The First Startup barometer by Start it @KBC: key figures and trends

AI on a rapid rise

Broadly speaking, startups fall into two major groups: software, which accounts for 63.3% of all participating startups in 2025, and hardware, which accounts for 18.4%. Additionally, there are smaller categories such as agrotech and biotech.

Within the software category, the evolution of AI particularly stands out: no less than 74% of all software startups today are AI companies. In total, AI accounts for 46.9% of the total number of startups in 2025. This represents a particularly strong increase, as over the entire period 2014-2025, AI only accounts for 11.8% of software startups, or 6.5% of the total.

Within hardware, mechatronics forms the largest subcategory at 72.2%. Over the entire period 2014-2025, this was 46.8%, or 7.6% of the total number of startups. Mechatronics refers to mechanical systems where hardware, electronics, and software come together: from cars and robots to advanced production equipment.

"AI has become THE technology of the moment in no time: almost half of startups focus on it today. And since we're only at the beginning, we expect this number to continue rising. The risk of a bubble is very real: a lot of money is flowing into AI today, but, as it goes, the wheat will eventually be separated from the chaff," says Lode Uytterschaut, founder and CEO of Start it @KBC. "Ethical issues, such as chatbots making racist statements or people using chatbots as therapists without being aware of privacy risks, also pose challenges we don't yet have answers to. Furthermore, AI will evolve from a primarily 'explanatory' function to one that is more executive: very exciting, but also very tricky."

Despite the bubble effect, AI, thanks to its broad range of applications, has become indispensable in our daily lives. This is in contrast to blockchain, for example, which has a much more limited field of application and, as predicted, has passed its hype with an overall very limited share of 0.7% over the period 2014-2025.

In terms of business model, we see that B2B occurs more frequently than B2C, with 75.5% of the total number of startups in 2025 versus 24.5%.

Lode Uytterschaut: "A logical percentage, given Belgium's historical position as a small B2B country with an extensive service sector within the fragmented European market, but higher than international averages that lie somewhere between 60 and 65%. For comparison: Y Combinator, the leading accelerator worldwide, known for its focus on B2B, had 70% B2B startups in 2023."

Software most popular with investors, but largest amounts for hardware

Looking at the technologies most popular with investors, we see that the largest number of investments go to software: 70%, versus 18.5% for hardware. The remaining 1.5% falls under neither category.

"That software is popular with investors shouldn't be surprising: startup costs are lower and scalability is higher, there are no long development times or logistical issues that can throw a wrench in the works, iteration is easy, and the marginal cost per sold 'item' is minimal. In other words, it's much less complex to set up than hardware," says Andy Gijbels, CTO of Start it @KBC. "Given the potential and popularity of AI, we expect investments in software to continue rising in the coming years - although there will eventually be a setback when it becomes clear that not every AI startup working on the same idea will make it. We expect this even in the next 2 years, when startups raising money today but not gathering enough traction will fall back without funding."

However, more investments going to software doesn't mean hardware startups have less chance of raising money: there are simply more software startups, so it's logical that more investments flow there. Conversely, they don't raise the largest amount per investment on average: that 'honor' belongs to medtech startups, which must extensively test and approve their products before they can even think about production or sales. Mechatronics and other hardware subcategories also have substantially higher capital needs on average than software. AI's low position on this list is explained by recency bias: most AI startups are still too young to have raised money, so they substantially pull down the average.

Average funding by category:

• Medtech: €2.046.000
• Mechatronics: €1.341.000
• Big data & Data analytics: €1.092.000
• AI & Machine learning: €462.000

At the same time, money isn't everything: raising (a lot of) capital is no guarantee of success, nor does it equal more impact. The figures show that 75.5% of Start it @KBC startups that are still active today raised no venture capital, as did 60% of companies that were sold. Moreover, startups that raised no capital account for 54% of the total number of jobs created. A good example is Loop Earplugs: one of the most successful startups from Start it's stable, which has hardly raised any money to date.

B2B performs better than B2C

On average, startups within Start it @KBC raised €712,000 in capital between 2014 and 2025. B2B startups raise almost twice as much as B2C players: €1,007,000 versus €505,000. They also perform better in terms of survival ratio: while 70% of B2B startups are still active (of which 4.7% were acquired), this is only 55% for B2C (of which 3.1% were acquired).

CTO Andy Gijbels:"Investors more often prefer B2B because companies buy more purposefully and less emotionally, have larger budgets, and are generally more loyal customers. So you need fewer customers to be successful. This makes growth generally faster, larger, and more predictable, and that's exactly what investors like to see."

Men raise (much) more than women

The figures also show that the average founder age is 33, and that teams with 3 founders raise the most money on average: €1,166,000.

Men raise significantly more on average than women: more than four times as much. However, the explanation goes beyond simple gender bias:

"Women are more often solo founders, and are less often in software or B2B, but more often in food and B2C, both things linked to lower survival ratios and less funding. The chance of acquisition in food, where it's often about 'businesses in going concern,' is also much smaller: 0.5%, versus 4.6% for software," explains CTO Andy Gijbels. "By the way: that male teams raise more money doesn't necessarily mean they therefore create more impact."

Average funding by team composition:

• Only Male: €849k
• Only Female: €204k
• Mixed: €629k

Against the still unequal funding stands the fact that the number of female founders is rising: while during the first years an average of about 20% of startups had at least one woman as founder, this was already 39% in 2025.

"Despite growing awareness, female founders still encounter several structural challenges, ranging from unequal access to capital to a lack of role models or adapted support. Initiatives and programs like Thrive, around female leadership and entrepreneurship in tech, therefore remain necessary," continues Lode Uytterschaut.

Start it @KBC startups have higher survival chances

Of all 1,839 that participated in the program since 2014, 67% are still active today. Compared to general averages, Start it @KBC startups perform very well: after five years, about 73% of them still exist, while according to an international benchmark this is 51% for startups that have raised venture capital.

Uytterschaut sees an explanation for this in the fact that Start it is strong in both selecting the most promising startups and guiding them well, which significantly increases their chances of success (and funding). The fact that more than 70% of founders come from a corporate environment also plays a role, according to him:

"They have, from their own experience, background, and market insight, developed a solution for a problem they encountered themselves in their earlier career. That sector experience and field knowledge form an undeniable competitive advantage, which logically translates into a greater chance of success, funding, or an exit," concludes Uytterschaut.

225 startups from Start it @KBC's stable have already raised more than 1 million euros, 120 startups more than 2 million. All together, they raised over €1.1 billion and created more than 12,000 jobs, making the ecosystem one of the largest employers in Belgium.

The biggest success stories include well-known names like Aikido Security, Bolt, Loop Earplugs, Conveo, Keyrock, Segments.ai, Crazy Games, and Ritchie.