After a historic funding high in 2024, Belgium’s tech ecosystem is settling into a more subdued but still active rhythm. In the first half of 2025, local start-ups and scale-ups raised €366 million across 71 deals (biotech not included). That’s a 22% increase in deal count compared to the same period last year and a return to the funding levels seen before the 2024 spike.
But the rebound is not shared evenly. New data from Agoria reveal a growing divide between high-growth (and often deeptech) frontrunners and a broader cohort of companies stuck in sluggish funding cycles. While the market overall is holding up better than many European peers, the capital is clearly flowing more selectively than before.
Coming down from the peak
The first half of 2024 was a funding outlier, with €687 million raised across just 58 deals. That surge wasn’t due to the €350 million megadeal for Lighthouse (which closed in the second half of 2024), but rather a cluster of unusually large mid- and late-stage rounds. In 2025, as those cheques became scarcer, funding patterns shifted back toward earlier-stage and smaller rounds:
• Capital invested fell 47% year-on-year.
• Average deal size shrank from €11.8 million to €5.2 million.
• Median ticket sizes dropped to €2 million - back in line with 2023.
Rather than chasing elusive Series A or B rounds, founders adapted by slicing their raises into smaller, milestone-driven bridge rounds. The focus shifted from fast scaling to survival and optionality.
Where the capital did go
Despite the overall slowdown, several sectors continued to draw significant investor interest. Cleantech led the pack, with an estimated €88 million flowing into just eight companies. Medtech and healthtech also remained strong, accounting for the highest number of deals (11 in total).
Semiconductors continued their upward momentum, driven by Belgium’s imec ecosystem. Swave Photonics raised €33 million to commercialise its holographic 3D chip technology, contributing to the sector’s estimated €39 million total across four rounds. Finally, two notable investments went to companies in spacetech and AI hardware (AerospaceLab and Vertical Compute).
In all these cases, targeted public instruments, such as EU climate funds, IPCEI subsidies and imec.xpand’s new 300 million euro deeptech vehicle, played a crucial catalytic role.
A funding market of two speeds
The data point to a clear bifurcation. Roughly 20% of companies - typically those doubling ARR year-on-year - secured 61% of the total funding and achieved pre-money valuations 2.4× above the market median. The remaining 80% faced longer fundraising cycles, relied on bridge notes and often struggled to assemble syndicates.
This pattern mirrors the broader European trend, where VCs are writing fewer but larger cheques: now over 80% of EU deals are larger than €10 million, leading to a pronounced “flight to quality.” In Belgium, however, the average deal size declined from €11.8 million to €5.2 million, as most companies resorted to smaller, milestone-driven bridge rounds. The country’s fastest-growing scale-ups still manage to attract substantial capital, but the majority of companies are stuck in slower, more difficult funding cycles.
Strong early-stage activity but a fragile middle
A clear bright spot is the early stage. A new generation of operator-angels, often founders who recently exited, is wiring cheques in the €250k to €1 million range and helping founders access international capital. Micro-VCs like Seeder Fund and Pitchdrive continue to back pre-revenue companies in SaaS, fintech and digital health.
Still, Belgium lacks sufficient lead investors who can consistently write €10–30 million Series A/B cheques. That missing middle is leaving too many promising companies stranded between seed and growth.
Outperforming its European peers - for now
In the broader European context, Belgium is doing comparatively well. With 98% of the capital it raised in the first half of 2023 and more deals than last year, the country has bounced back faster than larger ecosystems like France and the Netherlands, which remain 20–30% below their 2023 mid-year levels. This resilience is largely attributed to Belgium’s limited exposure to mega-rounds and its strong public backing for deeptech and cleantech. But the rebound is fragile and not guaranteed to last.
EU-wide, the fundraising environment remains challenging. According to a new report from PitchBook, EU-based VC funds raised just €5.2 billion in H1 2025 - the lowest level since 2015. Weakened exit markets and four consecutive years of declining returns are expected to push exit activity down by another 10% this year. Secondary transactions have become an increasingly important path to liquidity, with $52 billion raised globally in Q1 alone. At the same time, European venture firms are consolidating capital into fewer, larger rounds, a dynamic that benefits only the strongest performers while leaving weaker companies behind.
What needs to happen next
To strengthen the ecosystem and ensure more inclusive growth, several actions are needed:
1. Close the Series A/B gap with international leverage. With EU VC funds raising their lowest amount since 2015, Belgium cannot rely solely on European capital. A national co-investment strategy and more fund-of-funds are needed to crowd in international investors and unlock institutional capital in the €10–30 million range.
2. Prevent a widening divide between frontrunners and laggards. As VCs concentrate their capital into fewer, larger rounds, Belgium must ensure that promising companies outside the top 20% are not left behind. Complementary instruments – such as milestone-driven public co-investment or convertible loans – can help bridge this gap.
3. Double down on strategic sectors where public-private leverage is strongest. Belgium’s success in deeptech and cleantech shows that industrial policy combined with targeted VC appetite works. Strengthening these areas and identifying new ones, such as defence and AI where Europe is shifting attention, will be crucial to attract both EU and global capital.
Bottom line: Belgian tech is stabilising after a record-breaking year. But in a Europe where VCs write fewer but larger cheques for only the strongest companies, Belgium must ensure both that its best performers can raise growth capital and that the rest of the ecosystem does not get stranded between seed and scale.