Second start-up barometer from Start it @KBC: AI changes the game
AI is gaining even more momentum, and start-ups have already raised more funding than in 2025
Antwerp, 26 June 2026 – The second start-up barometer from Start it @KBC, Europe's largest accelerator which has supported more than 2,000 start-ups since 2014, shows that AI is gaining even more ground than last year, that the start-ups from the programme have already raised more money than they did in the whole of 2025, and that just a handful of companies are walking away with the lion’s share of funding – a trend that is only being reinforced by AI.
67.6 %: that is the percentage of the latest cohort of Start it @KBC start-ups that are developing AI solutions. By way of comparison: in 2024, this figure stood at just 22.5 per cent; last year it was already 55.7 per cent, and now it is even higher. These are mainly software companies, but increasingly also hardware firms, where AI can be used, for example, in the design phase. As far as software is concerned, AI is rapidly gaining ground, particularly in the areas of administration, productivity tools and Business Intelligence.
At the same time, Start it has seen an increase in the number of solo founders applying for the programme: +17% over the last two years.
More ideas, more competition
"AI is now so powerful and accessible that more and more founders are choosing to build a business on their own, because AI can largely fulfil the co-founder role. Whilst in the past a lack of technical knowledge used to prevent many founders from taking the jump, today in many cases this is no longer a barrier. At the same time, AI allows us to re-examine traditional problems and tackle them with much more powerful technology. This combination means that, year on year, we are seeing more new start-ups than ever before,” says Andy Gijbels, CTO of Start it @KBC.
“Historically, when a new idea emerges, you can always ask yourself: why now, and not sooner? This is often linked to a change in regulations, human behaviour or technology: either there wasn’t a problem to be solved before, or it was technologically impossible or too challenging. That’s different now: AI makes it possible to tackle almost any problem that has ever been solved with software before, in a different way that might well be ten times better,” adds Lode Uytterschaut, founder and CEO of Start it @KBC.
The winner takes it all
This also changes the reasons why start-ups fail.
“When start-ups fail today, it is usually not because they are solving a non-existent problem, as was often the case in the past, but rather because, thanks to AI, there is much more competition from other start-ups working on the same problem. Now more than ever before, this creates a ‘winner-takes-all’ effect, with a handful of companies securing the lion’s share of funding and experiencing exponential growth – see, for example, Aikido Security and Conveo,” continues Lode Uytterschaut.
To illustrate: since its launch in 2014, the start-ups in the Start it @KBC programme have raised over 1.45 billion in capital. 50% of this was raised by just 2% of the companies, 90% by 18%, and 99% by 46%.
"The ‘power law’ in funding, where a handful of players end up with most of the capital, only seems to be reinforced by AI. With the rise of AI, competition between start-ups is fiercer than ever, both in terms of tackling the same problem and delivering a solution to it. As a result, speed is becoming more decisive than ever: whoever gets their solution to the customer fastest and manages to convince them, has the best chance of winning and will therefore attract the most funding,” says CTO Andy Gijbels.
More funding
In any case, there has been an acceleration in funding: whereas two years ago the start-ups from Start it @KBC had collectively raised around 1 billion euros, the 1.5 billion mark is now already in sight. And whereas a total of 190 million euros was raised in 2025, the figure now stands at 252 million.
214 million, or 85% of that amount, came from funding rounds involving just five companies: Keyrock, Aikido Security, Loop Earplugs, Tekst and Companion Energy. All of them are alumni of Start it @KBC.
Andy Gijbels: “On the one hand, we are seeing a clear improvement in the investment climate; on the other, there are more and more high-potential start-ups in Belgium, which creates a snowball effect and, in turn, inspires new promising start-ups. Within Start it @KBC, too, we see the level going up year on year. Every year, our start-ups are securing more top spots in rankings such as the Deloitte Fast 50, and at the most recent Belgium Startup Awards, our start-ups even bagged 12 out of the 21 prizes.”
Managing serendipity
At a time when speed is becoming increasingly important, the added value of an accelerator such as Start it is only growing:
“As Europe’s largest start-up accelerator, after 12 years and more than 2,000 start-ups, we know very well what start-up founders should and shouldn’t do to increase their chances of success. However, even if you do everything right, that chance is never 100 per cent: there’s always an element of luck that’s beyond your control. For example, you need to connect with the right people at the right time, whether that’s a co-founder, a mentor or investors… That’s partly down to chance. Because our network is so extensive and we know who needs what and when, we can connect founders with the right people from our ecosystem at the right time. That way, we can lend chance a helping hand: ‘managing serendipity’,” says Lode Uytterschaut.
“A great example of this is Kasqade: the founder joined the programme in October as a solo founder, found a co-founder a month later, and today – barely eight months on – is the Start it Fund’s first investment, having since taken on two more employees. Their first two clients too come from our network. This not only demonstrates the strength of our ecosystem, but also proves that, after all these years, we are able to identify potential at a very early stage,” concludes CTO Andy Gijbels.
About Start it @KBC
Start it @KBC is a unique, equity-free accelerator programme that focuses on real impact and has supported more than 2,000 start-ups since 2014, over 1,700 of which are based in Belgium. This makes it the leading player in Europe, and even the fifth largest globally.
As a key player in the Belgian start-up ecosystem, it has coached some of Belgium’s most successful startups, including well-known names such as Aikido Security, Keyrock, Bolt, Loop Earplugs, Conveo, Segments.ai and Crazy Games.
https://startit-x.com/en/accelerate
