Enterprises concerned about cybersecurity risks from unknown internet-exposed systems should contact Threat Exposure for asset discovery and risk mitigation.

From Belgium with Bytes: 8 Lightning Pitches in Cybersecurity & Smart Manufacturing

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14:00 - 14:40, 27th of May (Tuesday) 2025 / GROWTH STAGE

Belgium is one of Europe’s densest innovation hotspots – and we’re bringing the proof. 

We’ll kick off with a lightning-fast snapshot of the Belgian tech ecosystem before diving into the main event: eight high-growth Belgian startups from the cybersecurity and manutech areas, each firing off three-minute pitches that show how they secure data, digitise factories and fuel Industry 4.0. 

Get inspired, grill the founders, then continue the conversation at the Belgian Booth. 

Guest speakers will include startup representatives from the following companies: T-Mining, Phished, Manual.to, Acen,Threat Exposure, 24Flow, Polysense and CeeYu.

AUDIENCE:
Startup Scaleup Profitable Company
TRACK:
Growth Startup / VC
TOPICS:
FutureNow Startup

Frederik Tibau

Scaleup Flanders