At The Egg, Start it @KBC startups won 11 of the 21 medals!
103 entries and 51 finalists! Second edition of the Belgium Startup Awards. Yesterday, no fewer than 600 attendees gathered for a program packed with keynotes, panels, fireside chats, and other inspiring sessions.
Gold, silver, and bronze in 6 different categories, as well as Consumer Startup of the Year, Business Startup of the Year, and the Live Pitch Award. Of the 21 awards, no fewer than 11 went to startups from the Start it @KBC acceleration program, including 3 gold medals and a special award for Maurice & Nora.
“In two years, Startup Day has become the must-attend event on the Belgian startup scene; the day when, once a year, the entire ecosystem comes together under one roof,” summarizes Nicolas Debray, organizer of the Belgium Startup Awards and founder of the Belgium Startup Ecosystem. “It has become a true family reunion. And that’s exactly what Belgium needed: a moment when we stop thinking in regional or linguistic silos to celebrate together what we’re building.”
One year of free support worth €100,000
The idea? To bring together in one place, on a single day, founders, investors, corporations, media, and public innovation stakeholders. The goal is explicitly national: to unite the Belgian startup ecosystem “from north to south, Dutch- and French-speaking communities united around a shared ambition: to celebrate, connect, and accelerate the startups building the Belgian economy of tomorrow.”
During the Belgium Startup Awards ceremony, the highlight of the day, 21 awards were presented to startups. The gold medals were awarded to:
- Wonka AI – AI
- Get Your Way – B2B
- Tout Bien Pils – Consumer
- Ark Capture Solutions – Impact
- Maurice & Nora – Platforms
- Driven – SaaS
Of these six companies, three are graduates of the Start it @KBC acceleration program: Wonka AI, Maurice & Nora, and Driven.
Maurice & Nora also won the Business Startup of the Year award, earning an additional year of support from Start it @KBC worth 100,000 EUR.
Gold for Maurice & Nora, Wonka AI, and Driven from the Start it @KBC acceleration program
Maurice & Nora is an AI-driven platform that connects families and seniors with trusted local students for companionship, help with daily tasks, and childcare throughout Flanders and Brussels.
Wonka AI is an innovative platform that uses AI to automate and improve lead generation, enabling companies to effectively identify and approach high-quality prospects.
Driven is a Belgian software startup offering an AI-driven platform for sales commissions and performance management. It helps companies design smart incentives, automate calculations, and refine sales targets.
Gutsy, Nolla Care, and HappyClient (silver), as well as Aspilon Cosmetics, Sveric, Mobvious, and Go Ocean (bronze) are also part of Start it @KBC.
Tout Bien Pils was named Consumer Startup of the Year and will therefore, like Maurice & Nora, receive one year of free support from Start it @KBC valued at 100,000 euros. The Live Pitch award went to Noah.
The event provided an opportunity for Lode Uytterschaut, founder and CEO of Start it @KBC, to note that more than 2,000 startups have been supported by Start it @KBC since 2014. “The experience and expertise we have accumulated over the years now allow us to assess better than anyone else whether a startup will be successful, and thus to select the right startups more and more effectively. The fact that 11 of the 21 awards presented today were won by ‘our’ startups is the best proof of this! Similarly, in the Deloitte Fast 50, our startups are increasingly taking the top spots; moreover, with Loop Earplugs and Conveo, we have provided the ‘rising star’ for the second consecutive year.“
103 applications, 6 categories, 8 criteria
The winners were chosen by a jury of over 30 experts from the Belgian entrepreneurial world from among 103 applications, of which 51 finalists were selected following “Selection Pitches” held across the country.
The jury evaluated the candidates, divided into 6 categories (AI, B2B, Consumer, Impact, Platforms, and SaaS), based on 8 criteria (scalability, financial viability, innovation, team, traction, achievements, vision, and execution). The public vote, which garnered over 14,000 votes, counted as an additional criterion, with equal weight to the others.
