Stop telling women to pitch better, start building the ecosystem they deserve

Walk into almost any pitch night or VC office in Belgium and the imbalance is hard to miss. Women are starting businesses faster than men, yet they remain a minority in the room, and an even smaller minority on the cap table.

At today's pace, we reach parity after 2100

More women than ever are starting a business in Belgium, and their numbers are growing faster than those of men (RSVZ). Yet they still make up only about 36% (FOD Economie) of the self-employed, and that share has barely moved in the past decade. At the current rate of growth, it will take until after 2100 (UNIZO) before there are as many female as male entrepreneurs.

The gap isn't a lack of ambition. It comes from barriers that start long before the pitch. Self-employed women feel less well advised when looking for financing and know less about the options available to them (hub.brussels). By the time they reach investors, the gap has only widened: startups with at least one female founder receive just 12% (European Commission) of all VC funding in the EU, and all-female teams only 0.5% (PitchBook). Part of the explanation sits on the other side of the table. Only 15% (PitchBook) of decision-makers at Europe's larger VC firms are women, and fewer women writing checks means fewer checks for women. Every year that gap stays open, Belgium misses out on companies, jobs and innovation that never get built.

Why "pitch better" is the wrong advice

It's tempting to frame this as a confidence problem. The research says otherwise. A study published in Harvard Business Review, based on the TechCrunch Disrupt startup competition between 2010 and 2016, found that investors systematically ask women different questions than men: women get questions about risk and what could go wrong, men about growth and upside. The result? Female-founded startups in the competition raised on average five times less capital. 

So this isn't a talent gap. It's a trust gap, and it shows up as a funding gap.

Start it @KBC initiatives for female founders

Thrive, our female leadership program, supports female (co-)founders on their path to building and scaling an innovative business. At our monthly Thrive Meetups, you join a live cohort of peers to tackle what scaling really involves: team dynamics, workplace politics, financial literacy and executive leadership. Within Thrive, you learn from founders who've faced the same challenges and build a network that lasts beyond the sessions. Join the waitlist here.

And because you can't become what you can't see, we select 50 Women to Watch every year from more than 500 female founders in our accelerator. Too often, the media turns to the same familiar (male) names when it needs a founder to feature, quote or interview. This list removes that excuse. It gives journalists a ready pool of female founders with real stories, real traction and real expertise, so the faces of entrepreneurship in the news start to reflect who's actually building companies. Discover the full 2026 list here.

We also join forces with partners who share our mission. Through Raise Her, an initiative of High Her, female tech founders get 12 weeks of intensive coaching and investor prep, ending with a pitch to investors committed to female entrepreneurship and femtech. And through our partnership with Women in Tech Belgium, you tap into a community that runs networking events, mentorship programs and skill-building initiatives for women in tech, giving you more visibility, role models who've walked the path before you, and a direct line into the broader Start it @KBC network.

No single program closes this gap overnight. The question isn't whether female founders can build successful companies, but how quickly the rest of the ecosystem will catch up.