Funding a start-up or scale-up in Belgium

A start-up is funded in successive rounds, each tied to a milestone: proof of concept, first customers, a repeatable model, then scaling up. Seed funds, business angels, invests, the tax shelter and regional grants combine at each stage. The rule to hold on to: every round should close at a higher valuation than the last one.

How is a start-up funded, stage by stage?

By milestones. Each one you clear lowers the risk and justifies a higher price for the next round.

The labels vary from one fund to the next. The logic does not.

What is a scale-up?

A company that has found its market and wants to grow fast. There is no single legal definition. For the tax shelter, the SPF Finances (the Belgian federal tax administration) targets small growth companies aged 5 to 10 years.

Who invests, and with what ticket?

Here is what players active in start-ups publish themselves, taken from their websites on 15.10.2026:

Three players out of six publish no ticket. That is not a flaw in itself, but you will need to ask at the first meeting. Theodorus also reports more than €70M under management; Noshaq states €120M of investments approved per year on average over five years, across all sectors.

Our ranking of SME funds lists these players with their instruments.

Do funds invest alone?

Rarely. A round often brings together a seed fund, an invest (a Walloon provincial investment company), business angels and sometimes a corporate. Invest.BW says it in plain words: it never finances the whole need alone. finance&invest.brussels also presents itself as a co-investor, alongside banks and private funds.

For a founder, this means one thing. The first investor who agrees to come in must be able to bring others along. I have seen rounds stall for months because the lead fund had never built a syndicate.

Which region for which start-up?

Company law and taxation are federal. Public funding bodies are regional.

• Wallonia: Wallonie Entreprendre (the Walloon Region's public financing body) and the provincial invests (Noshaq, Sambrinvest, Namur Invest, Invest.BW, IMBC), plus private funds such as ORSA.
• Brussels: finance&invest.brussels, and its subsidiary brusoc for very small businesses.
• Flanders: PMV, outside the main scope of this site.

A Brussels start-up that opens a site in Wallonia can fall within a Walloon fund's scope. Without activity in Wallonia, do not count on it.

How much equity do founders give up?

Less than they fear in the first round, more than they think by the third. Dilution multiplies from one round to the next; it does not add up.

A worked example, not a real case. The founders own 100%. They raise €500,000 on a €2M pre-money valuation: the investor takes 20%, the founders keep 80%. In the next round, €2M on €8M pre-money: the new investor takes 20%. In percentages, that gives 80% × 80% = 64% for the founders. Had the second round closed at €4M pre-money, the new investor would have taken 33% and the founders would have dropped to 53%.

Does the tax shelter help you raise?

Yes, on the business angel side. It grants an income tax reduction to individuals who subscribe for new shares: 30% or 45% for a company under 4 years old, 25% for a growth company aged 5 to 10. The conditions are set out in our article on the start-up and scale-up tax shelter.

What does a seed fund look at in a first file?

The team, the technology and the intellectual property, in that order. At this stage there are no accounts to analyse. The fund is betting on people and on an asset they control. A patent filed in a university's name with a licence still under discussion, or a co-founder who left with no written agreement on his or her shares, is enough to stall an otherwise solid file. Sort out both points before the first meeting: they take a few weeks when nobody is waiting, and several months when a fund is.

When should you raise?

When a milestone you have reached justifies a higher valuation, and before cash runs critically low. Raising with three months of runway left means negotiating under pressure.

Six cases, six doors to knock on

For a decision that commits your cap table, have the structure reviewed by a lawyer or an accountant. ORSA describes its approach on its venture capital page; compare it with the other players' terms before you sign.